After the Norman Conquest in 1066, Norman French and Latin were the dominant written languages in England for over two centuries, although native speakers of Norman French never comprised more than a few percent of the English population, and they shifted increasingly to English over the next few generations. The reassertion of the role of English in public life came gradually after 1250, by which time Norman French as a native language was very much on the decline in England. Nonetheless it was after this period that the bulk of French loans came into English. One turning point in favour of English was in 1362 when Parliament was opened in English for the first time. After this the role of French in England was certainly more as a language of high culture and refinement, for it was no longer a language with a firm speaker base in England, and it was Central French or francien, the dialect of Paris, which had predominated (and which enjoyed prestige) at the expense of Norman French.