Top 10 Most Famous Kings

[Eddie Teach]

Watchmojo made a list about this, but I figure Languish can easily improve on theirs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urzWY6sqVGw
(Their list)
10 Frederick the Great
9 Haile Selassie
8 Tutankhamun
7 Peter the Great
6 Hammurabi
5 Charlemagne
4 Cyrus the Great
3 Alexander the Great
2 Henry VIII
1 Louis XIV

Setting aside the apparent arbitrary decision to disqualify some "Emperors" and "Khans" from their list of kings while allowing other "Emperors" and "Pharaohs", how do they manage to put Louis and Henry over Alexander? 

My list would look more like this:
1 Alexander
2 Genghis Khan
3 Qin Shi Huang
4 Caesar Augustus
5 Henry VIII
6 Tamerlane
7 Hammurabi
8 Louis XIV
9 Charlemagne
10 Shah Jahan


Thoughts?

[Ideologue]

Famous?  Hirohito would have to go on there somewhere.

[Syt]

If their list is "famous" kings which I take to mean, "names a large number of average Joes have heard", I'm surprised they include Cyrus the Great or Haile Salassie, but not Richard the Lionheart (who was admittedly a crappy King of England, but is still famous).

[Eddie Teach]

Regarding Richard, I think his fame will vary highly depending on the standard used- very high on simple name recognition, but going down steeply if you expect people to know something about him. Same for Ivan the Terrible. Their interesting nicknames make them memorable.

[MadImmortalMan]

David and Solomon?

[Ideologue]

Jesus.

[Syt]

Jesus.

No need for cussing.

[Syt]

Alternatively, the top ten greatest monarchs as per http://listverse.com/2010/08/11/top-10-greatest-monarchs/ (surely a peer reviewed, authoritative source ).

10 - Suleiman the Magnificent
09 - James I of England
08 - John III of Poland-Lithuania
07 - Meiji of Japan
06 - Gustav II Adolf of Sweden
05 - Augustus of Rome
04 - Cyrus II of Persia
03 - Frederick II of Prussia
02 - Victoria of the United Kingdom
01 - Louis XIV of France

Slightly better list, but I don't think I would consider Victoria great - she was the symbol of her times, but not much of an active participant. I would probably replace her with Peter the Great.

[Syt]

Regarding Richard, I think his fame will vary highly depending on the standard used- very high on simple name recognition, but going down steeply if you expect people to know something about him. Same for Ivan the Terrible. Their interesting nicknames make them memorable.

But the same is true for Tutankhamen. He's known because of his tomb; otherwise he would have been a footnote in the lists of Pharaohs.

[CountDeMoney]

Jesus.

The King of Beers

[Syt]

Also Karl V needs to go on those lists.

[Eddie Teach]

Assuming you mean Carlos V, he'd probably make my top 20.

[The Brain]

Louis XIV doesn't strike me as an extremely famous monarch.

[Martinus]

Alternatively, the top ten greatest monarchs as per http://listverse.com/2010/08/11/top-10-greatest-monarchs/ (surely a peer reviewed, authoritative source ).

10 - Suleiman the Magnificent
09 - James I of England
08 - John III of Poland-Lithuania
07 - Meiji of Japan
06 - Gustav II Adolf of Sweden
05 - Augustus of Rome
04 - Cyrus II of Persia
03 - Frederick II of Prussia
02 - Victoria of the United Kingdom
01 - Louis XIV of France

Slightly better list, but I don't think I would consider Victoria great - she was the symbol of her times, but not much of an active participant. I would probably replace her with Peter the Great.

Seriously? James I??? And not Henry VIII (admittedly not an ideal but much better than James I) or Elizabeth I?

Likewise, for Poland John III was an extremely crappy king - he was a good military commander, but as a monarch was attrocious. Casimir the Great or Stefan Bathory were much better.

[Sheilbh]

James I successfully unified the crown.

Henry VII bankrupted the country, lost every war he was involved in, had to deal with numerous internal revolts and broke with Rome. The man was a tyrant of the worst sort.

Liz should probably be on there. But that's more an indication of the poor quality of most monarchs than anything else.