English kings also styled themselves kings of France until 1801.

1340 · 1801 · apart: 461 years

Edward III took the title in 1340, early in the Hundred Years' War, and it was kept for 461 years, though England lost almost all its French lands in 1453.

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The event

• Hundred Years' War1337–1453 · France. The Plantagenet kings of England contested the French throne with the Valois in a war that ran, with truces, for 116 years. Despite English victories at Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt, France eventually recovered nearly all its land, and both nations emerged with a stronger national identity.

14th century · 19th century

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