Legal English the history of the development of English as a legal language. In prehistoric Britain, traditional common law was discussed in the vernacular (see Celtic law). The legal language and legal tradition changed with waves of conquerors over the following centuries. Roman Britain (after the conquest beginning in AD 43) followed Roman legal tradition, and its legal language was Latin. Following the Roman departure from Britain circa 410 and the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, the dominant tradition was instead Anglo-Saxon law, which was discussed in the Germanic vernacular (Anglo-Saxon, Old English), and written in Old English since circa 600, beginning with
History of Anglo-Saxon England known as Englishry under Norman rule and through social and cultural integration with Celts, Anglo-Normans and other cultures became the modern English people. Bede completed his book "Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum" (Ecclesiastical History of the English People) in around 731. Thus the term for English people (Latin: "gens Anglorum"; Anglo-Saxon: "Anglecynn") was in use by then to distinguish Germanic groups in Britain from those on the continent (Old Saxony in Northern Germany). The term 'Anglo-Saxon' came in practice in the 8th century (probably by Paul the Deacon) to distinguish English Saxons from continental Saxons (Ealdseaxe, 'old' Saxons). The historian James