The Beginning of the Middle English Period

The beginning of the ME period coincides with the Battle of Hastings , the key event
in the Norman Conquest of England, on October 14, 1066, when William, Duke of
Normandy (after the battle known as William the Conqueror) defeated the English
under King Harold II. William made London the new capital, and was crowned King
William I of England at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066.

After the Conquest, England's social and political structures underwent drastical
changes, such as an almost complete replacement of the English aristocracy by a
Norman aristocracy. Over and above the political and social aspects, the Norman
Conquest had an enormous impact on the English language. The Middle English
period ends with the ascent of Henry VIII to the throne in 1509.

The ME period can be subdivided into three phases:

 English in decline (1066-1204)

 English in ascent (1204-1348)
 English triumphant (1348-1509)

The end of the ME period is marked by several historical incidents:

 The introduction of printing (1476)

 The ascendency of Henry VIII (1509)
 The beginning of colonization (> 1500)

Phase I: 1066 - 1204

After 1100, the English tongue largely lost its status and became 'the language of the
lower classes' for over 200 years. Especially among the nobility, in literature, law and
official documentation it essentially disappeared as a written language.

Among the clergy it was replaced by Latin and the ruling classes spoke French. In
addition to that, the use of French was reinforced by the fact that many of the new
aristocracy had extensive holdings in France.

The year 1204 marks the turning point when King John (nicknamed: John Lackland)
lost his English possessions in France leading to a gradual decline of French as an
official language in England.

Phase II: 1204 - 1348

The enormous influence of French changed when King John lost power in Normandy
in 1204 (see hatched part in the image). With the loss of Normandy came a
considerable decline of interest in French.

Another factor leading to the ascent of English, was increased communication among
English speakers of various regions. This intercourse led to a smoothing out of the
most striking dialectal differences and to the beginnings of a new standard of English
based on the London dialect.
By the 13th and 14th centuries, the children of the English nobility no longer learned
French as their native language. English had become the new medium of instruction.

Phase III: 1348 - 1509

Although French remained the official language of England well into the
14th century, two events of that time sealed its fate:

 the Black Death (1348-1351)

 the Hundred Years War (1337-1453)

Between 1348 and 1351, one-third of the people in England died of the Black Death
leading to enormous labor shortages and an increase of the prestige of English which
was the language of the working-class.

The Hundred Years War led to a loss of all continental holdings, without which the
English no longer had important reasons for learning and using French.

The Language
Due to Latin and French influences, a 'new' language had evolved by the mid
14th century: Middle English being Germanic at the core but with an
extensive Romance vocabulary.

Two periods of French influence on Middle English can be distinguished:

 Anglo-Norman French
(up to the late 12th century)
 Central French
(from then until the end of the 15th century).

The adoption of words from two different kinds of French accounts for differences in
the pronunciation of French loanwords.

In Middle English, the structural complexity of Old English is gone. The most
significant development was the levelling of the unstressed vowels leading to a
reduction of inflectional distinctions and thereby causing changes in the morphology
and syntax of the English language.

The Literature
The many linguistic developments which identify the ME period are most evident in
the poetry and prose of the second half of the 14th century. There are several
surviving prose texts, especially on religious themes, notably the first complete
translation of the Bible into English by John Wyclif.

Among the best known poetic creations of that time is the poem Piers
Plowman by William Langland (c. 1360). The universally recognized pinnacle of
poetic achievement in ME, however, are the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
They provide a wealth of information about the medieval attitudes and society, and
about contemporary linguistic structure and style.

1066 Harold II is crowned king the day after Edward the Confessor dies. Tostig and
Harold Hardraada of Norway invade England: Harold defeats them at the
Battle of Stamford Bridge, killing both; Battle of Hastings: 19 days after battle
of Stamford Bridge, William of Normandy lands at Pevensey, defeats and kills
Harold; William I, the Conqueror, first Norman King of England (until 1087)
1067 Work is begun on building the Tower of London
1068 The Norman Conquest continues until 1069: William subdues the north of
England (the "Harrying of the North"): the region is laid waste
1070 Hereward the Wake begins a Saxon revolt in the Fens of eastern England;
Lanfranc, an Italian lawyer, becomes William's formidable Archbishop of
Canterbury. Lanfranc rebuilds Canterbury Cathedral and establishes the
primacy of the see of Canterbury over York, but does not enforce clerical
celibacy
1072 William invades Scotland, and also receives the submission of Hereward the
Wake
1080 William, in a letter, reminds the bishop of Rome that the King of England
owes him no allegiance
1086 The Domesday Book is completed in England
1087 William II, Rufus, King of England (until 1100); his elder brother, Robert, is
Duke of Normandy
1093 Donald Bane, King of Scots (until 1097), following the death of his brother,
Malcolm III, in battle against the English
1097 Edgar, second son of Malcolm Canmore, King of Scotland (until 1107); he
defeats Donald Bane with the assistance of William II of England
1099 Crusaders capture Jerusalem; Godfrey of Bouillon is elected King of Jerusalem
1100 Henry I, youngest son of William the Conqueror, King of England (until
1135), following assassination of William Rufus
1106 Henry I defeats his brother Robert, Duke of Normandy, at battle of Tinchebrai:
Robert remains captive for life
1113 Founding of the Order of St. John is formally acknowledged by the papacy
1114 Matilda (Maud), daughter of Henry I of England marries Emperor Henry V
1118 Hugues de Payens founds the order of the Knights Templar
1120 William, heir of Henry I of England, is drowned in wreck of the "White Ship"
1129 Empress Matilda, widow of Henry V, marries Geoffrey the Handsome, Count
of Anjou, nicknamed "Plantagenet"
1139 Matilda lands in England
1141 Matilda captures Stephen at the battle of Lincoln, and reigns disastrously as
queen; she is driven out by a popular rising and Stephen restored
1148 Matilda leaves England for the last time
1152 Marriage of Louis VII of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine is annulled on
grounds of blood relationship; Eleanor marries Henry of Anjou, allying
Aquitaine to his lands of Anjou and Normandy, two months after her divorce
1153 Henry of Anjou, son of Matilda, invades England and forces Stephen to make
him heir to the English throne
1154 Henry II, King of England (until 1189); he also rules more than half of France;
Pope Adrian IV (until 1159) (Nicholas Breakspear, the only English pope)
1155 Henry II appoints the Archdeacon of Canterbury, Thomas a Becket, as
Chancellor
1159 Henry II levies scutage, payment in cash instead of military service
1162 Becket is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury and at once quarrels with Henry
II over the Church's rights
1164 Constitutions of Clarendon; restatement of laws governing trial of ecclesiastics
in England; Becket is forced to flee to France
1170 Becket is reconciled with Henry II, returns to Canterbury; is murdered by four
knights after Henry's hasty words against him
1173 Rebellion of Henry's eldest sons, Henry, Richard, and Geoffrey, supported by
their mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine; Thomas a Becket canonized
1189 Richard I, Coeur de Lion eldest surviving son of Henry II, King of England
(until 1199)
1191 The bodies of King Arthur and Guinevere were reported to have been exhumed
from a grave at Glastonbury Abbey; Richard I conquers Cyprus and captures
the city of Acre
1192 Richard I captures Jaffa, makes peace with Saladin; on the way home he is
captured by his enemy, Duke Leopold of Austria
1193 Leopold hands Richard over to Emperor Henry VI, who demands ransom
1194 Richard is ransomed and returns to England
1204 John Lackland looses English possessions in France; French gradually
becomes a less important language in England
1207 Pope Innocent III appoints Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury
(Langton is the man who divided the books of the Bible into chapters); John
refuses to let him take office
1208 Innocent III lays England under interdict
1209 Cambridge University is founded in England; Innocent III excommunicates
John for attacks on Church property
1213 Innocent III declares John deposed; John resigns his kingship to the pope and
receives it back as a holding from the Roman legate, thereby ending the
interdict
1215 Signing of Magna Carta; English barons force John to agree to a statement of
their rights
1216 Henry III becomes king of England at age nine (until 1272)
1227 Henry III begins personal rule in England
1256 Prince Llewellyn sweeps English from Wales
1264 Simon de Montfort and other English barons defeat Henry III at battle of
Lewes
1265 De Montfort's Parliament: burgesses from major towns summoned to
Parliament for the first time; Henry III's son Edward defeats and kills Simon de
Montfort at battle of Evesham
1269 Rebuilding of Westminster Abbey begun by Henry III
1272 Edward I, King of England (until 1307)
1283 Edward I defeats and kills Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, and executes
Llewellyn's brother David; conquest of Wales complete
1290 Edward I expels all Jews from England
1291 Scots acknowledge Edward I of England as suzerain; he arbitrates in
succession dispute
1295 Edward I's Model Parliament: knights and burgesses from English shires and
towns summoned. First representative parliament
1296 Edward I of England deposes John Balliol from Scottish throne
1297 Battle of Cambuskenneth: Scottish patriot William Wallace defeats English
army
1298 Edward I defeats Wallace at battle of Falkirk and reconquers Scotland
1301 Edward I of England invests his baby son Edward as Prince of Wales
1305 The English capture and execute William Wallace
1306 New Scottish rebellion against English rule led by Robert Bruce. Robert I, the
Bruce crowned King of Scotland (until 1329) at Scone
1307 Edward I dies on march north to crush Robert Bruce. Edward II, King of
England (until 1327)
1310 English barons appoint 21 peers, the Lords Ordainers, to manage Edward II's
household
1312 Order of Knights Templar abolished
1314 Battle of Bannockburn: Robert Bruce defeats Edward II and makes Scotland
independent
1326 Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer sail from France with an army to rebel
against Edward II of England
1327 Parliament declares Edward II deposed, and his son accedes to the throne as
Edward III. Edward II is hideously murdered, nine months later
1328 Charles IV dies, ending the Capetian dynasty. Philip of Valois succeeds him as
Philip VI
1329 Edward III of England does simple homage for Aquitaine (Guienne), but
refuses to do liege homage
1333 Edward III invades Scotland on Balliol's behalf and defeats the Scots at battle
of Halidon Hill
1336 Edward places an embargo on English exports of wool to Flanders
1337 Philip declares Edward's fiefs forfeit and begins harassing the frontiers of
Aquitaine; Edward III, provoked by these attacks on his territories in France,
declares himself king of France; "The Hundred Years' War" begins (ends
1453)
1338 Treaty of Koblenz: alliance between England and the Holy Roman Empire;
Edward III formally claims the French crown
1340 Naval victory at Sluys gives England the command of the English Channel;
English Parliament passes four statues providing that taxation shall be imposed
only by Parliament
1342 Approximate year of birth of Geoffrey Chaucer
1346 Edward III of England invades France with a large army and defeats an even
bigger army under Philip VI at the Battle of Creacutecy
1347 The English capture Calais
1348 Edward III establishes the Order of the Garter; Black Death (bubonic plague)
reaches England
1351 The English remove the Pope's power to give English benefices to foreigners
1353 Statue of Praemunire: English Parliament forbids appeals to Pope
1356 Edward the Black Prince, son of Edward III, defeats the French at the battle of
Poitiers, capturing King John II
1358 The Jacquerie
1360 Peace of Bretigny ends the first stage of the Hundred Years' War. Edward III
gives up claim to French throne
1369 Second stage of war between England and France begins
1370 French troops commanded by Bertrand du Guesclin; Edward, the Black Prince,
sacks Limoges
1372 French troops recapture Poitou and Brittany; Naval battle of La Rochelle:
French regain control of English Channel
1373 John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, son of Edward III, leads new English
invasion of France
1374 John of Gaunt returns to England and takes charge of the government; Edward
III in his dotage, the Black Prince is ill
1375 Truce of Bruges ends hostilities between England and France
1376 The Good Parliament in England, called by Edward the Black Prince,
introduces many reforms of government; Death of Edward the Black Prince,
aged 45; The Civil Dominion of John Wyclif, an Oxford don, calling for
Church reforms
1377 Richard II, son of the Black Prince, King of England (until 1399)
1381 Peasants' Revolt in England; John Wyclif, an Oxford theologian, publishes his
"Confession", denying that the "substance" of bread and wine are miraculously
changed during the Eucharist
1382 John Wyclif is expelled from Oxford because of his opposition to certain
Church doctrines
1386 John of Gaunt leads an expedition to Castile, which he claims in his wife's
name; fails 1388
1387 Geoffrey Chaucer begins work on The Canterbury Tales (Prologue)
1389 Richard II, aged 22, assumes power
1394 Richard II leads expedition to subdue Ireland; returns to England 1395
1396 Richard II marries the seven-year old Princess Isabella of France
1399 Death of John of Gaunt; Gaunt's eldest son, Henry of Bolingbroke, lands in
Yorkshire with 40 followers, and soon has 60,000 supporters: Richard II is
deposed; Bolingbroke becomes Henry IV, King of England (until 1413)
1400 Richard II murdered at Pontefract Castle; Owen Glendower proclaims himself
Prince of Wales and begins rebellion; Geoffrey Chaucer dies
1401 Persecution of Lollards for revolting against clergy
1402 Henry IV enters Wales in pursuit of Glendower
1403 Battle of Shrewsbury; rebellion by the Percy family: Henry IV defeats and kills
Harry "Hotspur" Percy
1406 Henry, Prince of Wales, defeats Welsh
1413 Henry V, King of England (until 1422)
1415 Henry V invades France, and defeats the French at Agincourt
1416 Death of Owen Glendower
1420 Treaty of Troyes
1422 Deaths of Henry V of England and Charles VI of France; Henry VI, King of
England (until 1461)
1424 John, Duke of Bedford, regent for Henry VI of England, defeats the French at
Cravant
1428 Henry VI begins siege of Orleans
1429 A French force, led by military commander Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc),
relieves the siege of Orleans; Charles VII crowned king of France at Rheims
1430 Burgundians capture Jeanne d'Arc and hand her over to the English
1431 Jeanne d'Arc burned as a witch at Rouen; Henry VI of England crowned king
of France in Paris
1453 Bordeaux falls to the French, Hundred Years' War ends; England's only French
possession is Calais; In England, Henry VI becomes insane
1454 Richard, Duke of York, is regent of England while Henry VI is insane;
Printing with movable type is perfected in Germany by Johannes Gutenberg
1455 Henry VI recovers. Richard of York is replaced by Somerset and excluded
from the Royal Council; War of the Roses - civil war in England between royal
houses of York and Lancaster (until 1485); Battle of St. Albans. Somerset
defeated and killed
1460 Battle of Wakefield. Richard of York is defeated and killed; Earl of Warwick
(the Kingmaker) captures London for the Yorkists; Battle of Northampton:
Henry VI is captured by Yorkists
1461 Battles of Mortimer's Cross and Towton: Richard's son, Edward of York,
defeats Lancastrians and becomes king; Edward IV, King of England (until
1483)
1465 Henry VI imprisoned by Edward IV
1466 Warwick's quarrels with Edward IV begin; forms alliance with Louis XI
1470 Warwick turns Lancastrian: he defeats Edward IV and restores Henry VI
1471 Battle of Barnet. Edward IV defeats and kills Warwick; Henry VI dies,
probably murdered in the Tower of London
1475 Edward IV invades France; Peace of Piequigny between England and France
1476 William Caxton sets up a printing press at Westminster
1483 Death of Edward IV; Edward V, King of England; he is deposed by his uncle,
Richard Duke of Gloucester; Richard III, King of England (until 1485);
Edward V and his brother are murdered in the Tower of London
1484 Caxton prints Morte D'Arthur, the poetic collection of legends about King
 Arthur compiled by Sir Thomas Malory
1485 Battle of Bosworth Field: Henry Tudor, with men, money and arms provided
by Charles VIII of France, defeats and kills Richard III in the decisive (but not
final) battle of the War of the Roses
1486 Henry VII (Tudor) married Elizabeth of York uniting houses of York and
Lancaster
1487 Battle of Stoke Field: In the final engagement of the Wars of the Roses, Henry
VII, defeats Yorkist army "led" by Lambert Simnel (who was impersonating
Edward, the nephew of Edward IV, the only plausible royal alternative to
Henry, who was confined in the Tower of London)
1496 Henry VII joins the Holy League; commercial treaty between England and
Netherlands
1497 John Cabot discovers Newfoundland
1502 Margaret, daughter of Henry VII, marries James IV of Scotland
1509 Henry VIII becomes king

Middle English

The beginning of the ME period coincides with the Battle of Hastings , the key event
in the Norman Conquest of England, on October 14, 1066, when William, Duke of
Normandy (after the battle known as William the Conqueror) defeated the English
under King Harold II . William made London the new capital, and was crowned King
William I of England at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066.

After the Conquest, England's social and political structures underwent drastical
changes, such as an almost complete replacement of the English aristocracy by a
Norman aristocracy. Due to Latin and French influences, a 'new' language had
evolved by the mid 14th century: Middle English being Germanic at the core but with
an extensive Romance vocabulary.

Two periods of French influence on Middle English can be distinguished:

 Anglo-Norman French (up to the late 12th century)

 Central French (from then until the end of the 15th century).

The adoption of words from two different kinds of French accounts for differences in
the pronunciation of French loanwords.

In Middle English, the structural complexity of Old English is gone. The most
significant development was phonological: the leveling of the unstressed vowels
leading to a reduction of inflectional distinctions and thereby causing changes in
the morphology and syntax of the English language.

The Middle English period ends with the ascent of Henry VIII to the throne in 1509.

Phonology
During the ME period (1100-1500) dialectal differences were becoming greater than
during the Anglo-Saxon (OE) times. The new standard was based on London speech,
essentially an East Midland dialect.

The major differences between OE and ME concerned the addition of new

consonantal phonemes and some changes in the quality of vowels. Also, due to the
influence of French, ME introduced a number of new diphthongs. ME had

 13 monophthongs
 6 diphthongs
 25 consonants (23 phonemes)

This sound system was the result of numerous sound changes that took place during
and before the ME period. https://youtu.be/_GFmtn3OZsQ

Morphology
The ME period is marked by a great reduction in the inflectional system inherited
from OE. There were several reasons for this:

 Language Contact

OE often mixed with Old Norse. Even though English and Scandinavian
words were sufficiently different, doubt about the correct from of ending arose
leading to the use of other devices to express the relevant distinctions.

 Phonological Reasons

The weakening and eventual loss of unstressed syllables at the ends of words
destroyed many of the inflections of OE.

By the end of the ME period, English had changed from a synthetic language to a
much more analytic language dependent on word order and particles indicating the
relationships among the words in a sentence. There were only a handful of leftover
inflections. They can be subdivided into

 declension
 conjugation

Declension
By late OE, the -um of dative endings had changed to -un. At about the same time, all
the vowels of all inflectional endings were reduced to /ən/).

Later, the final -n was also lost, in most, though not all, noun endings. By late ME,
final inflectional -e had dropped (though it often continued to be spelled).

As a result of all these changes, the case distinctions in nouns were reduced to two by
the end of the 15th century:
  the possessive case
 the non-possessive or oblique case

The only difference between ME and PDE was the use of a few plurals in -en which
have since disappeared, such as eyen, hosen, peasen etc. With two cases (which
integrate number distinctions) and no distinct grammatical genders, the morphology
of ME nouns was in many ways identical to PDE.

 Example 1: ME: hund

 Example 2: ME: name

The distinction between singular and plural was fused with the case ending.
Conjugation
Despite the changes within the verbal system between OE and ME, ME retained, at
least to some extent, all the earlier inflectional categories:

 tense
 mood
 number
 person

Finally, Middle English saw the beginning of the complex system of periphrastic verb
phrases (verb phrases consisting of several elements) that characterizes today's
English.

Examples:

 finde(n) (PDE: find)

 loke(n) (PDE: look)

Word Order
Despite the progressive impoverishment of inflection, word order in ME was still very
flexible and often allowed more options than in PDE as to where to place the main
elements of clause structure (subject, object and verb).

Furthermore, the tendency toward rigidity of syntax increased throughout the ME

period as inflections are lost. By late ME, we find sentences with word orders that
would be completely acceptable in Present-Day English. The following three orders
were favorite in ME.

 SVO
 SOV
 VSO
The remaining orders (OSV, OVS and VOS) were all used in Middle English, but are
relatively rare. Especially interesting are the impersonal constructions in ME. They
exhibited the transitional phase from SOV to SVO.