Middle English: the non-standard period

1. What were the specific roles of English and French in the Early ME society?

Context: 1066 Battle of Hastings → William the Conqueror

→ English Nobles replaced by Normans- the leaders= most influential sector of society

- Most of the Church leaders French as well

- but mass of the inhabitants of England= English-speaking peasants

French- language of upper class for more than 200 years

- Marked class more than national identity

- French used in writing

- Bilingualism (French landowners in isolated areas, Engl. /Fr. intermarriages among lesser nobility)

→ French used on the top and English on the bottom of the social scale

2. What were the major factors for re-emergence of English in the Early ME period?

• 1234 - bishop protest at Winchester = dismissal of foreigners
  • dind't last long, soon returned but there were tensions
  • 1258 - Henry III - Provisions of Oxford
    • first proclamation since the Norman Conquest issued in French, Latin as well as English
    • meant to promote power-sharing between the barons and the king (recognition of parliament)
    • not accepted by the king = Barons' War (1258-1265)

• Edward I
  • most office-holders English
  • changes in attitude towards English
    • knowledge of English = mark of an Englishman
    • English common language in all parts of the population (due to the merge of Norman French with the native population)
    • Of Arthur and of Merlin (before 1325) (translated): But every Englishman knows English./ Many a noble I have seen/ Who could not speak French.

• consequences
  • decline of French - there were attempts to hold this decline
    • University of Oxford forced students to learn both English and French
    • Canterbury and Westminster novices forbidden to use English
    • French a foreign language

• English as a written language, the use of English in courts and Parliament established in the middle of the 14th century
• 15th century - English in private and public use; French still present in the Court and upper class