Justin II
[ranking: 9]
Royal Title: Emperor of Byzantium
Crazy Quirk: Behavior so strange, those around him believed he was possessed by the devil.
Justin II was ruler of the Byzantine Empire from 565-578 AD, and over that time, Justin was prone to bouts of madness. He would often try to bite others in the court and demanded that organ music be constantly played to settle his nerves.
Members of his court tried desperately to divert his attention, pulling him around the castle in a wagon with a throne on it. They had to hold him down during fits of violent rage, and installed bars on windows to prevent him from jumping out. He would laugh, cry, make animal noises, and hit people without provocation. People began to believe he was possessed by the devil. Through it all, Empress Sophia took care of him and even made political decisions on his behalf.
Nebuchadnezzar/Nabonidus
[ranking: 19]
Royal Title: King of Babylon
Crazy Quirk: He spent seven years living like an animal in the forest.
According to the Book of Daniel in the Christian Bible, ?Nebuchadnezzar?, the king of Babylon, came down with a seven year spell of madness. In his insanity-induced state, he retreated from society, lived like an animal, and ate grass like a farm animal.
This story of madness has long been associated with Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled from 605 to 562 BC, but recent scholars are unclear whether the writer meant Nebuchadnezzar or another king of Babylon, Nabonidus. It??s possible that the translation got mangled because both Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus had sons named Belshazzar, and Nabonidus a reputation as an eccentric. Regardless of which man lived out the story described in the Book of Daniel, the story deserves a spot in the annals of mad royalty.
Qin Shi Huang
[ranking: 18]
Royal Title: Qin Dynasty Emperor
Crazy Quirk: The famous emperor who built the terra cotta warriors also burned books and became obsessed with immortality.
Born Zhao Zheng in 259 BC, Qin Shi Huang is perhaps China??s most influential ruler aside from Chairman Mao. He famously united the disparate states of China into one unified force. He became king of a small Chinese state at 13 and quickly had his mother??s lover killed to remove his threat to the throne. He battled his way through states, taking them over one by one, until he created a unified, centralized China.
Like Mao 2,000 years later, Qin declared war on intellectuals, believing them to be plotting behind his back. He burned books and even buried 460 intellectuals alive for speaking out against his quest for immortality, an obsession he developed toward the end of his life. He sent parties throughout the newly unified China in search of elixirs, alchemists, and magicians who could help him achieve immortality, but the missions were to no avail. He died in 210 BC and was buried with his army of terra cotta warriors and his concubines.
More Qin Shi Huang
#25 of 30 on The 30 Biggest Badasses In History #4 of 9 on The Cruelest Rulers in History (Who Weren't Hitler)
Joanna Of Castile
[ranking: 10]
Royal Title: Queen of Castile and Aragon in Spain
Crazy Quirk: Her obsession with her husband drove her to keep his dead body with her at all times.
Joanna of Castile was the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, famous in America as the Spanish royals who sent Christopher Columbus on his western voyage. Joanna married Philip I of Burgundy, son of the Holy Roman Emperor. She was very devoted to her husband, and gave him six children, all of whom went on to be emperors or queens.
Joanna earned her title "Juana La Loca" for her obsession with her husband. After his sudden death in 1506, she refused to be separated from Philip's dead, embalmed body. She kept it in her room and even traveled with it. Despite her place as Queen of Castile and Aragon, her family never saw her as fit to rule, and her son Charles eventually took on the role of regent, becoming the real leader of the country.
Sado
[ranking: 6]
Royal Title: Crown Prince of Korea
Crazy Quirk: Sado was a cruel and violent son obsessed with pleasing his father, until his father put him to death by locking him in a chest.
Born in 1735, Prince Sado??s brutal treatment at the hands of his father, King Yongjo, led to a life of perversion, violence, and despair. Sado suffered from delusions and nightmares from the age of 10, and things got worse as he grew up. His constant quest to impress his father drove him to madness, especially considering his father may have been equally crazy and hell-bent on torturing his son.
Sado indulged in his vices liberally, but always hid them from his father. He was obsessed with clothes, and threw alcohol-fueled orgies, despite the fact that alcohol was illegal. He took his anger out on anyone who came near, sending dead bodies out of the palace on a daily basis. He murdered a concubine, slept with a nun, and even tried to seduce his younger sister. When King Yongjo learned of some of Sado??s misdeeds, he summoned him to court and locked him in a giant chest, where, after eight days, he starved to death.
Princess Alexandra Of Bavaria
[ranking: 16]
Royal Title: Princess of Bavaria
Crazy Quirk: Princess Alexandra was convinced she swallowed a glass grand piano.
As the 23-year-old Princess of Bavaria, Alexandra became convinced she swallowed an entire glass grand piano as a child and that any sudden movement would shatter the instrument. She was said to walk sideways through doorways and corridors to avoid breaking. Although the princess's delusion has become a part of her quirky reputation, scholars speculate she suffered from something Robert Burton calls "The Glass Delusion" in his psychological study, The Anatomy of Melancholy in 1612.
The Glass Delusion is thought to be a form of melancholy in which the sufferer believes they are made of glass. Another notable victim is King Charles VI of France who did not think he'd swallowed any fragile instruments, but rather believed his body to be especially breakable.
New Random Display Show all by ranking(23 items)