Top 5 worst kings?

[otherbeef]

1. Aerys II - Ruined a 300 year old dynasty. Enough said.

2. Aegon IV - Almost ruined a 300 year old dynasty. Also enough said.

3. Maegor the Cruel - Name says it all. Murdered lots of people.

4. Dareon I - "Conquered" Dorne, immediately lost it. Caused thousands of deaths on the way.

5. Joffrey - Is any explanation needed? Killed peasants with a crossbow for fun

That is really it. Issues such as leaving most of the ruling to the Hand of the King (Baelor I, Robert I, Aerys I) isn't a bad thing, they let people more qualified then themselves do their job. Others may have been substandard but not bad.

Also too much Renly hating, he was never a true king but probably would've been a fine one.

[Thendel]

Excluding people who never sat the Iron Throne:

1. Joffrey I
   
2. Aerys II
   
3. Aegon IV
   
4. Maegor I
   
5. Daeron I
   

[Brandon Martell]

Also too much Renly hating, he was never a true king but probably would've been a fine one.

To be fair he wouldn't have been an amazingly great king, but he would have been at least OK.

[Winter's Knight]

1. Aegon the Unworthy
   
2. Aerys II
   
3. Baelor the Blessed
   
4. Balon the Batshit
   
5. Robert I
   

[Kolantero]

1) Aerys II

2) Joffrey

3) Aegon IV

4) Maegor the Cruel

5) Balon

[Snowborn]

Aegon IV

Aerys II

Baelor the Blessed

Joffrey

Maegor I

[TheGreyKraken]

1.) Aegon The Unworthy- Was already known as a weak and foolish ruler that had many bastards as he slept with many women besides his wife. He is also responsible for his brothers death Aemon who is considered to be one of the greatest knights to grace the realm, his stupidity continued when he tried to conquer Dorne using "dragons" made out of wood and iron but this resulted in swift defeat. If you think all that was bad then you saw nothing, on his deathbed Aegon IV legitimized all his bastard children and this caused years of war as his bastards and their descendants tried to claim The Iron Throne.

2.) Aerys II - He started out his years as king relatively well but after the Defiance of Duskendale his madness grew and eventually it got the better of him and he eventually was the main cause of a rebellion that extinguished the Targaryen Dynasty and ended their reign over the seven kingdoms.

3.) Joffrey "Baratheon" - From what we saw of Joffrey we can tell he is stupid,cruel plus very cocky and these characteristics make a bad king and we saw an example of that when he ordered Eddard Stark to be executed. This caused the North to rise up against them which eventually made its way into the War of the Five Kings that plunged most of the realm into war.

4.) Robert Baratheon - Overall not a good ruler as he relied on his hand Jon Arryn to do most of the work of ruling the 7 kingdoms but when Jon died things didn't turn out for the better, as Robert failed to try and calm tensions between some of the great houses which eventually led to a big war.Also worth mentioning as the fact that he left the Iron Throne with a debt of over six million gold dragons.

5.) Baelor the Blessed- Although he was loved by the smallfolk and viewed as a pious man, he did make some rather unnecessary decisions that were as a result of his religious obsession.

[Jon's Queen Consort]

My picks:

Aegon II

Maegor I

Baelor I

Aegon IV

Aerys II

[Real Heir of Bear Island]

Tommen has to be the worst. Not his fault though it was his regent. She pretty much messed up everything Tywin built in like 3 weeks. Quite impressive if you ask me.

[Bretwalda]

Confined to Kings that sat on the Iron Throne (ignoring pretenders and pre-conquest kings) and based on what their actions did to the realm as a whole not on whether they were personally good or bad >

1 Aegon IV "The Unworthy" - Totally screwed up the established succession rules leading to several Blackfyre rebellions long after his death causing chaos in the realm.

2 Aerys II "The Mad King" - Good start to his reign but his paranoia directly led to Roberts Rebellion and was totally avoidable if a more sensible king was on the throne and led to the 283 year old family dynasty falling from power.

3 Aegon II - Usurped his elder sister Rhaenyra right to the throne causing a split in the realm and the Targ family down the middle leading to widespread bloodshed including the deaths of many Targs and dragons weakening the Targ dynasty, and in the end Rhaenyra's son became King after his death anyway making his claim to the throne pointless anyway.

4 Dearon I "The Young Dragon" - Capable military commander that invaded Dorne and temporarily won it but then lost it a guerrilla style campaign. Lost 40,000 men with nothing to show for it - poor kingship by any standards.

5 Joffrey I - Ordered the execution of Ned Stark despite the agreement that he would confess his "treason" then go to the Wall. This decision led to Robb Stark declaring the North and Riverlands independent and was totally avoidable.

Also after the Red Wedding he wanted the execution of all pro-Robb Riverlords and called Tywin a coward for refusing his request. I dread to think what actions he would have done if he had lived longer.

[Fat Mac]

I'm not sure about the 5 worst specifically, but I'm certain Robert doesn't go on there. While he ruled the realm was at peace, people were fed etc. The only rebellion was demolished with relatively little loss on the realm.

Compared to Aerys II, Aegon IV, Aegon II, Joffrey and people like Balon, Bob's not too bad.

[therealbando]

Aegon IV "The Unworthy"

Aerys II " The Mad King"

Baelor " The Blessed"

Joffrey

Maegor "The Cruel"

[Twenty of House Goodmen]

1. Aegon IV "The Unworthy" - Obvious reasons but my favorite has to be attempting to conquer Dorne with man made Dragons.

2. Aerys II "The Mad King" - Dude was batshit insane. He wanted to burn KL out of spite. He was his dynasty's downfall. Thankfully Tywin was ruling for most of his reign.

3. Joffrey I - His decisions led to the the North's rebellion. He's also cowardly and sadistic.

4. Daeron I "The Young Dragon" - The first thing he does when he becomes king is declare a war with Dorne because its unfinished business. Seriously? He's a good commander but an idiot who decides to put a Tyrell as the ruling ward of Dorne. Ended up losing 40,000 men and dying. Never actually ruled.

5. Baelor "The Blessed" - All he did was pray everyday. Like Daeron, he never actualy ruled which is why Viserys II is said to have been doing the actual governing for both their reigns.

Honorable mentions:

Maegor "The cruel"

Aegon II

Aenys I

Aerys I

Robert wasn't a good king, but he is by far not the worst. At least he kept peace in the realm during his reign.

[Victor227]

A few interesting points on Aegon IV! For one, the whole rumor about his heir Daeron II being fathered by the Dragonknight and actually being illegitimate? According to an Arys Oakheart chapter, that was -started- by Aegon himself to chip away at his own heir's foundation for rule. Another, he squandered huge fortunes in 'hushing up' lords that he offended through bastard-getting trysts with their wives and daughters, including the gift of a -dragon egg- to Lord Butterwells after staying in his castle and de-maiden-ing his three daughters.

By the time of his death, he legitimized Daemon Blackfyre, gave him the family sword, and worked to destroy his own heir's reputation to encourage rebellion. There have been lots of crazy Targs, but at least Aerys II focused his self-destructive crazy tendencies in antagonizing -other- houses rather than tearing his own in half. He's my top pick.

Aerys II is obviously next, as he brought down the dynasty with his insane focus on destroying the crown's connection to half the kingdom and more or less every great house except for the Tyrells (whom he probably ignored anyway. Socially they're the least-important of the great houses in lineage). He called for Robert's head in spite of him having done nothing. Likewise with Ned and Lord Rickard (Brandon was certainly being an idiot, and frankly was open for what he got), and proceeded to allow half the realm to form up against him, all after spitefully shaming and offending the one man in the kingdom who could have kept things together for him out of jealous pride (Tywin). Still, Aegon the Unworthy is worse on my list for his direct attempts to destroy his own house.

Daeron, the Young Dragon, and Baelor the Blessed share a spot for me. As they both seemed to be generally ineffective rulers with ridiculous priorities that cost the realm greatly. Daeron with his warmongering, and Baelor with his pious insanity. Viserys II apparently held the realm together as Hand through both of them, and the house generally endured them rather than prosper under them. The only benefit was that they were both excellent for PR, and were pretty spotless publicly with their extreme natures occupying well-liked niches in Westeros.

Maegor the Cruel occupies an iffy spot for me. As frankly we don't know much about him. He's responsible for mass murder in the case of the Red Keep's builders, and executed a number of Grand Maesters, and even his own wives for failing to produce heirs. He also took the throne before his nephew Jaehaerys in spite of him being the rightful heir. He failed to squash the Faith Militant uprising in spite of bounties and other measures as well. When you consider this was the golden age of Targ power, where they still had dragons and could project immense power through them, he seems cruel and ineffective by comparison.

Last place is Joffrey. Not to say he couldn't have eventually become worse than all of the above, he simply just didn't have time to. I can only give him 'crappy king' points for his crossbow habits, making the most trouble in the short time he was king, having an utter disregard for diplomacy and a thin, thin, guise of courtesy, and just... look, it's Joffrey.

Honorable mention for Robert Baratheon on account of his spending habits, but really, ol' Robert wasn't too bad. He managed to replace the Targ dynasty in an incredibly peaceful fashion when you consider that Dorne didn't separate, and Balon's rebellion was an isolated incident handily crushed. If the succession had gone normally without war, the crown's debt would have come back to haunt future kings, but when you consider the outcome of that, it doesn't really matter too much.

[Twenty of House Goodmen]

A few interesting points on Aegon IV! For one, the whole rumor about his heir Daeron II being fathered by the Dragonknight and actually being illegitimate? According to an Arys Oakheart chapter, that was -started- by Aegon himself to chip away at his own heir's foundation for rule. Another, he squandered huge fortunes in 'hushing up' lords that he offended through bastard-getting trysts with their wives and daughters, including the gift of a -dragon egg- to Lord Butterwells after staying in his castle and de-maiden-ing his three daughters.

There's always a good chance that Daeron II actually was illegitimate. It'd be pretty interesting to know that the current Targ line is a bastard line. The songs like to point out that Aemon was the most noble knight that ever but we know that the songs are usually full of crap. Not that it matters much though, as Daeron II was very good for the realm.

[Batman]

Because Joffrey is just a kid and because Robert's an idiot and wiped out an entire Dynasty just because his stupid girlfriend was gone

There was the bit where they killed his best friends father and brother and then demanded Ned and Roberts heads as well. Robert van be petty like that.

[JonCon's Red Beard]

I wanted to say Joffrey to be the worst but Joffrey is Robert's fault. So, Robert goes before Joffrey, whatever place any of them get.

[Gannicus]

Robert has no business in anyone's top 5. He probably doesn't even crack the top 10 for worst kings.

True he didn't care for the responsibility of ruling. He left the ruling to Jon Arryn and his other advisers, I'm sure he's the first King to ever act as a figure head.

So what was the result of this? Other than a brief Greyjoy rebellion a peaceful time of unity among the 7 Kingdoms.

Now how about the debt? Robert coming from a relatively poorer house needed help, as many new nations do. But you don't plunge a kingdom into massive debt by partying a little excessively, despite what the ever trustworthy LF and Cersei might claim. It's pretty obvious that Roberts biggest crime was his negligence with Joffrey and LF, who took more than his fair share from the crown and wanted chaos and war.

The US is what a trillion dollars in debt? It only becomes an issue when idiots(Cersei and Joffrey) plunge the kingdom back into war and burn bridges with every ally they have.

[Brienne Of Bombay]

Aegon IV

Joffrey

Aerys II

Maegor The Cruel

Baelor The Blessed

[7OldDrownedRedGodsofLight]

You guys can say what you want about Robbie B. being a bad king, but at least there was peace in the realm while he was ruler.