The Use of English: Language, Law, and Political Culture in Fourteenth-Century England

Abstract

In 1362 the government of Edward III issued a statute that is one of the bestknown, but least-understood, statements on the use of the vernacular in medieval England. The legislation required that English, rather than French, should be the compulsory language of oral communication in all royal and seignorial courts in the land. 1 Studies of the history of English have traditionally cited the statute as evidence that the second half of the fourteenth century marked a particularly eventful and interesting stage in the reemergence of the vernacular as the spoken language of the aristocracy and, thus, as an acceptable written language of literature. In numerous surveys of the "triumph of English," the Statute of Pleading forms part of an established list of examples of the apparently novel use of English as a valid language in the operations of the central government. 2 Other items on this list include the first explicit reference in the official records of state to the delivery in English of the opening speech to Parliament, also in 1362; 3 the first reference to, and transcription of, a formal oral declaration made by a king in English, in Henry IV's acceptance of the throne in 1399; 4 the earliest petitions toThe author is grateful to courts were not, of course, under royal jurisdiction and were not made subject to the legislation; seignorial courts held by churchmen were, however, included within the range of the statute.The Use of English 751 the Crown to be written in English, dating from 1344 and 1386; 5 and the first English-language responses to royal writs of inquiry, among the well-known guild returns of 1389. 6 This material, in conjunction with John Trevisa's often-cited statement that, by the 1380s, English had replaced French as the language of oral instruction in grammar schools, 7 has come to form the essential historical context for the revival of English as a literary language during the fourteenth century: the phenomenon that produced the vernacular "greats" of Langland, Chaucer, Gower, and their successors is thus conventionally explained in terms of a great linguistic shift among the secular elites (whether gentle or bourgeois) that provided the market and audience for Middle English literature. 8 The mobilization of the 1362 statute, and of other associated legal and administrative sources, to advance an understanding of the new and expanding use of the vernacular in late-medieval oral communication and literary culture has certainly done much to contextualize the workings of the administrative, fiscal, and judicial apparatus of royal government in which writers such as Thomas Hoccleve operated and were employed. 9 But while the statute on the use of English in the 5 Kew, National Archives: Public Record Office (hereafter PRO), SC 8/192/9580, printed in R. W. Chambers and Marjorie Daunt, eds.,

Treason, felony and Lollardy: a common petition in the hand of Richard Osbarn, clerk of the chamber of the Guildhall, 1400-c.1437

“…In addition to the competency and personal preference of the scribe, there are other practical considerations involved in the choice of a text's language, namely the intended audience, which in the case of SC 8/24/1197 is specified as the Lords in parliament. Although English had been used as the spoken medium in parliament since the second half of the fourteenth century, Dodd has argued that this had little bearing on how the complaint was presented or received: ‘the language in which a petition was written was of no immediate consequence to those parties who were involved in bringing the case forward or to those responsible for addressing it. The cases would have been read out and, if necessary, translated by the clerks and lawyers responsible for overseeing the petitionary process’ .…”

The Statute of Kilkenny (1366): Legislation and the State

“…The claim, first made by Edward I in 1295, was reiterated in 1344, 1346, 1376, and 1388. 70 As the parliament rolls of June 1344 put it, the king of France "firmly intends, as our lord the king and his council fully comprehend, to destroy the English language and to occupy the land of England." 71 The discovery of French invasion plans at Caen in 1346 suggested an intention "to destroy and ruin the whole English nation and language."…”

The European Nation State: A Great Survivor

“…The Norman invaders appropriated the Old English kingdom, dispossessed the English landowners and ejected the native leaders from all superior functions in state and Church, replacing them with continentals who spoke an alien tongue. Native culture was disdained and literary English, the oldest written European vernacular, driven underground by illiterate Normans for some two centuries 17 . Rebellion was brutally repressed, as happened when, in 1069–1070, Yorkshire was devastated by heavily armed Norman bands who spared no one.…”