Well, I didn't say that. They were Normans and remained so until the Tudors finished off their last descendant Richard III at Bosworth. Actually the British monarchy has never been very English, at least since 1066, with Normans, Welsh Tudors, Scottish Stuarts, German Hanoverians etc. Diana brought almost the first true English blood into that family for centuries. Anyway, as a pedant I will tell you that the Normans landed at Hastings, not Dover.Everyone who sounds French, because they speak French, is not French. Ask any French speaking Canadian or Swiss, or any Swedish speaking Finn.
If a duke living in (arguably) French territory (he was a vassal of the king of France) and speaking (arguably) French crosses the Channel and gets the throne, and the administration continues to speak French, I'll call him and them French, regardless of their "original origin" (normänner or not), and what their subjects were. The change to "English" was gradual, not black and white.
I have this feeling that your interpretation is that they were not (evernever!) French and they became "English" immediately on stepping to the beach of Dover... :-)
Well, I had Finnish friends who were convinced that Finland had never been part of Russia, but a separate archdukedom or something within the Russian empire. Similarly, India was never part of England or the UK, just part of the British Empire.
Perhaps if I suggest that Finland was once part of Russia,
Yes, it was. And before that a part of Sweden. Your point being...? :-)
your response might get Pedants Anonymous to send you an invitation. :-)
By the way, I wonder when this list will get back to something about Unicode, perhaps even answer my questions about Hebrew?
-- Peter Kirk [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://web.onetel.net.uk/~peterkirk/
