The Most Insane Royal In History?

[kathia_sophia]

i think King Yeonsangun of Joseon (old Korea) had a bit of maddness in him, he was a tyrant and is considered the worst King that Joseon had.

his mother Lady Yoon proved to be temperamental and highly jealous of the other concubines living inside the palace, even trying to poisoning one. she even physically struck the King one night, leaving scratch marks.
After the truth was discovered, it was ordered by her mother-in-law to be sent to exile, she later died posioned.
this led to her son to do cruel things.

He killed one of his tutors, then he ordered the execution of the government officials belonging to a political faction called Sarim after they opposed him on an idea, he mutilated the remains of one of the officials. he later beat to death two of his father's concubines, his grandmother died while she was pushed away by him and ordered the grave of a certain official to be opened and the head cut off the corpse.
He also closed a royal university and converted it to his pleasure grounds, later also forced people into involuntary labor to build another pleasure ground.
One chief eunuch called Kim Cheo-sun entreated Yeonsangun to change his ways, but was killed by himself by shooting arrows and personally cutting off his limbs. also exiled a minister of rites for spilling a drink that he had poured. In the end seized a thousand women from the provinces to serve as palace entertainers.

even though he would act in his mother's justice, his insane revenge utimately transformed in a personal entertainment of extreme violance.

 

[GracieGiraffe]

Other than the fact that Juana dragged her husband's corpse around for quite some time (not days) refusing to bury him......

I'm sure glad Queen Victoria had not heard of this, and I'll bet her children and staff are mighty glad too.

 

[Meraude]

Other than the fact that Juana dragged her husband's corpse around for quite some time (not days) refusing to bury him......

Well, Maria Eleonora, the widow of king Gustav II Adolf of Sweden hung her dead husband's embalmed heart over her bed and forced her daughter queen Christina to sleep in the bed with her, and according to legend king Pedro I of Portugal exhumed the body of his dead mistress/queen Inés de Castro and forced the court to swear allegiance to her, and then reburied her in a monastery.

Juana was not the first, nor the last royal to go into excessive mourning after the death of her spouse.

 

[scooter]

Well, Maria Eleonora, the widow of king Gustav II Adolf of Sweden hung her dead husband's embalmed heart over her bed and forced her daughter queen Christina to sleep in the bed with her, and according to legend king Pedro I of Portugal exhumed the body of his dead mistress/queen Inés de Castro and forced the court to swear allegiance to her, and then reburied her in a monastery.

Juana was not the first, nor the last royal to go into excessive mourning after the death of her spouse.

That is of course true. But I would consider it to be the hallmark of insanity regardless of the royal, when corpses are involved, not just 'excessive mourning'.

 

[GracieGiraffe]

That is of course true. But I would consider it to be the hallmark of insanity regardless of the royal, when corpses are involved, not just 'excessive mourning'.

Um, yeah, gonna be hard to argue with this.....

 

[Baroness of Books]

Yes, taking the mourning just a tad beyond normal grieving, I'd say.

 

[padams2359]

"What family doesn't have there ups and downs?" Eleanor of Aquitaine

 

[scooter]

I am aware of that, thank you, still he had mental issues (hallucinations and paranoia) due to his desease.

I think in a hospital today, he would clearly be diagnosed as mentally altered, regardless of the cause.

 

[nascarlucy]

Not sure which royal household it was but this story supposedly happened in Hungary. There was a couple of Eastern European royals back in the 16th or 17th century that liked to drink blood. I believe they had the title of Count or Countess. This was on a TV show about vampires and people who like to drink blood.

They got the blood by cutting themselves and cutting others. They drank their own blood and the blood of servants or those who were of low social-economic status and did this for quite a while. Most of these people were also tortured and some of the woman were sexually assaulted. I think a couple of these individuals were also murdered. I believe one of these royals either killed their spouse with the help of their lover.

These royals would probably be the most insane if you ask me.

It was unclear what happened to these individuals when this came out. One story has it that they were put to death by family members embarrassed over their activities. Another story said that they were deemed mentally ill and locked up for the rest of their lives.

 

[Mariel]

nascarlucy, you are probably speaking of Vlad the Impaler and his cousin Elizabeth Bathory. In those days the borders of Hungary, Romania, and Czech kept getting changed, and ruling houses changed, so I am not sure exactly which country Vlad lived in. Prince Charles says he is descended from Vlad.

Because these royals drank blood of humans, they have been held up as vampires. I believe this is absolute nonsense. They were what others on this thread has called sociopaths. Truly evil.

Elizabeth was imprisoned and died within two years. i am not sure what happened to Vlad but it probably was as bad as the rest of his life. At one time, though Vlad was esteemed because he was a successful leader in wartime.

 

[nascarlucy]

Vlad the Impaler lived in Romania. He was murdered in battle fighting those from Turkey. He was beheaded and his head impaled on a pole.

On this program they showed from a distance the castle where these horrible acts of terror and torture happened. Just looking at that castle made the hairs of my head stand up. It's rumored to be haunted and it seems like anyone who tries to get to the castle has suffered illness or misfortune prior to geting there. They never get there. I have no doubt that this place is haunted.

 

[Warren]

Countess Elizabeth Báthory (1560-1614) was Hungarian of noble birth who was claimed to have tortured and murdered anywhere between 50 and 650 young women for her own sadistic pleasure. Over a century later the tale of her "bathing in her victim's blood to retain her beauty and youth" was circulated. Nonetheless, she was definitely a psychopath.

Vlad III (1431-1476), of the House of Draculesti, was Voivode (Prince) of Wallachia. About 70 years after his death he was labelled "Vlad Tepes" (Impaler). Vlad III is a hero in Bulgaria due to his efforts in protecting the Bulgars against the Ottoman Turks. Vlad's father, Vlad II, sent Vlad jnr and his brother to the Ottoman court as loyal hostages where Vlad learnt the Turkish art of impaling their enemies on stakes. Later, he employed this technique on a grand scale against his Turkish foe as (successful) psychological warfare. Neither mad nor bad but a ruthless leader waging bloody war against the Ottoman invader.

Bran Castle, Romania, on the border of Transylvania and Wallachia, and popularly known as "Dracula's Castle" has little connection with Vlad III. However, it has recent royal connection in that it became a Romanian Royal residence in 1920 and was Queen Marie's favourite retreat. She left it to her daughter Princess Ileana (who married an Archduke of Austria-Tuscany). Bran was seized by the Communists in 1948 and in 2009 was restituted to Ileana's son and heir, Archduke Dominic, who continues to own it.

v Bran Castle, Romania, 2012
Image courtesy of Wikipedia, reproduced here under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Romania license.

 

[kathia_sophia]

Toghun Temür, Emperor Shun of Ancient China
though probably not clinically insane, i think his obsession with sex is a bit crazy. he was only interested in learning of sexual skills and personally was in charge of that, and favored group sex in the palace. He had a grand stage built to satisfy his desire of watching ilicit dance performances day and night. He is remembered as an airhead who only had strong interest in sex.

Sun Hao, Emperor of the Eastern Wun, The Three Kingdoms era
He didnt care for the royal job, but busied himself having sex with his concubines and slaughtering innocents. He ordered that the major officials' daughters should not marry anyone before he decided whether they were beautiful enough to be his concubines. Those at fault would be tossed into the river drowned. He insanely favored punishing people by gouging out their eyes and peeling their facial skin. Ugh.

Zhu Youxiao, Emperor Xizong of Ancient China
this Emperor had really mental problems and thus suffered from learning problems, was illiterate and could hardly understand basic affairs. he was so stupidly innocent that was even seduced by his nanny Madam Ke (and believed to be raped by her as well).

Liu Ziye, Emperor of Ancient China
Another sick royal. he is known especially for his crazy and immoral sexual acts.
Liu adored incest so much that he summoned his aunt Liu Yingmei into his chamber to satisfy his sexual desires, also kept overt incestuous relationship with his sister Liu Chuyu in the palace. Utimately, Liu ordered the consorts and princesses to have group sex publicly with his attendants in the palace and even forced the concubines to have sexual intercourse with animals. Those that dared to disobey were killed on site.

Hong Xiuquan, known as the "Heavenly King"
He believed himself to be Jesus' brother and his movement resulted in the death of millions.

 

[Hayli]

Regarding the Porphyria issue (and slightly diverting off the original topic) it was deemed hereditary among the British Royal Family. Did you know that Prince William of Gloucester (1941-72) was diagnosed with Porphyria only a few years before his death? (plane crash) It is also thought that Princess Feodora of Prussia (Princess Charlotte's daughter who herself was the daughter of the Empress Frederick of Prussia) suffered from Porphyria.

In regards to crazy royals, I definately agree with Elizabeth Bathory and Ludwig of Bavaria. I've also had an interesting time reading about others royals mentioned in this thread.

 

[Mariel]

Hayli, not all people with Porphyria are crazy. Take as a case in point, Prince William of Gloucester. I think all would agree that he was far from crazy. Porphyria has a habit of affecting people in various ways. Some with Porphyria have the neuro-psychiatric strain, others have neuro-visceral, and beyond that there are other ways to experience an attack of "excess porphyrins." Most people are normal unless triggered into an attack, and the royal family knows what the triggers are, I presume, and those few who have the ailment avoid the triggers, which makes for a wholly different picture than when people didn't know what the triggers were. But of course sometimes people get triggered unexpectedly, and so Prince William of Gloucester might have been triggered more seriously had he lived beyond thirty. That's a scary thing to live with and makes a person live a rather retiring life, as Prince William's parents did, never drinking alcohol and living a healthy country life. One of Prince William's parents had to have had the illness. Neither was crazy.

 

[Hayli]

I quite agree that many sufferers of Porphyria are not crazy. My point was really in relation to something that was mentioned a few posts back but I don't think I made that very clear.

I don't consider George III to be among the 'crazy' royals, although his behaviour at the time have placed him in the 'crazy' bracket, it was more a case of a lack of understanding of the illness itself and therefore no available treatment.

Prince William of Gloucester was receiving treatment at the time, something George III did not have access to. And you're right in that age could be a factor. We will never know with Prince William obviously and it did seem that most of George III's lapses in mental capacity occured in his much later years.

 

[LaDia]

Of the British I'd say Richard the 3rd and Henry the 8th

 

[LaDia]

Ivan the terrible in Russia killed his own son