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Before the [[Norman Conquest]], ''thou'' was governed by a fairly simple rule. It did not differ in usage from ''ye''/''you''; ''thou'' addressed a single person, ''ye'' more than one.
From French, English acquired the habit of addressing [[king]]s and other [[aristocrat]]s in the [[plural]]. Eventually, this was generalised, as in French, to address any social superior or stranger with a plural pronoun, which was felt to be more polite. In French, it came to pass that ''tu'' was intimate, condescending, and to a stranger potentially insulting, while the plural form ''vous'' was reserved and formal. In languages that use pronouns this way, it is called the [[T-V distinction]].
Something of this did appear in English. At the trial of Sir [[Walter Raleigh]], Sir [[Edward Coke]], prosecuting for the Crown, reportedly sought to insult Raleigh by saying,
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