All U.S. presidents bar one are directly descended from a medieval English king

King John of England is the ancestor of 42 of 43 U.S. presidents, including Barack Obama. King John is renowned for signing the Magna Carta in 1215, which limited the monarch’s power and helped form the British Parliament. John’s other claim to fame, or infamy, is that he was depicted as the villain in the Robin Hood tales. The only former commander-in-chief not linked to King John is the eighth president, Martin Van Buren, who had Dutch roots.