1066 and After
The Story of Old English
Course 1 · Chapter 9 · 1066 and After
The Late West Saxon of Chapter 8 was a written standard with royal and church backing. In 1066 both props were knocked away. This chapter follows what happened to the language: who stopped using it for official purposes, what it took from French, and how one monastery's chronicle records the change as it happened.
The Conquest in dates
According to Wikipedia's Norman conquest of England article:
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Jan 1066 | Edward the Confessor dies; Harold Godwinson succeeds |
| 25 Sep 1066 | Harold defeats Harald Hardrada and Tostig at Stamford Bridge |
| 28 Sep 1066 | William lands at Pevensey |
| 14 Oct 1066 | Battle of Hastings; Harold is killed |
| 25 Dec 1066 | William is crowned at Westminster Abbey |
| 1069 to 1070 | The Harrying of the North |
| 1071 | Ely falls, the effective end of English resistance |
| 1086 | Domesday Book completed |
| 1095 | After Wulfstan of Worcester's death, no Englishman holds a bishopric |
Who ruled, and in what language
The article says the English aristocracy was almost wholly removed: by 1086 only about 5% of land south of the Tees was in English hands, and about 8,000 Norman landholders had replaced them. After 1075 all earldoms were held by Normans. It says Anglo-Norman, "a northern dialect of Old French", became the language of the ruling classes, displacing Old English, and that the language of official documents changed from Old English to Latin.
The article does not say what language the church or the law courts used, and it does not name the language of Domesday Book, so I leave those blank. (The Wulfstan of Worcester in the 1095 entry is a different man from the Wulfstan of Chapter 8.)
Middle English
Wikipedia's Middle English article dates the language from the Conquest of 1066 until the late fifteenth century; Early Middle English ran from about 1150 to 1350, and the period ended around 1470. It says French became the preferred language of literature and polite discourse, and that little early Middle English literature survives.
| Change | What the article says |
|---|---|
| French words | Many Norman words came in beside native ones: pig and pork, calf and veal, wood and forest; law and government terms such as court, judge, jury and parliament |
| Case | Dative and instrumental were replaced by prepositional constructions; most case endings disappeared; of the noun endings only the genitive -'s survived |
| Gender | Grammatical gender gave way to natural gender over the period |
| Cause | The article links the simplification to a shift toward fixed word order and also to Old Norse contact |
| Letters | Thorn and eth were replaced by th, and wynn by w; yogh gave way to j, y or gh; k, q and z came into common use |
| Standard | After Late West Saxon ended, scribes used many regional forms; the Chancery Standard, based on London speech, emerged around 1430, after Henry V began issuing Signet letters in English in August 1417 |
This answers the question Chapter 4 left open: the letters þ, ð and ƿ did drop out of use, and the Middle English article is where I found it. It lists four main dialect areas: Northern, East Midland, West Midland and Southern. It says London English developed from East Midland-influenced speech, and that early Scots developed from Northumbrian Old English in lowland Scotland. I did not read about the date of the first official use of English in the courts; the article's passage did not mention the 1362 Statute of Pleading, so I do not state that date.
The Peterborough Chronicle
Chapter 6 introduced the Peterborough Chronicle as the manuscript that shows the move into Middle English. According to Wikipedia's Peterborough Chronicle article, a fire at Peterborough on 4 August 1116 destroyed the monastery's library, and the abbey then copied chronicles from other churches up to 1120, the earliest part being a copy of Winchester's. The unique continuations begin after 1122.
| Part | What the article says |
|---|---|
| Copied entries (to 1122) | Old English; mix several sources; grammatical gender mostly preserved |
| First continuation (1122 to 1131) | Late Old English with Middle English vocabulary, more French-type word formations, simpler pronouns and strong verbs, fewer noun declensions |
| Second continuation (1132 to 1154) | Mixed forms, ending in an early, distinctly Middle English style; gender nearly or completely lost |
The article says the feminine pronoun she (written scæ) is first recorded here. The Chronicle ends in 1154 with the death of Abbot Martin and the arrival of a new abbot, William, who probably halted the writing. The article calls it one of the few first-hand English accounts of 1070 to 1154 from a non-courtly viewpoint.
Its entry for 1137 blames King Stephen for being too gentle with rebel barons. The article quotes the line Þa the suikes undergæton ðat he milde man was and softe and god, which mixes the old letter þ with the newer th. That mixture is a small picture of the period.
The sudden change between the copied and the original parts of the manuscript has two possible readings in the article: a deliberate move toward the vernacular, or a fast language shift under Norman influence. The article presents both, and so do I; I did not find which scholars prefer which.
The 1137 entry and Old English entries for the earlier years are the kind of text read in Old English Reading 1, Chapters 4 and 5.
Words to know
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Anglo-Norman | The French of the Normans in England; the article calls it a northern dialect of Old French |
| Tenant-in-chief | Someone holding land directly from the king |
| Vernacular | The everyday language of the people |
| Doublet | Two words of the same origin that came in by different routes, such as warden and guardian |
| Continuation | Entries added to a chronicle after the copied part ends |
✏️ Try It Yourself
Think of the answer first, then click to check.
1. On what date was the Battle of Hastings, and when was William crowned?
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14 October 1066 and 25 December 1066.
2. What happened to the English aristocracy?
Show answer
It was almost wholly replaced; by 1086 only about 5% of land south of the Tees was in English hands.
3. Which language did the ruling classes speak, and which became the language of official documents?
Show answer
Anglo-Norman French for the ruling classes, and Latin for official documents.
4. Give two pairs of English and French-origin words for animal and meat.
Show answer
Pig and pork, calf and veal.
5. Name two grammatical features English lost in the Middle English period.
Show answer
Most case endings, and grammatical gender (replaced by natural gender).
6. What replaced thorn and wynn?
Show answer
th and w.
7. Why was the Peterborough Chronicle re-copied, and when does it end?
Show answer
A fire in 1116 destroyed the library, so chronicles were copied from other churches. It ends in 1154.
8. What two explanations does the article give for the change of language in its continuations?
Show answer
A deliberate move toward the vernacular, or a fast language shift under Norman influence.