Being famous is something synonymous to one’s greatness, but a great leader can also carve out a name for himself through his ignominy. According to Dr Prem The following list try to demonstrates this inference. Here we have listed some infamous rulers in chronological order from the earliest to the new:
Asoka, India
One of the greatest rulers of the ancient world, Asoka ruled a big Empire on the South of the Himalayas, right from the coasts of Bay of Bengal to the present Afghanistan. Historians have dated his rule from 268 BCE to 232 BCE. He came to power after killing the Crown prince Susim and all his 100 brothers except one.
Later, he built an intricate torture chamber popularly called Asok’s hell. Here he experimented with new forms of tortures. The people therefore referred him as Chanda (Cruel) Asoka. It was after his bloody victory in Kalinga that Asoka realized the fault of his ways and gave up conquest and violence, setting up an exemplary empire where humans as well as animals enjoyed rights.
Attila The Hun
He was a Hun ruler who ruled the Hunnic Empire from 434-453 AD. His empire stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine and Danube River to the Baltic Sea. He ravaged fire and drew blood on the European land. After plundering Balkans and other regions of France, he invaded Italy. He could however not conquer Rome. He planned an invasion to the present German regions too in order to curb rising revolt there, but died in 453 AD.
Genghis Khan
Neither Alexander nor Napoleon came close to Genghis Khan who carved out the largest contiguous Empire in the World ever. By the time of his death in 1227 AD, his empire encompassed the whole of China and a substantial portion of Central Asia. Wherever the Great Khan went, he spit fire and drew blood of inhabitants. Legendarily, whenever he knocked on any city’s gates, he would ask the people to submit and if they did not, he simply ravaged it, massacring the inhabitants pitilessly.
Queen Mary
The English Queen driven by her religious obsession for Catholicism caused the burning and execution about 283 men of Protestant Faith. She kept her sister Elizabeth I imprisoned and in order to facilitate the continuation of her own lineage, spread out a rumor of her own pregnancy. She could not keep the rouse for long and on November 17, 1558, after her Death Elizabeth came to power.
Queen Ranavalona
Ranavalona I ruled the Kingdom of Madagascar from 1828 to 1861. Her dictates of involving people of the Island into forced labor and her policies of isolationism and self-sufficiency as act of reprisal to Western colonialism brought hunger, disease and death on her subjects. She also tried to suppress the Christian activities in her Kingdom. Around one million people lost their lives during her regime.
