THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE - PART 4

THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND BY THE NORMANS WITHIN THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS

The Battle of Hastings in 1066 was a historic event of great importance in the history of England. Not only represented a drastic political reorganization, but also changed the course of English language, marking the beginning of a new era.

The battle was fought between the Norman army, commanded by William, Duke of Normandy (northern France), and Anglo-Saxon army led by King Harold, on October 14, 1066.

Harold's predecessor had had strong ties to the court of Normandy and presumably promised the throne of England to the Duke of Normandy. After his death, however, the council of the kingdom appointed Harold as his successor, taking William to resort to war as a means to enforce its alleged rights.

See how a 11th century artist represented in tapestry, the crossing of the English Channel by William’s troops:

Bayeaux tapestry

The bloody battle ended only in the evening, with King Harold and his brothers killed and the balance from 1500 to 2000 warriors dead on the Norman side and as many or more, the English side.

William had won in few days a victory that Romans Saxons and Danes had fought long and hard to reach. He had conquered a country of one million and half inhabitants and probably the richest in Europe, at the time. For this feat became known in history as William the Conqueror.

The scheme which arose from the conquest was characterized by centralization, by force and, of course, the language of the conquerors: the French dialect, called Norman French. L William himself didn’t speak English and, upon his death in 1087, there wasn’t a single region of England that was not controlled by a Norman. His successors, William II (1087-1100) and Henry I (1100-1135), spent about half of their reigns in France and probably had little knowledge of English.

Over the 300 years that followed, especially in initials 150 years, the language used by the aristocracy in England was French. Speaking French then became a condition for those of Anglo-Saxon origin in search of social mobility through sympathy and favors the ruling class.

This text was extracted and translated from: http://www.sk.com.br/sk-enhis.html, by Ricardo Schütz.