It's not so much that the upper classes adopted French after 1066, it's that the upper class was replaced by people that spoke Norman French. If you examine th

It's not so much that the upper classes adopted French after 1066, it's that the upper class was replaced by people that spoke Norman French. If you examine the richest landed gentry in England today a very sizeable number still bare the family names of those that fought for William at the Battle of Hastings.