In fiction , B. B. King and faggot who succumb to rabidity are a great time . In world , not so much . It ’s no fun having huge glob of the world control by someone who is irrational and mentally ill . Here are ten kings and queens whose craziness change the track of world events .
This list could have been all tsars . These rulers were raised under conditions guaranteed to make anyone a sociopath . Most of them get a line close relative murdered by other penny-pinching relatives . Though abuse relentlessly as children , as grownup they had both absolute world power and a sword of Damocles over their heads . Ivan ’s father died when Ivan was only three , and his mother was poisoned when he was eight . During his minority an unruly crew of Lord governed the state , and starve , beat , and neglected the boy and his brother . He took the ill-treatment out on little animal , which he would throw off the roof of palace . Hurling things about prove well practice for the tsar - in - training . At 16 , Ivan edge into the throne room , grabbed the loss leader of the noblemen , and throw off the man to Ivan ’s prepare hunting dog .
Ivan ’s reign was marked by violent paranoia . When Ivan suspect a nobleman wanted the throne , he coiffe the gentleman’s gentleman up as a male monarch , put him on the throne , and gutted him . Ivan make a particular constabulary force , the fellow member of which rode around with dogs ’ heads hang from their saddles and could mangle anyone at any meter , in public . Once , when Ivan heard a rumor that a town call Novgorod was rebellious , he killed every exclusive person in the townspeople , sewed the town ’s archbishop up into a bearskin , and had his dog hunt the bearman down .
It ’s hard to write all that and then use the phrase , “ circumstance deteriorated , ” but , somehow , conditions deteriorated . Ivan get going having scene . In paintings he ’s depicted as get a prominent nose and forehead . These are the way tolerant ( and probably fearful ) artists rendered calluses that Ivan had built up by banging his head on the Oliver Stone floor in front of religion icons . Ivan would also have scene of fury . During one fit , he kicked his pregnant girl - in - law in the stomach and caused her to go wrong . His son , an capable and hopeful ruler , scream at him . Ivan beat his son to death with his sceptre , then went into paroxysms of remorse . It was that moment that changed history . Ivan was a member of the ancient Rurik line of magnanimousness . With the only strong heir to the throne sweep out of the way , Russia descend into topsy-turvydom after Ivan ’s expiry . At last , nobles cast around for any stately family that the land could rally around . They came up with an inheritor scream Michael Romanov .
Peter the Great was , in many mode , a wonderful sovereign . Passionately committed to both his land and his own education , he drop much of his childhood ( imprisoned and under constant menace from his half - sister Sofia ) learning army manoeuvre and designing ships . As an grownup , he tour Europe , learn about the latest advances in the scientific discipline so he could bring them back to Russia .
Sometimes he bring his love of scholarship , and his restlessness with those who did n’t get on instrument panel , too far . When he was read dentistry , he would practice on his Lord . When a group of attendants were upset while watching the dissection of a remains , he rate them to walk up to the corpse and take a bite out of it . Then there was his terrible paranoia . Peter was the child of the former tsar ’s second married woman . When he was ten , he see the relative of the tzar ’s first wife toss his uncles and aunts off the roof of a building to the courtyard below , where they were torn apart by purportedly “ loyal ” soldier . He was fanatical about loyalty , to the point of have his own Logos tortured to death for temporarily fly to Sweden .
One soul he trust was his wife , Catherine . Catherine ’s life was a Cinderella story made into a repulsion movie . Captured by the Russian army , she was slip away around by soldiers . She happen to be passed up the chain of mastery . Eventually she met the tzar , who became enthralled to her . Peter had fits of panic , and during those fits , Catherine was the only one who could solace him . Peter decreed that a tsar should be able to name his own replacement , and though he never specify Catherine should succeed him , she did . More importantly , this decree differentiate a discriminating turn away from rakehell tie-in and first hold boy , and the beginning of a opinion that any rule would do , provided they were a good Russian .
It says something about Peter III that the only reason historians conceive that his boy , Paul I , was legitimate was that Paul has his “ father ’s unbalance . ” Peter was an alone contemptible ruler , but he was also a pitiable material body . Like many of the Romanovs in line for the throne , he had almost no link with his parent . Instead , he was rear by a tutor who was awfully abusive to the slow pupil . Peter was on a regular basis beaten , starved , and abase . He grow into a creepy portmanteau word of manchild and psychopath .
He did n’t consummate his marriage to Catherine , a fairly little German nobody who had been imported as a brood female horse , for at least nine days , because he spent every night in bed fiddle with toy soldier . When he wanted a minuscule power , he would thrust his wife to fit out up as a soldier and put her through military practice . For a change of pace , he spoil in creature contumely , “ rail ” a pack of hunt dogs by beating them , and bear military trial and hangings of the blabber he found nibbling his toy soldiers . So predictable was his insanity that , in parliamentary procedure to get him away from Catherine while she was giving nativity to a by all odds unlawful nipper ( or else of just a probably illegitimate nestling ) , a minister loyal to her set fire to his own sign . He get it on the tsar would belt along off to see the fire and pull up stakes Catherine alone .
Most crazy tsar , unpleasant as they were , go along their throne . Why did Peter get deposed in a coup d’etat that left the extraneous Catherine gratuitous to become one of Russia ’s most famous rulers ? Because Peter was dotty like a Prussian , not crazy like a Russian . Peter was , for some time , count the inheritor to the Swedish throne . He was rear to dislike Russia , and he did . He idolized the Prussian loss leader Frederick the Great , who was , when Peter became tsar , at warfare with Russia – and misplace . At the moment when it looked like Frederick was done for , Peter order his army to settle with his idol on very lucky terms . Catherine , who actually was born in Prussia , had expend the first few years of her wedding vigorously Russianizing herself and evenly smartly cultivating the Russian ground forces . The army preferred a Prussian who had decided she was Russian to a Russian who had decided he was Prussian , and Peter was conquer , deposed , and kill in little order .
At last , we shall leave behind Russia . On to France ! Charles the VI was king for a very longsighted time , during which a united , prosperous , and potent res publica fall into civil war and chaos . Charles had all the paranoia of the tzar , but none of the aggressiveness . This was a disgrace , as he arguably had more causa to be strong-growing . Charles ’ brother , Louis of Valois , enjoyed everything that made the mass around him miserable , including money , prestige , and other the great unwashed ’s wives . “ Other people ’s wives , ” in this case , include the Queen . citizenry before long began questioning how far Louis would go to get the Queen , when , during a orb , the king and some fellow nobleman fit out up as “ dotty men ” in full - dead body suit of tar and flax . Charles had find to wander away from the group when Louis grabbed a blowtorch and , declare he wanted to figure out who the military man were , thrust it at the group . The other men burned to decease .
Charles soon began get patch . positive he was made of glass and would shatter if he moved too quick , he would scarce move for hours on remnant . He became tongue-tied and paranoid . Perhaps out of resentment , he grew enamored with Louis ’ wife , and would demand she stay with him at all times . During these spells , Louis became the de facto Riley B King . This made him a formidable resister . Anyone who made a move to weaken the Count of Valois would find , a calendar month or so later , that they were the enemy of the acting king of France . One night , John the Fearless , Duke of Burgundy , determine to put an destruction to Louis . He hired a chemical group of machinator to hack on Louis to death in the street ( as he was coming from the Queen ’s apartments ) . The conspirator were n’t peculiarly talented . They wore the livery of the Duke of Burgundy . It was n’t long before masses found out exactly who killed Louis .
The country erupted into civic war , which the thin Martin Luther King could n’t quell . John the Fearless go to the English for military backup , which they happily give him , in exchange for state in France . After John the Fearless was kill , the English seemed oddly reluctant to leave behind . Charles “ the Mad ” had to declare an English king the heir to France . The accord did n’t hold , because of turmoil in the English judicature , but it did give England and France an alibi to go to war for the next few hundred years .
Here ’s another line that could live the entire inclination . The members of the Liu Song dynasty enjoyed killing two types of people : ( 1)their folk and ( 2)everyone else ’s family . Qianfei started out his life as a prisoner of his own uncle . The young Qianfei was under constant threat until his beginner obliterate his uncle , and go under the boy gratis . That turned out to be a error , both historically and in person . The boy show his gratitude by hating his father so much that , when he became emperor at the years of 15 , he demanded all his begetter ’s portraits be given a with child atrocious nose . He also repealed all his father ’s laws at once , discombobulate the nation into topsy-turvydom .
It ’s never a well sign when a female parent ’s last intelligence are , “ Somebody bring me a steel and cut me open to see how this animate being come out of me . ” Qianfei killed nigh everyone in his family , start out with his blood brother His brother was a third son and the last few emperors had been third boy as well . Qianfei was superstitious . He left some of his uncles alive , but cage in them and put them on public exhibit . One noble who plotted against him bring forth his eyes outflank out . Qianfei put the optic in beloved and called them pickled ghost optic . In between bout of slaying he engaged in intimate corruption , ordering his female relatives to have sexual practice in front of him . If they refused , he kill their phratry . One auntie did not pass up , and begin an liaison with Qianfei . When her husband objected , Qianfei faked her death by killing a servant and sending the husband the mutilated body . And he killed the married man . And he killed the superior general who hint that he not kill the husband .
This episode provide the first clue as to why he did n’t last long . As Qianfei ’s paranoia increased , he slaughter anyone who even looked like a traitor . Once he killed a servant because she looked like a womanhood who had enjoin him , in a dreaming , that he would be killed . Then he was killed .
astonishingly this act was not confide by his category , or by the military . ( If there is one thing about being a monarch I ’ve learned from making this tilt , it ’s never puddle off the military . ) He was bolt down by his attendant . Just to drive that family , a radical of handmaid shoot down the emperor , and nobody objected . That ’s how bad Qianfei was . One of the caged uncles was put on the throne , but the dynasty was done for . The uncle belt down everyone except for another underaged nephew , who succeeded him but who was killed at fourteen , by his general . ( See ? Military . ) The superior general begin the Qi dynasty , and that ’s all she wrote for the Liu Songs .
( Note : This is a picture of Liu Yu of the Song dynasty , as there do n’t appear to be any movie useable of Qianfei )
Maria , unlike almost everyone else on this lean , had an idyllic childhood . Her begetter , the King of Portugal , doted on her and her sisters . He spend most of his day taking the Margaret Court from one beautiful localization to another , give his daughter dolls modeled on the saints , and patronizing player and artist . For anyone else , this would have made for a happy life , but that ’s not the kind of matter one can do when one is mogul . While the King played around , his minister , the Marquis of Pombal , managed the body politic . In the Marquis ’ vista , “ managing ” the area meant imprison everyone who questioned him , and kill the rest . When an attempt was made on the King ’s life , the Marquis rounded up his strongest political enemies , tortured them into confessions , broke their bones on a scaffold , and then burn off the scaffold down .
This might not have touched Maria so deep if spiritual passion did n’t work in her family . ( Her home also ran in her family . She was married to her own uncle . Her son was married to her baby . ) When she acceded to the stool , she became tormented by the sentiment that her beloved father was in hell for being a bad king , and that she was soon to link up him . She amnestied all the political prisoner , and gave many positions at court . This did not facilitate thing , as 10 in a 18th century Portuguese prison do not make for genial wellness . Many of her counsellor and courtiers were as mentally ill as she was .
When , within the space of a yr , her eldest son , her only animation daughter , and two of her closest ministers all died , Maria fell aside . Some days she would embrace the fact that she was already damned by talk in an “ unchaste ” personal manner . Some days she would step the halls screaming . Her twenty - six - class - old 2nd boy was made regent , but he was a lackadaisical man with no ability to reform an entire court of justice of lunatics . The country was in no build to play Napoleon in 1807 . The moment he marched on them , the integral family fled to Brazil .
As with the Russian czar and the Liu Song dynasty , so with the sultan of the Ottoman empire – and for much the same understanding . The sultans ’ story are complicated by many wives and many Logos . shoulder strap in . Our tale begin with a group of brothers , the most prominent among them being Ahmed I and Mustafa . Ahmed , require might to himself , put his eleven - yr - previous brother Mustafa in “ The coop , ” a tower with no windows , a brick paries build over the door , and no human liaison . Ahmed had a few sons , but died at the super early age of twenty - eight . His most influential choir get laid that her sons were too young to hold the can , and that any of Ahmed ’s other sons would in all probability either kill or imprison hers . Out of the Cage Mustafa came , fourteen years after being put in what was fundamentally an above - ground pit .
Some find it odd that he walked around , always accompanied by two defenseless slave girl , but that was n’t the job . The trouble was he had a drug abuse of giving important position to random masses he wish – such as a man by the side of a road who offered him some water on a hot day . Without a strong and unionised central government , the empire started to fall apart . Back into the Cage he pass , with the two char this meter .
He was replace by Ahmed ’s oldest son , Osman . The untested man might have made a seemly ruler . He try out to reorganise the government activity and put in capable people . But he proscribe imbibe and smoke , especially for soldiers , and tried to castigate the elite royal safety , called the Janisarries . They rebel and sentenced him to death by “ contraction of the testicles . ” ( Does anyone remember what I drop a line about not anger the armed services ? )
Out of the Cage come Mustafa again . At this point , he had a use of sitting and titter to himself . In between giggle fits , he would go around look for his nephew , Osman , forgetting the man was deadened . When cue that his other nephews were active , he made plans to down them . He also went back to his old trick , appointing random the great unwashed to important perspective . revenue enhancement revenue from the provinces was pass away off . The official in the provinces were one stone’s throw from declaring themselves local kings . To put a crown on thing , the Safavid Persian Empire attacked and catch what is now Iraq . Back into the Cage Mustafa went , for good this clip .
Mustafa was succeed by Murad IV , one of the nephew that he ’d considered kill . Murad IV was a remorseless but effective rule . His last act , before dying , was ordering the execution of his last surviving brother . He had nothing against small Ibrahim -although as it work out he should have . Murad simply believed that the line was “ beshrew ” by insaneness and needed to be annihilated . unhappily for at least 279 women , Ibrahim ’s mother successfully pleaded for her Word ’s lifetime .
Ibrahim had spend his entire lifetime in the Cage , with only casual contact with human . He came out with what can be tactfully described as a lecherousness for life . Made phrenetic by his years of deprivation , he acquired everything he could , and lashed out violently at anyone who might take his possessions forth .
He apace hoard 280 concubines in a harem . One day , when he see a young cow ’s genitals he had a cast made of them , circulated it throughout the empire , looking for a woman to match them . ( Here is our second alarm adaptation of Cinderella . ) At last , a woman was found . She became his favorite doxy . He dub her “ sugar lump ” or “ sugar cube . ” Sugar did n’t care for competition , so she told the psychotically green-eyed Ibrahim that one of the women in the harem was unfaithful , only she did n’t know which one . Ibrahim had all 280 draw up in carrier bag and thrown in the Bosphorus . Only one hold up when her sac came undone . She was taken aboard a Gallic freighter bound for Paris – which was probably the minimum safe distance from Ibrahim .
This he got away with . What finally did Ibrahim in was deciding that one of his concubine should be the daughter of the Grand Mufti – the interpreter of religious law . He nobble the daughter , but return her after a few days , so she was not among the women drowned . Meanwhile , he was fanatically larn all the gold and jewels he could , extract jewels from temple and imperil to stuff his ministers with pale yellow if they objected . Just to put a further striving on resources , Ibrahim part a war with Venice . He soon could n’t yield the Janissaries . They might have felt guilty deposing , sending to the Cage , and eventually carry out their grand Turk . How fortunate for them that there was an interpreter of spiritual jurisprudence there to assure them that it was the right thing to do . The warfare with Venice outlasted Ibrahim by 22 days .
Justin II , like most of the other crowned head on this tilt , spent his plastic years wondering if he was going to be remove . He was one of the possible successor to the Byzantine Empire , and he develop up under the empire ’s most infamous duad , Justinian and Theodora . Eventually only Justinian was bequeath , but all the possible heirs know they could get the chop either before or after the Saturnia pavonia ’s expiry . Justin was one of two Justins in a whole crop of cousin . He had been Theodora ’s favorite , the child of one of her sister , and Justinian stay a uxorious man . So this Justin got crown . The other Justin got killed .
permit ’s be sightly . Justin II inherited a tough office . Justinian ’s foreign policy had consisted of expanding militarily as far as he could , then paying his new neighbors not to aggress him . Although not something that one would recollect about while saluting a flag , it was a jimhickey estimate . Tribute was not anywhere near as expensive as warfare . alas , the empire was going through some tough fiscal times , and Justinian had been borrowing to cover his yearly payments . Justin believed he would do better by refuse payment to the Persians in the E while toy the tribes to the north against each other . It did not go well .
It was then , under the strain of multiple nearing United States Army , that Justin started to disintegrate . While ministers ask him what they should do , he would claim that he find out voices and climb under his bottom to escape them . Those were good days . On unfit Day , he would violently attack the servant , burn them on the arm and oral sex . Legend has it that he literally run through a dyad of his servants . In despairing self - conservation , the servants hear to think up some way to keep the emperor too distracted to wipe out them all . They came up with a crapper on wheel . The servants race him around the halls of his castle in the throne , try out to keep him amuse with the speed .
In the end Justin II fared fairly well – perhaps sound than he deserved considering his last words as emperor were ailment about his servants . He find some of his senses , and handed over power to one of his general . ( Military . Military . Military . ) He lived out his life in obscurity , unmurdered .
Ludwig II of Bavaria is also known as the Swan King , or the Fairy King , names he no doubt would have further during his lifetime . He liked the theme of being a top executive , but was n’t particularly good at it . How not right ? He fall behind his whole nation within two years . Two year into his reign , Bavaria was swallowed up by Prussia . King Ludwig was permit to hold back his statute title and some power , but beyond the championship , he was n’t much concerned in authorities .
He was concerned in the things that have made him , subsequently , a beloved monarch . He construct a succession of sensational palaces . He hired dramatics handler to revolutionize theater in Munich , prepare new standards of drama for the westerly world . He was the most important and stomach supporter of Wagner . ( Well . They ca n’t all be winners . ) What ’s more , he did all this with purple funds . Naturally , he accrue a great deal of debt .
It was this debt that do a council to declare him insane and unfit to govern . That ’s correct , work up too many pretty thing and funding the arts qualified as madness . Standards for insane monarch butterfly really dropped in the nineteenth one C . Today , many citizenry believe that Ludwig was below the belt condemned . It ’s bad to say whether the fact that three days after he was deposed Ludwig was found dead in a shallow lake along with the doctor who diagnosed him strengthens or weakens their casing . Whatever the conclusion , Ludwig II was the one sore monarch who lead his country a great bequest . Bavaria rest the ethnic center of Prussia for the next sixty year , many people enjoy Wagner for some reason , and to this day Ludwig ’s palaces force 1000000 of visitors . And not even one member of the clergy was dressed up as a bear and hunted by dogs .
[ ViaThe Secret lifetime of Tsars , Absolute Terror , Blood Royal,1000 Words for 1000 day , Maria I of Portugal , Mustafa I of Turkey , Ibrahim I of Turkey , Murad IV , Bavaria ’s demented King Ludwig May Not Have Been So insane After All , King Ludwig II , Justin II . ]
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