Seven Insane Royals - Summary Of Seven Of History's Craziest Rulers

History has seen many kings and queens, some of whom were very balanced rulers, but some of whom were somewhat quirky and some who were star-craving mad. Let's take a look at a selection of royals who were, to say the least, somewhat special. These days kings and queens are mainly busy cutting ribbons and waving hands, but in the past monarchs were all-powerful and the kingdom was their personal playground. This resulted in some odd and entertaining stories about royals who had some strange habits and some stories of rulers who were simply star-craving mad. Today we'll discuss a handful of these strange royals and we're starting off with Johanna of Castile. Johanna of Castile, who was also called Johanna the Mad, was queen of Castile from 1504 until 1555. She married Philip of Castile in 1496. Early on in her marriage Johanna started showing signs of unbalanced behavior. When Philip died in September 1506 she became even more confused. His body was embalmed and placed in a lead coffin that Johanna had placed in her bedroom. Every morning she had the coffin opened in the hope that Philip had come to life. When she traveled she also took her husband's corpse with her. Her father, Ferdinand, managed to convince her that Philip had to be buried. Eventually Johanna was declared insane and locked up in a castle in Tordesillas. Christian VII of Denmark. When Christian VII ascended Danish throne at the age of 17 he showed no interest in becoming a king. The court doctors noted with concern that the youthful monarch masturbated quite frequently. When he was not playing with himself the hot-tempered king and his mistress Aunt Catherine Benthagen would cause a stir in Copenhagen's nightlife. To distract the king the court sent him on a tour of Europe. The ceremonial state visits went smoothly but behind the scenes the rebellious monarch smashed everything into smithereens. The infantile king was very impressionable and therefore easy to manipulate. The German doctor Strunze made good use of this. He ruled on behalf of the king for two years and passed groundbreaking laws. Meanwhile Strunze also began an affair with Queen Carolina Mathilde. Eventually though Strunze's head ended up on the chopping block and a regency council took over the de facto reign of Denmark. Ivan the Terrible of Russia. With a nickname like The Terrible you won't be surprised to hear that Ivan IV was not a pleasant individual. The tsar tormented the Russian peasants with harsh measures. With his Oprishnina he then claimed the best Russian lands for himself. He was also not very fond of the powerful Russian hereditary nobility and he fed one of their leaders to a bunch of starving hunting dogs. After the death of his beloved wife Anastasia Romanovna the already pretty crazy tsar went into a downward spiral of unbridled violence and paranoia. Ivan IV's secret police the Oprishniki carried out a reign of terror. Nobility or peasants, no one escaped Ivan's murderous arbitrariness. During the Novgorod massacre the tsar wiped out almost the entire city. Furthermore he mourned the passing of his first wife in such a way that he was regularly seen wandering through the streets of Moscow wailing and tearing his hair out. However his grief did not stop him from remarrying six times. When he discovered that his seventh bride was not a virgin during their wedding night he had her drowned the next day. Peter III of Russia. For our next king we remain in Russia. Around 1742 the German Peter III arrived there as the rightful heir to the throne. Upon the start of his reign he immediately signed the The latter was prepared to hand over eastern Prussia to the Russians but to everyone's surprise Peter III refused. The confusion was all the greater since Russia was in fact on the winning side. Peter's attachment to Prussia went even further. The tsar behaved like a groupie towards the Prussian king and he spent his entire days in his bed with his Prussian toy soldiers. One day when a rat bit off the head of one of his toys Peter III put the rat on trial. The unfortunate rodent ended up being executed by use of a tiny gallow. After seven months of mismanagement the tsar was imprisoned following a coup d'etat by his wife. The deposed head of state asked her in angry letters to at least send for his tame monkey. Shortly afterwards Peter III died unexpectedly. According to rumors the brand new tsarina knew more about the circumstances of his death. She promptly reversed her husband's reforms and in the years that followed guided Russia through unprecedented prosperity. Her name was Catherine the Great. Henry VI of England. Under Henry V England effortlessly conquered large parts of France. His son Henry VI however would lose the territories just as quickly. The soft-hearted monarch had little knowledge of government and preferred to spend his time on spiritual matters. The displeased English aristocracy increasingly blamed their king as the war turned in France's favor and in 1453 the poor king collapsed. Shortly after he had heard that England had also lost Bordeaux Henry fell into a catatonic state for a year. It did not help that the nobility whispered that his son with Marguerite d'Anjou was a bastard. Henry VI's inability to govern eventually dragged England into the War of the Roses which was only ended by Henry VII in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. George III of Great Britain and Ireland. When mad kings are discussed George III automatically pops into people's minds. George's reign definitely wasn't easy. Under his rule England lost the North American colonies in 1783. Not much later the poor man started showing signs of becoming unbalanced. Sometimes the king would talk for hours on end and at this time he was often tied down to a chair to keep him calm. After the death of his youngest daughter Amalia in 1810 the king completely lost it. A regency council was put in place and George retired to Windsor Castle where he grew a long white beard, wore a purple robe day in day out and lived like a hermit. The king went blind, deaf and became demented. After a heavy porphyria attack during which he stammered continuously for two days and ten hours he sunk into a coma from which he never woke up. For Charles VI insanity slowly crept up on him. After an attack on one of his confidants Charles VI traveled to Britannia in 1392 for retribution. However once he got there the vengeful king mistook his own troops for his target and out of the blue he started to attack his own men with his sword. Four soldiers died before the men could overcome their mad king. One year later during the famous Balle des Ardents the king and his friends decided to dance as charivari. The costumes for the charivari were made of linen soaked in pitch onto which frayed flax strands were stuck making the dancers look hairy and wild. Due to the high flammable nature of the costumes no candles or torches were allowed in the room but Charles's drunk and curious brother Louis came too close while holding a torch and caused an inferno which cost the lives of four of Charles's friends. Charles survived but he was deeply traumatized and never recovered. Eventually the king came to believe he was made of glass. He would constantly cover himself in a protective suit with iron tubes, wrapped himself in thick sheets and forbade any physical contact out of fear he would otherwise break. This was not an isolated case. The Russian composer Tchaikovsky is also believed to have suffered from the glass delusion. Thank you for watching.