I've had to clumsily separate English (as in early modern English >) from Old English (which I've termed Anglo-Saxon here) to try and keep things clear.
I recall a thread here from some time ago discussing how the English first began to edit and copy and read Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, the later umph given to this endeavour by the Tudors trying to emphasise a Christian English identity separate from that of the Catholic church and all that. I can not for the life of me find that thread or the references (there was a book there I wanted to read). Can anyone point me in the right direction?
You might want to stick Middle English (most famously represented by Chaucer) in there somewhere. Another text which might be of interest is Bruce O'Brien's Reversing Babel: Translation Among the English during an Age of Conquest, c.800-c.1200, (Nweark, 2011) although it might be slightly on the esoteric side.