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

language.

This is Episode 82, a marriage for the ages.

In this episode, we're going to look at one of the most important marriages of the entire

Middle Ages, the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry Plantagenet, son of Empress Matilda.

This marriage brought much of Northern and Western France under Henry's control, and it

soon expanded to encompass England as well.

At its height, the so-called Angevin Empire controlled most of Northwestern Europe.

And England was just a small portion of that massive French realm.

As a result, French influences were reinforced in England.

This period is sometimes called the 12th century Renaissance.

And while it may have been a period of great cultural and academic achievement, it represents

one of the lowest points in the history of the English language.

The French influence was so great that English essentially disappeared as a written language

for several decades.

So this time, we'll explore those developments.

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 on Twitter at EnglishHistPod, and you can always sign up to support the podcast

at patreon.com.

Just go to HistoryofEnglishPodcast.com and link from there.

...