Most of the evidence suggests that English spread further into Scotland via the burghs, proto-urban institutions which were first established by King David I. Incoming burghers were mainly English (especially from Northumbria and the Earldom of Huntingdon), Flemish and French. Although the military aristocracy employed French and Gaelic, these small urban communities appear to have been using English as something more than a "lingua franca" by the end of the 13th century. The growth in prestige of English in the 14th century, and the complementary decline of French in Scotland's Royal Court, made English the prestige language of most of eastern Scotland.