Greatest King/Queen of England

The main ones really are probably these:

Althelstan the Glorious
Henry Beauclerc
Henry Curtmantle
Edward Longshanks
Henry V
Edward IV
Elizabeth I

But as an honorable mention you have to have Alfred the Great because he not only theorised the whole concept of "England" he laid the ground work for it and was largely responsible for Althelstan being in a position to become the Glorious 1st King of England.
 
The main ones really are probably these:

Althelstan the Glorious
Henry Beauclerc
Henry Curtmantle
Edward Longshanks
Henry V
Edward IV
Elizabeth I

But as an honorable mention you have to have Alfred the Great because he not only theorised the whole concept of "England" he laid the ground work for it and was largely responsible for Althelstan being in a position to become the Glorious 1st King of England.

:rolleyes: Post-1066 you use regnal numbers as well. Athelstan is a weaker choice, IMHO, than Alfred. Henry I and II were good, as was Edward I. Henry V... not so much; his wars were bad, bad bad for England, however often he won at the time. God only knows why you put Edward IV in (no, honestly, why? :confused:). Liz was indeed awesome, but you could make a decent case for Henry VII as well. The Stuarts were indeed pretty much a chain of disasters.

So, my vote: Edward I. Made England pretty much the dominant power in the islands, beat Wales, Ireland and Scotland like cheap drums, and improved its position to the point that it could go toe-to-toe with France, Christendom's 800-pound Gorilla. When he wasn't doing that, he was establishing the rule of law and laying the basis for the mercantile prosperity for which Britain became justifiably famous in the 16th C onwards. It's Ed I ATW. Second would be Henry VII, who ended 30 years of wars, not coincidentally breaking the aristocracy in the process, and then created such centralized and solvent government that they (almost unbelievably) never became a problem again. Oh, and made England a first-rank economic power to boot.
 
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:rolleyes: Post-1066 you use regnal numbers as well. Athelstan is a weaker choice, IMHO, than Alfred. Henry I and II were good, as was Edward I. Henry V... not so much; his wars were bad, bad bad for England, however often he won at the time. God only knows why you put Edward IV in (no, honestly, why? :confused:). Liz was indeed awesome, but you could make a decent case for Henry VII as well. The Stuarts were indeed pretty much a chain of disasters.

Though Alfred the Great would rank highest of all Monarch of the British Isle pre-1066, for me anyway, this thread was clearly about the Greatest Monarch of England and Alfred was never King of England. Alfred the Great was only King of Wessex. He was the single most important man in the creation of England but he never ruled it. So thus he must be included in some capacity as a Great British Monarch but he cannot be called a Great King of England because he never ruled it. Althelstan the Glorious was the second greatest of the Wessex line of Kings so I put him im there instead.

Henry V was one of the Greatest Warrior Kings of Englands and it is mainly for that which I included him. However he was also very successful with his domestic policy and England under him was peaceful which, considering the amount of upheavel in the Country before and after his reign is nothing short of a miracle. Beside which he shoud be rated amungst the Greatest English Monarchs if only for the reason that had he lived just a little while longer he would have ruled England and France.

Edward IV, looking through his history, seems to be Longshanks reborn. An amazing general, one of the only undefeated military commanders in history, and restored much law and order in the realm during his tenure as King. That his dynasty didn't last long is not his own fault as his father and one Brother were killed in combat, his Grandfather and another Brother were executed for treason, his two sons were imprisoned in the Tower of London and made illegitimae by his last surviving Brother who was then killed in combat himself. That his family was so thoroughly destroyed is no refelction on his own brilliant military ability or his capability in bringing law and order to a chaotic realm. His one major failing was his inability to deal politically with King Louis XI of France.
 
No mention of Victoria? One of England's longest-serving monarchs; under her the British Empire reached its greatest height and kept the peace with her European neighbors for most of her long reign.

I would add Charles II too, as a patron of the sciences.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
No mention of Victoria? One of England's longest-serving monarchs; under her the British Empire reached its greatest height and kept the peace with her European neighbors for most of her long reign.

And she had much less to do with it than the men who served as Prime Minister during her reign.
 
No mention of Victoria? One of England's longest-serving monarchs; under her the British Empire reached its greatest height and kept the peace with her European neighbors for most of her long reign.

I would add Charles II too, as a patron of the sciences.

No, she was one of the UK's longest-serving monarchs. :p If AH.com teaches you nothing else, learn that Shit Happened in 1707.
 
Edward III as a guy who routinely beat his opponents, made Parliament a political force (To an extent), made England a strong Kingdom and was just generally awesome.
 
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