Throughout our
world's long history, many women have held
positions of power. Most queens serve
their constituents with honor, dignity, and pride,
and had fairly normal reigns where absolutely nobody was
murdered by their hands. Other queens--
well, let's just say you wouldn't want to
get on their bad side. Today, we'll look at
the most ruthless queens and female rulers of all time. But before we get started,
be sure to subscribe to the Weird History Channel. Oh, and leave us a
comment, too, and let us know what historic
female figures you would like to hear more about. Now, let's go back in time
and observe these queens from a safe distance. [DRUM MUSIC] Countess Elizabeth Bathory
was a Hungarian noblewoman born in Transylvania,
because of course she was, and was well known
for being a serial slayer. When it came to her favorite
hobby of ending people's lives, she preferred the
plebeian class, opting to punch down by
offing servants and peasants for years. Her sweet husband even
gifted her a torment chamber in her castle. Hmm, that's thoughtful. Men do know the way to a woman's
heart is a well-designed room. All of that craziness
apparently made a girl hungry, because Countess Bathory
developed an appetite for human flesh. She would take little
nibbles here and there off of her victims while
they were still alive. Of course she did. If she ate them while they
were dead, that would be gross. It's rumored she once forced one
of her victims to cook and eat a part of themselves-- very Hannibal Lecter. In 1611, the countess was
finally brought to trial and convicted on 80
counts, which, to be fair, does make it hard for
her to do her very favorite thing in the world-- kill people. Elizabeth died in that
very castle in 1614. [STRING MUSIC] Only one woman ever
held supreme power in the long history of China. This woman was a
no-nonsense badass who had a problematic
homicidal streak. Empress Wu Zetian's reign
was riddled with stories of political conflict
and a high body count. She had members of the Tang
dynasty taken out, and even slaughtered members
of her own family in order to keep her power. One particularly alarming story
is that the empress took out her own mother, and
after they were openly critical of their
homicidal grandma, Wu ordered her two grandchildren
to take their own lives. Nobody could ever
accuse Empress Wu of not being an ambitious woman,
if not an ineffective leader and a pretty
horrible grandmother. Constantine VI ruled
the Byzantine Empire from 780 to 797, all with a
little help from his mama, Irene of Athens. Irene served as the queen
regent with her young son, Constantine, whose
reign began when he was only nine years old. A real Cersei-Joffrey
situation-- only she liked her son way, way less. Normally, in the
Byzantine [? monarchy, ?] an emperor would take sole
possession of his throne at the mature age of 16. But Irene was not having that. She remained in power over
her son for two decades before unwillingly ceding power
after her son banished her from the kingdom when he was 19. This was after she executed
seven of his generals and tossed her
own kid into jail. She sounded like one of
those helicopter moms. Once Constantine's
reign began, it became clear he was an
ineffective and deeply unpopular leader, causing him
to eventually, as a Hail Mary, crawl back to his mama for help. Being an emperor is hard stuff. They were able to
co-rule for five years before Irene's thirst for
total power became insatiable, and with the help of
her political allies, she led a rebellion
against her son. One day, when Constantine
was out riding, his mother detained
and blinded him, gouging his eyes out in the very
same room where he was born. What a thoughtful mom. Constantine would succumb to his
injuries, and Irene of Athens would become the sole leader
for the next five years before she was exiled to Lesbos,
where she died a year later. Mary I's nickname,
Bloody Mary, didn't happen by downing too many
cocktails at a quaint brunch. She got it the old
fashioned way-- by taking out a
whole lot of people. Mary I was a Catholic queen
in a Protestant country, who ascended to the
throne of England in 1553. For five years,
her reign of terror saw the execution of
Protestants at an alarming rate. She waged a war,
executing hundreds and burning over 300 Protestants
at the stake for heresy. The people of England
were not here for this, and her legacy was defined
by these startling acts of cruelty. Her reign as Queen Crazy
only lasted, thankfully, for five years. Buckle up-- this one's a doozy. Queen Isabella co-ruled Spain
with King Ferdinand II from 1451 to 1504, and used her power
as co-leader to do what bad queens do best-- religious persecution. The Spanish Inquisition,
a horribly brutal period in Spain, began under
her watch and with a lot of her encouragement. Spanish Jews and Muslims were
expelled from the kingdom under her guidance. She was a sponsor of
Christopher Columbus's voyage to the New World the same
year that she wildly decreed all citizens who were Jewish
must convert to Catholicism or get the hell out of Spain. Jews from around the nation were
brought to the Spanish courts to pledge their
faith to Catholicism or die right there, in front
of everybody, on the spot. Fredegund of Soissons was
queen consort to King Chilperic I, ruler of Soissons,
a commune in France. She had to jump
through some hoops and take out a woman
or two in order to win the heart of
her beloved king. Chilperic was
married to Audovera, whom he left upon
Fredegund's encouragement, and married his second
wife, Galswintha. But a separation wasn't
quite enough for Fredegund. She convinced the king
to slay his second wife, and he just sort
of rolled with it. Galswintha's sister, Brunhilda,
was understandably not thrilled with the decision
to off her sister. Brunhilda was the wife of
Sigebert I, King of Austrasia, making her a queen
herself, and setting up a queen rivalry between
the two, with one clearly having the bigger argument
for being the most angry. Righteousness wasn't enough
to win this battle royale, and it was Fredegund who ordered
the successful assassination of Sigebert at
the very moment he was about to take power from
Chilperic, his half brother. Sounds like Thanksgiving
could get real awkward in the Chilperic-Sigebert
household. [ORGAN MUSIC] Princess Olga of Kiev's journey
is a real roller coaster. She was the first
Ukrainian princess and the first female
ruler of Russia, becoming queen regent in
945 CE after her husband Igor, of course, was murdered. Since their son was
too young to rule, Princess Olga stepped
up to the plate and proceeded to lose her mind. Her first act as ruler
was sweet, sweet revenge for her beloved Igor, finding
the men who whacked her husband and returning the favor
using scalding water. She boiled them alive-- yes, like a lobster. And if she doesn't sound
like a cartoon witch yet, Olga's mean streak wasn't
over, because Olga still had people to burn. She ordered hundreds of people
from the boiled men's tribes to also be taken
out in retribution. Olga straight up buried
the tribe leaders alive while trying to burn
down the entire town. Next, she tricked the
other tribe leaders, who clearly misread
this entire situation, and invited them to a retreat. These gullible dummies
were lured, and then locked into a bathhouse. And then, the whole thing
was burnt to the ground. Rule number one in
accepting an invite-- don't go if it's a
homicidal, vengeful queen. Olga eventually rediscovered her
Orthodox Christianity shortly after, and was later the first
person of Russian heritage to receive sainthood
from the Orthodox Church. So all's well that ends
well for Saint Olga-- and who doesn't love
a redemption arc? [BAGPIPE MUSIC] Agrippina the Younger
was the first empress of Rome, who spent the
duration of her early years trying to depose
her predecessors. Agrippina believed
she and her son were rightful heirs to
the throne by birth. She manipulated her uncle
to change the laws of Rome, as well as the laws
of nature and society, so she and her
uncle could marry. Soon after, Claudius
died, and his demise is seen as being just
a little suspicious. Is it possible Claudius was
taken out by his niece-wife? Yeah, we can see that. With Claudius out
of the picture, Agrippina and her son Nero
ruled Rome from 49 to 54 CE. Nero would eventually tire
of his mother's controlling nature and manipulation,
and forced her out. Not to be deterred, Agrippina,
a big fan of power and not of normal family
relationships, tried to organize a coup against him,
which backfired tremendously when a still-in-power
Nero had her expelled. [TRUMPET MUSIC] After our previously
mentioned old friend Bloody Mary passed away from
possible uterine or ovarian cancer, her half sister
Elizabeth succeeded her on the English throne. With Elizabeth as
queen, things were going to change around England,
as the old ways of oppression for England's Protestants
would move over in favor of oppressing a
different religious group-- those bloody Catholics. Under Queen Elizabeth, the
Catholic Church of England was legally abolished, which
seems like an overcorrection. It was replaced by a new
church with the English monarch at the head, and all support
for Catholicism was illegal. Catholics could have
their property seized, their bodies beaten and
imprisoned, and in some cases, even executed. [OMINOUS MUSIC] Catherine the Great was
a meager German princess when she traveled to Russia. Little did Russia know
she would rule them all. Catherine married
Tsar Peter III, a real dud of a
leader in Russia, according to the Orthodox
Church that hated him, and his own wife,
whose pet name for him was feeble-minded drunkard. Catherine started an
extramarital affair with Grigory Orlov, and the two
of them had concocted a real [? Dateline-like ?] plot with
the military to overthrow her husband. This cunning Catherine didn't
do this from the sidelines. She got extremely involved. A talented horseback
rider herself, she personally led
14,000 soldiers to dispose of the tsar. After the victory, she
dressed in a man's uniform and declared herself
the Empress of Russia. So what do you think? Any female ruler on
this list we missed? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
