10 MOST MENTALLY DISTURBED RULERS THROUGHOUT HISTORY

Absolute power, sheltered lives and centuries of inbreeding have taken their toll on the
monarchy. From the vicious and homicidal to the vain and eccentric, here are ten mad monarchs
whose craziness made it into the history books.
10. Erik XIV of Sweden
Erik XIV was the King of Sweden from 1560 until he was deposed in 1568. He was also the
ruler of Estonia, after Swedens conquest in 1561. He was known to be very intelligent and well
read. He expanded the powers of the monarchy. In an effort to free Swedens Baltic Sea trade
from foreign control, he pursued an aggressive foreign policy that led to the Seven Years War of
the North against Denmark.
His fear of treason caused his mental stability to break down. He had his commoner mistress,
Karin Mnsdotter, crowned queen over the objections of the nobility. He ordered the
imprisonment and murder of the powerful Sture familys leading members, simply because he
believed they were too influential. After the killings, the king fled and was found three days later,
mentally ill. He believed he was a peasant and that Duke John, his brother, had seized power.
He was eventually deposed, and his brother took over the throne. Erik died in prison, poisoned
by a pea soup laced with arsenic. Apparently his paranoia was justified.
9. Frederick William I of Prussia
Frederick was a highly effective and ambitious ruler. He transformed his country from a secondrate power into a prosperous state that eventually became a major military power in the
Continent.
He was widely regarded as a military megalomaniac. His personal troops, the Potsdam Grenadier
Guards, were composed of the tallest men that could be found. He was so obsessed with having
giants in his guard unit that he resorted to kidnapping, bribery, and even a breeding program! He
was known to have his soldiers march through his bedroom to cheer him up when he was ill.
The king had other eccentricities though: Fredericks goal was to make Prussians to be as
hardworking and disciplined as he was. He would walk around Berlin with a stick, beating
anyone who he felt was too lazy. He also loathed the French. Just mentioning the French in his
presence could trigger fits of uncontrollable rage. He even required that criminals about to be
executed be dressed up in French clothes, in hopes of giving his people a similar abhorrence!

8. Farouk of Egypt

Farouk was the last ruling pharaoh of Egypt. He ascended to the throne when he was 16 in 1936
and became the first boy king since King Tutankhamen, 3000 years earlier.
He was said to have mysophobia, an intense fear of contamination that caused him to search for
imaginary specks of dirt. He was also known for his excessive partying and gambling. Once
described as a stomach with a head, he grew to over 300 pounds. He only drove red cars, and
banned anyone else from owning one in that color. He was a kleptomaniac, reportedly swiping
Winston Churchills pocket watch and a ceremonial sword from the dead Shah of Persia. Another
time, after having nightmares about lions, Farouk went to Cairo Zoo and shot the lions there
while they were in their cages. When Hitlers army came to invade Egypt, he was the only world
leader to allegedly send a thank you telegram.
When he was deposed in a coup, he took crates of champagne, scotch and gold bars with him. He
left behind tons of coins, magic tricks, stamps, and the worlds largest porn collection.
7. Christian VII of Denmark
Christian rose to the throne of Denmark in 1977, and reigned for over 40 years. The court
expected that he would be one of the greatest kings of Denmark because of his brilliant mind. He
excelled in history, philosophy, and science.
He was king, only by title, because he suffered from extreme mood swings and behaved
erratically and irrationally. He would hallucinate often and sometimes spoke unintelligibly.
Diplomats complained that he would reach out and slap them at random times or play leapfrog
when they tried to speak to him. He built his own torture rack and would willingly get on it,
rubbing salt into his wounds to show off his manliness.
At some point, Christian developed a fascination with masturbating so often that it interfered
with his duties. His mind was so far gone that his personal physician, Johann Streunsee talked
Christian into handing over control of the kingdom (and wife) to him.
6. Peter the Great of Russia
Peter the Great is considered one the greatest political leaders in history. He modernized Russia,
created a Baltic fleet, founded St. Petersburg and defeated an invading Swedish king. In between
all his hard work, Peter also got up to a lot of drinking, torture, and killing.
Peter loathed his son Alexis and demanded that the boy enter a monastery. The prince ran away
to Vienna instead. In 1718, there was talk of Alexis planning to usurp the throne. Peter, in a rage,
rounded up many potential plotters and tortured them. When his son was caught, he was tortured
and killed too. Peter was also notoriously strict, and demanded that every teacher at the naval
academy carry a whip to discipline students. He made beards illegal, as a way to humiliate the

old Russian dynastic families whose beards were kept long in an orthodox manner. Peter
collected people with birth defects, making them part of his court.
Peter was fanatical about loyalty. When he thought a former mistress of his was being unfaithful,
she was arrested and died in terrible conditions. When her brother was suspected of flirting with
Peters wife, he was beheaded.
5. Qianfei of China (Liu Song)
Born as Liu Ziye, Emperor Qianfei took over the throne when he was 15. He started as a prisoner
of his own uncle, and went down in history as one of the worst emperors for his incompetence,
brutality, and his crazy acts.
Qianfei killed nearly everyone in his family. He left some of his uncles alive but caged them and
put them on public display. Noblemen who plotted against him were killed. One got his eyes
scooped out. Qianfei placed them in honey and called them pickled ghost eyes. In addition to
killing numerous government officials, he also had an incestuous relationship with his aunt,
whose husband he murdered. Allegedly he also had a relationship with his sister and would
sometimes force his concubines to have sex with animals. Whoever disobeyed was killed
immediately.
It makes that his mothers last words were, Somebody bring me a sword and cut me open to see
how this animal came out me.
4. Pope Stephen VI
While technically not rulers, popes were the political and secular heads of the Roman Catholic
Church. A Roman of the powerful Spoleto family, Stephen was held the papal seat for only a
year.
Fuelled by his anger with Pope Formosus, his predecessor, he exhumed Formosus rotting corpse
and put him on trial, in the Cadaver Synod of 897. With the corpse propped on a throne, charges
were read against him and eventually Formosus was found guilty. Of course. The corpse was
stripped of its sacred vestments, deprived of the three fingers in his right hand (the blessing
fingers), clad in laymans clothes, buried, quickly re-exhumed, and thrown into the Tiber river.
The trial raised a tumult.
His insanity caused an uprising and Stephen was later captured and thrown into prison where he
was later strangled to death.

3. Liu Shan of China

Liu ascended the throne of Shu Han when he was 17 years old. Mediocre and incompetent, he
failed to develop the land into a strong state despite being under the guidance of Zhuge Liang,
the most brilliant official and military strategist of that era, among other respected generals.
When he appointed a treacherous eunuch named Huang Hao to handle the state affairs, his
dynasty suffered a growing decline. Liu himself preferred to indulge in the luxurious pleasures of
wine and food.
He surrendered eventually to rival state Wei, whose ruler dubbed him a duke. One day, at a feast
held at Weis capital, the traditional music and dance of Shu were performed. All of Lius
followers cried sadly and were deeply moved. In contrast, Liu alone laughed out of joy. The
former emperor said that he was delighted by the music and did not miss Shu at all.
Emperor Liu Shan was more well-known by his baby name, which is used in China even today
to describe those who cannot accomplish anything even though immense resources are at hand.
2. Carlota of Mexico
Empress Carlota was born Charlotte of Belgium. She was well-read, very intelligent, energetic
and altogether committed young woman. She married Archduke Maximilian of Austria when she
17.
An opportunity came crashing the couples way via the French Empire of Napoleon III.
Napoleon thought it would be good for the French prestige and commerce to have a friendly
government in Mexico so he backed the Mexican conservatives who came to offer the Crown of
Mexico to Maximilian. Without any local political experience, Maximilian alienated himself
from public opinion with his unpopular decisions. Soon the Mexican people rejected foreign
rule. When Maximilian refused to leave after the French troops pulled out, the Mexican forces
arrested the emperor.
Carlota convinced her husband not to abdicate. She returned to Europe to solicit support, but
slipped into a serious depression, a grave attack of mental aberration. Maximilian was eventually
executed. Carlota lived in seclusion for the last 60 years of her life, never recovering her mental
health, and never knowing of her husbands death.
1. Ranavalona I of Madagascar
Also known as the Mad Queen of Madagascar and The Female Caligula, Ranavalona was the
daughter of a poor peasant. She became the wife of Prince Radama, after her father successfully
warned the king of an assassination attempt. Radama ascended the throne when his father died,
but died eventually. Ranavalona seized power in 1828.
At the beginning of her reign, she promised to restore old rites and beliefs. Paranoid of European
colonization, she persecuted and expelled all foreigners. When that didnt eradicate Christianity

as well, she executed everyone who owned a bible. Once, she had 15 Christian leaders dangled
over a ravine. When they refused to denounce their faith, their ropes were cut and they fell to
their deaths. More than a million slaves were killed in ritual executions, including ten thousand
in a single week during her buffalo hunt. After one successful battle against an invasion, she cut
off the heads of the Europeans, stuck them on spikes, and lined them on the beach to repel future
invaders.
After that display, the French and English decided they were better off concentrating their efforts
on other third world countries not ruled by insane females.

REFERENCES:
LINK1: http://www.kansallisbiografia.fi/english/?id=519
LINK2: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/191503/Erik-XIV
LINK3: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/218051/Frederick-William-I
LINK4: https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=1bw8AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA94&lpg=PA94&dq=
frederick+william+I+prussia+tall&source=bl&ots=wrSpF9m85o&sig=x5Ga_8tjwUa3YnfceR2d
1t7hplA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=PsziVP6ZDpSD8gXAtoHQAg&ved=0CDIQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepag
e&q=frederick%20william%20I%20prussia%20tall&f=false
LINK5: http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/gigantes/WEurope9.html
LINK6: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19700826&id=kt0Jaaaa
IBAJ&sjid=UCgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7287,2728514
LINK7: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/special-reports/king-farouk/2014/01/31/Gone-but-notforgotten-King-Farouk-s-lasting-legacy.html
LINK8: http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=_I5zuZ1kXFcC&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52&dq=
world
%27s+largest+porn+collection+farouk&source=bl&ots=HkflqnCGHZ&sig=N0p8AhlrOMy384mZcwV6Rd67VQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2PbdUMlKIaZiAKx44HgCg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=world's%20largest%20porn%20collection
%20farouk&f=false
LINK9: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=1wj0BwdjRMgC&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=
"christian+vii"+masturbation&source=bl&ots=mcxCjlqwqR&sig=dMiE67Bwbluih0x7itLX13H
goj0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2HRzUKKzDtShqwGr74HACA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=
%22christian%20vii%22%20masturbation&f=false
LINK10: http://madmonarchs.guusbeltman.nl/madmonarchs/christian7/christian7_bio.htm
LINK11: http://constructionlitmag.com/culture/how-peter-the-great-modernized-russia/
LINK12: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1098889/Dynasty-decadence-BehindRomanovs-glittering-facade-lay-epic-saga-depravity-unspeakable-cruelty.html
LINK13: http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2013/03/the-mad-the-bad-and-the-just-plain-crazy/
LINK14: http://www.china.org.cn/top10/2011-09/02/content_23343011_10.htm
LINK15: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/565449/Stephen-VI-or-VII
LINK16: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/morbid-monday-cadaver-synod
LINK17: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Division/personsliushan.html
LINK18: http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/china-history/three-kingdoms.htm
LINK19: http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=232
LINK20: http://www.dacb.org/stories/madagascar/ranavalona2.html