Greatest English monarch of all time?

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

     King George III, for helping fuel the cause of American independence.

That was Parliament's fault more than George III...

My list

1. Elizabeth I
2. Henry II
3. Henry VIII (he had some serious issues, but the effect on the country of his reign is enormous)
4. Alfred
5. Victoria

--- Special mentions
- William IV (under-valued, but was informal, unstuffy and could have shifted the British monarchy radically, also handled the Corn Laws brilliantly)
- Charles II - re-invigorated the Monarchy after the restoration in 1660, as well as advocating for greater religious freedoms
- William III, without him, the reign of one of the worst Kings, James II, would have continued, and provided one of the world's first experiments of 'limited government'
- George V - stable, dependable in difficult times (same goes for George VI)
5.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Oliver Cromwell

Lol, Cromwell had all of the self-righteousness of Charles I and mixed with puritan kill-joyism

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Oliver Cromwell

Tempted to agree. Feeling like a bad Catholic now.

Pretty much every Monarch since Cromwell, apart from James II was infinitely better than Cromwell...

Forget all the "ohhh Monarchy bad etc etc" bs and consider the actual policies and what they did to the country.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Forget all the "ohhh Monarchy bad etc etc" bs and consider the actual policies and what they did to the country.

First off it isn't bs and secondly I quite like having Jews here.

I agree that the views held by some Kings, like Edward I toward the Jews were horrific, but in many cases medieval Kings like Henry II and Richard tried to protect the Jews - but that anti-semitism was driven by the Church primarily.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

It's actually kind of ridiculous that it is ignored so much, that period was one of the most cathartic for Scotland since the late 13th Century.

The period from the beginning of the reign of James VI of Scotland as James I of England, the monarchy overall ignored Scotland. While Charles I may have been born there, the numbers of times he had been on Scottish soil could easily be counted on both hands.

The socio-religious Wars in Scotland were arguably just as, if not, more violent than those in England.

I wrote an essay during my undergrad period which examines the reigns of the post-Elizabeth monarchs, up to the Glorious Revolution in 1688-9.

My determination was that the worst rulers of that period were Charles I, Cromwell and James II because of moral and religious absolutism, as well as a strong sense of self-righteousness... which led to a FUNDAMENTAL misunderstanding of ruling three completely separate Kingdoms. Cromwell, Charles and James all used the Scots, the Irish and the English against each other. Mind you, even Charles never went as far as to steal the lands from Irish Catholic nobility and divide it among his Model Army as pay.

My determination that the best rulers of that period were James I (VI) and Charles II as both of these rulers saw the consequences of religious absolutism, and tried to avoid the style of rule that brought down the others.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

As someone with strong Scottish ancestry, I respect the need for some to refer to James I and II as VI/VII since they were completely separate countries until the Act of Union.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

As someone with strong Scottish ancestry, I respect the need for some to refer to James I and II as VI/VII since they were completely separate countries until the Act of Union.

There was a legitimate campaign back in 1952/3 for the new Queen not to be known as Elizabeth II in Scotland (even made itself into a song "She might be the Queen but ye cannae have the Second when the First one's ne'er been") Given that Elizabeth I did have a passive claim over the Scottish throne it was seen by some as a concession too far.

For the record, the relationship between Elizabeth and Mary Stewart was my own focus during my Honours History. I left with a far better impression of Elizabeth than I had of Mary

Elizabeth certainly had her issues, but Mary was virtually without political skill besides batting her eyelids.