I don't think that English changed as much, but I could be wrong. Shakespeare's not hard for a modern English reader, given a decent edition with vocabulary hints in the footnotes. I got through most of it as a sophomore.

I'm pretty sure English changed a lot more than French from the same period.

A good middle point would be Chaucer then who had Middle English vs Beowolf''s Old and Shakespeare's Early Modern. The Canterbury Tales is frequently found in translations now, but that's also due to the lack of spelling standardization until 17th and 18th centuries in addition to just vast vocabulary differences.