They wrote Magna Carta in Latin, like nearly all legal documents at the time. Old English is incomprehensible to Modern English speakers, for example:
þær mæg nihta gehwæm niðwundor seon, fyr on flode. No þæs frod leofað gumena bearna, þæt þone grund wite;
It was unusual for kings of England to know English. They knew French, Latin, sometimes German and occasionally English. Nearly all kings of that era were bi or trilingual.
þær mæg nihta gehwæm niðwundor seon, fyr on flode. No þæs frod leofað gumena bearna, þæt þone grund wite;
Anglo-Saxon...gotta love it...
is this fro Beowulf?
Sec. 8, for example, begins: Nulla vidua distringatur ad se maritandum, dum voluerit vivere sine marito... (No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long as she prefers to live without a husband...)
For about 200 years after the Norman Conquest, none of the kings of England spoke English, the language of the common people (by then they were speaking what is now called Middle English rather than Anglo-Saxon or Old English). The kings and nobles spoke French.
One legacy of that era is that names of animals in modern English are derived from Anglo-Saxon (a Germanic language) while often the meat from that animal has a name derived from French (reflecting the form of the animal the elite came in contact with):
cow vs. beef
pig vs. pork
calf vs. veal
sheep vs. mutton