The Republic of Heaven

Yes, this was inspired by some magazine questionare, but I thought it might be interesting. 'Historical figures' can be anyone from Gandhi to your grandmother.

For me, they have to be people who strove, knowing it was futile, but knowing that their pointless futile struggle would inspire others:

Charles Stewart Parnell
Salvadore Allende
Simon de Montfort
and Eleanor of Aquitaine, because she was just cool!

Julius Caesar

Rommel
Montgomery
Joan of Arc
Wallace

Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Joan of Arc and Nelson Mandela, historical or not.

cleopatra.. Or uhm, thats spelled wrong.. well, you know the egyptic one..

My great Grandmother the Greek one. One of the Greek ones .
She had such a fab name! Granted, that's not a reason, but I am so changing my name to that one day.

I've got a bunch of Historic Figures, but I'll name a number of them here:

Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, Egill Skallagrímsson,
William Wallace, Snorri Sturluson, Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc) and Jón Sigurðsson.

CALIGULA.

[laughs] I honestly don't know. I love the interesting, completely kcufed-up ones, like Caligula there. x3

Why stop at Caligua? Go for Nero!
...
Or Palpatine. . I am the Senate!!

Hannibal and King Arthur ( even though he may or may not be historic)
Oh and I kind of like reading about Charlemagne and also Genghis Khan.

Boudica. Anyone that stood up to the Romans is great in my eyes.

Bede
Caedmon
Penda of Mercia
All those eighteenth/ninteenth century junkies
William Blake
St Hilda of Whitby
Wat Tyler
Hereward the Wake
John Dee
William Cobbett
Joseph Arch
Alexandra Kollentai


Heh...this is where I get banned by the RoH Thought Police.
A lot of my favourite historical figures are somewhat dubious characters:

Gregor and Otto Strasser
Enver Hoxha
Gerard Steenson
Nester Makhno
Horst Wessel...dodgy geezers

theobald wolfetone
micheal collins
anyone who has ever been branded a heretic from defying the catholic church

Owain Glyndŵr,
Dic Penderyn,
Boudica,
King Arthur, (he was real )

King Arthur, (he was real )

lol, just covering my bases deary

Yeah, King Arthur was real!!! And I want to add in George Orwell (I guess, author and journalist more than 'historical figure', but anyone that principled deserves recognition)

If I could have met anyone it would have been Freddie Mercury. Legend.

Charles Stewart Parnell

whuuuuttttttt? He went power mad and destroyed his own career, while setting back the party as a whole. He also abandoned the land league on his route to power.

Micheal Davitt pwns all. ALL!

It's because he was like a tragic hero, fatally flawed and unable to achieve what he set out to do... I like my historical figures to have a bit of futility about what they did. What I mean is that, they know that what they're doing is hopelessly futile, and they do it anyway, and other people build on their 'achievements'....I guess what I'm saying is that I like my historical figures to be more like literary characters - interesting, rather than good.