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I was pondering about how many different rulers who became insane when they were in control of governments or armies etc. Also any famous spouses of rulers who became insane.
A few i know of were ....
Roman Emperor Caligula 37 - 41
Spanish Queen Regent Joanna I (the mad) 1504 - 1555
British King George III 1760 - 1820
Portugal Queen Regent Maria I 1777 - 1816
Ivan the Terrible was a violent man who killed his favorite son, King Ludwig II was declared insane and placed under arrest. In a fit of rage, Alexander the Great killed one of his most loyal followers and his decisions were not as rational toward the end of life. The way Henry VIII disposed of wives should bring his sanity into question.
The way Henry VIII disposed of wives should bring his sanity into question.
I don't see anything approaching insanity or even irrationality in Henry's decisions. Wives were removed for lack of a male heir or for having lost their attractiveness to a very powerful philander. In the case of Anne Boleyn or Kathryn Howard, women, particularly the King's wife just didn't have the same freedom to wander as kings.
Under the "spouces" heading we might include Mary Todd Lincoln who became unhinged as a consequence of the pressures on her as first lady, along with a series of personal misfortunes.
Mrs. Lincoln was from a slave owning Kentucky family which sided with the Confedracy during the war while she remained loyal to her husband and the Union. Two of her brothers were killed fighting for the South....family conflict.
Mrs. Lincoln was from the western part of the nation and the White House social protocol was dominated by Eastern snobbery. She was constantly ridiculed behind her back as coarse and vulgar.
Mrs. Lincoln suffered a severe head injury from a carriage accident during the war.
and, worst of all...
The Lincoln's 11 year old son Willie died of childhood disease in 1862.
The previously normal behaving Mrs. Lincoln became erratic. She indulged in shocking spending sprees, grossly exceeding the budget set aside for her running of the White House. She began to suffer from prolonged bouts of depression and staged several hysterical public scenes where she loudly and cruelly berated her husband for a series of imagined slights.
Mrs. Lincoln transformed from a close ally and adviser to the President, to an ordeal. Numerous witnesses to her behavior left behind accounts, the common elements of which were expressions of wonder about how Lincoln managed to remain so patient and solicitous during her shocking outburts.
Modern psychologists have suggested that her symptoms are consistent with an induced bi-polar disorder.
Spanish Queen Regent Joanna I (the mad) 1504 - 1555
Her great-great-great grandson, Charles II of Spain, wasn't necessarily "mad" but he was horribly deformed and mentally retarded do to the inbreeding of the Habsburgs. It has been said that his genome was more homozygous than that of a child from a sibling pair.
He only lived to the age of 39, but as the years went on he became more and more strange and withdrawn even going so far as having his ancestors exhumed so he could "talk" to them.
His death sparked the War of the Spanish Succession that saw Austria allied with England vieing with France for the right to assume the Spanish throne and vast Spanish Empire.
Under the "spouces" heading we might include Mary Todd Lincoln who became unhinged as a consequence of the pressures on her as first lady, along with a series of personal misfortunes.
Which reminds me of Princess Charlotte of Belgium or otherwise known as Empress Carlota of Mexico as soon after Mexican Emperor Maximillian I was executed 1867 by Benito Juarez she suffered severe depression and eventually became insane as her brother Prince Philippe of Flanders had her commited to Miramar castle until her death 1927.
Her great-great-great grandson, Charles II of Spain, wasn't necessarily "mad" but he was horribly deformed and mentally retarded do to the inbreeding of the Habsburgs. It has been said that his genome was more homozygous than that of a child from a sibling pair.
He only lived to the age of 39, but as the years went on he became more and more strange and withdrawn even going so far as having his ancestors exhumed so he could "talk" to them.
His death sparked the War of the Spanish Succession that saw Austria allied with England vieing with France for the right to assume the Spanish throne and vast Spanish Empire.
Interesting tidbit here.
I think the poster Manoloin knows alot about the Hapsburgs as well.
Insanity is a difficult positive diagnosis without a patient on the couch, and even then not a slam dunk. In a few cases, mentally-debilitating stroke or syphilis can be verified, but otherwise, it's hard to stick the landing.
At least narcissism and perhaps delusions of grandeur are probably present to some clinical degree in almost everyone who ever thought he was qualified to be the head of state. And devious social methodology present in the psychology of everyone who succeeds, whether in a democratic or autocratic state.
The US news media doesn't hesitate to use words like 'mad' and 'crazy' to characterize people like Castro, Ahmedinejad, Chavez, who are perfectly ordinary human beings among the ranks of those considered sane, like Pinochet, Saud, and people who believe they were appointed by God to represent Him on earth, such as Elizabeth II and the Pope.
Historians are often no more kind than journalists when searching for an adjective.
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