when and how did the normans become english before 1215?

Answer 1

In the "Dialogue of the Exchequer" written in 1180 we read (my translation):

"...but now that English and Normans have lived so long together and have intermarried, the nations have become so intermingled (I speak of freemen only) that we can scarce distinguish in these days between Englishmen and Normans; excepting of course those serfs bound to the land..."

Furthermore, kings from Henry I onwards (so Stephen, Henry II, Richard I and John) all called themselves king of the English - they all viewed Normandy as an English province by this time - exactly the reverse of the situation in the time of William I.

So the process was certainly a gradual one, but Normans were becoming "Anglicised" long before 1215.

Answer 2

The Normans conquered England in 1066. They didn't quit thinking of themselves as Normans and the English as Saxons until well after 1215. The language of the English court was French.

Answer 3

Ethnicity is a complex topic, but essentially, the Norman lords had quickly intermarried Anglo-Saxon ladies. This gave them a legitimacy to their possession of the land that conquest had not. The second generation, born in these circumstances in England didn't want the impurity of a dual-heritage and so the "English" identity evolved to include both pre-Norman English and Normans. The primary sources, such as William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon and Giraldus Cambrensis all refer to the Anglo-Norman lords, descended from those who came with the conqueror in 1066 as "English." Historians such as John Gillingham, R.R. Davies and Robert Bartlett thus now consider the Anglo-Normans as "English" by 1154.

However, one shouldn't confuse Normans with the Angevins/Plantagenets. Although Henry II was the grandson of Henry I of England, he was born in Anjou (in the city of Le Mans) to the Count of Anjou and was culturally firmly French. When he took the throne in 1154, he brought with him other Angevins (people of Anjou), Aquitainians (from his wife's duchy) and Frenchmen. They were not Norman and had few if any ties to England. Thus, they did not identify themselves as English or even identify themselves as the same as the original Anglo-Norman barons.

Thus from 1154 until the beginning of the 13th century (after the Battle of Bouvines, when John lost most Angevin territory in France), we can best think of England as divided not into English (Anglo-Saxon) vs Norman but into English (Anglo-Saxon + Anglo-Norman) vs Angevin French.

Answer 4

I strongly disagree with Brother Ranulph's view. he refers to Richard I thinking of himself as English. He did no such thing. He spent only 6 months of his reign of 10 years in England. He said he would sell London if he could find a buyer. he isn't even buried in England! All the Plantagenets were more interested in their holdings in France - not for nothing was their alternative House name the 'Angevins', or from Anjou. They did not learn to speak English. The main advantage was that being Kings of England gave them more kudos than being merely the Dukes of Anjou.