Dear All, As you know the Royal Court of England spoke only in French from the 1066 invasion until the late 1700s. In fact, George III (who lost the American colonies) was the first English king to use English as his first language. See http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensoftheUnitedKingdom/TheHanoverians/GeorgeIII.aspx where they write:
He became heir to the throne on the death of his father in 1751, succeeding his grandfather, George II, in 1760. He was the third Hanoverian monarch and the first one to be born in England and to use English as his first language. Naturally the weights and measures the foreign kings and their courts used were derived from the culture they brought with them from France to England. This set included: le pied du Roi (later translated from pied to foot); the French pinte (later translated to pint); and the livre (later translated to pound with the Italian/Latin abbreviation lb. from libra). Even later (1303) the livre was standardised by English traders as the avoir du pois livre that is now known as the avoirdupois pound. As these are the principle measuring words encouraged by the British Weights and Measures Association, maybe that organisation could consider changing their name from the British Weights and Measures Association (BWMA) to the French Weights and Measures Association (FWMA). It seems to me that this would be a more accurate description of their activities. Cheers, Pat Naughtin LCAMS Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
