Dutch-English History

I was reading something today about where the English language and the Dutch language diverged. There is still a Dutch dialect which is mutually intelligible with an old form of the English language, Old English.

When did they part ways with each other? It can be pinpointed to the Norman Invasion in 1066.

Old English

There was a point in time when the British Isles were oriented northward toward Scandinavia and the Netherlands rather than to the southeast, toward France and the continent. 

North Sea Political Map - ontheworldmap.com

As a result of a lot of trade and cultural exchange, the English language at the time was very close to what they were speaking in what would eventually become the Netherlands. It's why the two languages still share so much in common today. Both places experienced a lot of contact with viking raiders and absorbed their language through raiding and trade. It influenced them both from about the 8th century to the 11th century when the Normans appeared.

Middle English

In the span of this time period the vikings had made their way to France in the 10th century in the form of a viking leader called Rollo. The French king decided that it would be better to absorb them than to keep fighting them. If they started adopting French ways and investing in a French identity, he would have his own vikings to fight for him. He gave them what is now Normandy and endowed them with titles to buy their loyalty. They were called "Normans", which is a French way of saying, "northmen". They were also married to French wives and over time they spoke French and adopted Catholicism. In the 11th century they were all over the place. They took parts of Italy and moved into the Byzantine empire (what remained of the Roman empire in the east) as mercenaries. They were known outside of France as "Franks". 

Bayeaux Tapestry

It was their adoption of Catholicism along with their activity in Asia Minor which led eventually to the crusades. At some point along the way they took their religious conversion to heart and decided that any other religion was false and that non-believers should be converted and if not converted, then killed. They aimed to retake the holy land and although they did hold control over the region for a period of time, it was unsuccessful and lost them their grip on southern Italy while the Byzantine empire fell to the Ottomans. 

Norman Conquest

In the meantime the old viking family ties remained in place in England and a bastard of Norman nobility named William set about making himself king of England because had been named as successor when Edward The Confessor promised him the throne on a visit. Then Edward died childless and the claim of succession was ignored and a king named Harold took the throne instead. William, naturally enough, took offense and decided that he would invade. At the same time there was another claimant to the throne, Harold Hadrada of Norway. Harold of England found himself having to fight a war on two fronts, because Harold Hadrada brought his viking warriors to the north of England and Harold had to take his army there to fight them off. They did so successfully, but as soon as they had they had to march back south again to Hastings in Kent where William was landing his army. The fighting in the north had taken its toll on the English army who were all men who had been called out of the fields when it was harvest time. This created one conflict, which was to hold the men there and let the peasants starve because the grain was rotting in the fields, or to let England be conquered. In the end Harold died on the battlefield at Hastings with an arrow through his eye socket according to legend and accounts in the Bayeaux tapestry. William the Conqueror took the throne. 

Trim Castle County Meath, Ben and Kaz Askins

One of the things William had used as incentive for his men was the promise of land and titles in England. He had to deliver on his promise once he'd conquered and he did. The Normans took over Anglo-Saxon estates and immediately built castles and forts everywhere to display their authority. All official business was done in Norman French and the language changed from Old English to Middle English, the language of Chaucer. 

English was beginning to resemble modern English more, but to some degree it retained the grammatical structure of Dutch. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales were written about 350 years after the Norman Conquest, but the English had had continued contact with the Lowlands in the form of trade, because English wool was in demand in Europe and the biggest trading partner England had for wool was the Low Countries.

To be continued...