Page:On the history and use of the suffixes -ery (-ry), -age, and -ment in English.djvu/14

2 in this case. The influx of French words into English in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries grows quite clear to us if we consider the position of the French and English languages in England after the Norman Conquest.

French represented a superior civilization. It was spoken by the ruling classes and was the language of the law-courts and the schools for centuries: a rich literature flourished in Anglo-French, while English had to struggle for its existence as a literary language. Under these circumstances the native population of England could not escape being influenced by French in their speech, even if they had had no wish at all «to imitate their betters»: the romanization of English was carried through with the force of a physical law.

The coalescence of the two languages began in the thirteenth century. King Henry III. had strong French sympathies. During the first fifty years (1216–1265) of his reign England was overcrowded with French fortune-hunters. «Hosts of hungry Poitevins and Bretons were summoned over to occupy the royal castles and fill the judicial and administrative posts about the Court». These men were ignorant and contemptuous of the principles of English government or English law and through their misrule brought down upon them the hatred of the English. The efforts of the barons to put an end to the anarchy were finally crowned with success, and by the so-called Provisions of Oxford (1258) it was agreed amongst other things to drive the foreigners out of the land. Through the issue of the Civil Wars that followed (1258-65) the National Party grew in importance. «The English were despised like dogs, but now they have lifted up their heads and their foes are vanquished», sings a poet of the time.