01Nov,2023
The Babylonian ruler whose first-person account of a seven-year descent into animal-like insanity is one of the most fascinating sections of the Old Testament book of Daniel.
Topping even his nephew Nero for the crown of cruelest and craziest Roman emperor, Caligula was known for his lavish projects, his sadism and his eccentricity
The subject of a three-part Shakespearean drama cycle, Henry VI was made king before his first birthday but spent his final decades battling mental illness as his kingdom lost land to France and slid into the chaos of the War of the Roses.
One of the most notorious rulers of the Ming Dynasty, the Zhengde Emperor was renowned for both his foolishness and his cruelty. He was fond of leading capricious military expeditions.
He took great pleasure in bringing members of the nobility to heel through torture and sadistic executions. Fed up with rule, Ivan attempted to resign in 1564 but was convinced to return a year later.
One of the most eccentric rulers of the European Renaissance, Rudolf II was perhaps the greatest collector of his age and an enthusiastic patron of the arts, sciences and pseudo-sciences
Famously derided by poet Percy Bysshe Shelley as “an old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,” George III showed his first signs of mental illness in 1765, early in his reign, but did not permanently succumb to his affliction until 1810
Opera fan, builder of dream palaces, spendthrift, deposed monarch and likely murder victim, Ludwig II was a prototypical “mad king” who may not have been mad at all.