The Plantagenets

For almost 350 years the Plantagenet family held the English throne – longer than any dynasty in English history – and yet its origins were in Anjou in France, French remained the mother tongue of England’s monarchs for 300 years, and only in its family’s final decades did English rather than French become the language the king used in official correspondence.
Furthermore, although the family managed to remain in power for so long, this was not without kings being deposed, ransomed and impr...