Greatest English Monarch

[kentonio]

You mean Edward VIII?

[Elok]

I'm actually not all that clear about where the cutoff point is for something to be considered "English." I mean, Aethelstan and Alfred were both before the Norman conquest, so the people they ruled over were racially and culturally quite different from the later composite. Arthur, assuming he ever existed at all, tends to be claimed as an English king, even though he was supposedly fighting against the Germanic ancestors of today's English. I don't get it.

[The Mad Monk]

You mean Edward VIII?

Yep, that one.

[The Mad Monk]

...since he wasn't on the poll, I took George III instead. It was the least I could do.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

What rounds out your top 15, Laz?

JM

11- Eadred (an absolutely fascinating man, who I'm currently writing about)
12- Alfred the Great
13- Henry II (controversial, but he was certainly gifted)
14- Edgar the Pacific
15- Ivar the Boneless (technically only King of York, but an unbelievable character).

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I'm actually not all that clear about where the cutoff point is for something to be considered "English." I mean, Aethelstan and Alfred were both before the Norman conquest, so the people they ruled over were racially and culturally quite different from the later composite. Arthur, assuming he ever existed at all, tends to be claimed as an English king, even though he was supposedly fighting against the Germanic ancestors of today's English. I don't get it.

Arthur didn't exist. If he did, he was Romano-British, and anything "British" gets associated with England due to its cultural hegemony over Great Britain. Which is rubbish, but there you are.

Athelstan and Alfred were English through and through. English = Saxon, with bare smidgens of other stuff.

[Ben Kenobi]

1- Æthelstan. Obvious, really.
2- Cnut.
3- Edward the Elder.
4- Æthelflæd. Some people will argue she wasn't a monarch, but they're idiots and wrong.
5- Ecgbert.
6- Penda.
7- Offa.
8- Charles II
9- Edward III
10- Henry VIII.

Interesting that you rank Charles so high. He's high on my list too, along with Edward III, Aethelstan, Edward the Elder, etc.

I regard Canute as a Danish king because that was his first kingdom. I don't see why he would be regarded as an English king, it would be as if, say, Louis XIV conquered England. He'd still be French.

Penda and Offa were Kings, but not of the English, so they wouldn't qualify. Same with Ecbert.

[Ben Kenobi]

Athelstan and Alfred were English through and through. English = Saxon, with bare smidgens of other stuff.

If anything the Saxons were more 'English' than the folks from Normandy. This is why I rate James I/VI so highly because he brought Scotland and England together.

[Ben Kenobi]

Ok, my non-troll list:

Victoria I
Edward III
Charles II
James VI/I
Aethelstan
Edward the Elder
Edward I
Henry II
Henry V
Henry VII

I have a real soft spot for Henry V, and I think that Henry VII was the best of the Tudors.

[Barnabas]

Mary and James II were the only good English Monarchs in the last 500 years

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I regard Canute as a Danish king because that was his first kingdom. I don't see why he would be regarded as an English king, it would be as if, say, Louis XIV conquered England. He'd still be French.

And yet you included William the Conqueror on your list?

Penda and Offa were Kings, but not of the English, so they wouldn't qualify. Same with Ecbert.

Penda and Offa were both English kings at the time when England was dominated by the Mercian hegemony. They ruled more of what is now England than Alfred ever did- as did Ecgbert who was just two generations before Alfred.

They were English monarchs. Accept it and move on.

[The Mad Monk]

All Real Americans should pick George III -- we all owe him so much.

[Ben Kenobi]

And yet you included William the Conqueror on your list?

Do many folks in England argue that he wasn't an English king? I can see your argument, it makes sense to me, but I would think that he's pretty much regarded as an English king.

Penda and Offa were both English kings at the time when England was dominated by the Mercian hegemony. They ruled more of what is now England than Alfred ever did- as did Ecgbert who was just two generations before Alfred.

Well the Danes had something to do with that...

Why Canute the Great and not Henry II? Angevin Empire was huge.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Because Henry II inherited most of it, spent too long fighting his own kids, and ended up losing overall control of much of that French "Empire" to Philip II. Will that do?