Normandy and Anglo-Saxons - The Conquest of Hastings

Four generations had not suffice to blend the hostile blood of the Normans and Anglo-Saxons. The whole race of Saxon princes and nobles had been extirpated or disinherited with fewer no exceptions. All the monarchs of the Norman race had shown the most marked predilection for their Norman subjects. In courts of law, the pleadings and judgments were delivered in the same tongue. French was the language of honor, of chivalry, and even of justice. English was abandoned to the use of rustics and hines who knew no other.