Who do you rate as the worst King of England? I am putting an arbitrary period of time between 1066 and 1700, which would exclude Ehthelred the Unready and George IV. If you have another candidate not mentioned in the poll, let us know who it is.

My choice - Charles I, a man who, if he had any sense, could have avoided his demise

tough choice, but they are all Plantagenets :)
I've always blamed Richard I for John so lets start there and then move back to all the other problems with his reign.

Worst would depend on " how worst ?

Most incompetent administrator.
Most incompetent war leader.
Most evil.
Most insane.
Most easily deposed and executed.

Then there is the " non- King " Oliver Cromwell: The High Protector , or whatever is official title was.

Some of the least savoury ones morally might have been very competent managers, war leaders and even loved by the people but hated by the nobles or in reverse loved by the nobles but hated by the people, but feared by all.

Hard to vote for the all around worst King or Queen.

its a tough choice otherwise since i dont know anything about half of them.
me view of edward the longshanks has been coloured by braveheart so im not gonna select him..

i was initially gonna select mary quen of scots, although that was partly because i mixed her up with elizabeth bathory's habit of bathing in virgins blood, that and the fact she was the queen of SCOTLAND, and this ones about english rulers.

aside from that im going to go with charles 1st for the reasons already stated i.e he stupidly engineered his own demise by not trying to listen to cromwell and listen to the demands of the parliment

although cromwell i understand was never really accepted by the people and also did some nasty things to the irish...


hmm, decisions decisions.

people i wouldnt put on the list.
henry V (on this forum i dont think i need to elaborate why)
, henryVIII (had an unstable lovelife but he was an awsome warleader and fighter)
the black prince (see henry V)

As a worst King of England, I'm going for Richard I. He really seemed to have seen England as just a way to raise money. At least John wanted to be involved as a King of England.

I'd vote for Richard I as well. John is seriously underrated as an English king. Richard didn't leave him much to work with. Cromwell was idealistic but he tried to do good things for the English people. His level of success is debatable but I wouldn't put him on the above list. Its good to see that Richard III is not on the list. I have had a soft spot for him since reading Penman's Sunne in Splendour

Edward the Confessor managed to alienate his Anglo Saxon subjects sufficiently and muddy up the succession to the throne badly enough to create the conditions that led to virtually a free for all for the English throne between Harold Hardrada, Harold Godwinson and William the Bastard and culminated in the Norman Invasion. In my opinion leaving your realm in a condition in which it is ripe for invasion is pretty hard to beat in the bad ruler category.

Taking the Scottish point of view, I'll say Edward I. Bad neighbour.

I meant my personal picks, not the whole list

I guess I should have put Richard I on the list, but, while I don't like him much, he could be an effective leader. He was really more the Angevin emperor than the King of England, and he spent much of his time (except for the Crusade) keeping it under his control. England, for him, was mainly a source of money for the Crusade and for war against Philip Augustus. I sure got tired of him being depicted as Good King Richard in most of the versions of Robin Hood that I've seen. I remember Thomas Costain characterizing him as having more the attitude of the Knight, than a King.

Another person who should be on the list is Mary Tudor, who made mid 16th century England a very chancy and unpleasant place to live..

I'm surprised that nobody as yet has selected Henry VI. He was a nice guy, but his incompetance and insanity led to the loss of all the land in France (except Calais) and then the Wars of the Roses.

You missed my number one "bad king:" George III. If he had had the sense to listen to his best advisors the whole loss of America could have been avoided. Changed the course of world history, of course, but maybe for the better...who knows? Spot of tea anyone?

Surely not, Parliament caused the loss of America, not George III

I voted for John, while Richard may have screwed him over, I can't help but think that if he had been as competent as Richard, he never would have lost so much land to Philip.

I am a second generation American, my grand parents are Irish and Polish on my mothers side and Scots on my fathers side.


I vote for All of them as worst.

sort of a visceral reaction. People go on and on about 400 years in the USA and while I will not detract from that horrid event for the last 2000 everything south of the wall has expanded into the kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland

Alba gu bràth
Erin go Bragh