The BBC has surveyed historians to come up with a list of the worst Britons for each century of the previous millennium. This is a list that will get some people arguing. The only king to make the list is King John whom everyone despises. But people may be amazed to see Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the list. I've always thought that he was vastly overrated since the rights that he was fighting for were issues disputing the power of the king like the Church giving sanctuary to criminals. I think that Henry II, one of the most fascinating men in British history, got an unfair shake in the movie, Becket, despites Peter O'Toole's marvelous performance. However, to say that in an age when peasants were killed indiscriminately by fighting nobles, that his murder in the Cathedral "was a fittingly grisly end" seems a bit much to me. And, Sir Richard Rich, the weasely buy made famous from A Man for All Seasons who lied to sell out Sir Thomas More was certainly a contemptible fellow, but what about Thomas Cromwell who suborned Rich's perjury or the king who set all these events into motion?

If you are at all interested in British history, this will be a fun list to debate and argue over.