Hello! I know it’s been a while but I’ve been planning a big several-post project to find out who YOU think is the best English monarch. The first post is going to be monarchs from William the Conqueror to Richard II. I will do a short explanatory paragraph on each monarch so you will know what they did. Then, leave a comment to say who your best English monarch is and say why.
Got it? OK, here we go…
William I: Otherwise known as William the Conqueror, this guy… well, let’s think… invaded England, burned towns, killed people… but he introduced new words, new foods and the New Forest (Well, he didn’t bring it to England, he just named it). He also wrote the Domesday book.
William II: Also known as William Rufus because of his red hair, this guy fought off revolts and invasions from Scotland then got shot in the eye while hunting in his father’s forest. Such irony!
Henry I: This King seized the throne from his brother and married his brother’s enemies’ daughter. The Duke of Normandy didn’t want him to be King so they fought… Henry won, naturally.
Stephen: Fought against his cousin Matilda for the throne. In the end he became king, but he was weak and got overthrown by Matilda. Eventually, he gained power again.
Henry II: Had an argument with his Archbishop Thomas Becket and had him murdered. His wife and sons then rebelled, but he won.
Richard I: Didn’t do much because he only spent seven months in Britain during his ten-year reign because he went and fought in the Crusades most of the time.
King John: Confiscated Church property so the Pope said the King of France could overthrow him. Also, angered the barons so they made him sign the Magna Carta.
Henry III: Most of his reign was controlled by barons and when he did rule, the barons rebelled for his favouritism of foreign men at Court.
Edward I: Killed a LOT of people and didn’t like Scotland AT ALL!
Edward II: First Prince of Wales and got betrayed and overthrown by his wife and then got strangled. Almost like a Shakespeare tragedy!
Edward III: The King who started the 100 year’s war by trying to put his mum on the French throne. The French were NOT happy!
Richard II: My favourite king, Richard II was at least better than Richard I! He stopped the peasant’s revolt and signed a peace treaty with France by marrying the King of France’s six year old daughter!
So remember, for this first section, leave a comment on who YOU think is the best English monarch from 1066 to 1399 and say why. You can do your own research and part 2, Henry IV to Henry VIII is coming soon!
Dear Ben,
What a lot of hard work you’ve put into this post! I’ve put a link on the sidebar in my blog, so that more readers will get to read this brilliant post.
I’ve also created an image file for you to go with this post. You can click this link to see it: http://janetscraft.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/whos-the-best-english-monarch-by-ben-williams.jpg
I look forward to your part 2.
This is excellent Ben, i have to say i quite like Richard the 1st. Fighting for ones country is no mean feat!
However, Richard I only spent seven months in Britain- leaving poor John to rule. Not so brotherly love!
I don’t think it is a question of picking the best, because all of this lot are pretty terrible. I would go for Edward I as being the least worst, because he (quite rightly) regarded the Scots as a heathen rabble who needed a good kicking on a regular basis. On the other hand, he did invade and repress Wales as well as killing the Prince….
I agree! The early days of ruling were pretty out of control!
What a motley crew! I like Bill Conk because he imposed order; and John for being so lame, we got the Magna Carta out of him
Once again, Shakespeare made King John a bit misunderstood. You can also blame Robin Hood legends for making him bad. Richard I is to blame =(
I find it very difficult to chose my favourite! Should I pick my favourite based on what they did for England? or shall I base it on my favourite being the most interesting? Im going to go for King John – I find his personality fascinating, his leadership skills were clearly very poor and he wasnt the best King that England had, but he is one of my favourites to study and teach. Great blog post Ben – very useful for year 7 History
King John is interesting- His brother, Richard I put the country into bankruptcy so we can hardly blame John for his brother’s stupid governing!
Interesting idea =)
See, two of these, you say, were overthrown by a female relative. But where is Queen Matilda? Where is Queen thingamabob’s Wife? Those women can’t have been allowed many days on the throne to miss out on the chronology. My favourite is K. John owing to his accommodation to democracy. I like a pragmatist.
I didn’t include them because some people say they didn’t rule. So, in order to save confusion, I haven’t included them. But they did rule!
=)
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Hmmm, interesting. I don’t agree with you about Richard II mainly because the peasants were right to revolt. Watt Tyler is one of my heroes along with the Luddites. The peasanst revolted against the poll taxes, pinned wages and their virtual imprisonment in their home villages among other things. They were basically slaves. There was a wicked witch back in the 1970′s called Margaret Thatcher who didn’t read her history books, who also tried to introduce the poll tax. She also fell on her sword. Interesting blog dude.
Richard II’s uncle John of Gaunt introduced the Poll Tax partly because the Black Death was ravaging England so John decided to make taxes equal, no matter the status of somebody. The peasants killed the Archbishop of Canterbury so the king, aged 14, came to talk to the peasants.
But then, Wat Tyler was then executed and the peasants betrayed.
But anyway, a few years later, Richard II did become horrible!