<P> When William the Conqueror led the Norman conquest of England in 1066 , he , his nobles , and many of his followers from Normandy , but also those from northern and western France , spoke a range of langues d'oïl ( northern varieties of Gallo - Romance ) . One of these was Old Norman , also known as `` Old Northern French '' . Other followers spoke varieties of the Picard language or western French . This amalgam developed into the unique insular dialect now known as Anglo - Norman French , which was commonly used for literary and eventually administrative purposes from the 12th until the 15th century . It is difficult to know much about what was actually spoken , as what is known about the dialect is restricted to what was written , but it is clear that Anglo - Norman was , to a large extent , the spoken language of the higher social strata in medieval England . </P>
<P> When William the Conqueror led the Norman conquest of England in 1066 , he , his nobles , and many of his followers from Normandy , but also those from northern and western France , spoke a range of langues d'oïl ( northern varieties of Gallo - Romance ) . One of these was Old Norman , also known as `` Old Northern French '' . Other followers spoke varieties of the Picard language or western French . This amalgam developed into the unique insular dialect now known as Anglo - Norman French , which was commonly used for literary and eventually administrative purposes from the 12th until the 15th century . It is difficult to know much about what was actually spoken , as what is known about the dialect is restricted to what was written , but it is clear that Anglo - Norman was , to a large extent , the spoken language of the higher social strata in medieval England . </P>
when did french stop being the official language of england
when did french stop being the official language of england
the 15th century
the 15th century