Seven Strange Monarchs

Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia
Although he enjoyed a peaceful tenure as king, Prussia's Friedrich Wilhelm I is most remembered today for his enduring affection for the military. He would frequently drill his army units himself, and enjoyed having them march before him, even when he was sick and confined to bed. An ascetic man who was known to enjoy sleeping in his soldier's barracks, he made it his personal goal to see Prussia's army become the most glorious in all of Europe. This obsession even extended into his own family. He wished to make his son Friedrich II into a good soldier, and had the boy awoken each morning with the firing of a canon. He even gave Friedrich II a small arsenal and a complement of child soldiers to command, and had the boy beaten whenever he failed to perform well in his training. Not surprisingly, Friedrich II eventually tried to run away, but was captured and briefly imprisoned by his father.

The King's strangest behavior was undoubtedly his obsession with creating the Potsdam Giants, a special army regiment comprised of only the tallest and strongest soldiers. The Giants were a pet project of Friedrich Wilhelm's, and he went about recruiting them by any means necessary. Mercenaries were hired and neighboring kingdoms were known to send the Prussians their tallest fighters as a means of encouraging friendly diplomatic relations. In his efforts to gather as many suitable as possible, Friedrich Wilhelm I even resorted to ordering that all tall young boys be conscripted into the unit, and tall men and women were encouraged to have kids together.

Ludwig II of Bavaria
One of Bavaria's most beloved and eccentric monarchs was Ludwig II, who became famous for his strange personality and his obsession with building enchanting and whimsical castles. Ludwig had a troubled family life, and as a child he would lose himself in arts, music, and elaborate fantasy worlds. This behavior carried over into his reign as king, which began when he was only 18. He disliked public appearances, preferring instead to stay inside his castle alone, where he would frequently have operas and plays performed for only him. This is not to say that Ludwig was a shut-in. He was known to travel about Bavaria, and would even stop and chat with any subjects he met along the way. The King's unassuming nature earned him the adoration f the people, but it drew the ire of his high-ranking court employees, who planned to have him removed from power. The conspirators provided a list of Ludwig's eccentricities, among them talking to imaginary people, poor manners, shyness, and even a penchant for moonlight picnics with naked male dancers, and used them as proof that the King was insane. While the veracity of these claims is debatable, in 1886 Ludwig was declared unfit to rule and removed from power. In a mysterious twist, the king was found floating dead in a lake the very next day, prompting many to argue that he was murdered by his rivals.

Charles VI of France
Charles VI was the ruler of France during the Hundred Years' War. Charles exhibited signs of psychosis and paranoia early in life, and modern historians have postulated that he may have been schizophrenic. His mental illness first manifested itself in 1392, when he had a "fit" while traveling through the forest on horseback. According to accounts from those present, the King became disoriented and frantic, and attacked several of his own men, even killing one knight before his servants were able to subdue him. From then on, Charles's behavior only worsened. He would frequently forget who he was, and have to be reminded that he was king. During another episode, he refused to bathe or change his clothes for several months. Charles VI was also known to run wildly through the halls of his palace for no reason, and for his own safety the doors eventually had to be boarded up.

His strangest bout of madness was noted on Pope Pius II, who wrote that the King once became convinced that he was made out of glass and could break into pieces. Fearful of shattering, Charles took to wearing padded clothing and commanded that he not be touched. The middle ages saw several different cases of this disorder, which has since become known as the "Glass Delusion."

Emperor Norton I
In the 19th century, the United States was officially "ruled' by Emperor Norton I, a San Francisco native who declared himself "Emperor of the United States" and "Protector of Mexico." Emperor Norton's real name was Joshua Abraham Norton. A British national, he came to the US in 1849 as a wealthy man, but a string of poor investments soon left him nearly broke. His financial troubles supposedly lead to him developing a number of eccentricities and delusions of grandeur, and in 1859 he officially declared himself the ruler of America. Local newspapers originally published Norton's claim as a joke, but he became beloved by San Francisco's locals, who gave him a regal uniform and addressed him in public as "your highness." Norton spent much of his early reign issuing edicts to dissolve the "corrupt" US congress and officially declare himself Emperor. But when his efforts were ignored, he turned to local mattes. He was known to stroll through the city streets inspecting roads and buildings, and he even issued his own money, which was widely accepted by local merchants. Norton was a poor man, but he was allowed to eat in San Francisco's finest restaurants and was given seats to any new play that opened. In exchange, he would place an imperial seal of approval by the establishment's front door. Norton I died in 1880 after collapsing in the street. Grand oituaries were written in all the local papers and his funeral was supposedly attended by as many as 30,000 people.

Ibrahim I of the Ottoman Empire
Ibrahim I was the most mentally unstable of a series of insane and cruel Turkish sultans that ruled the Ottoman Empire during the 16th and 17th century. Ibrahim is believed to have suffered from a host of mental illnesses, all of which were no doubt encouraged by "the Cage," a windowless building where he was kept for most of his youth. When his brother died in 1640, 23 year old Ibrahim was released and declared sultan. Ecstatic and more than a bit unhinged, he immediately made up for lost time by building up a harem of virgins to satisfy his voracious sexual appetite. Ibrahim supposedly enjoyed having his concubine gather in a palace courtyard so that he could gallop around them while "neighing like a stallion." He also had a fetish for fat women, and at one point sent his servants on a quest to find the heftiest lady in all the land. They returned with a 350 pound woman nicknamed "sugar cube," who became a favorite member of his harem. Ibrahim's excesses didn't end with sex. The Sultan was also greedy, and his agents frequently looted houses to provide him with perfumes, clothes, and anything else he desired. He was also notoriously violent. In addition to ordering executions and torture at will, Ibrahim once threw his baby son in a pool of water, and later stabbed the boy in the face out of anger. This kind of debauchery and wanton cruelty won Ibrahim his fair share of enemies, and in 1648 a coup was staged. After being captured, the Sultan was briefly put back into "the Cage" before being strangled to death by a gang of assassins.

Juana I of Spain
The only woman on the list, Juana de Castile became the first Queen of the Hapsburg dynasty when she married Phillip of Burgundy in 1498. The couple started out madly in love, unusual for an arranged royal marriage, but things soon became complicated. Juana was as jealous as Phillip was promiscuous, and his infidelities soon drove her into a state of extreme paranoia. Because her husband would chase after any attractive lady of the court, Juana took to only including old and ugly women in her retinue, and in one case she even attacked a woman she believed to be her husband's mistress. Desperate to for Phillip to be true to her, Juana started consulting sorcerers and using love potions, and when her husband ignored her she even briefly went on a hunger strike. Queen Juana's eccentricities ramped up considerably in 1506, when Phillip died after a brief illness. Utterly distraught, Juana constantly wore black and wept uncontrollably. She even had the coffin opened on several different occasions so that she could kiss the feet of her husband's corpse. Worried that her husband would cheat even in death, Juana forbid any woman from coming near his coffin, even nuns.

George III of England
Perhaps the most famous case of royal madness involved England's George III, who suffered from recurring bouts of mental illness throughout the latter part of his life. Modern historians have theorized that the King probably suffered from porphyria, a blood disease, but George's doctors were forever at a loss at diagnoses his condition. The King would rant, rave and insult and curse at his servants to the point that his caretakers were often forced to gag him and confine him with a straight jacket. A team of doctors was enlisted to help King George, but their primitive treatments, which included everything from purging and blistering to bloodletting, only seemed to make his condition worse. Soon, the King began to become delusional. He developed the belief that London was flooding, gave orders to imaginary or long dead court officials, and even tried to sexually assault one of his servants. In a bizarre episode on Christmas Day, the King named his pillow "Prince Octavius" and celebrated that it "was to be his new born this day." The Kind did have moment  of clarity, and for a time his illness abated. But with age the delusions returned, and after losing a good deal of his sight and hearing, George III was kept in seclusion until his death.