Most mentally unstable leader/monarch
- Thread starter Behemoth
- Start date
Admiral Beez
Banned
Wilhelm II of Germany (1888) seems to have had some serious emotional and mental problems.
In the most literal definition of not having a mind that worked well enough for the person to function as a human being: Carlos II of Spain
In terms of weird behavior that made an absolute joke of his court: Christian VII of Denmark
In terms of being mentally unstable and unpredictable, yet also shrewd, intelligent, and malevolent enough to actively be dangerous to the people around him: Ivan the Terrible
In terms of being so over-the-top bizarre and proving that historical truth is way stranger than fiction ever could be: Elagabalus
In terms of weird behavior that made an absolute joke of his court: Christian VII of Denmark
In terms of being mentally unstable and unpredictable, yet also shrewd, intelligent, and malevolent enough to actively be dangerous to the people around him: Ivan the Terrible
In terms of being so over-the-top bizarre and proving that historical truth is way stranger than fiction ever could be: Elagabalus
I've heard that's up for dispute, considering the historians who wrote of him were his enemies.
Ivan the Terrible ranks pretty highly for me, anyone who can set up secret police with religious overtones and all the authority of a state-run mafia, and even partake in their slaughter is pretty damn out there.
Well, Ivan has the rare (for monarchs) excuse of having been psychologically abused and beaten his entire childhood, so there's that. Even so, there was still some humanity to him until the death of his wife, as I understand it.
yes both Caligula and Nero were systematically trashed after the event. Both seemed to have been actually quite sane. Except in Caligula's case for one major exception. He could not stop himself humiliating his own chief body guard (this whilst not necessarily insane was certainly not clever, even if the Praetorian Prefect was as unpleasant as is suggested)
