On balance it was probably Henry IV (for the reasons stated below) so it follows that his predecessor Richard II was the last king whose first language was French. Thus you can see 1490 was really the watershed year when Henry VII basically made it clear: ok, everybody, we are all going English.Īlthough Henry V made English the official language of government, there is some debate as to whether it was him or his father, Henry IV, who was the first king to use English as a first language. "Studies in the History of the English Language" by Christoper Cain.
Published only in English, this signaled to the nation that the arcaneĪnglo-French terminology of law would henceforth be transferred Statutes published in parallel French and English with statutes Language when Henry VII in the early 1490s unexpectedly replaced There was still a lot of lingering French among the nobles, but the tide had turned and English became the standard.Īlthough early Tudor policy affirmed English as the land's primary The law courts and universities also switched to English under the Tudors. They made English the language of court and they also began requiring everyone in the kingdom to speak English. After all, you can hardly require people to speak English when the whole court is speaking French! The Tudors changed all this. One of the weird side effects of the court speaking French was that non-English languages like Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Cornish flourished.
They also started passing laws requiring people to speak English. The Tudors married real English women, not French-bred women imported from the continent. The first kings to be more English than French were the Tudors starting with Henry VII. Therefore, I will excerpt the relevant part: Apparently since my previous answer to this same type of question had no upvotes it cannot be used to tag this question as a duplicate.
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