@Athanaric: what do you mean move on? I'm not interested in history composed of deliberate lies (there's enough accidental lies already).

Interesting point about Chinese: like many native English speakers I only have one tongue and am amazed by the cultural versatility of these who sepak several. My relatives in Sweden speak everything, and there's heasps of migrant sin Australia who come here learning English as a third, fourth or umpteenth language.

Maybe a several lingua franca is the way to go? The Ottomans and Romans had a couple of widespread languages (eg Greek was widely spoken in both).

Quote Originally Posted by McAds View Post
...Edward I saw himself as an English man, much in the same way his (incredibly lairy) grandson and great grandson would also. They were French only in their styles in so much as they mirrored Phillip II; i.e. they were all aggressive hardmen.
...aggressive hard men who spoke French as their birth tongue, and wanted nothing more than to be Kings of France? Very English.

I feel England from the Normans to the Yorkists was a cultural province of France ruled by a french speaking french descended elite. The local cultures reasserted themselves wonderfully under the Tudors as the French holdings were lost (although the partial self destruction of the old aristocracy in the War of the Roses helped too), leadng to a productive fusion.