From the 1340s to the 19th century, excluding two brief intervals in the 1360s and the 1420s, the kings and queens of
England (and, later, of
Great Britain) also claimed the
throne of France. The claim dates from
Edward III, who claimed the French throne in 1340 as the sororal nephew of the last direct
Capetian,
Charles IV. Edward and his heirs fought the
Hundred Years War to enforce this claim, and were briefly successful in the 1420s under
Henry V and
Henry VI, but the
House of Valois, a cadet branch of the
Capetian dynasty, was ultimately victorious and retained
de facto control of France. Despite this, English and British monarchs continued to prominently call themselves kings of France, and the French
fleur-de-lys were included in the royal arms. This continued until 1801, by which time France had no monarch, having become a
republic. The Jacobite claimants, however, did not explicitly relinquish the claim.