Welcome to the History of English Podcast, a podcast about the history of the English language.

This is episode 69 from Conquest to Doomsday.

In this episode, we're going to continue our look at the Norman settlement of England.

To look at how most of the land in England passed into the hands of the French-speaking

nobles.

This process not only brought the feudal system to England, it also brought the French

language to the peasants out in the country.

And that development is fundamental to the story of English as we go forward.

It meant that French wasn't going to be limited to a handful of retainers in the King's

court, as was the case during the time of Edward the Confessor.

It wasn't going to be restricted to a small group of people around Winchester or London.

Instead, the French language of the nobles was destined to penetrate every nook and cranny

of the country.

And that meant that no one was exempt from the influence of French.

Even the isolated peasants were going to have to pick up some French words to communicate

with their new masters.

So this time, we'll look at how that process came about.

But before we begin, let me remind you that the website for the podcast is History of

EnglishPodcast.com.

And you can always reach me directly by email at kevinathistoryofenglishpodcast.com.

I'm also on Twitter at English HIST POD.

Now last time, we explored the years immediately after the Norman Conquest.

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