Monarch

Not all kings lounge in lavish palaces while letting soldiers do the dirty work. These warrior kings got into the muck and did it themselves.

Kings and queens have fascinated people since the earliest monarchies, and with good reason. The kind of power that monarchies can hold often leads to fascinating—and scandalous—events. Here are some of the weirdest facts about the world's greatest monarchies, both old and new.

Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIII’s rejected queen—but very few people know her even darker history.

Queen Caroline of Ansbach was the most powerful consort in British history—but she used that power to enact an unspeakably vicious revenge.

After an infamous divorce, Queen Soraya of Iran was called “the sad-eyed princess”—but few people know her even darker history.

History has some infamously mad kings, but if the twisted story of King Eric XIV isn’t well-known today…maybe that’s for the best.