[demetrius]

> to dramatize what would otherwise be a dry spelling shift

I don't think that's how it was developed, though. I really doubt there are real-world cases where cwen was scrubbed and queen written above it (correct me if I'm wrong!).

I think it’s more like “people stopped writing English for time being, only learned to write Norman and Latin, so when they needed to write a word or two, they’s use the spelling they knew. Eventually, this spelling because the way of writing English”.

I don’t think a situation with Godwin is plausible.

> I never realized the irony that English avoids > diacritics because of French influence

I'm not sure that's the best way to put it. Old English also generally didn’t use diacritics (modern texts add them: we’d use cwēn instead of cƿen, but these are modern invention).

So, English didn't use diacritics before Normans, and Normans didn't change this.