imaginary person when Philip is lying to Waleran Bigod in Chapter 2, ii. It is unlikely that anybody in England would bear this name fifty years before the birth of Francis of Assisi. Indeed, Francis (from Old French Franseis, Franceis) was the saint's nickname, while his Christian name was Giovanni (John). The name became widespread only due to the saint's fame. Shareburg could not have been anglicized as such, because in the Norman pronunciation of the modern town Cherbourg, the Cher- element was and is pronounced [tʃɪr- / tʃɪl-] or [tʃɛr-] and was the same in Anglo-Norman. [tʃ] would have been retained in Middle English as well. [ʃɛr-] is Modern French. In the Old and Middle English and Anglo-Norman documents, Cherbourg is mentioned with different spellings from the 11th to the 15th century : Kiæresburh (1091, Anglo-Saxon chronicle), Chirburg(h), Chierebour, Cheerebourg, Chierbourg(h), Ch(i)erburg(h), Chierbourc, Chirbourg(h), Chirburt, Chireburgh, etc. The Parisian-French pronunciation was later adapted into English in the form Shearburg and is not mentioned before 1663. The English nobility of that period were Norman immigrants, together with other continental nationalities such as Bretons, Frenchmen (Paris and Île-de-France), Flemish and Angevin people. Anglo-Norman was the language of the court and upper class and it did not spread far into the rest of the English society. The ability of ordinary Englishmen to speak French was considered unusual, but Thomas Becket's parents for example, who did not belong to the nobility, were traders and emigrated to England from Normandy and they were not the only ones. Thus, many of the encounters across social classes presented in the book have been characterized as implausible by some critics, although in fact bilingualism was then emerging in English society for practical and mercantile reasons. For example, the noblewoman Aliena (presumably a native Norman French-speaker) becomes a successful wool merchant, communicating with the Anglo-Saxon-speaking locals and running a successful business among them. As evidenced by the contemporary Peterborough Chronicle, English was still essentially pure Anglo-Saxon without the intermixture of French elements which would later create Middle English. Significantly, Tom and Ellen are rebuked for perpetrated fornication, and give the excuse that there was no priest at hand. Yet the diriment impediment "lack of form" dates back to no earlier than the Council of Trent, and clandestine marriages were only forbidden by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 . The contemporary practice (as treated, for instance, by St.