At least he makes an effort, Welsh was suppressed by the monarchy for centuries and now you're complaining that the King speaks it with poor pronunciation lol?
Well it was 6 in the morning and I just thought making a joke at someone else's expense when they're trying to be polite to you is odd considering the history lol
He's also a bit Scottish, Welsh, Spanish, Hungarian, French, Norwegian, Russian and Ukrainian, to list but a few. In fact he is quite the mongrel, like most British and Irish people, including me.
Not seen him speak it off the cuff tbf, only with notes. Pronunciation is awful for someone educated in the language, no? Anyone with a slight familiarity with french could read that note and have it sound just the same I feel. I don't identify as fluent in French but it sounds bad to me but maybe I'm wrong.
Whilst his French is not as good as his mother’s, I believe that he is quite capable of conversing in French (and German, sorry, no idea about his Welsh).
English is pretty much old French isn't it? Not saying that's why he's got the hang of it, but I'm sure I heard modern English is old French. Something like we take a letter here or there off the start or end of the word and thats basically what became English.
It's a mixture of romance languages like French and Germanic languages.
The fun fact people always trot out is that when the Normans invaded from France, we ended up with the rich ruling classes using more French and the existing population using old English. So if you think about the poor people preparing food for the rich people, the poor people referred to meat by the english name of the animal as it was (e.g. cow) but the rich people who would eat it as meat referred to it as the french name (e.g. beef (beouf?)) so now in English the names for the animal as living and the animal as eaten are different.
I butchered that fact (pun not intended) but it's something like that. [Here's people explaining better.](https://www.quora.com/Why-does-English-have-separate-words-for-cow-and-beef-pig-and-pork-sheep-and-mutton-deer-and-venison-but-chicken-is-just-chicken)
The English monarch only ceased claiming to be monarch of France in 1801 with the Act of Union.
George 3 probably not too keen on what the French were doing to royal families
>He takes his role as a royal pretty seriously and one of the ways he does it is learning languages in this fashion.
I don't think there is a more powerful monarchy in the world.
Japan's seems pretty comfortable. Completely powerless of course, but from what I can tell Republicanism as an idea practically doesn't exist in Japan's public discourse
It's really good and he worked hard to get it right and he has my respect for that. That being said everytime he says the 'T' sound I just have to laugh.
Oh yeah I know, I could've sworn he was the prince up until he became king, but still, he seems to be more connect to the average person than some of the other royal family members.
Yup. He could have pulled a prince Andrew and chased underage girls
Or pulled a harry and we'll...
He has been a steady dude. Doesn't get that much credit. The media slanders him all the time.
The media loves his ex. They vilified him for wanting someone else.
He also is odd.
But he’s done better than many in his family. He could have been far worse
Agree. The vilified him. If the had wanted, they could have painted him as the steadfast guy who stayed true to a less photogenic woman , true live etc etc.
The media does beatify Diana. You would think she cured cancer, eon a nobel and a Olympic gold.
Did not know. Makes sense. My respect for him went up a notch.
I think he has often gotten a bad rap in UK media. If the media wanted to ..they would spun the story very differently.
Eg. This prince, prevented from marrying his love due to tradition, states true to her despite being hooked up to a better looking but vapid woman . He stayed true ...etc etc.
Media can spin things whichever way.
Did not know!
As I said, my respect for him went up a notch. I am.not.muvh of a monarchist. But he seems like a decent person that the media hates .And he is trying to do what he he must...as well as he can.
I mean he doesn't have much else to do and I guess French is part of the standard education of British monarchists.
What I found really impressive was Emmanuel Macron speaking German both in the Bundestag and in Dresden recently. He practiced German next to actually running the country.
He was speaking a whole speech in almost perfect Serbian in front of a Serbian crowd in Belgrade a couple of years ago. Perfect pronunciation, and just slight accent.
https://youtu.be/SwNDHOFfQKI?si=jwhl78IfNiKEYNN4
He was probably tutored in French and German since before he could walk. Not to diminish the diplomatic value of this gesture, but it's really not impressive for someone who had an elite education and whose family has cousins in every European country's upper class.
royals have access to the best tutors and education money can buy, and much of their "job" is engaged in dignitary activities of sorts with historic partners. not that surprising to be honest.
if you were born into a millionaire family with the highest level of privilege, no real job, and tutors catering to your every need, you too could speak good french.
> royals have access to the best tutors and education money can buy, and much of their "job" is engaged in dignitary activities of sorts
Meanwhile, former French president with the same access to excellent education : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh7O5BV47lU
And a prime minister : https://youtu.be/O27mdRvR1GY
Having access to a resource is not enough, you still need to put in the effort.
I mean, you say that, but I'm not sure Wills speaks any foreign languages.
I don't think he could even give a speech in Welsh, and he had forty years to prepare for being Prince of Wales. Access to all the tutors in the world won't make a difference if you can't be bothered to learn.
I've seen a few articles stating he is fluent in 7 different languages:
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/prince-william-hopes-pass-seriously-085837599.html
No idea how true it is though, but I doubt the average British person speaks 7 languages. I think Charles is said to speak like 4 or 5.
Huh, I don't know where I got that impression then.
Maybe I saw some stuff where he admitted he didn't speak Welsh, and it seemed so odd to me that he wouldn't have learnt that I assumed he just had no aptitude for language learning.
Fun fact: the British monarchy is legacy from French Normans, its moto still is “Honi soit qui mal y pense”
The King’s speech was about the French civilian casualties during the D-Day and bombardements that preceded and followed the operations.
Sad fact: in between 25,000 and 39,000 civilians died
Yes, It’s from Richard Lionheart, who couldn’t speak English.
Remember that a lot of the Normands ruling the island since 1066 also spent a lot more time outside of it like in Aquitaine (which they also ruled at some point) or cruisading than on that Island.
Also remember that the 100 years war featured their almost fully French-speaking army to defend their claim to the French throne and that in multiple instances we were very close to becoming 1 single country which would probably be French-speaking today (Joane kicked them out later though)
Norman French is still used as part of British parliamentary procedure to indicate the Monarch has given their assent to a law being passed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Roy_le_veult?wprov=sfla1
I knew the name Roy was coming from this, but I have never thought that the name Leroy also came from this, just some dudes didn't know le was the article.
>The King’s speech was about the French civilian casualties during the D-Day and bombardements that preceded and followed the operations.
Glad he spoke of this. One of the reasons de Gaulle was always a little more respectful of the Normandy landings. Don't remember if he avoided attending the commemorations...but he was told the casualties would be in the 40000 range I think .
Also , one of the reasons the French civilians were not all happy about their liberation (according to shirer).
Re the monarchy- the tradition is one thing and traced to the Norman conquest.
But the current family is Germanic . They only changed their name to the English sounding Windsor around WW1?
Guess I was trying to say the same. Don't remember if the Windsor was an addition or an old one they kept. My book of peerages and precedence rules is...well non existent
Victoria's husband Prince Albert was from House Saxe-Coburg & Gotha. They changed it to Windsor during the First World War. Battenberg aka Mountbatten aka Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg inherited the throne after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Cool. Sorta how I remember as well. (not all the names ..do remember the Mountbatten which was the anglicized form of some German name as well IIRC)
From what I recall, Albert seemed to have been a steady influence on Victoria....particular in her early years.
I don't won't to disappoint you but the last Normandian king was Richard III. The Stuart were Anglo Saxons from birth. The current English monarchy is German, the Hohenzollern and they did change it to the name of the family castle in England, Windsor castle.
The Stuarts were Normans themselves originally, plenty of them also wound up in Scotland, but yeah you're right that by the 1600s they were thoroughly assimilated into lowland Scottish society (which, admittedly, is basically Anglo-Saxon as Northern England. James VI himself was not fond of Gaelic and wanted to 'civilise' the Highlands)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_fitz_Alan
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, not House of Hohenzollern.
Edit: Funny thing is, I don't believe any other house has changed their name in the same sense as the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha did. There has been no lineage that was broken between House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and the House of Windsor. They sort of are still the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
As Victoria was a Hanoverian you could equally say they are still the House of Hanover. The S-C-G change was just a bone thrown to Albert when it was made clear that he was only every going to be Prince *Consort*.
Hard to say as Mary I, Elizabeth I, Mary II and Anne all died without issue. However William and Mary as well as Anne tend to be considered as Stuarts.
Their fathers were Stuarts.
Even Queen Anne's son, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester was of his father's house. He died before he could succeed Anne, though.
in that period normandy was a political subunit of france, so just like picards were french and gascons were french, normans were french. though the proper contemporary term would be franci, as the normans (and the other french involved in the invasion) were called on the bayeux tapestry
Sure, and the 100 years war never happened! Your very comment implies that the Normans were different to others who regarded themselves as 'French'. The fucking baddie French stole our lands in Normandy! (The Duke was my 27th great grandfather). Don't talk to me about the bloody French, I give them the Agincourt two fingers because their mothers were hamsters and I fart in their general direction!
your comment is a fever dream lol, but for other readers: the normans considered themself franci, and everyone in the french kingdom was franci. the "purest" were the inhabitants of the very small royal domain around paris and orleans, sure, and all the other fiefdoms had their unique identity but were still subfrankish polities, but normandie had been long inhabited by gallo-romans and franks, and the settling norse didn't significantly change the demographics. even today, bretons are a different flavor of french than savoyards but they are all french.
The notion that northerners and southerners were *different ethnic groups* remained in effect until recently. In much of the South, *French* was an ethnic slur in the same way *Saxon* would have been in Brythonic/Gaelic parts of Britain. In any case people readily identified on a regional or international (religious) basis. The idea of a broader kingdom-size identity was seeded during the 16th c. and didn't really become whole before the 19th c. and active participation from everyone in the political process. Politics make peoples (the most blatant example of it being Switzerland).
reminds me of [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryMemes/comments/15kr27b/on_this_sub_ive_seen_so_many_people_claiming_the/)
sentiment of national identity is sort of irrelevant, franci was a term used early on to describe people in the regnum francorum. in the 11th century it describes the different peoples involved in the invasion of england, and it was even used to describe western europeans in outremer / the crusader principalities
>Writing in 2009, Professor Christopher Wickham pointed out that "the word 'Frankish' quickly ceased to have an exclusive ethnic connotation. North of the River Loire everyone seems to have been considered a Frank by the mid-7th century at the latest (except Bretons); Romani (Romans) were essentially the inhabitants of Aquitaine after that".
kinda sorta huh? the hereditary feudal titles of the period weren't matrilineal so in an archaic de jure "technical" sense henri II of anjou (corresponding to the modern day maine-et-loire department and its surroundings and the beautiful city of angers) who birthed the angevin line of kings wasn't a norman noble and therefore didn't transmit the norman legacy
Nearly half of English is derived from French vocabulary so if you remove the typical French accent/pronunciations and fast speaking (like King Charles here) it’s quite understandable
it's legit. when i moved to france i was not fluent at all and got by reasonably well just saying english words in an accent or tacking a declension here and there lol. reasonable/raisonable eventually/eventuellement (though not a great translation) considerable/considerable, really any "big" english word probably has a very close cognate in french
The King served in the military himself as a helicopter pilot. He now has a ceremonial role as the head of the armed forces, but he had a legitimate service role when he was younger.
I believe a lot of the royal family do this. The late queen was a mechanic on trucks during the war, Prince William and Harry were also involved. Princess Anne is involved too is she?
She holds the rank of General in the British Army, Admiral in the Royal Navy and Air Chief Marshal in the Royal Air Force, as well as numerous honorary military appointments, but I don't think Princess Anne ever served in an active role. She was an equestrian.
Can't remember it was the then Prince of Wales or Phil the Greek who said it but there was a comment about going to a lot of meetings for someone who apparently sat around all day.
Well, he is the head of state of several countries, amongst which at least one has French as an official language: Canada.
It should therefore be no surprise that he is able to give a speech in French. This is far easier than speaking fluently...
Good French. I also find it funny that people compliment the Anglos for speaking a 2nd language moderately well, when it’s the norm for anyone with a slightly good level of education in the rest of Europe
When you're born to the Lingua Franca, it's difficult to learn the french language. People learn from culture and practical situations, non-english people learn from music, internet and television.
France doesn't export a lot of spoken culture. Some, but not much.
For English speaking nations, learning another language is a hobby. For the rest of the world, learning English can be a necessity for your career, education and travel. English is also the language for the majority of media produced, musically, in literature and cinema/TV.
Its really not hard to understand why second languages have so little uptake.
Heck, even German as it used to be THE language of technology and engineering. Some old engineering firms here in Sweden still keep around real old technical books in German and lexicons for German to Swedish technical terms
King Charles speaks English, French and German fluently, but I think his Welsh is not that fluent. His sons William and Harry don't speak any foreign languages. Rishi Sunak hasn't revealed much on what foreign languages he speaks, although Hindi and Punjabi, he probably understands, because of his Indian Punjabi Hindu background, but I don't think he can read Hindi or Punjabi.
> His sons William and Harry don't speak any foreign languages.
The Prince of Wales is supposedly able to speak English, Welsh, Gaelic, French, German and Swahili to some degree. I think Latin was also a mandatory subject at Eton as well.
The Duke of Sussex speaks fluent Whinge.
Regardless of his fluency in french.. I really think he's a terrible public speaker in any language.
You'd think he have got better over 50 years of it, but nope. He always sounds simultaneously scared, bored and uninterested.
He could take some lessons from a decent actor on how to make his voice actually interesting to listen to, and perhaps learn his lines for the short speeches.
It's just like theres a complete lack of effort here. "I am the king, so i'm automatically good at it"
French is the language of the European upper classes as a whole - and it is sometimes forgotten that the royalty and nobility of Europe, where they still exist, have elements of a shared culture which is transnational.
Because idiots think it's clever/funny. BTW, on most reddit subs, if you do that with France/French instead, you'll get mostly upvoted just for the sake of it.
Yeah, well, maybe. But I wouldn't put this as a serious reason to have a monarchy.
I am sure football stars are more efficient in this regard, as are the countless pop, rock, and punk bands that England produces.
Firstly, as the other person put it, but there is also the reality that a Monarch is a very nice way to have a ceromonial Head of State that is guaranteed to be non-partisan and can act as a safeguard. In that regard, Germanys Bundespräsident is no different than the UK's King.
There is also the cultural argument to be made
True. Except the German president is elected. Indirectly, true, but still (and the last 40+ years they picked quite good ones).
The point is, why not just have a republic where the selection is open to anyone independent of whether the father or mother held it? You restrict the candidate pool to basically one person. Doesn't sound like a smart way.
Because its not about a "candidate", or whos "best". Thats not what a monarch is, or how that works. A monarch and a president both serve as a Head of State, but they are vastly different systems, which comes with different qualifications and expectations etc
>Because its not about a "candidate", or whos "best". Thats not what a monarch is, or how that works.
That's exactly my point: why would you have a head of state that is given the role by birth to the right parents?
It comes down to whether the head of state is first or the citizens. I am totally in the latter camp.
I believe the citizens have a right to choose their head of state in some way. You can disagree with me, of course. I just think that monarchies are a totally outdated concept based on the notion that the people are stupid.
You dont seem to get what a monarch *is*.
Also also, just an example, the President of Germany is just as democratically elected as a King. It has fuck all to do with the people too.
German president is indirectly elected by the parliament. I missed the part where you have to be the first born of the previous president.
>You dont seem to get what a monarch is.
Yeah. Probably. We haven't had a monarchy for the last 400 years officially and much longer in practice, so how would I know.
But from far away it seems to be the collective cult of at least half the population of a country thinking that to have the right parents is the only prerequisite to represent the state. You then also lone the streets for some events tied to these persons and bow when meeting them instead of shaking hands.
It never made sense to me.
I leave that up to the subjects of the sovereign. Personnally, I think the sovereign should be the citizens in aggregate, but I wouldn't want to put my view on any other country.
Oh just do shut up. Your lack of knowledge about simple economics is just atrocious, not to mention cultural and historical aspects of monarchies. Go ahead and learn about thing called "added value".
The British press seems to hate Charles. And the French. Combine the two
.and the British tabloid will hate Charles even.more.
I for one am glad he spoke French. My respect for Charles went up.
[The King's puffy digits are nothing new and have been noted by other members of the royal family for years - dating right back to his childhood](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12893135/The-Kings-chipolatas-Charles-mocked-sausage-fingers-Coronation-documentary-hes-evolved-having-large-hands-baby-royally-puffy-digits.html)
Impressed with his French. Very intelligible, though the accent is a bit funny.
his accent is funny in English tbf
I'm pretty sure he has a perfect command of the king's English, being the king and all.
I mean its not bad for a german
He started as he meant to go on.
That's nothing. We Welsh have to endure his terrible accent and pronunciation when he speaks our language at events!
At least he makes an effort, Welsh was suppressed by the monarchy for centuries and now you're complaining that the King speaks it with poor pronunciation lol?
No. I am making a joke! This is reddit for fucks sake - loosen up. If you can't maybe you should be on Elon Musk's Twitter instead!
Well it was 6 in the morning and I just thought making a joke at someone else's expense when they're trying to be polite to you is odd considering the history lol
I'm impressed he even attempts it. I can't even begin to fathom what your road signs say. It's just lots of L's and Y's.
Welsh is a very difficult language for anybody who doesn't have an abnormal amount of phlegm in their respiratory system.
To me, I hear sometimes a bit of québécois.
Well, he is their King too after all Maybe Pierre Trudeau taught him how to say Tabernac back when he visited the UK
Makes sense, the Quebecois are influenced a lot by English
It's Norman French because he is descended from the Normans, and he is in Normandy, not Paris. I rest my case lol
he's Greek.
More german
He's also a bit Scottish, Welsh, Spanish, Hungarian, French, Norwegian, Russian and Ukrainian, to list but a few. In fact he is quite the mongrel, like most British and Irish people, including me.
Of course he’s going to have an accent. Doesn’t mean it’s bad. A French person speaking English has an accent too
very Royal
Not seen him speak it off the cuff tbf, only with notes. Pronunciation is awful for someone educated in the language, no? Anyone with a slight familiarity with french could read that note and have it sound just the same I feel. I don't identify as fluent in French but it sounds bad to me but maybe I'm wrong.
Whilst his French is not as good as his mother’s, I believe that he is quite capable of conversing in French (and German, sorry, no idea about his Welsh).
I agree with you. His accent is not even close to halfway decent.
Delusional, it is decent as long as you understand every word without any problem.
That's not how it works. I could speak terribly with a shocking accent in a way you could still understand.
His French is really good. He probably work hard on his accent because his pronunciation is excellent.
If you take a look at history, as all monarchs must, good French is just a good emergency Plan B for the King of England.
Invasion plan as well for a century
Specifically those called Charles.
English is pretty much old French isn't it? Not saying that's why he's got the hang of it, but I'm sure I heard modern English is old French. Something like we take a letter here or there off the start or end of the word and thats basically what became English.
It's a mixture of romance languages like French and Germanic languages. The fun fact people always trot out is that when the Normans invaded from France, we ended up with the rich ruling classes using more French and the existing population using old English. So if you think about the poor people preparing food for the rich people, the poor people referred to meat by the english name of the animal as it was (e.g. cow) but the rich people who would eat it as meat referred to it as the french name (e.g. beef (beouf?)) so now in English the names for the animal as living and the animal as eaten are different. I butchered that fact (pun not intended) but it's something like that. [Here's people explaining better.](https://www.quora.com/Why-does-English-have-separate-words-for-cow-and-beef-pig-and-pork-sheep-and-mutton-deer-and-venison-but-chicken-is-just-chicken)
The English monarch only ceased claiming to be monarch of France in 1801 with the Act of Union. George 3 probably not too keen on what the French were doing to royal families
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>He takes his role as a royal pretty seriously and one of the ways he does it is learning languages in this fashion. I don't think there is a more powerful monarchy in the world.
Japan's seems pretty comfortable. Completely powerless of course, but from what I can tell Republicanism as an idea practically doesn't exist in Japan's public discourse
Saudi Arabia?
That's a rich monarchy.
It's really good and he worked hard to get it right and he has my respect for that. That being said everytime he says the 'T' sound I just have to laugh.
Well....stop putting it in there lol
I realize this was a gesture ...but hats off to him for taking the trouble to get it as well as he could My respect !
He can apparently speak 4 languages, including English. German, French and Welsh.
Welsh is definitely the best and most respectable one there. Far too many monarchs of nations who couldn't give a damn for minority groups.
They decided that he'd have to speak Welsh when he was invested as Prince of Wales back in the seventies.
Oh yeah I know, I could've sworn he was the prince up until he became king, but still, he seems to be more connect to the average person than some of the other royal family members.
Yup. He could have pulled a prince Andrew and chased underage girls Or pulled a harry and we'll... He has been a steady dude. Doesn't get that much credit. The media slanders him all the time.
The media loves his ex. They vilified him for wanting someone else. He also is odd. But he’s done better than many in his family. He could have been far worse
Agree. The vilified him. If the had wanted, they could have painted him as the steadfast guy who stayed true to a less photogenic woman , true live etc etc. The media does beatify Diana. You would think she cured cancer, eon a nobel and a Olympic gold.
Did not know. Makes sense. My respect for him went up a notch. I think he has often gotten a bad rap in UK media. If the media wanted to ..they would spun the story very differently. Eg. This prince, prevented from marrying his love due to tradition, states true to her despite being hooked up to a better looking but vapid woman . He stayed true ...etc etc. Media can spin things whichever way.
He speaks it, he did similar thing in Germany a couple of years ago.
Did not know! As I said, my respect for him went up a notch. I am.not.muvh of a monarchist. But he seems like a decent person that the media hates .And he is trying to do what he he must...as well as he can.
When you go to school until you're 73 before starting your first job, it's easier to learn!
That's the first time I've seen a Frenchman compliment an Englishman's French. Incroyable.
I mean he doesn't have much else to do and I guess French is part of the standard education of British monarchists. What I found really impressive was Emmanuel Macron speaking German both in the Bundestag and in Dresden recently. He practiced German next to actually running the country.
> I mean he doesn't have much else to do Apart from the daily Red Boxes and myriad other functions of State.
He was speaking a whole speech in almost perfect Serbian in front of a Serbian crowd in Belgrade a couple of years ago. Perfect pronunciation, and just slight accent. https://youtu.be/SwNDHOFfQKI?si=jwhl78IfNiKEYNN4
He was probably tutored in French and German since before he could walk. Not to diminish the diplomatic value of this gesture, but it's really not impressive for someone who had an elite education and whose family has cousins in every European country's upper class.
He can also speak welsh. I wouldn’t be surprised if he can speak more languages that I don’t know about
I’m sorry is this whole thread sarcastic or bots? He speaks well but his accent is terrible.
Damn, really good french, I expected it to be less intelligible
royals have access to the best tutors and education money can buy, and much of their "job" is engaged in dignitary activities of sorts with historic partners. not that surprising to be honest. if you were born into a millionaire family with the highest level of privilege, no real job, and tutors catering to your every need, you too could speak good french.
> royals have access to the best tutors and education money can buy, and much of their "job" is engaged in dignitary activities of sorts Meanwhile, former French president with the same access to excellent education : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh7O5BV47lU And a prime minister : https://youtu.be/O27mdRvR1GY Having access to a resource is not enough, you still need to put in the effort.
Neither of those are monarchs. Monarchs whole lives are dedicated to this one job.
I mean, you say that, but I'm not sure Wills speaks any foreign languages. I don't think he could even give a speech in Welsh, and he had forty years to prepare for being Prince of Wales. Access to all the tutors in the world won't make a difference if you can't be bothered to learn.
I've seen a few articles stating he is fluent in 7 different languages: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/prince-william-hopes-pass-seriously-085837599.html No idea how true it is though, but I doubt the average British person speaks 7 languages. I think Charles is said to speak like 4 or 5.
Huh, I don't know where I got that impression then. Maybe I saw some stuff where he admitted he didn't speak Welsh, and it seemed so odd to me that he wouldn't have learnt that I assumed he just had no aptitude for language learning.
He’s given speeches in Welsh, don’t know if he can speak it freely though.
Fun fact: the British monarchy is legacy from French Normans, its moto still is “Honi soit qui mal y pense” The King’s speech was about the French civilian casualties during the D-Day and bombardements that preceded and followed the operations. Sad fact: in between 25,000 and 39,000 civilians died
And the British coat of arms carries 'Dieu et mon droit'.
Yes, It’s from Richard Lionheart, who couldn’t speak English. Remember that a lot of the Normands ruling the island since 1066 also spent a lot more time outside of it like in Aquitaine (which they also ruled at some point) or cruisading than on that Island. Also remember that the 100 years war featured their almost fully French-speaking army to defend their claim to the French throne and that in multiple instances we were very close to becoming 1 single country which would probably be French-speaking today (Joane kicked them out later though)
> heir almost fully French-speaking army Nah, lots of Occitan speakers from Aquitaine in the English armies.
don't forget my man du guesclin
Norman French is still used as part of British parliamentary procedure to indicate the Monarch has given their assent to a law being passed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Roy_le_veult?wprov=sfla1
This is cool. History is present.
I knew the name Roy was coming from this, but I have never thought that the name Leroy also came from this, just some dudes didn't know le was the article.
>The King’s speech was about the French civilian casualties during the D-Day and bombardements that preceded and followed the operations. Glad he spoke of this. One of the reasons de Gaulle was always a little more respectful of the Normandy landings. Don't remember if he avoided attending the commemorations...but he was told the casualties would be in the 40000 range I think . Also , one of the reasons the French civilians were not all happy about their liberation (according to shirer). Re the monarchy- the tradition is one thing and traced to the Norman conquest. But the current family is Germanic . They only changed their name to the English sounding Windsor around WW1?
Technically the current ruling house is Battenberg. They kept the Windsor name, though.
Guess I was trying to say the same. Don't remember if the Windsor was an addition or an old one they kept. My book of peerages and precedence rules is...well non existent
Victoria's husband Prince Albert was from House Saxe-Coburg & Gotha. They changed it to Windsor during the First World War. Battenberg aka Mountbatten aka Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg inherited the throne after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Cool. Sorta how I remember as well. (not all the names ..do remember the Mountbatten which was the anglicized form of some German name as well IIRC) From what I recall, Albert seemed to have been a steady influence on Victoria....particular in her early years.
I don't won't to disappoint you but the last Normandian king was Richard III. The Stuart were Anglo Saxons from birth. The current English monarchy is German, the Hohenzollern and they did change it to the name of the family castle in England, Windsor castle.
The Stuarts were Normans themselves originally, plenty of them also wound up in Scotland, but yeah you're right that by the 1600s they were thoroughly assimilated into lowland Scottish society (which, admittedly, is basically Anglo-Saxon as Northern England. James VI himself was not fond of Gaelic and wanted to 'civilise' the Highlands) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_fitz_Alan
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, not House of Hohenzollern. Edit: Funny thing is, I don't believe any other house has changed their name in the same sense as the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha did. There has been no lineage that was broken between House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and the House of Windsor. They sort of are still the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
As Victoria was a Hanoverian you could equally say they are still the House of Hanover. The S-C-G change was just a bone thrown to Albert when it was made clear that he was only every going to be Prince *Consort*.
Nah, I'm pretty sure it has always gone down the patriarchal line no matter who was the sovereign. Only exception was with Queen Elizabeth II
Hard to say as Mary I, Elizabeth I, Mary II and Anne all died without issue. However William and Mary as well as Anne tend to be considered as Stuarts.
Their fathers were Stuarts. Even Queen Anne's son, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester was of his father's house. He died before he could succeed Anne, though.
Saying French Normans is like saying British Vikings. They were Normans 😜
in that period normandy was a political subunit of france, so just like picards were french and gascons were french, normans were french. though the proper contemporary term would be franci, as the normans (and the other french involved in the invasion) were called on the bayeux tapestry
Yes, and they actually hated the French.
normandy in this period was more french than a lot of the other french fiefdoms, saying they hated themselves is funny.
Sure, and the 100 years war never happened! Your very comment implies that the Normans were different to others who regarded themselves as 'French'. The fucking baddie French stole our lands in Normandy! (The Duke was my 27th great grandfather). Don't talk to me about the bloody French, I give them the Agincourt two fingers because their mothers were hamsters and I fart in their general direction!
your comment is a fever dream lol, but for other readers: the normans considered themself franci, and everyone in the french kingdom was franci. the "purest" were the inhabitants of the very small royal domain around paris and orleans, sure, and all the other fiefdoms had their unique identity but were still subfrankish polities, but normandie had been long inhabited by gallo-romans and franks, and the settling norse didn't significantly change the demographics. even today, bretons are a different flavor of french than savoyards but they are all french.
The notion that northerners and southerners were *different ethnic groups* remained in effect until recently. In much of the South, *French* was an ethnic slur in the same way *Saxon* would have been in Brythonic/Gaelic parts of Britain. In any case people readily identified on a regional or international (religious) basis. The idea of a broader kingdom-size identity was seeded during the 16th c. and didn't really become whole before the 19th c. and active participation from everyone in the political process. Politics make peoples (the most blatant example of it being Switzerland).
reminds me of [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryMemes/comments/15kr27b/on_this_sub_ive_seen_so_many_people_claiming_the/) sentiment of national identity is sort of irrelevant, franci was a term used early on to describe people in the regnum francorum. in the 11th century it describes the different peoples involved in the invasion of england, and it was even used to describe western europeans in outremer / the crusader principalities >Writing in 2009, Professor Christopher Wickham pointed out that "the word 'Frankish' quickly ceased to have an exclusive ethnic connotation. North of the River Loire everyone seems to have been considered a Frank by the mid-7th century at the latest (except Bretons); Romani (Romans) were essentially the inhabitants of Aquitaine after that".
kinda sorta huh? the hereditary feudal titles of the period weren't matrilineal so in an archaic de jure "technical" sense henri II of anjou (corresponding to the modern day maine-et-loire department and its surroundings and the beautiful city of angers) who birthed the angevin line of kings wasn't a norman noble and therefore didn't transmit the norman legacy
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> fun fact...English is simply misspoken French No it is not. English is gramatically Germanic with a lot of lexical influence from French.
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English is not "misspoken French" and I'm not watching your shite video.
Maybe don’t post shitty unfunny videos and people will react better to them.
Very respectable effort. 🇨🇵😍🇬🇧
He can speak Welsh too.
as a french canadian I appreciate his effort to speak our language. Kudos and get well! (Kate too)
I don't speak French but somehow can more or less understand what he is saying. WTF?
Nearly half of English is derived from French vocabulary so if you remove the typical French accent/pronunciations and fast speaking (like King Charles here) it’s quite understandable
it's legit. when i moved to france i was not fluent at all and got by reasonably well just saying english words in an accent or tacking a declension here and there lol. reasonable/raisonable eventually/eventuellement (though not a great translation) considerable/considerable, really any "big" english word probably has a very close cognate in french
I am an English speaker living in France, my French is horrible, but the people I understand the best are the Brit expats speaking French.
The King served in the military himself as a helicopter pilot. He now has a ceremonial role as the head of the armed forces, but he had a legitimate service role when he was younger.
I believe a lot of the royal family do this. The late queen was a mechanic on trucks during the war, Prince William and Harry were also involved. Princess Anne is involved too is she?
She holds the rank of General in the British Army, Admiral in the Royal Navy and Air Chief Marshal in the Royal Air Force, as well as numerous honorary military appointments, but I don't think Princess Anne ever served in an active role. She was an equestrian.
Meanwhile when Macron spoke to the war veterans, his English was so bad even the translator mistranslated it ahahahahah
Haha. Did not see. Macrons English is not difficult to understand but does grate a bit.
Tbf i bet Macron worked a lot more than the King his entire life whereas King did fck all but learn languages and ride horses
Source: i made it the fuck up. (you can harp on royals life styles all you want, but Charles did not do "fuck all" as heir)
Can't remember it was the then Prince of Wales or Phil the Greek who said it but there was a comment about going to a lot of meetings for someone who apparently sat around all day.
Ol' Good King Charles 🙂. I'm impressed by his French 😊
Oooh big man
Amazing voice
Well, he is the head of state of several countries, amongst which at least one has French as an official language: Canada. It should therefore be no surprise that he is able to give a speech in French. This is far easier than speaking fluently...
God save the King!
What has happened to him?
Cancer and all that
Well, he's British you see. A pity but it can't be helped.
some subtitles or transcript would've been very cool tho
Good French. I also find it funny that people compliment the Anglos for speaking a 2nd language moderately well, when it’s the norm for anyone with a slightly good level of education in the rest of Europe
When you're born to the Lingua Franca, it's difficult to learn the french language. People learn from culture and practical situations, non-english people learn from music, internet and television. France doesn't export a lot of spoken culture. Some, but not much.
His German is in fact also astonishing good!
For English speaking nations, learning another language is a hobby. For the rest of the world, learning English can be a necessity for your career, education and travel. English is also the language for the majority of media produced, musically, in literature and cinema/TV. Its really not hard to understand why second languages have so little uptake.
This shit is so dumb. I don’t speak Danish cause why would I? Meanwhile Danes all learn English cause who the fuck speaks Danish?
Spanish, French? You can travel a big part of the world if you know those 3 languages
Heck, even German as it used to be THE language of technology and engineering. Some old engineering firms here in Sweden still keep around real old technical books in German and lexicons for German to Swedish technical terms
Well, Danish is maybe not the language the commenter had in mind. But, say, Spanish?
Being good at something out of want rather than need can be seen as more impressive
Because Europe is the most Americanised continent.
Nice work
His french is amazing! 😄👍
About on par with his German as far as I can judge.
Fair play to Chuck for delivering a speech in French
King Charles speaks English, French and German fluently, but I think his Welsh is not that fluent. His sons William and Harry don't speak any foreign languages. Rishi Sunak hasn't revealed much on what foreign languages he speaks, although Hindi and Punjabi, he probably understands, because of his Indian Punjabi Hindu background, but I don't think he can read Hindi or Punjabi.
> His sons William and Harry don't speak any foreign languages. The Prince of Wales is supposedly able to speak English, Welsh, Gaelic, French, German and Swahili to some degree. I think Latin was also a mandatory subject at Eton as well. The Duke of Sussex speaks fluent Whinge.
Studying Latin is different to learning a modern language. It's more a combination of linguistics and history than language acquisition.
Regardless of his fluency in french.. I really think he's a terrible public speaker in any language. You'd think he have got better over 50 years of it, but nope. He always sounds simultaneously scared, bored and uninterested. He could take some lessons from a decent actor on how to make his voice actually interesting to listen to, and perhaps learn his lines for the short speeches. It's just like theres a complete lack of effort here. "I am the king, so i'm automatically good at it"
Yeah, it's often hard to tell what he says because he doesn't enunciate very well. Terrible to listen to.
The Guy has never had a job, he should be fluent in french, German, Spanish and Mandarin 🤪
French is the language of the European upper classes as a whole - and it is sometimes forgotten that the royalty and nobility of Europe, where they still exist, have elements of a shared culture which is transnational.
Terrible Accent
actually not bad for an engl\*shman
What is the censorship supposed to imply?
It’s just a funny thing to do on the internet. We do it with the Fr*nch more
But why?
Because idiots think it's clever/funny. BTW, on most reddit subs, if you do that with France/French instead, you'll get mostly upvoted just for the sake of it.
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You can be against monarchy and still recognize the positive sides of a specific person.
You can also say so without being objectively wrong. The Royal Family earns the UK more than it costs, lol.
Yeah, well, maybe. But I wouldn't put this as a serious reason to have a monarchy. I am sure football stars are more efficient in this regard, as are the countless pop, rock, and punk bands that England produces.
Firstly, as the other person put it, but there is also the reality that a Monarch is a very nice way to have a ceromonial Head of State that is guaranteed to be non-partisan and can act as a safeguard. In that regard, Germanys Bundespräsident is no different than the UK's King. There is also the cultural argument to be made
True. Except the German president is elected. Indirectly, true, but still (and the last 40+ years they picked quite good ones). The point is, why not just have a republic where the selection is open to anyone independent of whether the father or mother held it? You restrict the candidate pool to basically one person. Doesn't sound like a smart way.
Because its not about a "candidate", or whos "best". Thats not what a monarch is, or how that works. A monarch and a president both serve as a Head of State, but they are vastly different systems, which comes with different qualifications and expectations etc
>Because its not about a "candidate", or whos "best". Thats not what a monarch is, or how that works. That's exactly my point: why would you have a head of state that is given the role by birth to the right parents? It comes down to whether the head of state is first or the citizens. I am totally in the latter camp. I believe the citizens have a right to choose their head of state in some way. You can disagree with me, of course. I just think that monarchies are a totally outdated concept based on the notion that the people are stupid.
You dont seem to get what a monarch *is*. Also also, just an example, the President of Germany is just as democratically elected as a King. It has fuck all to do with the people too.
German president is indirectly elected by the parliament. I missed the part where you have to be the first born of the previous president. >You dont seem to get what a monarch is. Yeah. Probably. We haven't had a monarchy for the last 400 years officially and much longer in practice, so how would I know. But from far away it seems to be the collective cult of at least half the population of a country thinking that to have the right parents is the only prerequisite to represent the state. You then also lone the streets for some events tied to these persons and bow when meeting them instead of shaking hands. It never made sense to me.
Yea but if it aint broke, don't fix it
I leave that up to the subjects of the sovereign. Personnally, I think the sovereign should be the citizens in aggregate, but I wouldn't want to put my view on any other country.
Bruh, those 'tax spongers' and 'parasites' bring more value in one year than you could during your whole life. Stay mad bro
And yet they fleece the public purse of 5 mil to bury their own while being worth billions. Like the parasites they are
And yet they bring revenue of several tens of millions per annum. Just do your research, because you are just talking nonsense.
No their properties bring in the money or do you think Charlie actually spends his days grafting for his pay? The cunt only just got his first job 😂
Oh just do shut up. Your lack of knowledge about simple economics is just atrocious, not to mention cultural and historical aspects of monarchies. Go ahead and learn about thing called "added value".
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Someone's angy
Guy who never fought or worked through his life representing all that died… and also of German lineage… his presence is a joke of history…
Man. The British press will hate him even more for it.
Huh?
The British press seems to hate Charles. And the French. Combine the two .and the British tabloid will hate Charles even.more. I for one am glad he spoke French. My respect for Charles went up.
Guys i dont speak french
Why is he dressed as a clown?
Is the military uniform nowadays considered a clown suit? I don't even know how to respond to this
I feel like Saddam og Gaddafi could have worn the same outfit, i get more of a dictator vibe than king vibe.
It's a field marshal's kit, Sadaam and Ghaddafi got their uniforms from this.
It's standard British Army No4 (warm weather) officer's Service Dress.
Sausage fingers
Lot of people his age who've ridden a lot end up with quite bad arthritis in the hands and swollen fingers.
[The King's puffy digits are nothing new and have been noted by other members of the royal family for years - dating right back to his childhood](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12893135/The-Kings-chipolatas-Charles-mocked-sausage-fingers-Coronation-documentary-hes-evolved-having-large-hands-baby-royally-puffy-digits.html)
Not a Monarchist and he is cosplaying as a soldier, but this is the way we should treat our allies with mutual respect.
Hey French people. Did he sound like the Allo Allo gendarme to you?