Many people dream of being a king or queen, but in truth, it is a hard task. While the wealth and power are an obvious boon, monarchs live their whole lives in the public gaze, their every act observed and criticized by thousands of people. Their position at the center of a state often means they have little, if any, control over their personal schedules, and their days are full of political and ceremonial obligations which could cause considerable damage if they don’t go smoothly.

Some people cope with these pressures better than others. History is full of successful, capable rulers, but it is also littered with those who succumbed to the pressure and suffered mental and physical health problems. It is a stressful job, and many of them only survived by dedicating themselves to unusual pursuits. Today, we’re investigating ten kings who had strange hobbies.

10 Edward II—Digging

Although he’s one of the most reviled kings of English history today, in his early reign, Edward II was loved by his people. He was a beautiful specimen: tall and muscular, with long brown hair that fell to his shoulders. When he wanted to be, he could be very charismatic, impressing people with his performances in Parliament. But medieval people had very particular expectations of their monarchs, especially when it came to what they did in their spare time.

As the enlightened representatives of God, they were expected to be interested in art, music, feasting, and politics. Edward, however, was a thoroughly practical man. His interests were swimming, sailing, fishing, architecture, and digging ditches.^[1] At numerous times in his reign, he was vilified by both writers and courtiers for abandoning his political duties to go sailing or fishing with peasants along the River Thames or overseeing the construction of houses. In one particularly hot summer, he even hopped into a ditch beside some peasants to help them dig. While the peasants were no doubt impressed, his courtiers were disgusted that a king would humiliate himself in such a way.

His 20-year reign was dominated by constant conflict with his court and Parliament, and his authority was restricted by the barons on numerous occasions. In the end, he seized his power back in a civil war and ruled with an iron fist until his increasingly dysfunctional government was deposed by an alliance between his wife and an English knight, who invaded and seized the throne.

9 Abdulhamid II—Woodworking

The Ottoman Empire was one of the final powerful states in the world which had a hereditary monarch who played an active role in politics. The final Ottoman sultan to wield absolute power was Abdulhamid II, who was ousted in a coup in 1909. He is a controversial figure today: His early reign was marked by his adherence to progressive politics, but in his later years, he dissolved the new Ottoman Parliament and tried to return the empire to its conservative base, while also overseeing the massacre of Armenians and the use of secret police.

Interestingly, his daughter published a book which granted us a unique insight into the life and personality of an Ottoman ruler. She reveals some fascinating facts about him, including that he used to like to be read to at night because he suffered from insomnia. His worries about his insomnia entered his waking life, to the point that he avoided reading thought-provoking books in case they ended up sticking in his head, preventing him from sleeping. But his favorite pastime was carpentry, which he practiced to relieve his fatigue.^[2] He became prolific, even producing some of the furniture that his family used in private.

He was also a big fan of novels, particularly in the detective genre. While the first Turkish translations of Sherlock Holmes stories were published in 1908, the sultan discovered them years earlier and had them translated by a court scribe, amassing a large collection. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his wife visited Turkey, the sultan actually summoned him and, through his chamberlain, presented Doyle with the Order of the Medjidie in honor of his achievements.

8 Friedrich Wilhelm I—Tall Soldiers

The German state of Prussia was famous for its effective army. In the era leading up to the Napoleonic Wars, Prussian soldiers were the most well-equipped and disciplined in Europe. Prussia developed a martial reputation which survived into World War II and beyond, and it had its roots in the eccentric King Friedrich Wilhelm I—often called the “Soldier King.”

In government, Friedrich was an effective statesman, avoiding war and reforming the state’s finances and bureaucracy. By the end of his reign, Prussia was one of the richest and most stable German states. He also fundamentally reformed the Prussian army, leaving his son and successor, Frederick the Great, the strongest army in Europe.

In his personal life, however, Friedrich was an unusual man with peculiar hobbies. His strangest project was the creation of the “Potsdam Giants,” a military unit made up of the tallest men in the kingdom.^[3] They had the best uniforms and lodgings in the Prussian army, and soldiers were paid based on how tall they were, with the tallest being paid the most. He frequently arranged for unusually tall men to be kidnapped and press-ganged into the unit, and diplomats from other countries sent him tall men as offerings. He became increasingly obsessed with his project: Whenever he was sad, he would have them paraded in front of him, sometimes in his own bedroom when he was ill. He painted portraits of the individual soldiers from memory. In his later years, he indulged in experiments to make taller soldiers, including pairing them with tall women to breed new soldiers and sending some men to the stretching rack to enhance their height.

7 Olaf Tryggvason—Juggling Knives

The Vikings were a highly militaristic people. While they didn’t go raiding as much as they do in modern TV shows and movies, their society did revolve around the pursuit of battle. The games they played in their spare time reflected this: Swimming was often a competition, and it wasn’t unheard-of for an athlete to push his opponent underwater. Wrestling was popular, as were ball games (the rules of which are sadly lost today). When two men disagreed over something, they could even end up settling it with a duel.

To be a successful ruler, a Viking king had to be an accomplished athlete. There are many stories of Viking kings and their sporting achievements, but the saga of the Viking king Olaf Tryggvason is particularly impressive. Olaf had some unusual hobbies: For one, he was a great rock climber, easily scaling the Smalsarhorn in Scandinavia and laying his shield at the top. When one of his followers got stuck halfway up, Olaf is said to have made his way to him and carried him back to the ground under one arm.^[4]

He also indulged in other daring activities that Viking warriors often took part in, including “walking the oars” on a ship while at sea. Most interestingly, he discovered a unique trick that seems to have won him many supporters: He had the ability to “play with three knives so that one was always in the air, and he always caught them by the hilts.” In other words, he could juggle! This dexterity seems to have helped him in other areas of his life, since he could fight with a weapon in each hand and throw two spears at once.

6 Louis XVI—Locksmithing

Louis XVI is well-known today for many things: He was the last French king before the French Revolution, he was the only French monarch to be beheaded, and he supported the American revolutionaries against Britain. He and his wife Marie Antoinette are often stereotyped as disinterested, self-absorbed aristocrats who terrorized France and didn’t care for her people.

In reality, Louis XVI was a rather gentle man. He was well-read and very interested in the sciences, particularly engineering and the mechanical arts. He personally helped to overhaul the French navy and, unlike many other contemporary French kings, never took a mistress. He was also concerned with the plight of France’s poor, ordering the removal of the restriction on bread prices in an effort to make food cheaper for the commoners.

His private passion, however, was locksmithing.^[5] He was enamored by locks and surrounded himself with all different kinds, from simple contraptions to really elaborate, secret ones. He, like some scholars of the day, believed that all men should pursue some form of manual craft. Of course, in the highly public and sophisticated French court, such labor was seen as the work of peasants, not kings. Because of this, the king initially pursued his hobby in private, being educated by the court blacksmith behind closed doors. He had a private workshop installed above his library, complete with anvils, where he could practice his craft. Unfortunately, the secret eventually got out, and Louis was ridiculed in the papers and pamphlets of the day—particularly for the connotations that surrounded a married king fiddling with locks in his spare time.

5 Henry VII—Tennis

Henry VII is a king who is known today for being humorless and austere. A shrewd politician, he overhauled England’s government and made it extremely wealthy by advancing trade and industry and cutting spending. It’s no wonder he is former Chancellor George Osborne’s favorite British monarch. Henry was exceptionally serious, rarely smiled, and spent long hours working at his papers to ensure the prosperity of the realm he’d seized at swordpoint. He could speak many languages and read and write with skill, and he valued justice above all things.

In many ways, he was the total opposite of his son, Henry VIII, who eventually succeeded him. They did share one great passion, though: tennis.^[6] By his son’s day, tennis was a common sport among the English nobility, and since Henry VIII was a great sportsman, it’s no surprise that he enjoyed a game of tennis.

While Henry V was the first English monarch to play, tennis still wasn’t a popular sport in England by Henry VII’s time. This didn’t stop him: He had six tennis courts built across the country over the course of his reign, including one at Westminster, the place where the royal government was based. Because of the king’s interest, it became a widely loved sport in the royal court, a tradition which would continue under his successors. Henry was an avid fan of the game and played regularly. In his later years when he could no longer play, he continued to watch and bet on matches. He lost £20 in bets between 1493 and 1499, more money than the average man or woman would have seen in their lifetime.

4 George III—Agriculture

George III, the king who lost the American colonies, is often called Mad King George today. While he did unfortunately succumb to mental illness in his final years, he was the king of Great Britain for over half a century, and for the most part, he was a thoroughly sane and successful monarch. He was very interested in the day-to-day running of the realm and had a large collection of scientific instruments, many of which are on display today. He was a keen astronomer who funded the construction of the biggest telescope in the world at the time. And contrary to popular belief, George was not a tyrant: He went into the American revolution not hoping to expand his own powers but to defend the right of an elected Parliament to levy taxes on its subjects. Whether or not he was correct in his thinking, his intention was the preservation of Parliament, not his own rule.

The nickname “Mad King George” came about only in the final years of his reign. For much of his time as king, he was both ridiculed and honored with the nickname of “Farmer George.”^[7] This was because he had an extremely keen interest in farming, writing papers on it, annotating books, and commonly corresponding with farmers across the country. Many at the time thought it was odd, but agriculture was the dominant industry in the country, and George’s attention helped to fuel the agricultural revolution that was taking place at the time. During his reign, the rural population soared, laying the ground for the industrial revolution that was already underway by the time of his death.

3 George V—Stamps

The British royal family today has thoroughly normal hobbies: The Queen and Prince William are said to be passionate bingo players, and her royal highness herself enjoys reading mystery novels and looking after her dogs and horses. She likes to watch horse racing, and when she’s at Balmoral, her Scottish residence, she hosts Scottish dances for her staff and neighbors. None of these hobbies can be seen as controversial.

Her grandfather, George V, was similarly average in his interests: His main hobby was stamp collecting.^[8] Starting as a young prince, he continued his collection into his time as a monarch, even through the chaos of World War I. What’s unusual about George’s hobby was how many stamps he collected over his lifetime: His collection is made up of 328 albums of 60 pages each. That’s nearly 20,000 pages of stamps.

His passion earned him the nickname “The King of Philately,” philately being the proper name of stamp collecting. He was elected vice president of the Royal Philatelic Society of London in 1893. In 1905, while he was still a prince, he set a new record for the amount spent on a stamp: £1,450—roughly $220,000 US dollars today. A courtier later asked the prince if he’d heard that “some damned fool had paid as much as £1,400 for one stamp.” The prince replied by saying, “Yes, I was that damned fool!”

2 Farouk—Collecting Everything

King Farouk, the last king of Egypt, was a selfish man: He ate, drank, and gamed to excess, raced his cars around the country’s streets—painting them red so that the police would know not to pull him over—and kept his palace’s lights on while the rest of the city was in blackout during the blitz. He seemingly cared about no one other than himself. His reign was dominated by corruption scandals, his people were impoverished, and his court was brimming with wealth. The Egyptian army eventually intervened, driving him out in 1952. Then the process of clearing out his possessions began.^[9]

Farouk was perhaps one of the most prolific hoarders in history. His personal collection consisted of thousands of silk shirts, an entire fleet of Cadillacs, and 50 diamond-studded golden walking sticks. He collected an absurd amount of French baroque-style furniture, so much that he earned the nickname “Louis-Farouk.” His coin collection was one of the grandest in the world, consisting of over 8,500 coins, some of which—like the 1933 $20 gold double eagle and all five known examples of the 1913 liberty head nickel—would be worth millions today.

What was most shocking to people at the time, however, was his extensive pornography collection. A selection of seminude images were found under his pillow, but once it was all catalogued, his total collection stretched into the hundreds of thousands. This was almost certainly the largest porn collection in the world at the time. When confronted about it, Farouk happily admitted to owning it but was shocked by the lewd accusations, insisting that they were classical works of art.

1 Edward VIII—Flying

Edward VIII was king of the United Kingdom for less than a year. He was one of the few monarchs in British history never to be officially crowned. His short reign was dominated by fears that he would damage or even destroy the monarchy for good. Most famously, he insisted on pursuing the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson. The Church of England at the time forbade remarriage while the divorcee was still alive, and the king was the head of the Church of England. None of this seemed to matter to Edward. He was reckless in other ways: He was disinterested in government procedure and trampled on tradition. And worst of all, he was probably a Nazi sympathizer. He visited Hitler in 1937 and, later in his life, privately confessed that he thought Hitler wasn’t a bad man. Needless to say, after Edward’s abdication, George VI didn’t want him back. In fact, George threatened to cut Edward’s royal allowance entirely if he ever tried to return to Britain.

In his spare time, though, Edward was an avid fan of flying. He was the first member of the royal family to fly himself to a public event and had his own pilot’s license. In typical fashion, he was apparently a reckless flyer, so much so that his father, the aforementioned George V, tried to ban him from flying altogether in case he died. Of course, Edward ignored his request.

In his final days as king, he made an elaborate plan to flee the country by airplane, even going so far as to book a hotel on the continent. It was only by the actions of British government intelligence that the flight was halted on the morning it was supposed to take off. Edward was ultimately made to abdicate before he left the country.^[10]

Stephen King has created eerie fictional towns for the state of Maine to co-exist along some real ones for his treasure-trove of books. He was inspired by Bridgton to write The Mist and by Durham to create the fictional town of Jerusalem’s Lot. Derry, the home of IT, is based on the real city of Bangor. Terrifying things happen in these towns and one can only sigh in relief that the stories are all fiction.

However, there are several places around the world that would give King’s creations a run for their money. On this list are just a few of them.

Top 10 Modern Horror Novels More Terrifying Than A Stephen King Book

10 Terror in O’ahu

O’ahu is the third-largest Hawaiian island and is home to around a million people. Here you will find Waikiki and Pearl Harbor as well as Lanikai Beach which is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

This type of description doesn’t lend itself to creepiness, does it? However, when night falls over O’ahu, the spirits of the dead come out to play. Should you find yourself on the 16th Avenue bridge in Kaimuki after dark, don’t be surprised if you find a small, cold hand worming its way into yours. It is believed that a little girl was killed in a hit-and-run incident on this bridge and that her spirit is constantly looking for someone to lead her home.

If that isn’t quite unsettling enough for you, there have been several reports of a ghostly woman rattling and pounding on toilet stall doors in the Old Waialae Drive-In Theater. When the unlucky person inside the toilet stall opened the door, they found a floating apparition wearing a long dress but with no face and no feet right in front of them.

9 The horror of Real Filipe

South America is home to Angel Falls, Machu Picchu, Copper Canyon, excellent cuisine and vintage cars. Here you can hike to Rainbow Mountain, dance the salsa, gaze at the Christ the Redeemer statue or watch football matches alongside an electrifying crowd.

The continent is also home to some of the scariest places on Earth.

The narrow, u-shaped Real Filipe Fortress in Lima held prisoners who were forced to stand the entire time they were imprisoned. Before arriving at their horrific destination, these inmates had to traverse the narrow corridors all the while trying to duck out of the way of pails of boiling water thrown at them. Many of them died after enduring 2 months of hell in Real Filipe.

These days, the horrors continue, but now they are of the ghostly variety. Visitors to the fortress have reported seeing pale apparitions with long hair walking the drawbridge and grim-looking soldiers throwing themselves off the parapets. Some have even reported glimpsing demonic children appearing in the narrow passageways.

8 New Zealand’s spookiest spots

The island country of New Zealand isn’t lacking in creepy locations. Here the brave at heart can visit Waitomo Caves Hotel where guests have seen bathtubs dripping with blood and experienced apparitions passing right through them. Or if decaying psychiatric hospital buildings are more their speed, they can take a tour of Kingseat Psychiatric Hospital where temperatures plummet for no reason, furniture is moved around by unseen hands, and doorbells ring when no one is near them.

Then there is Camp Adair in Hunua. This camp was established in 1913 and accommodates church retreats, sports teams and team buildings. It is also the site of a spooky urban legend which has it that a red-headed teacher killed a group of children in the School House Building. Some who have visited the camp in recent years have reported the spectre of a red-headed man peeking at them through the windows…

7 Don’t go in there!

The country of Russia covers over 1/8th of Earth’s occupied land area, so there is ample space for both fantastic landscapes and beautiful architecture as well as abandoned and downright creepy places. This includes the Kusovnikov House in Moscow where an old man with a hump is said to wander the street while mourning the loss of his wealth as well as the Mikhailovsky Castle where tsar Pavel I still plays the violin by a particular window.

Russia is also the place you will find the Rotonda, a circular hall located inside an 18th century building. It is rumored that the hall was a meeting place for Freemasons at one point before it became the hangout of musical groups in the 70s and 80s. It is believed that if a person writes a heartfelt wish on the graffiti-covered walls, it would come true, but at a terrible price. Don’t go near the basement though, as it is said that if someone enters it alone, they will either return a few years older or become completely insane.

6 Leave the stones alone

Sweden gave us ABBA, Roxette, Avicii, functional and sustainable design, excellent coffee and has some of the most mesmerizing landscapes in the world. It is also in Sweden where you should never get on a silver train known as Silverpilen as it will transport you to an abandoned station in the middle of a forest from which you can never return.

Train stations are not the only creepy things in this country.

There is also the main square in Gamla Stan (Old Town) where blood flows across the cobblestones each November as if re-enacting the “Stockholm Bloodbath” that took place more than a century ago. 92 members of the Swedish nobility were either beheaded or hanged in the square because they opposed the Dane. To honor these souls, a red building nearby incorporated 92 white stones in its design. Should anyone try to remove one of these stones, the ghost of the slain person representing that stone will rise from its grave haunt Stockholm forever. Suffice it to say, all the white stones remain intact.

5 Ghosts of history

Antarctica isn’t cold enough to keep the ghosts at bay. In fact, it is said to be one of the most haunted places on Earth. Legend has it that while the explorers and scientists of yore that once endured this harsh landscape might be long gone, their spirits still hang around. For instance, Sir Edmund Hillary believed that he had seen Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ghost in his abandoned hut when he and his New Zealand party reached Antarctica in 1958.

In 1979, a plane flying tourists on a day-trip from New Zealand crashed into the side of Mount Erebus killing all 257 people on board. The corpses of the deceased were allegedly stored at McMurdo Station which is an American base on Ross Island. Soon, visitors to the island began to report hearing disembodied voices, and seeing trails of footprints that ended abruptly.

There are even so-called ghost mountains that lie underneath four meters of ice and has never been seen by humans, only mapped by radar.

4 Fear and trepidation in the woods

Japan is a fantastic travel destination that offers some of the most breathtaking sights in the world, including Mount Fuji, Shinto Shrines, Buddhist Temples and landscapes covered in cherry blossoms.

It is also the birthplace of several terrifying urban legends and horror movies, many of which center around creepy locations. These locations include the Round Schoolhouse ruin situated in Bibai, Hokkaido. The circular school building was constructed in 1959 and most of the students were the children of coal miners who worked nearby.

After Japan started importing coal instead of mining it, the school was eventually abandoned in 1974 with most of the furniture left behind. The ruin has long since been a great attraction for ‘ghost hunting’ parties. Those who have braved the woods to reach the old ruin, have returned claiming to have heard terrifying screams echoing through the night and being attacked by shadowy figures that jumped out at them from between the trees.

It is also rumored that those who actually step inside the building, return not only traumatized, but completely deranged. As such, mediums in Japan refuse to go near the site and paranormal investigators believe it to be an interdimensional portal.

3 Spirits of the Land Down Under

While there are certainly terrifying real-life creatures to found in Australia such as great white sharks, huge spiders and snakes, there are also hordes of spirits unable to cross over to the other side. Or so it seems, at least.

In the abandoned Beechworth Lunatic Asylum an 80-year-old man tugs at tourists’ clothes while a young girl mumbles at those who pass by close to her, desperate to be heard but no one can understand what she’s saying. At the Old Adelaide Gaol, you might just run into the spirit of hangman, Ben Ellis, who is still seeking atonement for the prisoner who didn’t die instantly but instead hung on the rope for 22 minutes before drawing his last breath. In the Monte Cristo Homestead, the constant rattling of chains alerts visitors to the presence of the spirit of a mentally ill patient named Harold who was chained to a bed for 40 years before he died.

The most haunted town in Australia is reputed to be Picton, with the Redback Range Railway tunnel singled out as the most haunted place inside it. It is believed that many people committed suicide here and that a train accident led to the death of a local girl in 1916. Her spirit is said to roam the tunnel to this day. Visitors to the tunnel have reported seeing figures suddenly appearing before them, ghostly children running around and white lights hovering above them as they walk.

2 Wandering ghosts

Europe is steeped in history which makes it the ‘ideal’ location for scary experiences. The continent has everything from haunted Victorian cemeteries and Jack the Ripper tours to vampire castles, creepy statues, and monks haunting the streets.

At the Zvíkov Castle in Czech Republic an apparition haunted its residents until 1597, but even though this spirit eventually dissipated, supernatural events continued. This included animals behaving strangely for no apparent reason, and unexplained fires. An eerie legend says that anyone who sleeps in the main tower of the castle will die within 12 months.

The Castle of Brissac in Maine-et-Loire, France, houses the wandering spirit of La Dame Verte who was murdered by her husband after he caught her being unfaithful to him. Visitors to the castle have reported seeing her ghost, wearing a green dress, with gaping holes where her eyes and nose used to be. Those who don’t suffer the misfortune of being scared witless by her, can hear her moaning around the castle.

Then there is the embalmed corpse of 2-year-old Rosalia Lombardo that is kept in a glass case in the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Italy. The little girl has been perfectly preserved since her death in 1920. Some visitors are so overcome by how life-like her corpse is that they have become convinced she still blinks her eyes.

1 Hotel of the undead

The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel definitely rivals the Overlook. Urban legend has it that a bride fell down a flight of stairs at the hotel in 1920 and died instantly. She never left however, her veiled and wedding dress-clad spirit appearing to several guests over the years. Sometimes the back of her dress is on fire.

In Room 873 a man allegedly killed his wife and daughter, setting up the space for innumerable ghost sightings to the extent that the hotel sealed up the room. Some have reported seeing the impression of a small child appearing on the wall where the door of Room 873 used to be. Before it was permanently closed off, maids complained that they were unable to clean bloody fingerprints from the bathroom mirror and unholy screams woke guests in the middle of the night.

In another area of the hotel, a headless man appears periodically who, despite his lack of a head, still manages to play the bagpipes, freaking people out as he wanders along.

Top 15 Movies Based on Stephen King Stories

For the Vikings, reputation was the most important thing in life. In their eyes, a person’s deeds were the only thing that survived them long after they were gone, so they loved to celebrate the actions of their ancestors and friends while trying to make a name for themselves personally, whether that be by exploring, conquering, raiding, or patronizing the people who wrote the songs: the skalds.

As such, we thought that a list retelling the grandest deeds of the Viking kings would be a great way to celebrate them (and to bring some entertainment value). After all, it’s what they would have wanted. Here, we learn about ten Viking kings and their epic deeds.

10 Harald Fairhair, The First King Of Norway

Any list covering the greatest achievements of the Viking kings wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Harald Fairhair.^[1] Despite his pseudo-mythical status, most historians now believe that Fairhair did exist but that his exploits were probably not as dramatic as the sagas make them out to be. He was likely a petty king in Southwest Norway who was able to subjugate his neighbors and rule over a large portion of what is now modern Norway.

According to the sagas, the Battle of Hafrsfjord was a crucial moment for Harald’s young kingdom. Dated to sometime between 870 and 900, it was a large battle by contemporary standards and involved many of the petty kings of Norway. The only king mentioned in a source from the time of the battle was Kjovte the Rich, who supposedly fled after Harald’s victory, leaving many of his men to die. The place believed to be the site of the battle is now marked by the Swords in Rock, three 10-meter-tall (33 ft) monuments which represent Harald and the kings he defeated.

Following Hafrsfjord, Harald established the most influential power bloc in Norway, from which he and his successors were able to exert pressure on their neighbors and ultimately form the Kingdom of Norway, which exists to this day.

9 Rurik, The Founder Of Russia

The Rurikid dynasty was one of the longest-reigning lineages in human history: They were kings in Russia from the depths of the Viking age to the reign of Ivan the Terrible centuries later. And it was founded by a Viking.^[2]

The Primary Chronicle of Russia, which was assembled in 1113 from a collection of earlier pieces, tells us the story of Russia’s beginnings. According to the Chronicle, the Slavic people who lived in modern-day Ukraine and Russia invited Rurik and his two brothers to rule over them, thinking they would bring law and order to the tribes. They clearly accepted, but Rurik’s brothers died shortly after, leaving him to rule alone.

In the past, some historians questioned the authenticity of the story told in the Chronicle, but most now accept it as fact. Rurik was a Varangian, warriors who served the Byzantine emperor as their personal bodyguard (and who were nearly all Norse), so he would have been well-respected. There is also evidence of significant Viking influence in the area of modern-day Russia and Ukraine: When Harald Hardrada lost the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030, he fled to stay with family in Kiev. The Vikings also had trade routes across Europe, from Baghdad and beyond to the coast of Spain, so it’s not unreasonable to expect the warriors and traders who crossed from Scandinavia to Greece and the Middle East to settle down along the way. Odinist symbols and Scandinavian blacksmithing tools dating back to the Viking age, among other items, have been found in Lagoda and Novgorod, which suggests there was at least some Norse influence in the region, and the Arab traveler Ahmad ibn Fadlan encountered Viking tribes while journeying through the lands of the Rus.

Either way, Rurik was a member of the Norse Varangian Guard who established a small kingdom in modern-day Russia, and his descendants (who were raised as Slavs) continued his legacy, remaining kings and princes in the area until 1612, which is no mean feat.

8 Eric Bloodaxe, The Last King Of Northumbria

Most of us have heard of Eric Bloodaxe, the last Viking king of Northumbria. Beyond his name, however, most of us know little about him, but we assume he must’ve been a great Viking to have earned the nickname “Bloodaxe.”

In fact, the name more likely comes from the connotation of “blood” meaning “family” or “brotherhood,” so an equally accurate translation could be “brotheraxe” or “familyaxe.” This nickname makes sense when we learn that he killed five of his brothers in order to win the throne of Norway!^[3]

He only ruled in Scandinavia for a short time before he was deposed by his last remaining brother, fleeing to Britain without a fight. Why he gave up his kingdom so easily we’ll probably never know, but it might have been because he saw a brighter future for himself in the British Isles. If he did, he wasn’t wrong, because he was easily able to assert control over the kingdom of Northumbria and rule it undisputed until his death in 954.

7 Sictric Caech And The Battle Of Islandbridge

The Vikings have a long history in Ireland—the city of Dublin was actually founded by Vikings to serve as a commercial center for their slave trade. Their actual influence in Inner Ireland ebbed and flowed over the years, and in 902, they were forced out of Dublin by a united army of several Irish kings. Sictric Caech was one of these Vikings.

At first, he went on to rule a small kingdom in the Danelaw, but the Anglo-Saxons had conquered most of the Danelaw by 918 and driven most of the Vikings out of England. Following this, Sictric returned to Ireland, this time at the head of an army. They won some early battles with the Irish kings and staked out a small claim for themselves, but the war was far from conclusive.

Things came to a head at the Battle of Islandbridge in 919.^[4] The Irish king Niall Glundub led a coalition of Northern Irish kings to drive the Vikings back out. Sictric and his army met them on the way. The battle was a crushing victory for Sictric, with five Irish kings and the High King of Ireland himself meeting their ends in the bloodbath. Sictric reigned as the undisputed king of Dublin for another three years, after which he seems to have returned to England by his own choice.

6 Sweyn Forkbeard And The Conquest Of England

Sweyn Forkbeard became the first Viking king of all England in 1013, though he only reigned for five weeks before his death—not long enough to even be officially crowned.^[5]

But it is the reasoning behind his invasion that makes him a truly respectable Viking king.

By Sweyn’s time, the Vikings had lived in England for nearly 200 years but had never managed to conquer the entire kingdom. They ruled the northeastern half of England as the Danelaw until the end of Eric Bloodaxe’s reign in 954, when they were driven out. People of Viking descent continued to live in England, however, and the Viking kings across the sea continued to have an interest in their people.

So when the English king ordered the mass slaughter of Vikings living in England in 1002, Sweyn planned his revenge. While he’d been raiding the English coast on and off for a decade or so, now he mustered an invasion force. They landed in 1003, causing widespread destruction and pillaging much of the country in revenge. Ethelred the Unready was forced to pay Sweyn a ludicrous amount of silver to stop the latter from burning his kingdom.

But ten years later, Sweyn was back, this time with an army big enough to seize England. They landed in Kent and rampaged through the countryside, soon reaching London. The English earls, fearing another drawn-out war and already skeptical of their own king, drove Ethelred into exile and declared Sweyn king of England.

While Sweyn’s reign didn’t last long, it did pave the way for another Viking invasion, this one much more permanent.

5 King Cnut And The North Sea Empire

With Sweyn’s death, his son Cnut was left in charge of his father’s army in England. The English lords, however, chose to bring Ethelred back, and Cnut fled to Denmark.

He immediately set about raising a larger army and even asked his brother (and rival), the king of Denmark, for warriors to help him. Poles, Swedes, and Norwegians flocked to his banner, drawn by the promise of loot. Cnut landed in Wessex in 1015 at the head of 10,000 men and laid waste to the country, conquering from Cornwall to Northumbria.^[6]

But London remained defiant under the leadership of the newly chosen English king, Edmund Ironside. The armies of the two kings met at the Battle of Assandun (usually accepted to be modern-day Ashington), where Cnut won a close-fought engagement. English resistance crumbled.

By 1018, Cnut was also king of Denmark following the death of his brother, and he finally conquered Norway in 1028, after years of conflict with various Scandinavian lords. Though they’d originally fought against him, the English were remarkably loyal to Cnut during his reign; he spent much of his 20-year tenure putting down rebellions or fighting enemies in his homeland, leaving England to be governed by his allies, and by his death, nearly all the men on his council were English.

Cnut became one of the most powerful kings in Europe, meeting with the pope and the emperor of Germany on several occasions and fostering economic links between his three kingdoms. While his empire broke apart on his death, he seems to have made little effort in his life to see it continue, abandoning Norway to rebels in the final years of his reign and leaving Denmark to his son Harthacnut and England to his other son, Harold Harefoot. The union of the three kingdoms made Cnut the most powerful king in Europe at the time, however, and his descendants would repeatedly try (and fail) to recreate his successes.

4 Harald Bluetooth’s Ring Fortresses

Before Cnut and Sweyn, however, someone had to turn Denmark into the strong, centralized state that it had to be to go toe-to-toe with England. This king was Harald Bluetooth, Sweyn’s father and long-reigning king of Denmark.

Not all Viking strength came from conquest. Over the course of his 30-year reign, Harald transformed Denmark from a political backwater into a strong medieval state. Harald’s plans for creating a centralized government are best summed up by his Trelleborg ring forts: fortresses built across Danish territory, centered at the fort at Aarhus, in the geographical center of the region. Each one was built to exact standards, with four gates (each facing one of the compass points), a tall wall and ditch around the outside, and an open courtyard with administrative buildings in the middle.^[7] These would have served as both tax collection points and places for Danish kings to muster their armies, laying the groundwork for the conquests of his son and grandson.

The fortresses were all built in locations that were close to the sea, but far enough from it to be safe from sea raids, and alongside Viking land routes, where they would have been both well-connected and highly visible, a powerful symbol of the king’s authority. Their sites seem to have been meticulously chosen to efficiently defend and control the people of Denmark, which was no doubt at the forefront of Bluetooth’s mind after the history of wars in Norway and his father’s difficult reign.

Unfortunately for him, the ultimate threat came from within, when his son Sweyn forcibly deposed him.

3 Harald Hardrada And The Destruction Of Heidaby

Harald Hardrada (Hard-Ruler) is famous in history for being one of the last Viking kings and for unsuccessfully trying to seize the throne of England by force—losing the crucial Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 to Harold Godwinson, which paved the way for William the Conqueror’s ultimate victory.^[8]

This battle, however, came at the end of a long and distinguished Viking career which had taken Harald all around the known world, from Norway to Sicily and Palestine, over the course of 30 years. Perhaps his greatest (or worst) feat was the destruction of Heidaby. Heidaby was a Norse town at the base of Jutland with trade connections across the northern world: It rose to prominence in the late 700s and became the most important town in the Western Viking world.

Harald, who was king of Norway at the time, was trying to subdue Denmark and add it to his realm, and he sought to weaken Denmark by raiding its coast. His campaign took him to Heidaby, which refused to willingly submit to him. In response, he drove burning ships into the harbor, setting it alight. The flames spread rapidly across the whole town. Snorri Sturlason writes that Harald’s men sang: “All Heidaby is burned down! Strangers will ask where stood the town. In our wild humor up it blazed, and Svein looks round him all amazed,” (albeit in Old Norse, of course).

The town of Heidaby never recovered and fell from importance. It was finally brought to an end by a Slavic raid in 1066, which wiped it off the map for good.

2 Sweyn II Of Denmark And The Last Viking Invasion Of England

The death of Harald Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 is usually considered the end of the Viking age, and many people call Hardrada the last Viking king. The truth is hardly ever that simple, however.

Following William’s conquest of England, the Godwin family were deposed but not defeated. They continued to harass the new kingdom from the sea, and in 1069, Sweyn II of Denmark decided to back one of the Anglo-Saxon pretenders.^[9] Why he did so is not 100-percent clear, but it may have been related to his lifelong rivalry with Hardrada. After all, Hardrada had died trying to seize England, so what better way to one-up your rival once and for all than to succeed where he failed?

Sweyn was successful, too, seizing a good portion of Northern England and holding it from William, but in true Viking fashion, he was ready to seize the advantage and turned on his Anglo-Saxon ally when William offered to pay him a large sum of money to go back to Denmark; without Sweyn’s support, the rebellion crumbled, and England remained Norman. The Vikings were never able to conquer England again.

1 Olaf III, The Last Viking King

This brings us to our last epic Viking king, and the man who some consider the real last Viking king, Olaf III—who was known as Olaf the Peaceful. While not as warlike or bloodthirsty as the other Viking leaders on this list, Olaf was a great politician who effectively created the modern state of Norway.^[10]

Olaf may have been swayed by his involvement in his father Harald’s invasion of England in 1066. While he was not present at the battle where his father died—he remained with the ships—he was a great proponent of peace during his reign, and Norway didn’t go to war for a quarter of a century, putting him at stark contrast with his father, who was always either adventuring or trying to expand his domains.

Olaf deliberately transformed Norway into a more “normal” continental European country: he drew the Norwegian church into line with the pope’s teachings and reorganized the dioceses of Norway, and it’s also believed he was the first Viking king who learned to read. He built a European-style court around himself, introducing medieval aristocratic culture to Norway. During his reign, urban growth flourished, and the town of Bergen was founded, which went on to become the capital of medieval Norway. Many Norwegian laws were officially put down in writing for the first time in Olaf’s reign.

We tend to think of medieval food as bland or boring. After all, there were no chocolates, potatoes, or tomatoes. (They all came from America.) But some medieval foods were so strongly flavored that we would find them unpalatable today, especially because people back then loved to mix fragrances like rose water or lavender with their dinners.

In medieval times, the very best food was eaten by the king and his court. And no king was more lavish than Richard II, who was known across Europe for his opulence.

So we are lucky that a recipe book written by his best chefs has survived to the modern day, containing no fewer than 196 recipes. It is called The Forme of Cury, and you can read it for free at Project Gutenberg if you can get your head around Middle English.

Let’s dig in.

10 Funges

This recipe—No. 10 in The Forme of Cury—simply calls for funges (the medieval word for “mushrooms“) and leeks to be cut up small and added to a broth, with saffron for coloring. Easy.

However, it also asks us to add “powder fort.” This was a well-known spice mixture in medieval times, much like garam masala is today. Powder fort was usually made from pepper and either ginger or cinnamon.

However, as this food was made for the king, they probably used a more complex mix, likely including cloves or saffron. For a powder fort mix you can try at home, combine 28 grams (1 oz) of cinnamon, 28 grams (1 oz) of ginger, 28 grams (1 oz) of black pepper, 7 grams (0.25 oz) of saffron, and 3.5 grams (0.125 oz) of cloves.^[1]

Pepper was the most common spice in medieval Europe, followed by cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Mushrooms were cheap and widespread in medieval England. So this dish would have been quite affordable but still well outside the reach of most medieval people.

9 Cormarye

Sometimes, kings needed to impress their guests, and the best way to do that was to serve them a big hunk of pork in a rich sauce. Cormarye, which is Recipe No. 53 in The Forme of Cury, would have been the main feature of a royal feast. The red wine and pork loin joint made it an expensive recipe even by modern standards, and the exotic coriander and caraway spices would have cost a fortune back then.^[2]

Make a sauce from red wine, ground pepper, garlic, coriander, caraway, and salt. Roast the pork joint in it. Then add the sauce and the drippings to a broth and serve them together.

8 Toastie

Yes, you read that right. Richard II’s personal cookbook contains a recipe for a toastie—or tostee, as they called it. If someone served us this in a cafe nowadays, however, we might wonder if they’d made a mistake.^[3]

This recipe, which is No. 93 in The Forme of Cury, is more like jam on toast than a modern-day toastie. Mix together red wine and honey in a saucepan. Add ground ginger, salt, and pepper. Cook it until it’s thick, and then spoon it over toasted bread. Chop up some fresh ginger and sprinkle it over the top.

7 Payn Ragoun

If you’ve ever wondered what medieval candy tasted like, this is it. Payn ragoun is essentially a medieval-style fudge, though they would have served it alongside meat or fish rather than as a snack or dessert.

You can find a modern version of the recipe here.^[4] But to paraphrase: Mix some honey, sugar, and water together, and simmer over a low heat. Then add ground ginger.

The recipe actually calls for the cook to dip his finger in it. If it hangs when it drips back down, it’s ready. Add pine nuts, and stir until it thickens. Then leave the mixture to harden, and cool in a bread or cupcake mold.

6 Poached Eggs

The medieval method of cooking poached eggs—or pochee, as they called them—was almost exactly the same as it is today. “Take Ayrenn and breke hem in scaldyng hoot water.” Translation: Take eggs and break them into scalding hot water.

These medieval poached eggs wouldn’t have been served on toast for breakfast, though. They were much more likely to have been cooked en masse and served at a banquet on a plate alongside a specially prepared sauce.

This No. 90 recipe in The Forme of Cury has an accompanying sauce, though it is unlike any we’d make today. Whisk together two egg yolks, sugar, saffron, ginger, and salt. Add milk, and cook until it thickens, not letting it boil. Then serve. Find a modern translation of the recipe here.^[5]

5 Verde Sawse

We all know salsa verde as a key component of modern Mediterranean cuisine. It seems that Richard II was also a fan of this popular sauce because The Forme of Cury contains a recipe especially dedicated to it—Recipe No. 140.^[6]

This medieval version of salsa verde calls for parsley, mint, garlic, thyme, sage, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, wine, breadcrumbs, vinegar, and salt to be mixed together and served as is.

4 Crepes

It seems that crepes were a popular medieval sweet food. They are mentioned in Chaucer’s writings as “crips” and in Recipe No. 162 of The Forme of Cury as cryspes. Medieval French crepes were the closest to what we think of as crepes today, but cakes called crepes also existed in England and Italy.

A French recipe for crepes from 1393 can be found here.^[7] The English version was a dough made of flour and egg whites which was rolled in sugar once it was cooled. The end result was more like a doughnut or powdered cake.

3 Compost

Recipe No. 100 of The Forme of Cury is called compost, though it had a different meaning back then. Short for “composition,” this was the medieval equivalent of throwing all your leftover vegetables in a Crock-Pot and leaving them to simmer. This was probably the closest that royal cuisine got to peasant food but with a much richer sauce.^[8]

This particular recipe called for parsley roots, carrots, parsnips, turnips, radishes, cabbage, and pears to be diced and boiled until soft. Then they were sprinkled with salt and allowed to cool before being put in a large bowl with pepper, saffron, and vinegar.

The cook would then boil wine and honey in a saucepan and simmer for a while before adding currants and spices. This was poured over the vegetables, and then the entire dish was served.

2 Payn Fondew

Bread pudding is a dessert that is commonly eaten in the United Kingdom today. Most people know that it’s old, but few know that it actually dates from medieval times. Recipe No. 59 for payn fondew is effectively an early version of bread pudding.

Fry some bread in grease or oil. Mix egg whites in red wine. Add raisins, honey, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, and simmer until it thickens. Then break up the bread, add it to the syrup, and let the bread soak up the syrup. Sprinkle with coriander and sugar.^[9]

Nice to know the modern craving for sugar isn’t quite so modern, right?

1 Almond Milk Rice

Medieval people loved to cook with almonds. Many recipes in The Forme of Cury contain them, so it should be no surprise that they also enjoyed almond milk. The rice in this recipe would have come from the other side of the world, so only the richest could afford to make this recipe.

This was basically a medieval rice pudding, and you can find a recipe for it here.^[10] Cook the rice, drain it, and place it in a saucepan. Then cover it with almond milk, and simmer for a while. Add honey and sugar, cook until the whole mixture thickens, and voila! Medieval rice pudding.

Most of us can name a couple of British kings off the tops of our heads. Interested in English history? William the Conqueror and Henry VIII. Classic literature? The Scottish king Macbeth and Henry V (or at least, Shakespeare’s historically skewed versions of them). American history? George III, or as he’s more commonly known, “Mad King George.” And who hasn’t heard of Queen Victoria?

The kings and queens of Great Britain are probably the best-known royals in history. But there are still some British monarchs who achieved great things in their lifetimes but are almost unknown today. Here, we’re exploring the lives of 10 British monarchs you’ve never heard of.

10 King Louis

In May 1216, the heir to the French throne landed unopposed on the island of Thanet with a big army in tow. From there, he marched on London. Instead of rejecting the French king, the people of London opened the city’s gates and proclaimed him king of England in Old St. Paul’s Cathedral with many of the English nobles and even the king of Scotland watching. His claim to the throne was tenuous at best.^[1]

The English nobility had grown sick of King John’s reign. They invited Louis to take the throne after it became clear that John had no intention of keeping the promise he’d made when he signed the Magna Carta the year before.

John abandoned London to Louis and then the old Anglo-Saxon capital of Winchester, which Louis had also seized by June. By midsummer, over half the kingdom belonged to him.

However, the momentum turned when John died of dysentery in October. Suddenly, the king of England was a nine-year-old Henry—a much smaller threat to baronial authority. His regent was William Marshal, one of the most respected men in England at the time. He was able to persuade the barons back from Louis’s side.

Though the odds were stacked against Louis, the war continued for another 12 months. In September 1217, after losing some key battles and having his supply lines cut, Louis was forced to sign the Treaty of Lambeth. In it, he agreed that he’d never return to England and that he’d never been the legitimate king of England. In return, he received 10,000 marks.

He became king of France in 1223.

9 King Kenneth I

At the time of Kenneth’s birth around 810, modern-day Scotland was split between the Gaelic kingdom of Dalriada and the kingdom of the Picts. Pictland had been much stronger than Dalriada, but by the time Kenneth became king of Dalriada in 839, it was in the middle of a crisis. Five different claimants fought over the kingdom over the next decade, severely weakening it.

Around 848, Kenneth became king of the Picts and united Scotland under a single monarch for the first time. How exactly he became king is unknown. Among the various theories are that his mother was related to a Pictish claimant, that he was elected by the Picts, or that he seized the kingdom by force.

Kenneth faced some initial resistance from some of the Picts but was able to endure. His 10-year reign laid the foundations for a dynasty that lasted until 1034 and a state that has remained united until this day.^[2]

He is mostly known for moving the administration of the Scottish kings inland to protect it from Viking attacks, which relocated the religious capital from Iona to Dunkeld. He was also the first Gaelic king of all Scotland. Not a single Pict became king of Scotland after his reign. Therefore, he started the process of Gaelicization that led to the disappearance of the Picts by 1100.

8 King Athelstan

Athelstan was elected king of Mercia in 924 following the death of his father, Edward. By late 925, he’d been elected king of Wessex, too, though not before he had to put down a rebellion.

With the might of the two greatest Anglo-Saxon kingdoms behind him, Athelstan finished what his grandfather Alfred the Great had started. In 927, Athelstan conquered the last Viking territory in England—the Kingdom of York—and became the first monarch in history to be king of all England.

He didn’t stop there. By 934, he’d also invaded Scotland and forced the Scottish king, Malcolm, to pay him homage. King Malcolm was unhappy with this arrangement and sided with the Vikings to invade northern England in 937.

The ensuing Battle of Burnanburh was a decisive victory for Athelstan and secured his position as the most powerful man in Britain for the rest of his lifetime. He called himself the king of Britain, and the Welsh and Scottish kings were forced to attend his council, where they witnessed and accepted his laws.^[3]

Athelstan was a king who was actively involved in the government of the realm. More laws survive from his reign than any other 900s king. He centralized the Anglo-Saxon government and made efforts to reform the currency, but the majority of his legislation was aimed at tackling the rampant anarchism and robbery that dominated England at the time.

His council was the first in English history to regularly contain figures from across England rather than from just a single Anglo-Saxon kingdom. However, Athelstan himself rarely left Wessex. This way of governing, an early form of national assembly, did much to break down the regional barriers between the old kingdoms and to establish a common English identity.

7 King Edmund Ironside

Edmund Ironside was never expected to be king. During a time of peace and stability in Anglo-Saxon England, he was third in line to the throne behind his two brothers. However, that changed when the Viking King Cnut invaded in 1015.

Many of the English earls turned their backs on King Aethelred and supported Cnut, but Edmund raised an army to resist them. He was betrayed by the English Earl Eadric Streona, leader of Mercia, who submitted to Cnut.

When his father failed to arrive to lead the army he’d raised, Edmund and Earl Uhtred of Northumbria took matters into their own hands and joined forces, raiding Eadric’s lands in retaliation for his betrayal. Cnut’s army landed in Northumbria and forced Uhtred to submit before killing him, leaving Edmund without any allies.

When Aethelred died in early 1016, Edmund made his way to London to be crowned the new king of England. Both of his brothers had died in 1014. In a final effort to halt the Danish invasion, he went to Wessex to raise an army. He fought the Danes at Penselwood and Sherston. Then he made his way to London where he successfully broke the Danish siege.

He pursued them to Brentford and won a decisive victory. His forces were depleted, however, and he retreated to Wessex to raise another army. By this time, Eadric and several other English earls had switched back to his side.

Edmund defeated the Danish army once again, this time at Otford, and chased Cnut’s retreating army into Kent. The momentum clearly appeared to be with him. Things changed, though, when he met the Danish army at Assandun.

Eadric, who was leading a portion of Edmund’s army, once again defected and retreated in the middle of the battle, leaving a hole in the English lines. Cnut quickly capitalized on this and won a devastating victory, putting an end to Edmund’s campaign. His reign came to an end with his death later that year. He’d been king for less than 12 months.^[4]

6 King Edgar The Atheling

Edgar the Atheling was one of the shortest-reigning monarchs in British history. Part of the Anglo-Saxon resistance during William the Conqueror’s invasion, he was elected king by the royal council in London in October 1066. By December, he had sworn homage to King William and fled to Scotland in exile. So ended the reign of the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, barely two months after it had started.^[5]

That wasn’t the end of his story, though. He returned to England in 1069 to lead a rebellion in Northumbria and joined forces with the Danes in 1070 when they invaded northern England, even seizing York in his name. The rebellion lasted for almost a year, with Edgar leading a guerrilla campaign from the Yorkshire marshes before eventually retreating to Scotland.

In 1074, the French King Philip offered him lands and a castle in northern France to harass William’s lands. Edgar accepted. But his ship from Scotland was caught in a storm, and he was shipwrecked on the English coast.

He and a handful of men barely escaped to Scotland with their lives. Seeing his attempts as futile, the Scottish king, Malcolm—who was also the husband of Edgar’s sister—convinced Edgar to give up his claim and return to England.

In 1093, Malcolm died. The kingdom should have gone to his son, Edgar (named after the Atheling), but instead it was seized by another noble. Edgar the Atheling had become quite powerful in England by this time. So he raised an army and led it north, driving out the pretender and installing his nephew on the Scottish throne.

5 King Robert II

Robert II of Scotland was in his fifties when he became king of Scotland in 1371. He had been the heir presumptive for over 50 years. He was also the first king of the Stuart dynasty, which ruled Scotland until 1603 and then all of Britain until 1714.

By the time he became king, Robert was very experienced in the government of the realm and knew exactly how to twist it to his desires. While the last king had tried to dominate and suppress his nobles, Robert instead granted them more local powers and earned their goodwill. Rather than take their lands by force, he paid them significant amounts of money and then gave the lands to his sons.

By the end of Robert’s reign, over half the most powerful nobles in Scotland were Stuarts, all but ensuring their dominance of Scotland for the next few centuries. Unlike previous Scottish kings who’d spent most of their time courting their followers in lowland Scotland, Robert frequently toured the entire country with his court, engaging in diplomacy with his vassals and securing their support and respect.

His skills in diplomacy extended beyond the kingdom, too. Within weeks of being crowned, Robert formed the alliance with France that would be crucial to Scottish security in later centuries by defending them from English ambitions.

However, his wise, levelheaded approach to governance couldn’t last forever. When tensions began to rise once more between England and Scotland, Robert did everything he could to avoid war and alienated many of his supporters in the process.

Eventually, the royal council stripped him of a large portion of his royal power. They gave it to his son as lieutenant of Scotland, who promptly led the kingdom to war. Robert spent the rest of his reign as a figurehead king with little, if any, power.^[6]

4 King Edgar The Peaceful

While Athelstan was the first actual king of England, it was Edgar the Peaceful who laid the foundations of a long-lasting, powerful realm. He worked tirelessly to centralize the power of the monarchy over the whole kingdom. He was also responsible for defining a system of weights and measures to be used across the kingdom. Although many kings had tried this, he was the first whose system was widely implemented and used.

His laws fundamentally shaped medieval England and would long be considered the standard which English people expected their kings to follow. When King Cnut invaded decades after Edgar’s death, Cnut swore that he would continue to uphold the laws of King Edgar.^[7]

Edgar the Peaceful was also instrumental in the foundation of a modern, nationalized currency for England. Before his reign, coinage was produced on a regional basis. The average silver penny varied in size, weight, and stamp across the kingdom.

By the end of his reforms, the penny had a standardized size and was stamped with the same design at all the royal mints. Edgar’s currency reform dramatically increased the wealth of the English monarchs and allowed later Anglo-Saxon kings to keep the peace by paying money to the Vikings, preventing them from burning coastal settlements.

3 King William II ‘Rufus’

When William the Conqueror was dying of his wounds in 1087, he made the succession clear: His eldest son, Robert, was not to be king of England. Instead, he would be made duke of Normandy and the kingdom that William had built for 20 years would pass to his second surviving son.

Rufus—a nickname that supposedly referred to his ruddy complexion and possibly to his drunkenness or angry nature—was far from perfect as a king. But he was certainly a better choice than Robert, who’d once started a full-on rebellion because his younger brothers emptied a chamber pot over his head.

When William Rufus became king, Robert naturally disputed it. He launched a rebellion against Rufus, but the rebellion fell apart quickly when Robert failed to turn up.

Secure in his throne, Rufus ruled for 13 years. He was triumphant against the Scots, securing the border and taking Cumbria for the English throne, and he made lots of money for the royal coffers by levying high taxes on the realm.

He also profited from the free investiture rules (enacted by his father) by purposely leaving bishoprics empty, meaning their incomes automatically went to Rufus. However, this also deprived people of the religious leadership they wanted.

This act in particular seems to have earned him many enemies. Alongside the fact that he had never married, this may have led to the widespread anger and accusations of sodomy that many chroniclers (who were usually monks) threw at him in the years following his death.^[8]

William Rufus was an unpopular king either way and was said to have been more interested in enjoying himself than governing the country properly. When he died in a hunting accident in 1100, very few people mourned his loss.

2 King Henry I

Henry was unlike his brother Rufus in almost every way. Henry’s nickname, Beauclerk, hinted at his learned nature and his knowledge of Latin. When Rufus died in 1100, Henry was on the same hunting trip and his brother Robert was away in the Holy Land. The coincidence has led many historians to accuse Henry of assassination.

As the older brother, Robert felt that he had a greater claim to the throne than Henry and hurried home from the crusade to take the kingdom for himself. To begin with, many of the nobility were on his side, but Henry was able to turn them by issuing the Charter of Liberties, a document which pledged to undo the corrupt practices of his brother and restore law and order to the kingdom.

It also promised to clear any debts or murder charges still facing any nobles who joined Henry, a cunning scheme to persuade them to take his side to avoid their punishments. The Charter of Liberties placed many restrictions on the king and effectively prevented him from interfering in the succession of his vassals at all.

Henry imprisoned Robert for life after capturing him in 1106. With Henry in a much stronger position, he ignored many of the restrictions set out in the Charter of Liberties.

Instead, he was responsible for establishing the most efficient and advanced English state that had been seen up to that point. He made many new royal justices who roamed the countryside ensuring that courts were functioning properly and that all criminals paid their fees to the crown.

He also established the office of the exchequer, which even today manages the income and expenditures of the British state. Henry reformed the currency three times during his reign—in 1107, 1108, and 1125. The first pipe roll, the records that kept track of royal expenditures, was created in 1130.^[9]

1 King Constantine II

If Kenneth was the first king of a united Scotland, then his grandson Constantine was the king who shaped the country into something we’d recognize as Scotland today. Over the course of his 43-year reign, it went from being called the Kingdom of the Picts to the Kingdom of Alba, the Gaelic word for “Scotland.” The words “Scot” and “Scotland” were first used during his reign.

In the third year of Constantine’s reign, the Vikings returned and pillaged the kingdom. They made it as far as Dunkeld, where they looted many Scottish religious treasures. From then on, Constantine’s main focus seems to have been on defeating the Vikings.

He allied himself with the English for much of his reign, even deigning to visit the court of Athelstan and witness his laws in return for peace and cooperation. In 918, he worked with the Northumbrians. Together, the Scottish and English armies met the Vikings at the Battle of Corbridge.

The most powerful Vikings were the Ui Imair, who had their base in the Hebrides. While the history of the conflict between Constantine and the Ui Imair is shrouded in uncertainty, their influence had faded in the face of a centralized Scotland by the end of Constantine’s rule.

When he was in his sixties, Constantine had been king for so many years that he simply handed the kingdom to his nephew, Malcolm, and lived the rest of his life as the abbot of St. Andrews, dedicating his time to teaching and study. The peaceful succession was a rarity in both Scotland and England at the time and reveals just how successful his efforts to create a peaceful, stable realm had been.^[10]

Many kings of Europe have existed who were absolutely essential to the development of the continent. From Byzantine emperors to kings of countries such as England, Spain, and France, being a ruler must have been a mantle which not everyone was ready to live up to. Some rose to the challenge; others didn’t fare so well.

Some of the best kings in history have been followed by completely underwhelming and sorry reigns from their own bloodline. It’s a narrative that has been told in many forms: trying to live up to a father’s legacy. Read on to find ten of the best kings to have been followed by their completely disappointing sons.

10 Edward II

Poor Edward II had big shoes to fill when his father, King Edward I of England, died suddenly in 1307. Edward I, known as Edward Longshanks, was a formidable king of England who is most famous for crushing William Wallace’s rebellion and having him hanged, drawn, and quartered. Edward I was also credited with staving off a rebellion from Wales, too, eventually naming his son, Edward II, as the first-ever English prince of Wales.

When Edward II was crowned monarch in 1307, the expectations were high for the young king. His reign was marred by the loss at the Battle of Bannockburn, when he was defeated by Robert the Bruce of Scotland, eventually having to flee back to England humiliated. Edward II also alienated himself from his advisors and his own wife by reportedly having relationships with men who were his “favorites.” Ultimately, he was forced to abdicate in favor of his 14-year-old son, Edward III, and would later be executed under disputed circumstances after being imprisoned. Edward II has been described as Edward I’s only failure.^[1]

9 Napoleon II

Napoleon II did nothing wrong in his attempt to live up to the gigantic footsteps left by his father, Napoleon Bonaparte (aka Napoleon I), but his life ended very early, and he never lived up to the potential expectations set for him. His father had been possibly the most decorated leader in French history and was the very first emperor of France. He had won multiple battles during the Napoleonic Wars, is still held in high esteem for his military tactics, and was responsible for making the First French Empire one of the greatest in the world during his reign.

The birth of Napoleon’s son was announced to Paris with a “salvo of one hundred cannon shots.” However, after Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo, he was exiled and abdicated his throne to his young son. Napoleon II never took the throne and was raised in Austria. Despite fears that he would grow up and try to retake the French Empire, as he still had supporters who held him as the rightful emperor of France, he would end up serving in the Austrian military. He died aged 21 in 1832 of tuberculosis, without ever reigning over the French and without leaving an heir.^[2]

8 Edward VIII

Edward VIII succeeded his father, George V, in 1936 after George had ruled the British Empire for 26 successful years. King George V had grown to become an adored king of England who had navigated his country through World War I, through other countries’ revolutions (see Russia), and through a changing political landscape in England. George had a strained relationship with his eldest son Edward, who was rumored to have a wild social life which included affairs with high-profile women. Edward was deemed untraditional and unpredictable, with George preferring his second-eldest son, Prince George.

When George V died in January 1936, Prince Edward became King Edward VIII. However, before the year was done, he would no longer be king. Edward caused a crisis when he proposed to Wallis Simpson, a divorced US woman who was deemed socially unacceptable to be married to the king of England.^[3] Edward VIII abdicated his throne to marry Simpson, causing huge public sensation. He was also rumored to harbor pro-Nazi views and even toured Germany prior to World War II breaking out. He spent most of his remaining life with Simpson outside of England and is barely remembered in the annals of the British monarchy.

7 Charles IV And Ferdinand VII

In this instance, we have both a son and grandson who failed to live up to the giant footsteps left by King Charles III of Spain. Charles III ascended to the throne in 1759 and ruled for just under 30 successful years, during which Spain made large strides in its overall identity. His consistent and intelligent leadership saw the country emerge as a contributing nation to Europe, and it was Charles III who was instrumental in creating a flag and a national anthem and spending money on the country’s infrastructure.

When Charles III died in 1788, his son, Charles IV (left above), became king of Spain. Charles IV was unlike his father in the sense that he did not take an active role in politics; he instead deferred the running of Spain to delegates. He was also guilty of making mistakes in switching allegiances between France and Great Britain, which devalued his trustworthiness. He was so disliked by the public that his own son, Ferdinand, attempted a coup to overthrow him.^[4]

Ferdinand VII (right above) would eventually take the throne of Spain in 1808. However, he would abdicate under the powerful influence of Napoleon I, only to be reinstalled as monarch in 1813. He would reign until 1833 but would oversee Spain losing many of its territories in America and is largely considered to be one of the worst monarchs to lead the country. It is safe to say that both the son and grandson of Charles III could not live up to the high standard set by him.

6 Louis The Pious

Louis the Pious was king of the Franks and Holy Roman emperor from 814 to 840. He was initially co-emperor with his father, the inimitable Charlemagne, from 813 until the latter’s death in 814. Charlemagne had united many of the areas in Western Europe and enforced Christianity on them, and he is commonly remembered as being the “father of Europe.” When he died, he left behind a continent that had been united under his leadership, and his son took the throne, destined to continue the greatness his late father had forged in the family.

Louis’s own reign lasted 26 years, and whether it was successful depends on how you look at it. He did successfully hold together the Carolingian Empire that his father had created, but he led it directly into civil war. Louis had three sons and divided the empire between them in a succession plan, but this ultimately led to infighting between them. Louis at one point was deposed as ruler and was twice made to publicly confess and atone for sins he had committed.^[5] Despite regaining his throne, his authority was consistently undermined, and when he died, Europe erupted into another civil war for the territories.

5 Edward VI

Edward VI followed his father, Henry VIII, to the throne of England and Ireland in 1547, attempting to live up to one of the most famous monarchs in history. Henry VIII was large in stature and legacy, and his reign had completely torn up the rule books. Henry had also gone through six wives in his lifetime in his effort to sire a male heir to his throne, with Edward being the son of his third wife, Jane Seymour.

Edward VI is often said to have been a sickly boy; however, more contemporary accounts say this is not true. He was too young to rule when Henry VIII died, so the country was run by a regency council during Edward VI’s entire reign. The reign suffered from civil unrest and continued war with Scotland, which did not go well. Ultimately, Edward VI’s tenure was short-lived; he developed a fever and would eventually succumb to the illness at only 15 years old.^[6] He was said to have shocked onlookers when looking out of his window weeks before his death, as he was gaunt and frail. This is in direct contrast to the might and strength of his father, who he could unfortunately never live up to.

4 John, King Of England

John, the only of his name, was king of England from 1199 to 1216 and followed in the footsteps of one of the most famous kings of England in history—Richard the Lionheart. In this case, John was actually Richard’s younger brother, but John’s father, Henry II, had also been a successful king of England. Henry had laid the foundations for what is now the Common Law in England, and he had successfully established English dominance in Ireland.

John had turned on Richard during one of many family disputes over inheritance and would become king of England in 1199. John’s would be one of the most miserable reigns in English history. His nickname, John Lackland, comes from the fact that he lost many of his father’s lands, including Normandy, which was the original home of the family. John was also said to be paranoid and murderous, with many people perishing at his demand. He was linked with the murder of his 16-year-old nephew, Arthur of Brittany; it is said John killed Arthur in a drunken rage.^[7] It goes without saying that John is badly remembered in the history books compared to his father and brother.

3 Constantine III

Hercalius Novus Constantinus Augustus, otherwise known as Constantine III, ruled the Byzantine Empire for just four months in AD 641. He had succeeded his father Heraclius, who had ruled steadfastly for roughly 30 years and had developed his people’s standing in the world. Heraclius had won battles against threatening forces such as the Persians and the Arabs, and he had been responsible for officially designating Greek as the language of the empire, instead of Latin. His legacy was assured when he died in 641.

Constantine III, in contrast, took the throne in a shared arrangement with his half-brother Heraklonas. In what sounds suspiciously like a Game of Thrones battle for who would be truly king, Constantine would be dead within four months, leaving Heraklonas as the sole emperor. Constantine also had to deal with a general who wanted payment for loyalty, which he was all but obliged to send. His suspicious death by “tuberculosis” was rumored to actually have been poisoning by Heraklonas’s mother Martina, so Heraklonas was forced to abdicate.^[8]

2 Richard Cromwell

Richard Cromwell was never truly a recognized king in the purest sense, but he still held office as the lord protector of the commonwealth for a time after his father, Oliver Cromwell, died in 1658. Oliver Cromwell had revolutionized the country like no other leader before during the English Civil War, deposing and signing the death warrant of King Charles I and serving as the first-ever lord protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. He successfully navigated his reign as lord protector for five years before his death.

Richard was appointed Oliver’s successor upon his death yet would last less than a year before standing down. His reign was dominated by “much underhand working,” and his lack of authority and presence was seen by many as an opportunity to end the commonwealth.^[9] He was known to be lacking in military experience and was said to have been more interested in leisurely pursuits. At one point during his reign, Richard was effectively under house arrest at Whitehall Palace by the army. He was deposed in 1659 and later fled to exile when Charles II was invited back to the throne. He would never see power again, and his reign ended the Cromwell stewardship over Great Britain as swiftly as his father had arranged it.

1 George IV

George IV, commonly remembered as the prince regent, ruled over the United Kingdom for ten years after the death of his father, George III. George III had ruled for just under 60 years and is remembered for his advancement of the agriculture of his country but also infamously as the “tyrant” who ruled over what would become the United States prior to the Declaration of Independence. Nevertheless, his son would be undeniably a disappointment and would completely push any lingering doubts people had about the monarchy to the breaking point.

George’s lifestyle was lavish; he fathered many illegitimate children, he racked up debts, he was obese, and he drank heavily. He is remembered for his hedonistic ways rather than the advances the country made under his reign, as his negligible contributions were outweighed by his poor public perception.^[10] A British newspaper would write, “There never was an individual less regretted by his fellow-creatures than this deceased king,” when he died. This sums up the reign of George IV, who died leaving no heir to his throne.

N/A