French Was England's Official Language for 300 Years

When William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066, he didn't just claim the throne—he replaced the entire language of power. For the next three centuries, if you wanted to participate in government, law, or high society in England, you needed to speak French.

This wasn't a gradual cultural shift. It was immediate and total. The Norman aristocracy spoke Old Norman French, and overnight it became the language of the royal court, Parliament, and the legal system. English didn't disappear, but it became the language of peasants and commoners—people with no political voice.

A Kingdom Divided by Language

For 300 years, England operated as a two-tier society split by language. If you were born into nobility, you grew up speaking French. Every English king from William the Conqueror to Henry IV (1399) had French as their mother tongue. Court proceedings, legal documents, and official government business were all conducted in French.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of English people continued speaking English—but had no idea what was being said about them in courts of law. Imagine standing trial and not understanding a single word of your own legal proceeding. This wasn't theoretical; it was the daily reality for ordinary English people for three centuries.

The Statute That Changed Everything

By 1362, this linguistic divide had become untenable. Parliament passed the Pleading in English Act, also known as the Statute of Pleading, which mandated that all court proceedings be conducted in English rather than French. The reasoning was simple: the common people "have no knowledge of that which is said for them or against them" in court.

It took another 50 years for English to become the language of official government documents under Henry V (1413-1422), but the shift had begun. French's 300-year reign as England's official language was over.

The Legacy Lives On

Even though French lost its official status in the 1360s, its impact on English is permanent and profound. Estimates vary, but somewhere between 30% and 60% of modern English vocabulary comes from French. Every time you use words like "government," "court," "justice," "royal," or "parliament," you're speaking the language of Norman conquerors.

That's the paradox of the Norman Conquest: England rejected French as its official language, but the English language itself had already been transformed forever.