You Don'T Have To Speak English Well, Or Even At All, To Be a British Monarch

William the First was our last king to come uninvited though invincible armadas have sometimes been sighted. Foreign kings were imported in cases of doubt. Native kings had the habit of getting thrown out. In the War of the Roses none tipped the scales till the fray was joined by young Richmond from Wales. A house like the Tudors for to bring to an end on virgin queens you may safely depend. Then came the Stuarts, who in Scotland had root, but being too tactless, they were given the boot. Though of Orange the house was not without fame, some Irishmen spit when they hear Billy’s name. George the First from Hanover as in matters English ill versed; for affairs of state a state of affairs by no means the worst. George the Third, however, spoke English quite well, so Yanks up in arms told the Liberty Bell. Thus Frenchmen and Dutchmen, Germans and Danes have made their subjects rack their poor brains. But the history of monarchs whose accents were poor holds even today many lessons in store. At the hustings all parties will promise us aught, but after elections some memories are short. “A kink is a man, no less and no more,” said a very wise king as he sat on the shore. “Let each of you here, thane or serf, be astute. Don’t expect me to do what I plainly canute.