Richard I was hardly the only monarch that didn’t speak the native tongue of the country they ruled. There are many examples of non-native monarchs ascending a country’s throne, either through conquest or the direct family line dying out. We know Richard’s own ancestry was French, as his family gained the English throne through the Norman Invasion. Mary, Queen of Scots, spent most of her early life in France as well, leaving Scotland at the age of five to be raised at the French court. She eventually ended up married to the heir to the French throne, who left her a widow at 17. The following year, the French Queen ascended the throne of Scotland, a country she hadn’t seen since she was a small child.