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THE CHANGING CONDITION 1100-1400

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cover

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Discussion

2.1 The Lost of Normandy

2.2 Separation of the Frecnh and English Nobility

2.3 French Reinforcement

2.4 The Reaction against Foreigners and the Growth of National Feeling

2.5 French Cultural Ascendancy in Europe

2.6 The Status of English and French in the Thirteenth Century

2.6.1 The Attempts to Slow the Decline of French

2.6.2 The Provincial Character of French in England

2.6.3 The Hundred Years’ War

2.7 The Rise of the Middle Class

2.8 General Adaptation of English in the Fourteenth Century

2.9 English in the Law Courts

2.10 English in the Schools

2.11 The Increasing Ignorance of French in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century

2.12 The Status of French Language in England Fifteenth Century

2.12.1 Anglo-French

2.12.2 Anglo-Norman

2.12.3 French of England

2.13 The Use of English in Writing

3. Conclusion

4. Bibliography

CHAPTER I

1. Introduction

Before 1200, English held its continental territory and nobility of England which were the reason for the still-used of French among the governing class. Both, English and French, were used in both countries and English was able to control two-third of France. After 1200, conditions changed. English no longer retained a significant part of its possession abroad. The nobility was gone from their continental estates. There was the Hundred Year’s of War as the culmination of anti-foreign movements in England. The rivalry grew between the two countries. Along with the Norman Conquest, French lost its users to the English upper class. In the 13^thand 14^th century, social and economic changes affected English-use in the society. In the 14^th century, English was also started to spread universally and in 15^th century, French disappeared. The next subtopics talk more about the details of the history of England from 1200.

CHAPTER II

2.1 The Lost of Normandy

The first link in connecting England to the continent was broken in 1204 when King John lost Normandy after Rouen surrendered. The loss of Normandy was overall advantageous. Then, King and nobles had to look upon England as their major concern. Notwithstanding England still conquered large continental possession, they were in the south of France and had never been closely connected either by blood, language and property interests as Normandy had. Later, it was obvious that the island kingdom had its own political and economic ends and those were different from France. England, thus, was in the process of becoming a nation rather that a geographical terms.

2.2 Separation of the Frecnh and English Nobility

The previous condition brought to a new effect whether or not many of them owned double allegiance. On several cases, Henry I took over the English of disobeyed Norman Barons. Next, in 1204, the separation process was massively quickened by decree of 1204-1205 issued by the King of France. As the consequences, families having estates on both side of the channel were obliged to give up what they had in France and vice versa. It was obvious that people could not serve two masters at once. Many great nobles preferred their large possessions in England and gave up their Norman lands. The course of the separation culminated in 1244. Louis’ action was a consequence of Henry III’s attempts to the Count de la Marche and rebellion French nobles in 1243. The only authority for decree authentically was Mattew Paris. Suffice it to say that after that happened, having double allegiance be negligible. Thus, after 1250, there was no more reason for the nobility of England to consider anything but English. That is why the use of French decreased.

2.3 French Reinforcement

When the Norman nobility in England was losing its European connections and was led to identify itself wholly with England, at the same time, the country underwent a new invasion of foreigners, commonly from the south of France.

The invasion was begun in the reign of King John, whose wife was French. John’s son, Henry III, was purely French not only in his taste but also in his connections. He was French on his mother’s side and was related through his wife to the French King, St. Louis.

Henry’s connections took a result of connecting the three great streams of foreigners poured into England during his long reign (1216-1272). The first occurred in 1233 when Henry III gave foreigners the charge of all the Counties and Baronies. Henry married Eleanor who was a French lady in 1236. His marriage to her brought a second influx of foreigners into England. This new queen inherited among eight uncles and a several number of more distant relatives who came to England and were richly provided for. The third inundation occurred ten years later when Henry’s mother married a Frenchman and bore him five sons. Henry enriched his step-brothers and married their daughters to English nobles. Marriages with the strangers were encouraged by both the king and the queen at that time. For example Richard, Henry’s brother, got married to the queen’s sister. The question might then arise as the impact of such foreign inundations upon England and the English language. The answer may attempt in the following subsection.

2.4 The Reaction against Foreigners and the Growth of National Feeling

The fact that the in-pouring of foreigners was not completely unfavorable to English language could be the answer of the question above. This was because of a reaction bound to follow. Although during the reign of John, there were calls for a policy of “England for the English”. Then in the reign of Henry III, the antagonism arose immediately after the first stream of foreigners came to England. The king dismissed the foreigners from the important offices they held, but they were always back soon.

Opposition to foreigners became the principal ground for national feeling. Between the years 1258 and 1265 the foreigners were driven twice from England. When peace was finally restored, a little later England entered upon a period of consciousness of its unity when Edward I (1272-1307) came to the throne. At the same time when the government officials were for the most part English, the king warned against the purpose of the king of France “wipe out the English tongue”.

The effect of the foreign incursions in the thirteenth century was to postpone the natural spread of the English used by the upper class that had begun earlier. It also stimulated the consciousness of the difference between those who participated in English affairs as to consider themselves as the Englishmen and those who flocked to England to enjoy Henry’s favors.

One of the frequent criticisms against the newcomers was that they did not understand English. This meant that there was a natural feeling which some knowledge of English was regarded a proper stereotype of an Englishman.

2.5 French Cultural Ascendancy in Europe

In addition to the stimulus given to the use of French in England by incoming upper class foreigners, the language enjoyed a wide popularity all over Europe in the thirteenth century. France represented Chivalrous society at this time and the French language was strengthening at European courts. This condition continued until the eighteenth century.

In Germany, most of the great Lords had French teacher for their children. The Italian Brunetto Latini, the master of Dante, wrote his great encyclopedia “Li Tresor” by using French not only because he was in France at that time, but also because he consider French as the most delectable speech and the most common to all people. At about the same time, another Italian translated an important book from Latino into French. He took a reason because the French language was current throughout the world and considered the most delightful whether to read or to hear.

The prestige of French civilization forms a strong reason for further use of French among the upper class circles in England.

2.6 The Status of English and French in the Thirteenth Century

In the thirteenth century, there was a shifting emphasis upon English and French in England. The upper classes continued to speak French not as their mother tongue language but as a language supported by social custom, business and administrative convention. French was used in parliament, in the law courts, and in public interaction. It was read by the educated and noble families. At that time, English made steady progress and be used by the society from all classes. The proper language for englishmen to know and use became English. This became more noticeable and sometimes accompanied by protest against the use of French. By the end of the century, some children of the nobility spoke english as their mother tongue and had to be taught French through manuals provided with English glosses.

There are some factors that influenced the status of French and English in England. There were three factors that had their effect upon the status of French in England during the thirteenth century. These were the attempts to slow the decline of French, the provincial character of the French language spoken in England and the Hundred Years’War. The followings are the explanation of these three factors.

2.6.1 The Attempts to Slow the Decline of French

In the end of the thirteenth century and in the beginning of fourteenth century, French language lost its hold on England. The fact was seen in the measures adopted to keep it in use, especially when the tendency to speak English became stronger in the two most conservative institutions, namely the church and the universities. Some universities have similar regulations for their students in order to keep the use of French language in the society, such as Oxford University required the students to construe in both English and French, Queen’s college required that the conversation of the students had to be in Latin or in French. Cambridge college expected the students to speak English rarely, after Latin and French, etc. These regulations were also found in the church and the parliament. Those efforts indicated that the use of French in England became artificial and be treated as a foreign language by the fourteenth century.

2.6.2 The Provincial Character of French in England

The French introduced into England was predominantly Norman, but under the influence of English linguistic tendencies it gradually developped into something different from any of the dialects spoken in France. There were four principal dialects of French spoken in France: Norman, Picard (in the northeast), Burgundian (in the east), and the central French of Paris (the ile-de-France). The French of England became the subject of humorous treatment in literature. It was consider as “not good French”. English children were sometimes sent to France in order to have the “barbarity” taken off their speech. But the situation did not mend and the provincial character of French in England contributed to its decline there.

2.6.3 The Hundred Years’ War

Next factor that contribute in declining of French in England in the fourteenth century was the Hundred Years’ War. In the centuries following the Norman Conquest the connection of England with the continent had been broken. This was followed by a conflict of interests and an increasing feeling of animosity that reached its highest point in a long period of hostility between England and France (1337-1453). There were too complex causes, but a major cause was the interference of France in England's attempts to control Scotland. King Edward III finally put forth a claim to the French throne and invaded England.

At Crecy (1346) and Poitiers (1356) which are portrayed the great victories of the English stimulated English patriotism to a white heat, though this auspicious beginning of the struggle was followed by a depressing period of reserves. England again enjoyed a brief period of success in the reign of Henry V, especially in the victory against great odds at Agincourt (1415). But this success did not continue after the young king’s death, and the exploits of Joan of Arc (1429) marked the beginning of the end.

Although this long war turned people's attention to the continent once more, and the expeditions might have tended to keep the French language in use, it had no such effect, but rather led to an opposite consequence. This is probably because the intervals between the periods of actual fighting were too long and the obstacles to trade and other activities were too discouraging. The feeling that remained in the minds of most English people was one of animosity. During this period it was impossible for the English people to forget that French was the language of an enemy country. Thus the Hundred Years' War was one of the causes that contributed to the disuse of French.

2.7 The Rise of the Middle Class

An important factor in helping English to recover its former prestige was the rapid improvement in the conditions of the laboring classes and the rise of a significant middle class during the latter part of the Middle English period. The importance of a language was largely determined by the importance of the people who spoke it. During the latter part of the Middle English Period the condition of the laboring classes was rapidly improving. This process was greatly accelerated by an event that occurred in the year 1349: the Black Death.

The changes, such as the latter class was increasing while the rural population villeinage was dying out, were greatly accelerated when in 1348 there appeared in England a quite infectious and fatal disease that spread rapidly all over the country, reaching its height in the following year, and continuing into the early months of 1350. The mortality was incredibly high, it was about 30 percent. This high mortality rate is quite sufficient to justify the name "The Black Death".

As in most epidemics the rich suffered less than the poor, in the sense that the mortality was greatest among the latter. It was known that the poor could not shut themselves up in their castles. The result was a serious shortage of labor, and an immediate rise in wages. The Statute of Laborers at that time was insufficient to control and prevent that rise. This effect of rising in wages made independent workers commanded to Villeins and many cotters to escape and left the land to search the highest wages. There was a general spirit of dissatisfaction arose in which the people who escaped left behind felt more acutely the burden of their condition, which culminated in the Peasants’ Revolt (1381). The effect of the Black Death thus increased the economic importance of the laboring class, and the result was the importance of the English language which they spoke.

At this time there arose another important group, namely the craftsmen and the merchant class, who stood halfway between the rural peasants and the hereditary aristocrats. Such social and economic changes benefited particularly the English-speaking part of the population, and contributed to the final triumph of English in the fourteenth century.

2.8 General Adaptation of English in the Fourteenth Century

At the beginning of the fourteenth century everyone in England knew English. Until a generation or two before that time, many of the polite literatures of England had been in French. When writers used English they felt to be called upon to justify their decision. They repeatedly did this in a prologue, and incidentally made interesting observations on the linguistic situation. There were many statements as evidences but we may select three quotations. One prologue of a work written in 1300 in the north of England, which was from a collection of metrical homilies, told us that both the learned and unlearned understood English at that time.

Another prologue written in 1325 was found in William of Nassyngton’s Speculum Vitae or Mirror of Life. The writer acknowledged that some people who lived at court knew French but he specifically stated that old and young, learnt and unlearnt, all understood the English tongue.

In a third introduction, which opened lines of a romance called Arthur and Merlin, was written not later than 1325, and probably earlier, the author made the expected statement that everybody knew English, and additionally emphasizes that at a time when gentlemen still "used" French he had seen many nobles who could not speak it.

As the quotations illustrate, English was understood by everyone but it did not make French unknown or entirely gone out of use. As the evident we may look at the court at that time, the c

Court that Chaucer knew spoke English even if its members commonly wrote and often read French. At this time England had a king, Richard II, who spoke English fluently and had a book which is written by Gower in English (Confessio Amantis). Edward III also knew English. Outside the royal family, among the governing class English was the language best understood. And in 1362 the Parliament was opened with a speech in English for the first time. In the last year of the century the order deposing Richard II was read in English, and Henry IV's speeches claiming the throne and later accepting it were delivered in English. From those examples, it shows that in the fourteenth century English was again the principal tongue of all England.

2.9 English in the Law Courts

After the Norman Conquest, French did not become the national language, replacing English entirely. Because the Conquest was not a national migration, as the earlier Anglo-Saxon invasion had been. Great numbers of Normans came to England, but they came as rulers and landlords. French became the language of the court, the language of the nobility, the language of polite society, the language of literature, but it did not replace English as the language of the people. And in 1356 the change happened, proceedings in the courts of London and Middlesex were ordered to be in English. And in 1362 the Statute of Pleading was enacted in the Parliament, and was to go into effect in the following year. According to this statute all lawsuits were to be conducted in English, and the reason for this action is that “French is much unknown in the said realm”. Although the statute was not fully observed at once, it constituted the official recognition of English in the law courts.

2.10 English in the Schools

Shortly after the Conquest, French replaced English as the medium of instruction in the schools. In the twelfth century there were complaints that former education was in English, but was now in French, because “other people now teach our folk”. Until the fourteenth century the use of French in the schools was quite general. Some writers of the period attributed the corruption of the English language partly to this fact. However, after the Black Death, two Oxford schoolmasters were responsible for a great innovation in English education, namely john Cornwall Pencrich. These two schoolmasters introduced English as the vehicle of instruction in their schools, probably because of a shortage of competent teachers. Anyhow, after the middle of the fourteenth century, English began to be used in the schools, and by 1385 the practice became general.

2.11 The Increasing Ignorance of French in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century

Although everyone understood English, this does not mean that French had entirely gone out of use, it was still sometimes used at the court although English had replaced it. French was chiefly the language of two groups, the educated class and the French. The learned included the legal profession and the church. French was the language of lawyers and the law courts until 1362. Churchmen could still speak French at that time. But churchmen of the younger generation were losing their command of the language. French was also generally known to government officials. It was the language of parliament, local administration, town councils, and the guilds, with some instances of the intrusion of English. French was common in letters and local records, and was often written by people who did not habitually speak it.

In the beginning of the fourteenth century, there were many nobles who could not speak French. This condition became more common in the following time. By the fifteenth century the ability to speak French fluently was regarded as an accomplishment, and the ability to write it became less general among people of position. Ignorance of French was quite common among the governing class in England since the beginning of the fifteenth century.

2.12 The Status of French Language in England Fifteenth Century

England was more widely and enduringly francophone in the middle ages than many standard accounts of its history, culture and language allow. The development of French in England, whether known as `Anglo-Norman' or `Anglo-French', was deeply interwoven both with medieval English and with the spectrum of Frenches, insular and continental, used within and outside the realm. As the language of nearly a thousand literary texts, of much administration, and of many professions and occupations, the French of England needed more attention than it had so far received.

2.12.1 Anglo-French

The French was spoken in England in the 14th and 15th centuries. In this period, it was not usually the first language of those who spoke it, but it was a frequently-taught second language, and an important language of record. The term might also be used to describe continental French texts circulating in copies made in England, and for French used as a language of record on the Continent by English speakers. More recently, Anglo-French had been used to refer to all the types of French associated with England.

2.12.2 Anglo-Norman

Linguistically and historically, the question of what could be called 'Anglo-Norman' was a complicated one. The broadest definitions, perhaps, were the easiest. For scholars of language and literature, Anglo-Norman referred to the variety of the French language used in England from the Norman Conquest to the fifteenth century. For historians, Anglo-Norman was generally used to describe the period of English history from the Norman Conquest to King John's loss of Normandy - or, even more narrowly, the reigns of William the Conqueror and his sons.

The term Anglo-Norman was then used to describe the twelfth-century aristocracy of England, many of whom had either been born in Normandy or whose families retained significant holdings on the Continent. In most cases, however, the kings of England after William the Conqueror hardly ever referred to themselves in terms of their joint possessions in England and Normandy. Although the Conqueror often styled himself 'rex Anglorum et dux Normannorum,' his son Henry I appearred to have operated under the paradigm of a single realm divided by the Channel, with the assumption that his authority over Normandy was implicit in his authority as King of England.

Another difficult question was the status of Anglo-Norman in relation to continental French. Many scholars, especially in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, assumed that Anglo-Norman was simply an inferior version of continental French, and that those who used it were trying to speak or write in continental French and failing. Jordan Fantosme’s verse Chronicle was long held to be “irregular” by the standards of continental French versification, but R. C. Johnston’s recent work on patterns of stress in Fantosme raises the possibility that his verses were not a deteriorating continental meter but rather a quite consciously organized, insular form. Similarly, scholars of language often call forth in support of their view the famous passage from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales about the hypocritical Prioress who spoke French "after the scole of Stratford-atte-Bowe For Frenssh of Parys was to hir unknown."

However, more recent scholarship had questioned this conventional wisdom. Johnston's work on Jordan Fantosme had raised the possibility that Fantosme's versification was not an inferior form of continental meter, but a distinctly insular one. Today, many historians and literary scholars agree, and they approach study of the French of England as the expression of a culture in its own right, articulating its own aspirations, sometimes different from those of continental French regions (and that is an area in sore need of investigation). The French language that developed and changed in medieval England, as would be expected in such circumstances, did so according to local linguistic habits, as would any other language or dialect. Its purported inferior status as a language was untenable from a scientific, linguistic perspective, and was a stance no longer tolerated as intellectually valid.

2.12.3 French of England

A proposed new term, intending to encompass all of the varieties of French spoken in England (whatever their territorial origin) and all the English Frenches used abroad (e.g. in Gascony, or in manuscripts circulating from Britain to the Continent). In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language was called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

Later Middle English showed heavy French borrowing and continued reduction of the inflectional system. It was in many respects "modern" except for two key factors: 1) it was probably pronounced quite a bit differently from modern English; and 2) it had no central standard. Instead there are several different literary standards in Middle English (as there were in Old English) and no sense till very late in the period that any one of those literary standards was a "dialect" in opposition to a national "standard." Late in the Middle English period, with the introduction of printing into England in 1470 and following, and the adoption by the printing industry (centered in London) of many features of "Chancery English" as standard in its orthography and usage, we have the first inklings of modern Standard English.

Today, the French language is spoken as a first language by more than 70 million people mainly in France, but its influence goes beyond these boundaries. In English there are thousands of French words – some studies say that as much as 40% of English comes from French sources - although English is really part of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. How did this happen?Strangely enough, it was not the descendants of those early Celts who transmitted the French language to England, but the Normans. After the Vikings had raided and plundered Northern France, they settled in what is now called Normandy and quickly adopted French culture and the language so that by the mid 1050, they were completely “Frenchified”.

When William the Conqueror invaded England at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and subsequently distributed English land to his followers, who all spoke French, their language replaced English as the language of administration and culture for the next 200 years. Although initially French and English remained separate and were spoken by two distinct classes of people for the first hundred years, some Norman French words, such as garden, hours, market found their way into English.

The Norman domination in areas such as government, law, the church and the arts contributed expressions like: Court, crown, council, govern, justice, judge, crime, preach, pray, baptism, paradise, virgin, costume, art, colour, music, poems. Many words of Anglo-Saxon origins have since replaced these ‘loan’ words, but some of the latter have survived, and consequently modern English now contains numerous pairs of words of French and Anglo-Saxon origins with a similar meaning.

Many French loan words came from the use of French by the aristocracy, while English words in the same domain derived from ordinary people. Thus home and house are of English origin while manor and palace are French loan words; man and woman, son and daughter are English while butler, nurse, and servant are French. By 1400 English had again become the dominant language and every administrative document in England was written in English.

No one knows the exact number of words in the English language today, but the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language suggests that there must be close to one million. Some say that if you allow for scientific terms, it could reach close to two million. When learning French, it might seem overwhelming with so many new vocabulary words to learn, but you’ll be glad to know that French has far fewer words than English (600,000 - 700,000) and that more and more of these French words are 'English'.

With the using of French language in England high class society, many words of English were adopted from French. French language in England has an important role and position as a language of culture and fashion, the main aspect of high class society of England. It is growing continually till today.

2.13 The Use of English in Writing

After 1425, the use of English letters are very common in England. The fifteenth century also saw the adoption of English writing to record towns and guilds in a number of branches to the central government. In 1430, many towns are translating their ordinances and books of custom into English. In 1450, English become general in the transactions. This is the sample of English writing at that period :

Whereas, our mother tongue, to wit, the English tongue, hath in modern days begun to be honorably enlarged and adorned ; for that our most excellent lord king Henry the Fifth hath, in his letters missive , and divers affairs touching his own person, more willingly chosen to declare the secret of his will [in it}…

The reign of Henry V (1413-1422) is the turning point of the use of English in writing the several of the king letter is the suitable example if that. The end of his reign and the born of the new one is the beginning of English writing adoption in general used. The year 1425 is the most approximate date to represent the time of this change.

CONCLUSION

In the range of 1100 to1400, there were some notes to know. Before 1200, English held its continental territory and nobility of England which were the reason for the still-used of French among the governing class. Both, English and French, were used in both countries and English was able to control two-third of France. After 1200, conditions changed. English no longer retained a significant part of its possession abroad. There were some attempts slowing the decline of French, changing the provincial character of French in England and the Hhundred Years’ War. Then, the nobility was gone from their continental estates. There was the Hundred Year’s of War as the culmination of anti-foreign movements in England. The rivalry grew between the two countries. Along with the Norman Conquest, French lost its users to the English upper class. In the 13^thand 14^th century, social and economic changes affected English-use in the society. In the 14^th century, English was also started to spread universally and in 15^th century, French disappeared.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baugh, Albert Cable. (1993). A History of Englsih Language. Englewood Cliffs, New York: Prentice Hall
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