Louis The Pious, Son Of Charlemagne - Carolingian Empire

Believe it or not Louis the Pious was one of my Great Grandfathers, as Charlemagne. My family continued through him by his wife Ermengarde by way of their daughter Hildegard or some called her Matilda.

Well, if you manage to get one, don't strip it back to the metal

Definitely true. Visual aids are very helpful in that regard.
The Carolingian empire got quite big, didn't it? So big it became the foundation for not one, but two modern-day countries: France and Germany. It became the most powerful state in Western Europe since the Western Roman Empire. And the Carolingian leaders aspired to become as great and well-known as the Roman emperors of the past (as shown by their adoption of Roman titles such as Imperator and Augustus).

From the link but I'll post it here as well. Here is a contemporary image of Louis the Pious from 826 AD, as a 'soldier of Christ':

I was into the family history for a while. Husband is related to William the Conqueror, I have Kim Philby (spy) in my tree. Sometimes a peasant pig keeper is a lot to aspire to :)

I study my ancestry for 25 years picking a person or 2 a year, then I found a book about one of my relatives and it took off, the family tree was very well recorded and preserved, especially the Royals. Mine took off after finding my 9th Great Grand mother Alice Gascoyne. I sat on her for a few years as a dead end and then I was introduced to a book called, "A Royal Heritage, Genealogy and History from Charlemagne and William the Conqueror to the Present". And BAM! There she was and it confirmed my research prior to finding her through her children which were also my grand parents.

Most Americans are kin to the Royals, but you are of no good since you came from a female and not a male. Eventually Royals started to intermarry the commoners, A royal female might would marry the horse groomer or the chimney sweep. So that royal blood got watered down. Since your Grand Mother was a Royal and your Grandfather a horse groomer, your lineage was not as valuable to the royal bloodline.

So, welcome to America, Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.

Pish, since you are from England there is a 99.9% chance you have a bit of Royal Blood in you. I have done the research over the years and it's great. I was shocked to find out that I was related to William I. I got excited and shared the news with my entire family, but I was let down after finding out that almost all Americans had Royal Blood. So it went from being a rare feeling to a very common let down. So I am no one special when it comes to this.

I guess if something like that were true about one of my ancestors, knowing that would be better than not knowing my ancestors at all