French British
| Total population | |
|---|---|
|
French-born residents 137,862 (2011 Census) 150,000 (2013 ONS estimate) French ancestry 3,000,000 (2010 Ancestry.co.uk estimate) |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| London, South East England | |
| Languages | |
| English, French | |
| Religion | |
| Mainly Roman Catholicism and Protestantism; minorities practice other or no faiths |
|
| Related ethnic groups | |
| French people |
French migration to the United Kingdom is a phenomenon that has occurred at various points in history. The Norman Conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066 resulted in the arrival of French aristocracy, while in the 16th and 17th centuries Protestant Huguenots fled religious persecution to East London. Other waves (but less likely to have put down permanent roots) are associated with monasticism, particularly post -conquest Benedictines and Cistercians, aristocracy fleeing the French Revolution, expulsion of religious orders by Third Republic France, and current economic migrants (seeking employment opportunities not necessarily open to their British counterparts in France).
The 2011 UK Census recorded 137,862 French-born people living in the UK. Almost half of these were resident in the capital, London. Many more British people have French ancestry.
French remains the foreign language most learned by Britons. It has traditionally been spoken as a second language by the country's educated classes and its popularity is reinforced by the close geographical proximity between Great Britain and France.
Much of the UK's medieval was descended from Franco-Norman migrants to England at or after the time of the Norman Conquest. Well known families that originated from the Norman Conquest period, include the Grosvenor family whose original name was "Gros Veneur" meaning (in Norman) "great hunter" or "grand hunter". Their legacy can be found throughout much of London with at least five hundred roads, squares and buildings bearing their family names and titles, and the names of place and people connected with them, including Grosvenor Square and Grosvenor House. A large number of British people are also descended from the Huguenots, French Protestants who in the 16th and 17th centuries fled religious persecution in France. Although a substantial French Protestant community existed in London from the sixteenth century, the suppression of Protestantism in France in the 1680s led to a mass migration of predominantly Calvinist refugees, most of whom settled in London. Divided between Spitalfields in the east and Soho in the west, the French Protestant community was one of the largest and most distinctive communities of the capital.
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Wikipedia