The United Kingdom monarchy ‘is surely the clearest indication of Britain’s European identity. Britain has been ruled by the French (Normans, Plantagenets, Angevins), a Dutchman, (William of Orange) and Hanoverian Germans. Some of them didn’t speak English. British-born sovereigns generally had husbands or wives from other European countries. Queen Anne married a Danish prince and Queen Victoria her Albert of Saxe-Coburg. The royal family changed its name to Windsor less than 100 years ago. I might add that if the English traced their origins back to the dim and distant past they might find an Angle, Jute, Saxon or Viking among their forebears, or more recently a Huguenot or two,’ (Letter published in The Economist 08th August 2015, p.13 from Sidney Freedman, Valbonne, France).