For me, most definitely, # 1 on my list, John of Gaunt, and tied with him is William Marshall.
William The Conqueror
Henry II
Edward IV
Charles II

William the Conqueror was a man of tremendious strength, and courage. There’s a funny story connected with how he got Matilda to be his Queen. It seems that he had put forward the proposal to her father that he would like to wed Matilda. Baldwin was ok with it but when he told Matilda what was going to happen she rounded on her father and said, that she would not marry a bastard. Somehow William found out what Matilda had said, and rode over to her home in a fury and put her over his knee and spanked with her own hairbrush. She was so impressed by William’s show of temper that she fell in love with him.

Edward the 1st Malleus Scottorum was perhaps one of the strongest rulers England had as he establised parliament as a permanent institution and he also restored Royal authority after the reign of Henry 3rd. Wales gave him a bit of a headache too but with the birth of his son in 1284 in Caernarfon Castle, he was able to take a couple of Aspirin and go and lie down for a hour or so. At the same time, he is also often criticised for other actions, such as his brutal conduct towards the Scots, and issuing the Edict of Expulsion in 1290, by which the Jews were expelled from England. The Edict remained in effect for the rest of the Middle Ages, and it would be over 350 years until it was formally overturned in 1656.
Edward must have a very strong sword arm too as his sword is I believe still in existence and it seems that it takes 3 grown men to actually lift it. Don’t quote me it’s something I read years ago.

Thomas More well he was a very forward thinking man, you knew where you stood with him and he never tried to be something he wasn’t. He was a simple god fearing man. A very gifted scholar, I would one day love to get hold of his book Utopia. His death must have been a great blow to Henry, but at the time El Stinko wasn’t aware of it until much later when he looked back apon the death of perhaps one of his only freinds (Charles Bradon being another) with bitter remorse.

Thomas Cromwell despite his obvious screw ups Thomas did manage to do things that perhaps other lawyers would have said were impossible. He was without doubt a puppetmaster of some excellence, but he simply cooked his goose where AOC was concerned. Thomas did help Henry in saving him a lot of hassle when ruling the kingdom things that perhaps the King should have dealt with, by careful skill Cromwell managed to do
The trouble was that Thomas was not exactly diplomatic in the way he did business and as a result he made a lot of enemies, which of course started laying the poison down for him after the fiasco AOC affair.

Richard 3rd, I don’t exactly admire him as like so many of the Kings of Plantagent Era he made a lot of mistakes. But I could see his point in taking the throne from Edward’s boys, as England was still rather shaky from the War of the Roses, a 12 year old boy was in no position to lead an army, and wipe out any threats that may have come his way. Richard’s reign was an endless round of putting rebellion upon rebellion, ending in of course Bosworth. But I don’t think he was as black as he’s been painted. I just think that he was trying to do what was best for the country.
I actually wonder though if the Princes had lived would Richard had won Bosworth, actually of named Edward (Nephew) as his heir in the event of his death or would he abdicated when Edward became of age to rule in his own right? That’s of course if he didn’t have a son from another marriage.

James 1st, well his nickname was the wisest fool in christendom, yeah he was, but at the same time he united the 2 countries and cemented a happy coexistence between us.

Henry 8th He’s not exactly a favourite of mine but there again if he was a drab boring monarch we would have nothing to talk about, so from that point of view Henry certainly knew how to play the field and spice history up for us all. Did he know thar 0ver 500 years later that El Stinko’s, why and wherefore’s would be debated by us all here? I rather think that if we were so open, honest and critical of him back then we would be walking about with our heads in a Asda (Walmart) carrier bag.

Henry 6th, Perhaps one of the most tragic of all the kings, Born just shortly before his father died, and thrust into the limelight before he could even walk. Dictated to by self serving courtiers, I know that his mother was with him for a while, but after her marriage to Owen Tudor I think a lot of people viewed her as having low morals. Although Henry did have some feelings for his mother as he was excepting of her marriage to Owen Tudor and legitimised the children from their marriage and gave them land and titles to go with it. He was as we know deeply devout and as some scholars have pointed out he would have made a better monk than he did King. A lot of Henry’s problems were caused by Margeret of France, who was ambitious battleaxe, perhaps if she had been a content happy to sit by the fire and wait wife the War of the Roses would of perhaps never happened. Henry’s death is still a mystery, but he was found dead in the Wakefield tower shortly after midnight 21st May 1471, every year on this date his spirit is said to reappear on the spot where he died and appears to be deep in prayer for a few minutes befor disappearing. Eton School also lay a wreath of lilies in the same spot every year, as Henry 6th founded the school in 1440.
Right I’ll give your brains a rest but I think and hope that I’ve given you a few thing to contemplate, and I’m sure I can come up with some more iconic males from the past.

Here are my list of favourite historical males – or at least the historical males that I would like to know more about. And you’ll probably notice a bit of a theme.

George Boleyn
Thomas Culpepper
Edward VI
Guildford Dudley
James VI & I

And I just finished watching Coppola’s Marie Antoinette so would add to the list as I want to know more about the actual couple

Louis XVI

Saint Michael Archangel
Richard, coeur de lion
Bayard, le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche
Louis XIV
Winston Churchill
Charles De Gaulle

Scientists

Galileo
John Snow
Louis Pastuer

Engineers

The Stevensons pere et fils
Joseph Bazalgette
Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Soldiers

Saladin
Richard coeur de lion
Oliver Cromwell
General Patton
Ataturk
Horatio Nelson and Hardy

Statesmen

Thomas Cromwell
Mahatma Gandhi
Abraham Lincoln
John F Kennedy

Literary figures

Plato
Homer
Shakespear
Ovid

Religious figures

Jesus
Mohammad
Solomon

Royalty

Henry II
Richard III
Franz Ferdinand
Ferdinand of Aragon

Historical

Henry V111
Robin Hood
Oliver Cromwell
Guildford Dudley
Mark Smeaton
Thomas Wyatt
Thomas Moore
Cardinal Wolsey
Guy Fawkes
Shakespear

Modern Historical

Guy Gibson (Squadron Leader VC) Dambusters
Winston Churchill

can i say King Arthur? oh can I? I know he may or may not have exsisted or in my view he is based on a Celtic war lord but I love King Arthur.

Also tragical men like: Mark Smeaton, Chidioch Tichborne, Prince Arthur and Edward earl of Warwick and Prince John ( George 5th’s epileptic son) oh and of course Arthur Plantaganet supposedly murdered by King John.

and my two real heroes of history because they were courageous, brave and stood by their beliefs They are Robert Aske ( I’d have so been with him in those up risings) and St Robert Southwell poet and Jesuit.

and of course Winston Churchill and Disreali.

http://travelingthevortex.com/…..to-War.jpg

Mine is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as well. I’m fascinated by Sherlock. Also Duke of Wellington. I’m ex military and deeply interested in his war strategies in europe.

i’m not sure about admire – though there’s probably a good deal of that in why i’m interested in them – but the people i’m most interested in would be:

Elizabeth I
Richard III
Henry II
Llewellyn the Great
Simon de Montford
Henry VII

all flawed, all intelligent, all with a plan. probably the best dinner party ever – and actully, i rather fancy that Richard III and Henry VII would get on quite well…