"The Queen's/King's English" as a reference to a standard form of the language is a bit odd, when you consider that a few kings of England spoke little or no English: Richard I was a Frenchman who spent most of his reign outside England, George I was a German, and James I was a native speaker of Scots. (Scots, BTW, is the closest relative of English and survives to this day.) There may have been others, but i don't recall their names and numbers.
Perhaps the phrase referred to one of the Henries (V or VI?), who banned the speaking of Welsh...
So perhaps the phrase originally had an ironic overtone, now long lost. Who knows?
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