Parlez-vous Law French?

The State Library’s collections never cease to surprise and inform me of the never-before-heard-of historical obscurities.  As I was cataloging some old volumes of laws of Great Britain and Wales, I wondered why are laws of the English king were written in French?  Latin, I could understand the reasoning, but French?  Turns out the language was, in fact, not French, but an entirely separate and now defunct, French language dialect called “Law French.”  Law French, during the time it existed, was primarily only a written language and on the occasions when it was spoken, it was pronounced as if it were English.  These are some of the items in our collection written in this mysterious language of Law French.:

• Les reports des cases argue & adjudge in le temps del' Roy Edward le Second: et auxy memoranda del' Exchequer en temps le Roy Edward le Primer, 1678
• Les reports des cases en ley que furent argues en temps du Roy Edward le Quart: avec les Notations de le tres Reverend Judges Brook & Fitzherbert, 1680
• Les reports del cases en ley que furent argues en le temps de tres haut & puissant princes les Roys, Henry le IV. & Henry le V, 1679
• La premiere part des ans du roy Henry le VI. : or nouvellement perusee, & corigee, avec les marginal' notes et une profitable table annexee a ce, 1679

To discover the origins of this phenomenon, I had to venture back into my history lesson memory banks (with the help of the Encyclopædia Britannica online) to the time of the Norman Conquest of England in the Battle of Hastings in 1066 by William the Conqueror. With William came the introduction of not just a new King of England, but also an entirely new English aristocracy as William’s French countrymen were given English lands and titles (as documented in the Domesday Book—a facsimile of which the State Library also owns).  No longer did the ruling classes in England speak English; they now spoke French, or at least the variant French spoken in Normandy at the time.

The use of French as the everyday spoken language of the upper classes continued during the rule of the House of Plantagenet and would start suffering a major decline during the Hundred Years’ War and England’s eventual loss to France, the rise of English nationalism, and the internal Wars of the Roses. The use of spoken French in legal circles also came to be criticized as elitist and exclusionary to those aspiring to enter the profession.  In 1362 the “Pleading of English Act” made English the official language of all spoken legal proceedings whereas Latin would be the official written language until it was officially changed to English in 1790 by the “Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act.” 

And what became of the language of “Law French"? It remained as part of the academic preparation of English lawyers during the 14th and 15th centuries but ended up becoming increasingly anglicized leading to its eventual decline and ultimate demise.” However, its legacy in the evolution of the English legal lexicon is assured, as familiar terms derived from “Law French” still are used in contemporary legal language today—including the words attorney, jury, bailiff, plaintiff, defendant, and parole.  Bonne chance of having a legal case without these!  

Judy Carlstrom

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