While Americans only have 43 leaders to rate historically, the Brits have many more centuries of eccentric monarchs to discuss and criticize.
British historians want to figure out which monarch was the biggest failure. King George III didn't make the list, since I guess the Brits can't decide whether to thank or blame him for losing the American colonies.
Here are the credentials of the top three royal losers. Who should take the crown as Britain's worst monarch?
- Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1567) aka "Mary Queen of Murder Plots " — Her involvement in the murder of her husband forced her into exile in England. Once there, she was imprisoned for 19 years, and eventually executed for plotting to kill the Queen of England.
- Edward II (1307- 1327) aka "King Pay Back's a Bi*ch" — After losing a war with Scotland he imprisoned his estranged wife. But, his wife got the last laugh, as her army later imprisoned him and forced him to abdicate the throne for incompetence.
- George IV (1820-1830) aka "The Playboy Prince" — Known for his excessive lifestyle and womanizing, he married his cousin to clear his debts. He went on to ban his estranged cousin/wife from his coronation.
Speedo
Pringle
Fontanelli
I have to say, my vote goes to the current Prince Charles.
1I know people do stuff like plot to murder their spouses today, but for some reason reading about this in the context of hundreds of years ago in royal families really creeps me out and makes me feel like people were even more messed up than they are now.
2I'm not going to defend Prince Charles' personal life. How he treated Diana was completely rotten. But he hardly deserves the failure crown, especially in light of his wide-ranging charity work, especially through the Prince's Trust.
3* especially x2? It's too early. But my comment stands, Prince Charles, in his public capacity, does a lot of good work.
4They don't even mention how Edward supposedly died. Look it up on wikipedia--pretty sick. And probably chosen partly due to his marked preference for men.
5Uhm, how about Ethelred the Unready? Or Alfraic the Goat Humper? You want terrible kings, you need only look to Henry the Mandateless.
6You're saying that with England's long history - with all its wars, colonies, repression and bad food - the worst crimes of the top candidates for worst monarch are domestic in nature? And Henry VIII isn't in the running? Were they all really great to the people?
7I don't know much about Brit history, but there's definitely something wrong with this list.
What about Mary Tudor?? She was horrible. Henry VIII was pretty bad too considering he was responsible for England's break with Rome just because he wanted a divorce. James II and Charles II were both crazy as well, and tried to undo everything Elizabeth had achieved.
8I'm guessing the worst royals did something worse than murder their spouses, more likely they caused the death of hundreds if not thousands of people.
9Interesting list, I would have actually had different people but I love the British monarch. F up and all.
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