A history of the English Language

102.
The Hundred Years’ War.
In the course of the centuries following the Norman Conquest the connection of England 
with the continent, as we have seen, had been broken. It was succeeded by a conflict of 
interests and a growing feeling of antagonism that culminated in a long period of open 
hostility with France (1337–1453). The causes of this struggle are too complex to be 
entered into here, but the active interference of France in England’s efforts to control 
Scotland led Edward III finally to put forth a claim to the French throne and to invade 
France. The great victories of the English at Crécy (1346) and Poitiers (1356) fanned 
English patriotism to a white heat, though this auspicious beginning of the struggle was 
followed by a depressing period of reverses and though the contest was interrupted by 
long periods of truce. In the reign of Henry V England again enjoyed a brief period of 
success, notably in the victory against great odds at Agincourt (1415). But the success did 
not
52 
Walter Map says that “if one is faulty in his use of this tongue, we say that he speaketh French of 
Marlborough.” 
De Nugis Curialium,
V, vi (trans. Tupper and Ogle). 
53 
H.Albert, 
Mittelalterlicher Englisch-französischer Jargon 
(Halle, Germany, 1922). 
54 
A life of Edward the Confessor in Anglo-French verse of the latter part of the thirteenth century; 
cf. A.T.Baker in 
Mod. Lang. Rev.,
3 (1907–1908), 374–75. William of Wadington makes a similar 
excuse: “No one ought to blame me for the French or the verse, for I was born in England and 
nourished and brought up there.” So too does Gower (Vising, 
Franska Språket i England,
III, 9). 
55 
Gervase of Tilbury, 
Otia Imperialia
(1212), chap. 20, ed. G.G.Leibnitz, 
Scriptores Rerum 
Brunsvicensium
(Hanover, Germany, 1707), I, 945. 
The reestablishment of english, 1200-1500 129

---

continue after the young king’s death, and the exploits of Joan of Arc (1429) marked the 
beginning of the end. Although this protracted war again turned people’s attention to the 
continent, and the various expeditions might have tended to keep the French language in 
use, it seems to have had no such effect, but rather the opposite. Probably the intervals 
between the periods of actual fighting were too long and the hindrances to trade and other 
intercourse too discouraging. The feeling that remained uppermost in the minds of most 
people was one of animosity, coupled with a sense of the inevitability of renewed 
hostilities. During all this time it was impossible to forget that French was the language 
of an enemy country, and the Hundred Years’ War is probably to be reckoned as one of 
the causes contributing to the disuse of French.