The largest practice of fratricide was committed by Mehmed III when he had 19 of his brothers and half-brothers murdered and buried alongside their father.
Once Mehmet was done disposing of all his possible competitors for the throne, he proclaimed: 'Whomsoever of my sons the Sultanate shall pass, it is fitting that for the order of the world he shall kill his brothers. Most of the Ulema [high-ranking religious leaders] allow this. So let them act on this.
Richard III was crowned King of England in 1483, and many have long suspected that he gained the throne through the cold-blooded assassination of two young nephews who stood in his way — Edward V, age 12, and Richard, Duke of York, age 9.
Who was the real Henry VIII? Henry VIII's reign (1509-47) is usually remembered for the King's six wives and his legendary appetite. Infamously, he sent two of his wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, to their deaths on the executioner's block at the Tower of London.
Among all the horrendous things Ivan the Terrible did in his life, his killing of his own son still stands out as one of the worst. There was no line Ivan the Terrible would not cross.
Of his six wives, Henry VIII had two killed: Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. He accused Anne of adultery, and she was convicted and beheaded on May 19, 1536; that she had not given birth to a male heir was, however, Henry's primary motive for having her executed.
Henry VIII
One of England's most famous monarchs was a foul-tempered, gluttonous, bloodthirsty tyrant who, as well as ordering the executions of two of the women who had the misfortune to marry him, had an estimated 57,000 people executed during his 36-year reign.
In a recent British poll, a group of historical writers chose Henry VIII as the worst monarch in history. Was he really that bad? Much of Henry's bad reputation comes from his eventful (to say the least) marital life.
Perhaps the most devastating royal assassination was the killing of Lord Louis Mountbatten, a second cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and great-uncle and mentor to the future King Charles III.
Murad IV (Ottoman Turkish: مراد رابع, Murād-ı Rābiʿ; Turkish: IV. Murad, 27 July 1612 – 8 February 1640) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1640, known both for restoring the authority of the state and for the brutality of his methods.
Kösem Sultan earned a reputation for being the most dangerous and devious of the valide sultans (1623 to 1651). Her long tenure lasted through the reigns of her sons, Murad IV (r. 1623–40) and İbrahim I (r.
The family returned to Istanbul from exile in Damascus in 1974, just after the dynasty members were allowed to return to their homeland. Osman became the Head of the Ottoman dynasty in 2021 upon the death of his older brother, Dündar Osmanoğlu. He lives in Istanbul and has nine grandchildren.
According to Krishna Chandra Sagar, the Huna king Toramana was cruel and barbaric, his son Mihirakula even more so, during their rule. Mihirakula had conquered Sindh by 520 CE, had a large elephant and cavalry-driven army. Mihirakula destroyed Buddhist sites, ruined monasteries, according to Sagar.
Later life of Ashoka:
He conquered Kalinga, though he witnessed the deaths of around 100,000 people and 150,000 deportations; the death toll later rose to more than 200,000.
But Aurangzeb, the sixth emperor and a devout Muslim, was often described as a ruthless tyrant who was an expansionist, imposed tough Sharia laws and brought back the discriminatory jizya tax that Hindu residents had to pay in return for protection.
King Henry VIII's grim legacy as an obsessive, petulant tyrant has seen him crowned as the worst monarch in history by the Historical Writers Association.
George III is widely remembered for two things: losing the American colonies and going mad. This is far from the whole truth. George's direct responsibility for the loss of the colonies is not great.
Some medical historians have said that George III's mental instability was caused by a hereditary physical disorder called porphyria.
Abumbi II, the 11th fon, or king, of Bafut, Cameroon, has close to 100 wives. They weren't all his to start. According to local tradition, when a fon dies, his successor inherits all his wives and then marries his own queens.
Oedipus, in Greek mythology, the king of Thebes who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother. Homer related that Oedipus's wife and mother hanged herself when the truth of their relationship became known, though Oedipus apparently continued to rule at Thebes until his death.
Katherine, six years Henry's senior, was considered beautiful, and shared a love of display and finery with her husband. She and Henry rode and hunted together, and he trusted her completely. For many years they were a happy and devoted couple and a powerful political team.
William the Conqueror's Exploding Corpse - Historic UK.