London Takes the Lead
The History of the English Language
Course 1 · Chapter 4 · London Takes the Lead
In the 14th century English had no standard: every region wrote as it spoke. By the 15th century a London-based style of writing was spreading through records and letters. This chapter looks at how that happened, what the sources say and where they disagree, and at the English Bible that Church authorities tried to restrict.
Before a standard
Wikipedia's Standard English article traces the background:
- Late West Saxon: the Old English variety promoted after Alfred (Chapter 6 of The Story of Old English) influenced writing elsewhere, but the article calls it more a set of orthographic norms than a standardised dialect.
- After 1066: English writing was shaped by Latin and Anglo-Norman French, and a mixed system of Latin, French and English was common in accounts and records in the 14th and 15th centuries.
- From the 1370s: monolingual English spread, with heavy regional and spelling variation. Later, supralocal varieties emerged that reduced regionally marked features, first in urban areas.
- The change of roles: trade, merchants, lawyers and estate administrators spread writing conventions, and English took over the record-keeping roles previously held by Anglo-Norman. The article dates the abandonment of Anglo-Norman to about 1375 to 1425.
The Black Death and English
Wikipedia's Black Death in England gives the dates: it arrived about June 1348 at Weymouth, reached London by autumn 1348 and covered the country by summer 1349, dying down by December 1349. The article says a death toll of 40 to 60% is widely accepted, with estimates ranging from about 23.6% (Russell) to 62.5% (Benedictow). It says the plague "may have promoted the use of vernacular English" as the number of French-proficient teachers fell, and links this to the late-14th-century flowering of English literature. It says nothing about a change in the official status of English or French. Labour shortages raised wages, and the article lists the resentment as a factor in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. I treat the language link as a possibility, not a proof.
The Chancery Standard
The Chancery Standard article describes an official written English, an administrative script that set a uniform style and directly influenced modern spelling.
| Date | Event (per the article) |
|---|---|
| August 1417 | Henry V begins issuing Signet letters to officials in English |
| about 1430 | The Chancery Standard emerges, used by royal bureaucrats for most official purposes |
| 1470s | Caxton's press helps stabilise English (Chapter 5) |
| 1540s | Early Modern English begins, after the English Bible and Prayer Book spread the new standard |
The article says multilingual clerks, skilled in French and Latin, shaped it by blending London speech with Central East Midland Lollard texts. The Church and the courts initially resisted and kept using Latin and Law French (Chapter 2). It notes that Chancery spellings often kept the letters gh even as the sound was being lost, and that by the 15th century spelling was relatively standardised.
What the other article says
Wikipedia's Standard English article is more cautious. It describes older explanations and what happened to them:
| Theory | Status according to the article |
|---|---|
| East Midlands (Ekwall) | East Midland merchants influencing London; the article says this rested on limited data and unsupported assumptions |
| Central Midlands (Samuels) | London texts classified into Types I to IV; later scholars found the categories poorly defined, and one wrote that "it is time to lay the types to rest" |
| Chancery Standard (Fisher) | Strongly contested; Dodd's work showed most Chancery letters were in Latin |
The page does not identify a single cause. It points to writing conventions spreading through trade and professional networks, to the administrative roles and spelling uniformity taken over from Anglo-Norman, and to the influence of the literate middling classes. It also says the standard has no national academy, that its codification comes from prescriptive consensus, and that its prestige is a social association rather than evidence of linguistic superiority. The Chancery Standard article does not name Samuels, Fisher or Benskin, so I give each article's account separately and do not say one is right.
The English Bible
Wikipedia's Wycliffe's Bible article describes a series of Middle English translations from the Latin Vulgate, appearing roughly between 1382 and 1395, in two textual families: a very literal Early Version (about 1382) and a more idiomatic Later Version (revised around 1388 and 1395).
- Who: tradition credited John Wycliffe, but the article says scholars now doubt his direct role. John Purvey is linked to the Later Version, though that attribution is uncertain, and Nicholas Hereford is named in a manuscript note as the translator of the early part of the Early Version.
- Church response: because of its association with Lollardy the Church moved to restrict vernacular Bibles. The article dates the Oxford Convocation vote to 1407 in the body and 1408 in the lead, and says the Constitution Periculosa took effect between 1407 and 1409. It required bishops' authorisation for new literal translations. Enforcement was inconsistent.
- Why it matters: over 250 manuscripts survive, the largest body of surviving Middle English manuscript literature. Some renderings were adopted by the Rheims New Testament, a basis of the King James Version (Chapter 7). Tyndale's later translation overshadowed it.
Words to know
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Chancery | The royal writing office that produced official documents |
| Standard | A variety treated as the model for writing |
| Supralocal | Spread over a wider area than one place |
| Lollard | A follower of the reforming ideas linked to Wycliffe |
| Vulgate | The Latin Bible that the Middle English versions were translated from |
| Orthography | The spelling system of a language |
✏️ Try It Yourself
Think of the answer first, then click to check.
1. What did Henry V begin doing in 1417?
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Issuing Signet letters to officials in English.
2. About when did the Chancery Standard emerge, according to its article?
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About 1430.
3. What does the Standard English article say about Chancery letters?
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The idea of a Chancery origin was strongly contested; Dodd's work showed most Chancery letters were in Latin.
4. Which language had Anglo-Norman's record-keeping roles passed to by about 1375 to 1425?
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English.
5. What does the Black Death in England article say about the plague and English?
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It "may have promoted the use of vernacular English" as the number of French-proficient teachers fell; it says nothing about an official status change.
6. What are the two versions of Wycliffe's Bible?
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The very literal Early Version (about 1382) and the more idiomatic Later Version (revised about 1388 and 1395).
7. Why do scholars doubt that Wycliffe himself translated it?
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The article says scholars now doubt his direct role; manuscript notes name Hereford for the early part, and Purvey is linked to the Later Version.
8. When did the Standard English article say the standard fully settled?
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Not until the early 19th century.