"but the fact remains that it was primarily an effort by the English-speaking peoples from the British Isles...the English...to take over a very large area of land inhabited mostly by French-speaking peoples...the French"

What a delightful oversimplification of the whole sequence of events - typically American if you don't mind me saying.

As Teribus has said, this was a continuation of a spat between various Norman (actually Vikings themselves) and French factions, all of whom had claims to bits of territory all over the continent. A quick pike around Wikipedia will reveal just how complicated the whole situation was, and how it dominated over 500 years of history in the Isles.

It was the Normans who invaded Ireland and Scotland, gradually subdued the Welsh and kept the English out of their own forests and subject to the feudal system - and of course continued waging war on their relatives over the Channel.

A 1000 years under the Norman Yoke. Huh.

Ivor - how's that for thread drift : )