Given our long history of mutual antagonism, it was hardly surprising that English football fans were unable to contain their delight at France's early exit from the World Cup. There are few English traditions as enduring as laughing at the French, though the fans in South Africa, with their"Hastings 1066" T-shirts, probably took things a bit far.

Indeed, few people now realise how close the result of that first grudge match was. If you take a look at the splendid Slough Tapestry, you can see that, at one stage, King Harold came very close to being hit in the eye by an arrow.

But the tapestry - now on show at the English Museum in our nation's capital, Winchester - is a jarring reminder that if the Normans had managed to turn that game around, our history could have been very different.

Many of our political elite still trace their origins to the Anglo-Saxon housecarls who fought alongside King Harold. Last week, over a pint of mead, I asked the Foreign Secretary, the Ealdorman of Yorkshire, whether he thought that England would have been a different place under the Normans. "Without a doubt," he replied. "They'd have buggered about with everything, from church architecture to local government. Just imagine the Yorkshire skyline covered in those bloody awful castles they have on the Continent. They were the windfarms of their day!"

He is right. It may seem like ancient (or rather, medieval) history, but if William the Loser had won, our entire political and social system might be very different. After all, most of our major institutions trace their origins to the very dawn of the nation. Even though the Witanagemot has still to recover from last year's revelations about thegns' expenses, King Athelstan VII retains enormous prestige.

And our broader culture arguably owes everything to Harold's victory. England would hardly be England without its traditions of feasting and fighting; even the ordinary, street-corner mead hall is testament to Anglo-Saxon continuity.

One other thing that might have been very different is our notorious isolationism. In international terms, we Anglo-Saxons have always been peaceful, inward-looking folk. A brief but unhappy union with the Celtic Republic in the 18th century opened England's eyes to the world, but in the 1980s Chief Ealdorman Aelfgifu Thatcher's drive for a more "European" foreign policy came to nothing.

Times, however, are changing. After all, the two leading candidates to become the reeve of the Labour Party are the sons of a Jewish, Marxist immigrant. Should one of the Milibands win, Fortress England might become a thing of the past. The only question is which one will win: young Edward, or his elder brother, Ethelbert?