when in history was frnnch the official langauge of britain and how did this occur?

Question

also what casued us to revert to english from french again

sorry i meant to say from french to english

Answer 1

French was the official language of the Monarch's Court and the Courts of Law, Latin was the language of the Church. There is a famous law report from the 16th century, which used to be taught to all law students, which contains the following (I know I shall slightly misquote, but the main thrust is there):-
'The defendant jeté une brickbat sur la tete of the Judge et was taken out and hanged'

Remember it was Norman-French and not, as someone might once have said, 'French as we know it, Jim'

By the way, it is 'England' and not 'Britain' Great Britain didn't come into existence until 1707.

Answer 2

During medieval times, roughly at a guess between 11th century up until about the 13th / 14th century (I'm not 100% sure about when English became official language again). It occurred because a group of people called the Normans (so called because they were from the Normandy region of North West France) invaded England and defeated the English King Harald in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings, the Normans spoke french and so french became the official language of the ruling class, kings, lords, knights, law courts and literature etc. Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) continued to be spoken by the rest of the population (the vast majority of the population were Anglo-Saxons) and English eventually regained the upper hand in later medieval times.

Answer 3

French became the official language following the Norman invasion but reverted to Anglo Saxon at the time of Henry IV as we were at war with France and so all things French were out.

Answer 4

Well, I mean, after the Norman conquest of 1066 the royalty and nobility spoke french.. I wouldn't say that made it the official language. When the entire country doesn't speak french it's only a matter of time before the cloistered nobility begin to adapt to their new surroundings.

Answer 5

When the Normands, it ocurred.Then, when Joan of Arc's time, History changed.Then again, when Leonor of Aquitaine was the Queen of Spain, she ensembled, both, Britain and France, and I think, the language was French again.I think it was at her Death, when reversed

Answer 6

In the Middle Ages catholic states usualy used Latin for all official documents. I suppose it was the same in Norman England. So you could say that Latin was England´s (not Britain´s ! ) official language. But in medieval times there were no "official" languages.

Answer 7

It was the language of the aristocracy and government, the proles and peasants - like you and me - spoke English variants/dialects mixed with all the other immigrant languages

Answer 8

wikipedia