"I have taken England with both my hands"
"Plots were hatched and rebellions, and all the duchy was ablaze with fire"
William the Conqueror was also a 'continental tyrant'
(
http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/zp88wmn)
Since then things have been more or less stable in England, if not in the rest of the world under England's.. influence.
Of couse, from 1714 to 1837, there was a german king on the british throne, Georg Ludwig, called King George the 1st, then Elector of Hannover, was crowned King of Great Britain. The Kingdom of Hannover was then governed by the personal union for 123 years. The Welfs or Guelphs were then replaced by Queen Victoria of the House of Saxe-Coburg Gotha.. and the rest is history.