As the old saying goes, Power Corrupts; Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.
Throughout history and even in the present times, the world has always had an abundance
of who are off their rockers.
Whether it is because of the power that they wield that has driven them to skirt the edges
of insanity or that their eccentricities have been their most defining character since the
beginning, they have played significant roles in shaping the world that we know of today
for good or bad.
Today, we struggle to understand the motivations behind despots with trigger-happy fingers
who could start a devastating nuclear war or scratch our heads at world leaders who
seem out of sync with the values of the countries they represent but compared to the ones on
this list, they seem to pale in comparison on the insanity scale.
So bring out the popcorn and find a comfortable seat, we are counting down to 10 of history’s
most insane and ape-crazy leaders!
10.
JUANA LA LOCA
What better way to start off this list than with someone who was actually called crazy
by the people during her reign?
Joanna of Castile was the wife of Spain’s King Philip I who was also known as “Philip
the Handsome”.
Despite their marriage being an arranged one, Joanna fell deeply in love with her husband
and became a devoted wife and mother to their children and ruled as Queen of Castile and
Aragon in the 16th Century.
Unfortunately for Joanna, she fell into a deep melancholy and depression after Philip’s
sudden death.
Stories have it that she would often visit her husband’s tomb and ordered to have it
opened so that she could spend time with the deceased king – caressing and kissing his
corpse as if he were only asleep.
When her son Charles ascended the throne, he Joanna was sent to a nunnery to live out
the rest of her days in peace where her caretakers would claim that the mad Queen was convinced
that the nuns were trying to kill her.
9.
CHARLES VI
Crowned as king of France in the late 14th Century and at the youthful age of 11, Charles
the Vi earned the name “Charles the Well-loved” by his subjects for being a good ruler that
is until insanity consumed him.
Later on called Charles the Mad by the same people who loved him, his madness grew worse
as he aged.
According to people in his court, Charles would fall to paranoia and agitation by just
the sound of a dropping spear especially when he was traveling.
His madness became even worse when he was reported to have murdered one of his own knights
and a few other people in his party.
Charles’s condition only worsened after waking up from a coma.
Oftentimes he would forget the names of his children and his wife; he even would forget
his name and who he was.
What punctuated his madness before his death in 1422 was him spending the remaining days
of his life strongly believing that he was made completely out of glass.
8.
IBRAHIM I
The successor to Murad IV and one of the most famous Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Ibrahim
I was not entirely the chosen successor to Murad IV’s throne.
Murad IV even made an edict that Ibrahim I should be killed upon his own death.
Unfortunately, Ibrahim, I was allowed to live and rule because his subjects and even his
rivals did not see him as a threat due to his madness.
It was this oversight that allowed Ibrahim I to bring the Ottoman Empire dangerously
close to collapsing in a short amount of time.
He was also known for his predilections to morbidly obese women and ordered his men to
track down the largest woman they could find.
Eventually, somewhere in Armenia or Georgia, they found the Sultan the perfect candidate
who weighed over 300 pounds.
Ibrahim was said to be pleased with this that he called this woman his “Piece of Sugar”
and gave her a government pension alongside the title of Governor General of Damascus.
When he heard rumors that one of his concubines have been “compromised”, he ordered the
execution of 280 members of his harem by drowning in the Bosporus Sea.
7.
FU SHENG
An Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, he only sat on the throne for two years but to his subjects,
it was an extremely long and dangerous two years of their lives.
His lunacy was underscored by his thirst for power and excessive amounts of drinking that
– according to records – took place even when he was making important decisions on
matters of state.
One of his first edicts, when he came into power, was banning the use of the words such
as “lacking”, without”, and “devoid”; a simple slip of the tongue is enough to send
anyone to the gallows.
Government officials were not spared his madness and bloodthirsty nature because, whenever
Fu Sheng just felt like it, he ordered their deaths.
Unfortunately for this Emperor, his madness has gained the ire of his family members who
took matters into their own hands and assassinated him.
6.
EMPRESS ANNA
Made Empress in the 18th Century by the Supreme Privy Council of Russia, Anna ruled her vast
empire with ferocity mixed with her brand of crazy.
Believing that Anna would be in the debt of the Privy Council, they confidently brought
her to power unaware of the consequences of their decision.
Upon officially taking the throne, Anna restored the Secret Police to do anything she wishes
since she was in the full favor of the Royal Guard.
For the 10 years of her rule, she was able to torment and execute the same aristocrats
and nobility who had put her in power.
Her madness became evident when, in one story, she discovered that a young Russian prince’s
mother was a Catholic.
Upon the mother’s death, the young prince was arranged to be married to one of Anna’s
maids.
The act may seem harmless at first glance except for the fact that Anna had ordered
a palace made out of ice constructed specially for the occasion.
Guests to the wedding were forced to come in clown costume as the ceremony took place
in one of Russia’s harshest and deadliest winters it has ever seen in years.
5.
NERO
The Roman Empire has no shortage of insane despots and Emperor Nero is among the infamous
if not the most infamous of unhinged Emperors.
His extreme hatred towards Christians is well-noted in the annals of history and the Great Fire
of Rome was supposedly executed under his orders to clear out the city of Christians
and make way for a new city-center as well as a shiny new palace.
He was, undoubtedly, bloodthirsty but his purge of the Christians and edifice complex
pales in comparison to the murder of his own mother, Agrippina, and his wives Poppaea Sabina
and Octavia.
4.
COMMODUS
Son of the revered and loved Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Commodus was an apple that
fell miles away from the tree.
With an appetite for gladiatorial fights, Commodus proclaims that he was the incarnation
of the mythical hero Hercules.
Certainly with pretty large shoes to fill after the death of his father, Commodus proved
to be a failure as a leader in almost every way possible.
Where Marcus Aurelius was praised for his intelligence and resolve, Commodus was absolutely
despised by the people of Rome as well as his contemporaries.
His vanity and display of manliness, as well as his massive ego, did not fare well for
the Empire that he was expected to lead.
Instead, Commodus enjoyed jumping in the ring and participating in gladiatorial fights that
were rigged to his favor.
3.
VLAD THE IMPALER
History knows him well as Vlad Dracula and was the direct inspiration of Bram Stoker
to pen his classic Victorian novel.
Prince of Wallachia in Romania around the 15th Century, he was one of the fiercest opponents
of the Ottoman Empire who, at that time, were encroaching upon Europe.
His sadistic temperament earned him the nickname “Tepesh” or “The Impaler” by many
of his foes because of a particular way he enjoyed disposing of his enemies and critics.
In fact, dozens of legends surround the persona of Vlad Dracula that in one of them it was
believed that he had his own forest of impaled people where he would occasionally dine, drinking
their blood in a golden chalice and dipping his bread in it – a story that, perhaps,
originated the belief that he was a vampire himself.
In another story, when the disease broke out and infected hundreds in Wallachia, Vlad invited
the diseased as well as the impoverished to a banquet.
In the middle of the feast, the Prince quietly exited the banquet hall and ordered his men
to board the premises up and barricade all exits as soldiers set the place ablaze – a
way for him to clean his streets of the plague-ridden as well as the poor.
2.
IVAN THE TERRIBLE
Ivan IV was a long line of Russian Czars that brought stability to an otherwise chaotic
country in dark times.
However, despite being a strong-willed monarch, Ivan was prone to violent outbursts of anger
and madness.
After falling into a deep depression when his wife died in 1560, his paranoia and lunacy
got worse – convinced that the nobility and his boyars conspired to kill his wife.
He ruled Russia for the next 24 years.
His enemies and critics met brutal ends under his rule and the common people of Russia lived
in genuine terror due to the Czar’s indiscriminate use of violence and torture to get his way.
Not even his bloodline managed to survive his madness.
In one historical account, Ivan had gotten angry at his eldest son.
Believing that he was being disrespected by his progeny and heir, he beat his son with
a 30-pound iron bar, crushing his skull and killing him instantly.
His two other sons fell in disfavor with fate: Ivan’s middle child’s mental health rapidly
declined and his youngest son died mysteriously at a young age.
1.
CALIGULA
In the four years of his rule, Caligula brought blood and carnage throughout the Roman Empire.
Crowned as Emperor in 37 AD, the Roman aristocracy and public thought that they were out of the
shadows after the death of the equally demented Emperor Tiberius.
For the first 6 months of his reign, Caligula could not seem to be more popular.
After freeing prisoners who were unjustly caged by Tiberius and introducing revolutionary
reforms in government and society, things seemed to be promising.
That is until Caligula fell terribly ill.
Upon his recovery in October of the same year, his mind began to warp.
He began declaring himself as a living god and ordered the construction of a bridge from
his palace that directly led to the temple of Jupiter so that he may consult with the
deity.
He began to cross-dress and attempted to appoint his horse as a consul to the Roman Senate
– in other accounts, he tried to make his horse into a General of the Roman Army.
His detractors, political opponents, and critics faced harsh consequences for voicing out their
displeasure.
Executions almost became part of daily life under his reign up until he was assassinated
by a group of guardsmen
on January 24, 41 AD