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It depends where you were. I'm assuming you're referring to England as you don't specify otherwise. Put simply: in the earlier Middle Ages, they spoke Old English. After the Norman Conquest, they spoke Middle English. After about 1470 and the introduction of the printing press, it's early modern English.

In the early Middle Ages, from the mid-5th century onwards, forms of Old English were the most common language throughout England. It was likely very subject to regional variation. Pockets of other languages remained, especially in remote areas largely uncolonized by Germanic speakers. These are the Celtic languages of Ireland, the Isle of Man, Cornwall, Wales and Scotland, that survive to a degree even today.

Norse dialects were at times common in areas such as the Danelaw, and the north-west of England. This is reflected in Scandinavian elements in place names.

From the Norman Conquest onwards, Old English developed into Middle English. This is more recognizable as English to the modern eye than Old English, and manuscripts in Middle English can be deciphered to a certain extent even by those wholly untrained in palaeography.

Middle English was still subject to regional dialect variation, as there was no uniform spelling or even vocabulary. Caxton (the first printer in England) tells a story of how a merchant asked a farmer's wife for egges, but she couldn't understand her as she called eggs eyren. These dialectal variations help palaeographers determine where manuscripts were written. After Caxton (and later, Pynson) introduced the printing press to England in the mid-to-late 15th century, a more uniform English became the standard. This is known as Chancery Standard. Based on a bureaucratic form used in London, it helped make official documents clearly understandable throughout England. Throughout the entire period, Latin was used by men of the Church and in official and ceremonial proceedings. For example, the Domesday Book was written in Latin, as were great works produced by ecclesiastical historians like the Venerable Bede, Gildas and Nennius.

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