The last military occupation of England began in 1066 with the landing of the
Normans from northern France. For the next 300 years the French controlled the lands,
the throne, and the church in England. French was the language of power and prestige, and
the French added hundreds of new words to English.
But French supremacy did not last. The English language was so deeply rooted in the native culture that the common people kept right on using it. The French nobles found that they had to learn English in order to communicate with the English people who worked for them. After a few generations had passed, the upper classes began to think of England as their home, not France. Eventually they had to learn their French from books, and their accents sounded less and less like the French of Paris. By 1400 even the king was speaking English.