1.2. 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.

The English nobility perished through different reasons and was replaced by the Norman barons. 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 lands of the Saxon aristocracy were divided up among the

Normans, who by 1087 composed almost 10% of the total population. Each

Great. King Alfred the Great was so powerful and successful in his struggle against the invaders that hostilities ceased for a time and a peace treaty was concluded — the Treaty of Wedmore, in accordance with which the territory of the country was subdivided into two parts: the south-western part remained English under the rule of King Alfred and the north-eastern part was to be Scandinavian. That part was referred to as Danela or Danelaw, i.e. the territory which was under the rale of Scandinavians, or "Danes".

The Scandinavians in England remained very strong through centuries, and at the beginning of the II"1 century, namely in the period between 1016 and 1042 the whole of England came under the Scandinavian rule — the conquest was completed and the Danish king was seated on the English throne. Although in 1042 England was back under English power, the English king who came to the throne — Edward the Confessor — was to be the last English king for more than three centuries.

The Scandinavian invasion and the subsequent settlement of the Scandinavian on the territory of England, the constant contacts and intermixture of the English and the Scandinavians brought about many changes in different spheres of the English language: word-stock, grammar and phonetics. The influence of Scandinavian dialects was especially felt in the North and East parts of England, where mass settlement of the invaders and intermarriages with the local population were especially common. The relative ease of the mutual penetration of the languages was conditioned by the circumstances of the Anglo-Scandinavian contacts, i.e.:

a) There existed no political or social barriers between the English and the Scandinavians, the latter not having formed the ruling class of the society butliving on an equal footing with the Englishb) there were no cultural barriers between the two people as they were approximately the same in their culture, habits and customs due to their common origin, both of the nations being Germanic.

c) The language difference was not so strong as to make their mutual

Landlord, in return for his land, had to take an oath of allegiance to the king and provide him with military services if and when required. The Saxon machinery of government was immensely reinforced, with a

Norman monarch and his officials as effective centralised controllers. Royal power

was spread to provinces, royal justice was much more impartially done. The

Normans created a strong medieval monarchy which was gradually to complete the

unification of England.

The 13th century witnessed the appearance of the first Parliament, or a council of barons, which later was changed to a national Parliament, representing the nobility, clergy, knights of the shires and major cities. The Norman conquerors, though Germanic by origin, were French by their language, habits and customs. They were a people and a class that stood aloof from the conquered English, whose habits and customs they despised and whose language they could not understand. They spoke French and addressed people in French. They taught their phildren French — the only language they could speak, which is noticed by many writers and scholars. And for more than two centuries after the conquest the English country was ruled by French-speaking Kings and nobility, and t he French language was the state language of the country. The Norman Conquest put an end to the West Saxon literary language. But eventually after a prolonged struggle the English language got ascendance over French and again became the state language of the country. The victorious and defeated peoples continued to speak their own languages. The language spoken and written by the English continued to develop in accordance with tendencies already active before the conquest.

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. . They generally mention the following decisive steps in the way upward of the English language after the Norman conquest:

a) 1258 —Proclamation of King Henry III was published besides French

also in English;

b) 1362 — the English language became the language of Parliament, courts of law; later, at the end of the century — the language of teaching;

c) the rule of King Henry IV (1399—1413) - the first king after the conquest whose native tongue was English.

The end of the 14th century also saw the first "English" translation of the Bible, and Chaucer was writing his "English" masterpieces. The new merchant class and the spread of lay learning were building a national civilisation, and by the end of the century French had probably died out as a spoken language.