Most mentally unstable/suggestible rulers (and most challenging ruling contexts) in History

Expanding a bit on this thread from two years ago:

https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/most-mentally-unstable-leader-monarch.384463/

I feel like Kings and Emperors and other absolute rulers affected by severe issues in mental health could make for some very interesting PODs as their unpredictability could lead them to take actions going against the mainstream of their era, dragging their country along in the process. Of course that’s quite a broad term that covers a spectrum ranging from Mildly Mercurial to Consistently Erratic, along with Straight Down Psychotic and Defensively Paranoid.

Another related yet distinct category of rulers that I would also like to consider are the highly suggestible ones, the kind of rulers that would take highly unlikely decisions based on the whimsical or strategic thinking of another person (priest, mistress, relative etc…) , a person who would have an exclusive relationship of influence to the ruler and thus could pretty much dictate the laws and actions applied to the country.

So, considering either aspect, who do you think could fit in there?

Now it’s not necessarily fair to pin the responsibility for unpredictable decision making solely on the rulers themselves as they were sometimes put in a very challenging context of contradictory requests, conflicting influences and unsolvable problems… so I guess a corollary question would be: what were the most challenging situations that rulers have found themselves in, the kind that could drive any perfectly balanced person mad in the long run?
 
Charles VI was literally psychotic, and killed several of his retainers after one of his pages dropped a lance. He also suffered from dementia and believed himself to be made of glass.
 
One interesting PoD that relies on someone not being insane would be Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia. His madness (unfortunately I can't find any details on his actual symptoms) led eventually to a union between Prussia and Brandenburg, and hence the Prussia that we think of today. If he were more sound and had a male child who survived we would likely see a much more Polish Prussia, and probably a much better fate for Poland down the line.
 
Christian VII of Denmark was possibly schizophrenic and was regularly incapacitated by bouts of insanity. This was seized upon by his personal physician Johann Friedrich Struensee, who used his position to get Christian to enact major liberal reforms.

There's a pretty good movie about it starring Mads Mikkelsen as Struensee.
 
I have a question, does someone like Henry the 8th get bonus points for turning their previously well adjusted daughter into a basket case?
 
Most challenging ruling contexts? Well I can think of a few Germans who had the herculean task of steering the collapsing Roman Empire through the reigns of impotent child emperors. Stilicho and his successors Constantius and Aetius did their best, and if the Italian nobility and Eastern court hadn't tried to undermine them at every step, they might have staved off the fall of Rome for a century or two.
 
I have a question, does someone like Henry the 8th get bonus points for turning their previously well adjusted daughter into a basket case?

I think that Continuously Bad Parenting could definitely be considered as a prevalent Consequence/Cause in some cases... I also wonder how suggestible Henry could be considered (with the whole modern depiction of his relationship with Ann Boleyn...)

One interesting PoD that relies on someone not being insane would be Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia. His madness (unfortunately I can't find any details on his actual symptoms) led eventually to a union between Prussia and Brandenburg, and hence the Prussia that we think of today. If he were more sound and had a male child who survived we would likely see a much more Polish Prussia, and probably a much better fate for Poland down the line.

Very good point. Having alternate timelines where unstable rulers turn out much more healthy could bring some great PODs too.
 
Ranavanola I of Madagascar: A combination of absolute tyrant, sadistic Dungeon Master and major league supervillian. Killed a lot of her people, but brought about the first industrial revolution outside Europe, repeatedly beat off combined invasions of the world's most powerful nations (Britain and France), thwarted multiple coup attempts and died peacefully in her sleep at 83.
 
One interesting PoD that relies on someone not being insane would be Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia. His madness (unfortunately I can't find any details on his actual symptoms) led eventually to a union between Prussia and Brandenburg, and hence the Prussia that we think of today. If he were more sound and had a male child who survived we would likely see a much more Polish Prussia, and probably a much better fate for Poland down the line.
Sane Albert Frederick could run for Polish crown himself (his grandmother Sophia Jagiellon was sister of Sigismund the Old) and would be likely better ruler than OTL first elective kings, who were foreigners with little knowledge about political landscape of PLC (Albert Frederick as Polish vassal was familiar with Polish politics).
 
Brazil had many dictators and many corrupt presidents, but no one like this monster:
270px-Floriano_peixoto_1881.jpg

Floriano Peixoto, the brazilian dictator from 1891 (when the also dictator Deodoro da Fonseca resigned) until 1894, he led the government on the federalist war that resulted on over 20 thousand deads, and also purged most of the political opposition, even taking strong humanist figures like José do Patrocinio to internal exile on the deepest places of the amazon. He also called the american navy to break up the siege of Rio de Janeiro on the 2nd revolt of the navy that tried to remove him from power, effectivelly being a head of state that called a foreign power to attack his own people to preserve his rule. Before being the worst tyrant to ever take power in Brazil, he was a army officer and one of the responsible for the republican coup (before anyone asks, I'm a republican, so I'm not trying to put the monarchists as victims) and even before during the paraguayan war he took a platoon with low efficiency and forced them to sit on anthills and later forced them to pull off a charge against the paraguayans, the soldiers barely could walk and were annihilated.
 
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