How did the Statute of Pleading of 1362 affect the use of English in court proceedings?

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Geoffrey Chaucer English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, author of *The Canterbury Tales*.

The Statute of Pleading of 1362 mandated that all court proceedings in England be conducted in the English language, rather than the law French that had previously been used in judicial settings.1

While the statute required that oral proceedings be held in English, it also stipulated that these proceedings were to be "enrolled in Latin," maintaining the use of Latin for official written records. This legislative shift occurred during the lifetime of Geoffrey Chaucer, reflecting the broader transition toward the use of English in various spheres of public and literary life during the Middle Ages.1