English Nationalism in 'The Battle of Maldon' and 'The Battle of Brunanburh'

[Jim Webster]

with regard to languages, somewhere I remember reading that after Crecy the Black Prince demanded interpreters for the negotiations with the French on the grounds that whilst both 'English' and 'French' nobles spoke a similar 'conversational' French, the languages had drifted apart for legal agreements.
But at the same time, in Cumbria, they were still carving Norse Runes 

[Erpingham]

I believe "English" French was laughably old fashioned to the French and the English had awful accents. 

[eques]

I have a pet theory that King John's loss of his French lands contributed to the formation of an Engish national consciousness - the country then became more bound up in the identity of its monarch, as opposed to "a collection of holdings"

[RobertGargan]

I would agree that King John helped light the touch paper reinforcing "Englishness", if by default.  It was in his reign that "the Marshall" helped bring forward the Dauphin's departure, back to France, crown the young Henry, and restore the northern borders of the realm.
I detect this "Englishness" in the Norman barons, particularly in the midlands, reluctance to honour commitments to defend Normandy across the channel.
Furthermore, Simon de Montfort, another significant French Englishman, did something in 1265 by inviting the commons to Parliament.  Both the counties and the boroughs were represented and Parliament was concerned with the wider business of the realm.  I'm not so sure that the kings were that interested in England.