The Most Insane Royal In History?


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The personage of Juana The Mad one seems to me to be very interesting. It does little they realized a movie on her. I do not have very clearly if really she was mad or they made it happen for Mad and finished destroying her.
Juana was the heiress of the Wreaths of Castilla and Aragon, was married with Felipe, el Hermoso, and it seems to be that the first interested in whom her wife was losing the power that had was he, an ambitious man who was despising her and cheating her constant. While she was lover of him.
Sometimes I think, that her history is a product of a vision a bit machist of the world.


Carlos II is really the sample of the terrible thing that ends up by being the endogamia.
 
I think Juana had the genetics of madness passed to her from her mother Isabella who was the daughter of a "mad mother". The circumstances of Juana's life certainly made things worse, but she had it in her all along.

Translation into Spanish for Lula: Juana recibio "la locura" desde su madre Isabel, quien fue la hija de una madre "loca". Las circunstancias de la vida de Juana la hizo peor de la locura, pero la locura estuvo en ella toda su vida.
 
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Also it is necessary to bear in mind that former there were called mad many people who really it was not, but it was suffering diseases that in these times were not known, and probably many of these "mad" prominent figures today would have another disease diagnosed.
I remember that a teacher told me the history of a queen (I do not remember not of where not of that epoch) that she had been taken for mad in her time; a study of her corpse done for anthropologists had come to the conclusion from that indeed had a cancer, and it was what provoking her problems.

So the one who knows those who were really mad, such and as us we understand it nowadays, and those who were suffering some disorder to reason d etra disease. Mysteries of the history.
 
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Was Carlos truly insane or just horribly deformed? He couldn't close his mouth properly making speech almost impossible.

Juana, I have heard, had symptoms of schizophrenia. She was the older sister of Catherine of Aragon. The two sisters at one time planned a marriage between their children Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Princess Mary (later Mary I who married Phillip II, Charles' son)
 
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Charles VI of France, "The Glass King of France"

Here is an online bio of one of my favorites, Charles VI of France, who had a cheating wife, thought he was made of glass, and a daughter who married Henry V of France. This marriage brought the taint of insanity temporarily to the Plantagenet line:http://www.xs4all.nl/~kvenjb/madmonarchs/charles6/charles6_bio.htm
 
Empress Anna of Russia

Well, I have done some more research on "Insane Royals" in the book A Treasury of Royal Scandals by Michael Farquhar.

Here is something new to the thread:

The Empress Anna of Russia (she ruled in her own right) had quite a temper and unique ways of punishing those who displeased her and it was too easy to displease her.

Three nobles who committed a very minor offense were sentenced to live as hens for a week. She had them feathered, commanded them to sit and cluck, and made actual nests for them!!

Prince Michael Alexsyevitch Golitsin was stripped of his title and made to be a court jester when the Empress disapproved of whom he married. When this wife died in 1740, Anna had even more devestating things to do to him. She had him marry "the ugliest woman in Russia", as it was claimed then. The wedding party was filled with "deformed, and freakish human beings to lead a procession of drunkards and other low lifes, all pulled in carriages by goats and pigs. The happy couple followed, in a cage, as the crowds gathered to watch" (Farquhar 39-40). The Empress did not stop at this. She had the newly married couple honeymoon in an actual "ice palace" on the Neva River.

However, the final joke was on Anna. She died nine months later and the new wife delivered twin boys to her husband. The couple actually fell in love with each other and had a happy ending foiling Anna!
 
Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria, I know that she is not insane not really maybe she is.. i am not sure... When Her Husband, Albert died.. She immediately change her way.and some duty or other things . She wore black dress all time until her death.. Is that insane or Obession that lost her hubby because she loved him so much. I just want to know if she was....

Thank you
karla64
 
karla64 said:
Queen Victoria, I know that she is not insane not really maybe she is.. i am not sure... When Her Husband, Albert died.. She immediately change her way.and some duty or other things . She wore black dress all time until her death.. Is that insane or Obession that lost her hubby because she loved him so much. I just want to know if she was....

Thank you
karla64
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That is not insane...that is wonderful. It is the sweetest thing ever.:eek:
 
Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, Naturalist and Owl Hater. . .

Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (1861-1948) was a naturalist who actually wrote an excellent book on the flora and fauna of Brazil. However, he had an irrational hatred of owls and tried to have them completely exterminated from Bulgaria. Ferdinand thought owls were the harbingers of doom.

Besides his hatred of owls, he always wore gloves to ward off evil spirits and never did anything important on the 13th of each month.
 
Harry's polo shirt said:
Thanks Alicky that was an amazing story,
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Very interesting...thanks for sharing Alicky. (I had never heard of him before...I don't know much of Spanish history though.) Also thanks for telling us the snipet about Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, Tiarapin. (There have been some rather less than sane royals in history...) Great thread.:)
 
countress elizabeth bathory of transylvania. and just like most stories that comes from that part of the country,blood plays a part in her life. the short of it, she thought by takening baths in blood would keep her young & beautiful forever. after 600 women went missing elizabeth was caught. she spent the rest of her life walled up in a room which had an small opening for food.
its seems that life is stranger than fiction
 
semisquare said:
countress elizabeth bathory of transylvania. and just like most stories that comes from that part of the country,blood plays a part in her life. the short of it, she thought by takening baths in blood would keep her young & beautiful forever. after 600 women went missing elizabeth was caught. she spent the rest of her life walled up in a room which had an small opening for food.
its seems that life is stranger than fiction
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This lady is one of the most mentioned people on this thread. She is definitely high on the list of the most insane.
 
The Duke of Clarence and Avondale, Son of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra

Many people have raised questions about Prince Eddy, Duke of Clarence and Avondale. He lead a very hedonistic lifestyle, and is, for some, one of the leading suspects in the Jack the Ripper murder of prostitutes. Some have claimed that he actually died of Syphylis and not Pneumonia as has been reported. Perhaps Syphilis could have made him insane, it can do that in the later stages.

I would love to hear other people's views about Prince Eddy.
 
tiaraprin said:
Many people have raised questions about Prince Eddy, Duke of Clarence and Avondale. He lead a very hedonistic lifestyle, and is, for some, one of the leading suspects in the Jack the Ripper murder of prostitutes. Some have claimed that he actually died of Syphylis and not Pneumonia as has been reported. Perhaps Syphilis could have made him insane, it can do that in the later stages.

I would love to hear other people's views about Prince Eddy.
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I know of some theorys about two people being involved in the Jack the Ripper.

I think that Prince Eddy and his friend James Stephen are the two people. If the Syphylis is correct then it could make since because he may have gotten it from a prostitute! So they went around killing prostitutes for revenge! It is said that James Stephen hated women. People say that the letters given to police from someone claiming to be Jack the Ripper, the handwritting matches James Stephen. (but no one can prove the letters are really from jack the rippper)
 
has any one mention Caligula, i think he rinks high on the nutty royal list
 
I think it would have to be that notorious Dracula from Transylvania.
 
I think Napolean probably had some mental issues, that is most likely not deniable. And no offense to Empress Alexandra, Alix of Hesse fans, but she was probably mentally ill as well. The stress of Grand Duke Alexei, Tsarevich's hemophilia probably triggered it, but I think it was there all along, for Rasputin and other things. Nicholas II probably knew she was ill, and new how bad Rasputin was, but didn't do anything, for if Alexei died Alix would blame him for killing their son.
 
acdc1 said:
I think Napolean probably had some mental issues, that is most likely not deniable. And no offense to Empress Alexandra, Alix of Hesse fans, but she was probably mentally ill as well. The stress of Grand Duke Alexei, Tsarevich's hemophilia probably triggered it, but I think it was there all along, for Rasputin and other things. Nicholas II probably knew she was ill, and new how bad Rasputin was, but didn't do anything, for if Alexei died Alix would blame him for killing their son.
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I think you are being unfair to Alexandra Feodorovna. While the stress of her son's illness caused physical ailments, from what I have read it did not result in mental illness. The unfortunate Empress believed that Rasputin, as a holy man of God, would protect her son and she placed her trust in him, so much so that she refused to believe the scandalous behavior which Rasputin engaged in and thus the people grew to dislike Alexandra even more than they had before.

That being said, Empress Alexandra was a poor student of politics. She was completely out of touch with the times and the turmoil of her adopted country. This, coupled with her shyness which many believed to be her disdain for others, and her efforts to shore up her husband on the throne, helped contribute to the revolution and overthrow of the monarchy.
 
:previous:

I agree. I think Alexandra maybe suffered from depression. MAYBE. You know, at those times mentally illnesses weren't seen like today, not much enlightenment...

For me King Ludwig II. of Bavaria and Kaiser Wilhelm II. were a kind of crazy, but I wouldn't choose the word insane (but as for Ludwig II. its a bit marginally).
 
:previous:

Indeed, the Empress might have had depression but given everything the family had to go through, it is hardly suprising.

If you want a truly insane Monarch, that would be Charles VI of France: he thought he was made of glass.
And of course, Emperor Nero would never be omitted from any list of this kind.
 
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One that always stands out in my mind was the Roman Emperor Heliogabalus. He married a Vestal Virgin, was a transvestite, acted as a prostitute on occasion, was a masochist who allowed his "husband" to beat him, enforced the worship of a big, black rock from Syria and at one point tried to find a doctor who would perform a "sex change" operation on him.

Another little known one would be Emperor Thanh Thai of Vietnam. He forced a maid to drink then had her beaten half to death for being drunk, flogged a eunuch for not having marbles to give him, raped and chewed up a number of women servants in the palace and recruited his own bodyguard of women cavalry that he would parade through the streets with. When he and his son were shipped into exile he had affairs with his duaghters-in-law. The French removed him on the grounds of insanity but only after he became openly opposed to their presence in his country. During World War I he threw away his French decorations and bought only German products. When his son and successor turned against the French in 1916 they took the opportunity to get rid of both and sent them into exile on Reunion Island. After World War II he was allowed to return home, still odd as ever, and was kept under house arrest until his death.
:vietnamflag:
 
Kelly said:
I think it would have to be that notorious Dracula from Transylvania.
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That would be Vlad Tepic, whose father was known as Dracul (Dragon) and thus his son was "Son of the Dragon" or Dracula. Probably the most odd thing about him was his penchant for having people impaled on huge spikes to die. He enjoyed it so much he would even take his meals in the midst of a forest of victims impaled on spikes so he could watch their agony as he ate. Yet, many in Romania see him as something of a folk hero for his struggle against the Turks.
:romaniaflag2:
 
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus,the 3rd Roman Emperor,or more commonly,Caligula.I've read a lot about him recently,so he comes first,imo.
 
I would go with either Caligula or Nero or even Agrippina and Massalina - those early Roman emperors and their wives/mothers take a lot of beating for madness if you ask me.

Making your horse a senator, throwing gold coins from the palace to attract the crowns and then throwing bricks at them - not the actions of sane men if you ask me.
 
Marsel said:
It was probably no worse a senator than most. Not worse than those other senators who allowed it anyway. :cool: :lol:
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...They had no other choice,right?I'm telling you the man was INSANE ;) :D
 
I've heard conflicting stories about that. Most of the more recent things I've read have said that the story about making Incitatus a senator or consul is overblown and the result of simply an insulting joke in the part of Caligula who was trying to say that the quality of the senate was so low his horse would make a better one than most. So, he wasn't really being serious about it; that being said he still did *plenty* of other things in the super-nuts category, though I still think Heliogabalus was stranger, he's just not as well known.

SPQR
 
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