the United Kingdom has witnessed some
pretty terrible and ruthless monarchs over
the years to be fair a kingdom with a
history as long and as turbulent as
Britain's is bound to have had its fair
share of incompetent rulers while some
of these people have been pure evil
others have just been useless due to
mental illness or general incompetent
from the tyrant tudor king who took six
wives to the useless Scottish Queen who
lost her head we're counting down 5 of
the UK's worst monarchs Henry the sixth
was the last Lancastrian King and is
infamous for his incompetent he was far
from a terrible person however unlike
his name's sake Henry the Eighth he was
not a tyrant and did not relish violence
in fact Henry was a pious and forgiving
man a man of compassion when I say that
he was a terrible King I mean that he
was utterly useless the problem with
Henry was at periodic bouts of madness
rendered him completely incapable of
leading the country to be fair he had a
lot to live up to his father Henry the
fifth was the legendary champion of
Agincourt the king who was a renowned
leader and tactician a born general
Henry the fifth had secured huge
territories in Normandy in France and
had gotten himself recognized as heir to
the French crown when he died of
dysentery however in September 1422
young Henry inherited the English throne
I say young he was barely nine months
old as if this wasn't enough
responsibility for the baby king when
the French King died several months
later he also found himself King of
France As Henrye grew up it became
apparent he was not suited to the
responsibilities of kingship whilst his
father had been most comfortable making
a name for himself on the battlefield
young Henry had no taste for violence
and was most at home talking to God in
his private chapel Henry whilst
extremely pious was also utterly
incompetent he had no interest in
politics and delegated the
responsibility of governance to his most
trusted advisers namely the Duke of
Somerset unfortunately some pretty
incompetent decisions led to the loss of
most of his territories in France and
Normandy and Henry's main rival for the
throne had something to say about this
having previously been sent to govern
island as leftenant Richard Duke of York
aka Richard Plantagenet returned to
england in 1450 intent on putting right
the wrongs of Henry's advisers in actual
fact Richard technically had a better
claim to the throne and Henry and so
began his struggle to get his family
recognized as heirs to the throne
Richard clashed with Henry's advisers
and in particular his ambitious french
wife Margaret of Anjou this was the
start of the dynastic struggle we know
today as the Wars of the Roses Henry
the 6th will forever be known for his
incompetent and for the mental illness
he struggled with for much of his life
he will also be remembered as a catalyst
for one of the bloodiest series of wars
ever fought on British soil whilst Henry
the sixth was England's last Lancastrian
King Richard the third was the last
Yorkist King ultimately the downfall of
Henry sixth led to the Wars of the Roses
in the rise of the House of York Richard
Plantagenet pressed his claim to the
throne but lost his life at the Battle
of Wakefield he had three surviving sons
Edward Earl of March soon to be king
edward the fourth of england george duke
of clarence a treacherous and
self-centered individual and youngest of
three Richard Duke of Gloucester later
to become King Richard the third of
England following his death Richard
contact in its claim to the throne was
taken up by his eldest remaining son
Edward Earl of March Richard the third
is a controversial character no thanks
to Shakespeare over the years richard
has been painted as a bit of a monster
with his crooked spine withered arm and
treacherous nature significantly Richard
is alleged to have murdered his nephews
and rightful heirs to the throne princes
Edward and Richard of course
Shakespeare's betrayal of Richard is
largely unfair and inaccurate in fact
there is no evidence to suggest that
Richard was anything other than totally
loyal to his older brother King Edward
he also placed an oath to uphold his
nephews right to inherit the throne that
said following the death of King Edward
in 1483 Richard appears we've gone back
on his word Whilst on his deathbed Edward
mobilized his most trusted allies
and established a council to lead
the country until his young son Edward
came of age within weeks of the King's
death however Richard staged a coup and
had himself named as protector of the
king furthermore prior to young Edward
being crowned Richard had him and his
younger brother declared illegitimate
and seized the throne for himself were
still both Edward and Richard were
banished the Tower of London where they
later disappeared in a shroud of mystery
of course it is believed that their
uncle Richard had been murdered removing
and permanently as challengers to the
throne Richard was proclaimed king
Richard the third enrolled to barely two
years he was killed at the Battle of
Bosworth in 1485 in effect of bringing
an end to the Wars of the Roses and
giving rice and a Tudor dynasty Richard
would turn up some years later buried
beneath a car park in Leicester Mary
Queen of Scots not to be confused with
Bloody Mary was Scotland's most useless
monarchs a series of stupid and politically
dangerous decisions led to her swift
downfall she isolated herself from her
nobles and attempted to overthrow the
Queen of England she was ultimately be
headed for her treachery there he had a
bit of a fairytale childhood born in
1542 to the Scottish King James the
fifth and his french wife Mary of Guise
she was sent to live with the French
royal family at the age of only five she
was loved in France considered to be
exceptionally lovely kind and courteous
having been betrothed to the French heir
to the throne Francis she later found
herself queen of both Scotland and
France when francis died however Mary
took the decision to return to Scotland
here she found herself in a difficult
situation while she had been raised as a
Catholic Scotland was officially a
Protestant country this did not faze
Mary however has she encouraged a policy
of non-discrimination things however
were about to take a turn for the worst
Mary was all too aware that she must
marry and provide an heir in 1565 she
married her first cousin Henry Stuart
Lord Darnley but Danley was a horrid man
weak and selfish understandably their
marriage broke down and Mary became
close to her advisor David Rizzio in
March 1566 when Mary was six months
pregnant
Darnley broke into her supper room with a
posse of nobles and stabbed Rizzio to
death they claimed that he and Mary were
having an affair and rizzo was using
this to gain influence in court Mary
believe that darling wish to kill her
and her unborn son and claim the throne
for himself it was then mightily
suspicious when three months later
Danley was found dead following an
explosion at a house where he'd been
staying his body was found outside
however giving rise to speculation that
he had escaped from the blast but had
been murdered the chief suspect was
james hepburn Earl of Bothwell here Mary
made a catastrophic mistake in marrying
the Earl barely three months after the
death of Darnley in doing so Mary turned
Scotland's Nobles against her and she
was in in-prisoned at lochleven castle she
was then forced to abdicate in flavor of
her son who became King James 26
Scotland Mary managed to escape her
Protestant captors and raised an army on
the 13th of May 1568 she was defeated in
battle and fled to England to seek
refuge from her Protestant cousin Queen
Elizabeth this was a terrible mistake
the problem was that Mary had a strong
claim to the English throne arguably
more so than Elizabeth whilst Elizabeth
was descended from Henry the eighths
second wife Anne Boleyn Mary was a
descendant of Henry's older sister
Margaret Tudor Mary's Catholic
supporters viewed Henry's marriage to
Anne Boleyn as illegal and thus argued Mary
had a better claim to the throne of
England Elizabeth was all too aware of
marys position and had her in in-prisoned for
19 years during this time Mary was
implicated in numerous Catholic
sponsored plots against Elizabeth most
significantly the Badlington plot
this was in fact a trap which implicated
marry in a bogus assassination attempt
although reluctant to do so Elizabeth
sentenced her cousin's death and she
lost her head on the
eighth of February 1587 interestingly marys son
james the sixth went on to succeed
Elizabeth in 1603 and became the very
first king of both Scotland and England
this in effect created the Kingdom of
Great Britain Henry the eigth is one of
England's most notorious Kings most
commonly known for taking six wives
often described as the tyrant Henry is
also infamous for dissolving the
monasteries and breaking with Rome Henry
was almost not King however this honor
was meant for his older brother Arthur
who died suddenly in 1502 as a second
son of Henry seventh and his wife Elizabeth
of York Henry the Eighth was obsessed
with secure in his own dynasty and
sought to wipe out any resistance to his
rule to this end the king was ruthless
having executed or imprisoned all those
who had even the slightest claim to the
throne King Henry was obsessed with
securing a male heir after the became
frustrated with his first wife Catherine
of Aragon he fell in love with the young
and beautiful Anne Boleyn when the Pope
refused to annul his marriage Henry set
out on a path of destruction dissolving
800 monasteries and forming the Protestant
church of england as we know Anne was
arrested on charges of adultery and
beheaded at the Tower of London Henry took
four more wives Jayne Seymore provided
Henry with the Son but died in
childbirth he was so repulsed by his
next wife Anne of Cleves that he
divorced her almost instantly the
teenage Catherine Howard was beheaded
for adultery and his last wife Catherine
Parr somehow managed to keep her head
and outlived him particularly in his
later years henry became fat obsessive
paranoid and narcissistic you really
didn't want to get on the wrong side of
him his most trusted advisor Thomas
Cromwell was executed for nothing more
than orchestrating his marriage to Anne
of Cleves when Henry wasn't having those
around him executed he was waging war
against Scotland and France he was a
completely useless commander and
practically brought England to its knees
Henry was a pretty terrible monarch
King John is probably considered
England's most useless and evil king
portrayed as the villain in Robin Hood
he certainly stands up to his evil
reputation John was a youngest and
favourite son of henry the second and was
born around Christmastime 1166 As the
youngest of five male children John was
never intended to wear the crown and
with all the land and titles being
handed out to his brothers he gained the
nickname lackland whilst John was not
unique amongst his brothers for being
treacherous he did cement his reputation
when his brother Richard the Lionheart
became king in 1189 with his other
brothers dead he attempted to usurp
Richard when he was off on crusade with
a little help from Philip Augustus of
France he was nearly successful when
richard died in 1199 john somehow found
himself sitting on the English throne
his brother had however acknowledged
their nephew Arthur as heir to the throne
several years earlier Arthur did in fact
have a better claim but this was no
issue for John he just had him killed as
well as being treacherous John was also
immensely cruel and chivalry meant
absolutely nothing to him where others
would capture their enemies as opposed
to killing them John would just do the
latter he was universally hated by
everybody he was a bastard he pissed off
his barons by sleeping with their wives
in suppressing their baronial right he
even fell out with the King of France
and lost the entirety of Normandy as a
consequence a monumental blunder John
raised taxes and demanded money in order
to take back his continental dominions
he further pissed off his barons who
rebelled against him and his hand was
forced into sign in magna carta John
being John however he soon went back on
his word france invaded england on the
request of his barons and everybody was
at war it was just awesome in fact the
only good thing John ever did was dying
in 1216 his son Henry the third took
sort of thrown at the ripe old age of 9
to think of it he turned out to be
pretty useless as well