# Most depraved/brutal rulers pre 1900 **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 24, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672 "2015-08-24T01:30:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![CCitizen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@CCitizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CCitizen)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672/61 "2015-09-03T02:58:34Z")
Genghis Khan – he is responsible for at least 10 million deaths. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672/62 "2015-09-03T03:26:46Z")
I don’t remember the name but there was some King in ancient Greece/Crete who had a huge hollow iron bull made. He would set it over a bonfire and roast people in it while he had a banquet. They had to burn incense in the bull also because the smell of burning flesh overpowered the taste buds and ruined the banquet. Guests at the banquet who showed sympathy/reluctance to participate could often find themself put inside the bull at the next banquet. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672/63 "2015-09-03T03:27:55Z")
A really chilling documentary about Vlad the Impaler. Very chilling: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqITE7UMdTg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqITE7UMdTg) There is also a True Horror for the werewolf and Frankenstein too ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672/64 "2015-09-03T11:02:36Z")
> [@Robert163](#): > > I don’t remember the name but there was some King in ancient Greece/Crete who had a huge hollow iron bull made. He would set it over a bonfire and roast people in it while he had a banquet. They had to burn incense in the bull also because the smell of burning flesh overpowered the taste buds and ruined the banquet. Guests at the banquet who showed sympathy/reluctance to participate could often find themself put inside the bull at the next banquet. Well, you have the story of the “Brazen Bull of Phalaris”, Phalaris being the tyrant of Akragas in Sicily. The story goes that Perillos, an Athenian inventor, was the creator of the bull in question, made of bronze with a cavity where the condemned man could be locked in. A fire would be set under the bull, roasting to death the person inside, whose screams were converted into the roar of a bull by means of a series of acoustic devices (stops, reeds, etc.). Interestingly, when Perillos showed the bull to Phalaris, the latter apparently was so disgusted with the inventor that he had the bull tested with Perillos himself… Even though it is said that Phalaris ended up using the bull extensively during his reign ☹ In the end Phalaris was deposed by his own general, Telemachus… And the latter immediately ordered the former to be put to death inside his infamous bull. Read all about it in Wikipedia here: [Brazen bull - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazen_bull) ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672/65 "2015-09-03T11:53:04Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > She had a hearty appetite for Russian noblemen - apparently she had her secretary try them out first as a sort of audition - but not (alas) for horses. 😉 tin-foil hat alternate theory: Chess was very popular at the time and the knights piece has traditionally been carved with a horse’s head. So, horses to the Queen might have meant knights to Catherine’s bed? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672/66 "2015-09-03T13:26:09Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > The Death rumor of Catherine the Great has been dis-proven by Snopes. > Her exploits while alive, which seem similar, have not. You refer to the riding accident? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672/67 "2015-09-08T14:44:45Z")
I’ve just come across this clickbait link: [http://whatzbuzzing.com/the-13-most-disgracfully-evil-people-to-ever-exist](http://whatzbuzzing.com/the-13-most-disgracfully-evil-people-to-ever-exist) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672/68 "2015-09-08T18:49:12Z")
Oops, I see it’s pre-1900. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672/69 "2015-09-16T17:22:13Z")
“It seems vainglorious and proud Of Atom-man to boast aloud His prowess homicidal When one remembers how for years, With their rude stones and humble spears, Our sires, at wiping out their peers, Were almost never idle.” … [“The Conquerors” - Phyllis McGinley](http://www.blueridgejournal.com/poems/pmg-conquerors.htm) ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672/70 "2015-09-16T17:37:51Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Not just women rulers; many male rulers have had (often accurate) rumours. Humans love to accuse each other of sexual promiscuity. ♫ Oh, the minstrels sing Of an English King. Of many long years ago. Who ruled the land With an iron hand, Though his mind was weak and low. ♫ That’s about all that’s quotable in a genteel forum like this. 😃 As an aside, I almost choked on my popcorn watching the Disney animated “Robin Hood” when Little John sang (a thoroughly censored version of) this. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672/71 "2015-09-16T17:52:31Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > An obscure favorite [Queen Ranavolana of Madagascar](http://scandalouswoman.blogspot.com/2011/08/queen-ranavalona-i-mad-monarch-of.html?m=1) The guy who made this site with a red background, rendering it nearly impossible to read! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672/72 "2015-09-16T18:05:11Z")
> [@MacLir](#): > > ♫ Oh, the minstrels sing > Of an English King. > Of many long years ago. There is a biography of John, _The Maligned Monarch_ that is an interesting read. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672/73 "2015-09-17T00:29:13Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > Never by the millions until the industrial revolution. Victoria and especially Albert were among the top mouthpieces for mechanization that turned children into slaves. Not virtual slaves. Slaves. > > They promoted it and made millions from it. They enslaved, killed and maimed thousands of children — and adults — through their political manoeuvres and investments. Without children, the industrial revolution in the U.K. could not have attained the pinnacles it did. They were the top of the ruling class. > > I haven’t read a syllable about Victoria caring in the least, and she could not have been ignorant of the industrial-scale suffering and despair. Your brain ain’t functionin’ proper. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672/74 "2015-09-17T16:56:47Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Surprised nobody mentioned Zhang Xianzhong. > > [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang\_Xianzhong](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Xianzhong) Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty probably deserves a mention as well, if only for his public works. After scheming to get one of his brothers arrested and made a commoner, allegedly murdering his father, and commissioning the assassination of another brother, he took the throne and began–among other things, like bloody and often disastrous wars–some ambitious construction projects. An estimated six million workers died in his reconstruction of the Great Wall. The Grand Canal (a genuine and highly valuable improvement) required the mostly conscripted labor of five million men and women, some of whom, as Barry Hughart’s Master Li put it, survived. (Less flippantly, 40-50% of the workers involved in digging the linking canals are estimated to have died in the process, over the course of about 5 months.) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672/75 "2015-09-17T20:25:20Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > Never by the millions until the industrial revolution. Victoria and especially Albert were among the top mouthpieces for mechanization that turned children into slaves. Not virtual slaves. Slaves. > > They promoted it and made millions from it. They enslaved, killed and maimed thousands of children — and adults — through their political manoeuvres and investments. Without children, the industrial revolution in the U.K. could not have attained the pinnacles it did. They were the top of the ruling class. > > I haven’t read a syllable about Victoria caring in the least, and she could not have been ignorant of the industrial-scale suffering and despair. Before the latter 19th century, poverty was simply considered an endemic risk of the human condition. Almost everyone in history had been poor and had to work hard, children included- what else was new? It wasn’t until industrialism created enough material wealth that people started wondering if society could now afford a greater degree of charity. Here’s an indication of pre-industrial poverty: when the first dirty, dangerous, long-working hours factories first opened, people flocked to them, because it was _still_ better than being a farm laborer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-depraved-brutal-rulers-pre-1900/728672.md?page=3)