[CaptainCrunch]

I've enjoyed doing the entertainment based links and they're a lot of fun, but what I'm really passionate about history, and the odder things about history. So I thought i would try a history based list on occasion.

So maybe once a week I'll pop a new list up for discussion.

So for my first list, since we all love the villains, here are some of the greatest historical betrayals.

1) Brutus stabs Caesar - This had to be one of the most shocking betrayals of all times, because of its savagery and the fact that Brutus loved Caesar and was one of his closest friends and confidants. So why did he participate in the stabbing of Caesar 23 times with other disgruntled Roman Senators. Because of power. The Roman Senate feared what Caesar was becoming, he was on the path to becoming a pure Dictator and the Senate feared that he would dis-assemble the Republic and replace it with a Monarchy with Caesar as its absolute ruler. Brutus loved Caesar but he loved the Republic more so it was easy for the other Senators to convince him to murder his friend. The famous line "Et Tu Brutus" from Shakespeare was probably never uttered because well you know, 23 stab wounds.

Ironically betrayal was a bit of a family business as Brutus had an ancestor also named Brutus who betrayed the Roman Monarchy in 509 BC.

2) The Gunpowder Conspirators - Guy Fawkes was notorious for his betrayal of the English Monarchy. Spurred into action by the prosecution of Catholics by Elizabeth I and James I. Fawkes decided with the help of other conspirators to blow up the British Parliament in 1605. Fawkes and his fellow co-conspirators planted 36 barrels of gunpowder in the basement of the Parliament, but some of the co-conspirators had second thoughts due to the expected casualties including innocent Catholics. One of the Conspirators wrote a letter to Lord Monteagle to avoid going to Parliament on November 5th and Fawkes was captured as the traitor was betrayed. Fawkes was sentenced to be first hung, and then drawn and quartered but managed to jump to his death before the Sentence was carried out.

3) Tokyo Rose - There were many Tokyo Roses that worked with the Japanese propaganda arm during WW2, but the one that is most remembered was Iva Tuguri who was a Las Angeles native who was trapped in Japan during WW2, she became the Voice of Imperial Japan. At the end of the war she was imprisoned and released in 1956, she received a full pardon in 1976

4) Ethel and Julius Rosenberg - A effective spy couple for the Soviets during the Cold War they couriered secret documents about the American Nuclear Weapons project and Military projects while Julius built a spy ring by recruiting sympathetic communists. In the end they were arrested and tried for treason, Both were executed by the Electric Chair. During their Trial they used the 5th Amendment but it doomed Ethel and years later her brother in law admitted to lying to protect his wife. While Ethel might not have been a master spy, Julius was.

5) Benedict Arnold - Arnold was a General for the United States during the American Revolutionary War, and by all accounts an effective one leading American Forces to multiple victories. Frustrated by continued accusations of corruption and incompetents by rivals who tried to claim credit for his successes, as well as America's refusal to sign a agreement with Britain involving the granting of Self Governance of the Colonies. Arnold decided to change sides, he was given command of West Point and decided to surrender it to the British, but his plot was found out and he fled and was given a Commission as a Brigadier General in the British Army.