Try hard to remember high school Latin, latinize English words back.
English did not develop from Latin. 1200 AD is only a century and a half after the Norman conquest and it means people are speaking early Middle English which you will have problems with.
or at any rate can read or write
Can you, now? Try reading this :-)
is not a beggar
You will become one once you want to eat.
Getting used to "medieval" scripts is surprisingly easy. I've learned it before (and have mostly forgotten due to not using it) and the script of a specific age can be decrypted in about 30 minutes (faster with practice). Understanding the words is definitely a bigger barrier than being able to read it.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
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