“Once more unto the breach” in English

A fascinating story in the Sunday Times (October 25 2015). From the Norman Conquest to the 15C the language of the English court and the nobility was of course French. Not too many people are aware of this, possibly due to the way they teach history these days but it was a fact that English was definitely the language of the peasantry.

It was Henry V who changed all that and it is particularly appropriate to celebrate this in the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. To finance his wars with the French, the objective of which was to unite the kingdoms of France and England, Henry had to borrow a vast amount of money, some £100m in today’s terms. So who did he borrow it from? Principally of course, it was from the people who had money in the first place, even if they weren’t especially keen to part with it. Thus the nobles, parliament, the church, and the middle classes (including Sir “Dick” Whittington – he lent £333 6s 8d) were all invited to contribute to the king’s campaign.

Now comes the revolutionary bit. To enlist their support Henry had to communicate with them in a language they could understand and that language was English. The author of the article, George Trefgarne, kindly quotes for us the first letter from an English king, sent in 1417 from Touques and addressed to the citizens of London. It begins:

“Trusty and wellbeloved, we grete yow often tymes wel, doing yow to understand for your comfort that, by the grace of God, we ben savely arryved into our lond of Normandy.”

Subsequently, Henry instructed his office to communicate entirely in English, and he himself used English exclusively in his diplomatic messages, charters and warrants. The government clerks refined the language and it is this that became the basis of modern English.

Perhaps, as Trefgarne comments, Henry’s real legacy was not his military conquests, nor even his triumph at Agincourt, but his decision to put all his communications into the English language.

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