Middle English Period

The event that began the transition from Old English to Middle English was the Norman Conquest
of 1066, when William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy and, later, William I of England) invaded the
island of Britain from his home base in northern France, and settled in his new acquisition along with
his nobles and court. William crushed the opposition with a brutal hand and deprived the Anglo-Saxon
earls of their property, distributing it to Normans (and some English) who supported him.
The conquering Normans were themselves descended from Vikings who had settled in northern
France about 200 years before (the very word Norman comes originally from Norseman). However,
they had completely abandoned their Old Norse language and wholeheartedly adopted French (which
is a so-called Romance language, derived originally from the Latin, not Germanic, branch of IndoEuropean), to the extent that not a single Norse word survived in Normandy. However, the Normans
spoke a rural dialect of French with considerable Germanic influences, usually called Anglo-Norman or
Norman French, which was quite different from the standard French of Paris of the period, which is
known as Francien. The differences between these dialects became even more marked after the
Norman invasion of Britain, particularly after King John and England lost the French part of Normandy
to the King of France in 1204 and England became even more isolated from continental Europe.
Anglo-Norman French became the language of the kings and nobility of England for more than
300 years (Henry IV, who came to the English throne in 1399, was the first monarch since before the
Conquest to have English as his mother tongue). While Anglo-Norman was the verbal language of the
court, administration and culture, though, Latin was mostly used for written language, especially by the
Church and in official records. For example, the Domesday Book, in which William the Conqueror
took stock of his new kingdom, was written in Latin to emphasize its legal authority.
However, the peasantry and lower classes (the vast majority of the population, an estimated 95%)
continued to speak English - considered by the Normans a low-class, vulgar tongue - and the two
languages developed in parallel, only gradually merging as Normans and Anglo-Saxons began to
intermarry. It is this mixture of Old English and Anglo-Norman that is usually referred to as Middle
English.

French (Anglo-Norman) Influence

The Normans bequeathed over 10,000 words to English (about three-quarters of which are still in
use today). While humble trades retained their Anglo-Saxon names (e.g. baker, miller, shoemaker,
etc), the more skilled trades adopted French names (e.g. mason, painter, tailor, merchant, etc). While
the animals in the field generally kept their English names (e.g. sheep, cow, ox, calf, swine, deer),
once cooked and served their names often became French (e.g. beef, mutton, pork, bacon, veal,etc).
Sometimes a French word completely replaced an Old English word (e.g. crime replaced firen, place
replaced stow, people replaced leod, beautiful replaced wlitig, uncle replaced eam, etc). Sometimes
French and Old English components combined to form a new word, such as the French gentle and the
Germanic man combined to formed gentleman. But, often, different words with roughly the same
meaning survived, and a whole host of new, French-based synonyms entered the English language
(e.g. the French maternity in addition to the Old English motherhood, infant to child, amity to
friendship, battle to fight, liberty to freedom, desire to wish, conceal to hide, divide to cleave, close to
shut, demand to ask, chamber to room, forest to wood, power to might, pardon to forgive, aid to help,
etc).
During the reign of the Norman King Henry II ( the second half of the 12th Century)
,Eleanor of Aquitaine,his queen, regarded as the most cultured woman in Europe, championed many
terms of romance and chivalry (e.g. romance, courtesy, honour, damsel, tournament, virtue, music,
desire, passion, etc). Even if the Latin-derived words came to use, French words continued to

stream into English at an increasing pace, with even more French additions recorded after the
13th Century than before, peaking in the second half of the 14th Century, words like abbey,
alliance, attire, defend, navy, march, dine, marriage, figure.

Chaucer and the Birth of English Literature

Texts in Middle English (as opposed to French or Latin) begin as a trickle in the 13th Century,
with works such as the debate poem The Owl and the Nightingale and the long historical poem
known as Layamon's Brut .(Most of Middle English literature, at least up until the flurry of literary
activity in the latter part of the 14th Century, is of unknown authorship.
Geoffrey Chaucer(known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English
poet of the Middle Ages) began writing his famous Canterbury Tales in the early 1380s, and
crucially he chose to write it in English. Other important works were written in English around the
same time, if not earlier, including William Langlands Piers Plowman and the anonymous Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight. But the Canterbury Tales is usually considered the first great
works of English literature, and the first demonstration of the artistic legitimacy of vernacular
Middle English, as opposed to French or Latin.

The Canterbury Tales begins with the introduction of each of the pilgrims making their journey
to Canterbury to the shrine of Thomas a Becket. These pilgrims include a Knight, his son the Squire, the
Knight's Yeoman, a Prioress, a Second Nun, a Monk, a Friar, a Merchant, a Clerk, a Man of Law, a
Franklin, a Weaver, a Dyer, a Carpenter, a Tapestry-Maker, a Haberdasher, a Cook, a Shipman, a Physician,
a Parson, a Miller, a Manciple, a Reeve, a Summoner, a Pardoner, the Wife of Bath, and Chaucer himself.
Congregating at the Tabard Inn, the pilgrims decide to tell stories to pass their time on the way to
Canterbury. The Host of the Tabard Inn sets the rules for the tales. Each of the pilgrims will tell two stories
on the way to Canterbury, and two stories on the return trip. The Host will decide whose tale is best for
meaningfulness and for fun.
The Knight's Tale is a tale about two knights, Arcite and Palamon, who are captured in battle and
imprisoned in Athens under the order of King Theseus.
The Miller's Tale, in many ways a version of the Knights, is a comic table in which Nicholas, a student
who lives with John the carpenter and his much younger wife, Alison, falls in love with Alison.
The pilgrims laughed heartily at this tale, but Oswald the Reeve takes offense, thinking that the Miller
meant to disparage carpenters. In response, The Reeve's Tale tells the story of a dishonest Miller, Symkyn,
who repeatedly cheated his clients, which included a Cambridge college.
The Wife of Bath begins her tale with a long dissertation on marriage in which she recounts each of her
five husbands.
The Friar asks to tell the next tale, and asks for pardon from the Summoner, for he will tell a tale that
exposes the fraud of that profession.
The Summoner was enraged by the Friar's Tale. Before he begins his tale, he tells a short anecdote: a friar
visited hell and was surprised to see that there were no other friars.
The Franklin's Tale that follows tells of the marriage between the knight Arviragus and his wife,
Dorigen.
The Physician's Tale that follows tells of Virginius, a respected Roman knight whose daughter, Virginia,
was an incomparable beauty.
The Pardoner prefaces his tale with an elaborate confession about the deceptive nature of his profession.
The Prioress' Tale tells the story of a young Christian child who lived in a town in Asia that was
dominated by a vicious Jewish population.
Chaucer himself tells the next tale, The Tale of Sir Thopas, a florid and fantastical poem in rhyming
couplets that serves only to annoy the other pilgrims. The Host interrupts Chaucer shortly into this tale, and
tells him to tell another. Chaucer then tells The Tale of Melibee, one of two tales that is in prose (the other
is the Parsons Tale). Chaucer follows with The Second Nun's Tale. This tale is a biography of Saint
Cecilia, who converts her husband and brother to Christianity during the time of the Roman empire, when
Christian beliefs were illegal.
The Parson tells the final tale. The Parson's Tale is not a narrative tale at all, however, but rather an
extended sermon on the nature of sin and the three parts necessary for forgiveness: contrition, confession,
and satisfaction. The tale gives examples of the seven deadly sins and explains them, and also details what
is necessary for redemption. Chaucer ends the tales with a retraction, asking those who were offended by

the tales to blame his rough manner and lack of education, for his intentions were not immoral, while
asking those who found something redeemable in the tales to give credit to Christ.

The Jacobean Era

The Jacobean Era refers to the period of time in English and Scottish history when James I (1603
- 1625) ruled. With the death of Elizabeth I, power transferred to the Stuarts, the ruling family of
Scotland. As the first Stuart ruler, James I clashed with Parliament over divine right and tax
collection, but he also pursued colonization in America. The Jacobean era is also characterized by
a flourishing of the arts, architecture, and literature, with subtle changes from the previous
Elizabethan period.

Literature and theater were of high importance in the Jacobean Era. William Shakespeare
wrote Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and The Tempest all within this period. Inigo
Jones, who created elaborate scenery and costumes for court theater productions, is
considered the father of modern stagecraft. In poetry, Jon Donne and Ben Jonson are
credited with creating some of the most renowned works in the history of the genre.
Frances Bacon, the great English philosopher, wrote his groundbreaking essays during
this time period.
King James contributed one of the most significant works to the literature of the age. In
1604, the king ordered an English translation of the bible that would conform to
Protestant ideals and theology. The result, The Authorized King James Bible, is still in use
today as the primary bible of many Protestant churches.
Possibly the most significant event of the era was the founding of the first British
colonies in America. The towns of Jamestown, Virginia, and Plymouth, Massachusetts,
opened doors to enormous trade and financial potential in the New World. Because of
North America's abundance of tobacco crops, this period also saw a sudden and
enormous rise of tobacco use in England. By 1612, England had over 7,000 tobacconists
and smoking houses.
After the grand and ambitious tone of Elizabeths reign, the Jacobean Era was a time of
great difficulty and change for England. The constant skirmishes of the Elizabethan era
left the treasury drained, and the religious struggles that had plagued the Tudor dynasty
did not lessen under the staunchly Protestant James. Despite the newfound markets of
North America, the era ended with England in a severe economic depression. Some
experts believe that the rule of James and the explosive changes to the culture contributed
greatly to the overthrow of the monarchy by Oliver Cromwell and the English Civil war
that shortly followed.

The commonwealth period

(Puritan Interregnum)
The Commonwealth, or Commonwealth of England, was the period from 1649
onwards when England, along later with Ireland and Scotland, was ruled as a republic
following the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execution of Charles
I. The republic's existence was initially declared through "An Act declaring England to be
a Commonwealth", adopted by the Rump Parliament on 19 May 1649. Power in the early
Commonwealth was vested primarily in the Parliament and a Council of State. During the
period, fighting continued, particularly in Ireland and Scotland, between the
parliamentary forces and those opposed to them, as part of what is now referred to as the
Third English Civil War.
If the Rump Parliement was largely ineffectual,the leader of the Council of State and
General of the New Model Army,Oliver Cromwell,was poving rather more
effevtive.Freed by the death of King to finally fight the Irish Rebellion,which had been
ongoing since 1641,Cromwell took his New Model Army to Ireland in 1649.At this
time,Cromwell was a hero to many people.As Kevin Creed notes,the popular idea of
Cromwell was the second coming of the Swedish soldier-king,Gustavus Adolphus and
righteous champion of Protestant ideals.The people of England felt they especially
needed such a defender,givben the horror and indignation of the rulers of Europe at the
death of Charles,and and the perceiving threat of Catholic assault on their land.The Irish
rebellion especially was portrayed as a fight against the hated papist and newspapers
fanned up public opinion to a fever pitch of hatred(Creed).The effects of this Irish
campaign were long ranging for the British Isles and outlasted Cromwell and
Interregnum.[Cromwells] conquest led on to a process of ethnic cleasing and transfer of
land,wealth and power from Catholic communities born in Ireland to British Protestant
settlers and abstee landlords
Cromwells military did not last.Cromwell was forced to recall Parliament in
September 1656 to pay for his foreign wars and forced to abandon the system for a new
one the Humble Petition an Advice.
The eleven year Interregnum period started out as a brave attempt to replace a dictorial
monarchy with a republic based on popular representation.However,internel dissent and
corruption held back meaningful reform and led the way to a military dictorship led by
General Oliver Cromwell.He pusued an asservative foreign policy and innovative
policies of education,religious and legal reform but ultimately, the repression of these
later years made him unpopular and the political structure he had build unsustainable
without his personal autorithy.