2. Norman Conquest

The Norman Conquest began in 1066. The Normans were by origin a Scandinavian tribe who two centuries back began their inroads on the Northern part of France and finally occupied the territory on both shores of the Seine. The French King Charles the Simple ceded to the Normans the territory occupied by them, which came to be called Normandy. The Normans adopted the French language and culture, and when they came to Britain they brought with them the French language.

In 1066 King Edward the Confessor died, and the Norman Duke William, profiting by the weakness of King Harold who succeeded King Edward on the English throne, invaded England. He assembled an army, landed in England and in a battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066 managed to defeat Harold and proclaimed himself King of England.

The Norman conquest had far-reaching consequences for the English people and the English language.

One of the most important of these consequences was the introduction of a new nobility. Many of the English higher class had been killed on the field at Hastings. Those who escaped were treated as traitors, and the places of both alike were filled by William’s Norman followers. The new king William confiscated the estates of the Anglo-Saxons nobility and distributed them among the Norman barons. The Norman conquerors continued pouring into England thousands after thousands, years and years after the conquest, and during the reign of King William over 200,000 Frenchmen settled in England and occupied all positions of prominence in the country, be it in court, Parliament, Church or school.

The heritage of the Norman Conquest was manifold. It united England to Western Europe, opening the gates to European culture and institutions, theology, philosophy and science. The Conquest in effect meant a social revolution in England.

The Norman conquerors, though Germanic by origin, were French by their language, habits and customs. For two hundred years after the Norman Conquest French remained the language of ordinary intercourse among the upper classes in England. At first those who spoke French were those of Norman origin, but soon through intermarriage and association with the ruling class numerous people of English extraction must have found it to their advantage to learn the new language, and before long the distinction between those who spoke French and those who spoke English was not racial but largely social. The language of the masses remained English. And for more than two centuries after the conquest the English country was ruled by French-speaking kings and nobility, and the French language was the state language of the country.

During the century and a half following the Norman Conquest French had been not only natural but necessary to the English upper class; however, in the 13^th and 14^th centuries its maintenance became increasingly artificial.

A feature of some importance in helping English to recover its former prestige is the improvement in the condition of the mass of the people and the rise of a substantial middle class. At the beginning of the 14^th century English was once more known by everyone. Since 1362 all law suits should have been carried out in English, thus English was introduced in the courts as it was said that “French was much unknown in the realm”. The end of the 14^th century also saw the first English translation of the Bible, and Chaucer was writing his English masterpieces. At the same time English was restored at schools and in writing in 1440.The new merchant class and the spread of lay learning were building a national civilization. Social and economic changes affecting the English-speaking part of the population were taking place, and in the end English won its way back into universal use, and in the 15^th century French all but disappeared.

Eventually after a prolonged struggle the English language got ascendance over French and again became the state language of the country. The English language emerged after the struggle, but it came in a different position. Its vocabulary was enriched by a great number of French words and its grammatical structure underwent material changes.