Ranker

Anime Underground

Button Mash

Graveyard Shift

Total Nerd

Unspeakable Times

Weird History

Weird Nature

Weirdly Interesting

Sports

Music

Entertainment

Living

Culture

Food

Makeup

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Holidays

Watchworthy

HBO Max

Exploring the strange and fascinating lives of rulers, royals, and royalty all around the world and throughout history.

History

Photography is an older medium than one might think, dating back to the late 1820s. The fidelity of those first&nbsp;heliographs, daguerreotypes, and calotypes&nbsp;could be rough, but the promise was clear. Over time, photographs became more efficient to produce than paintings.

By the mid-1800s, painted portraits of royalty were no longer the only way to capture a regal likeness.&nbsp;Check out these photos of historical royalty matched up with their official portraits, and vote up the pairs that reflect their subjects&#39; majesty.

Royalty

Zhengde

When we think of royalty, beautiful princesses and charming princes come to mind. History reveals that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/violent-medieval-monarchs/carly-silver" target="_blank">real-life rulers</a> were sometimes more akin to villains in storybooks: deformed hunchbacks, crazed witches, sleazy morons, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/most-ruthless-queens/eric-vega" target="_blank">murderous families</a>. Whether these weird royals&nbsp;were born that way or&nbsp;the job drove them to do dastardly deeds, a number of royals throughout history exhibited signs that something wasn&#39;t quite right. For some, it was&nbsp;just a strange quirk here or there. For others, a debilitating problem that left them unfit to rule their own kingdoms.&nbsp;

No one can deny that, despite the perks, <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/beauty-rules-for-royals/jessica-defino" target="_blank">being a royal</a> is complicated. Access to massive riches can&nbsp;corrupt you. You must&nbsp;make decisions that determine&nbsp;the well-being of entire populations. All the while, there are people out there who probably want nothing more than to see you dead. This could lead anyone to developed warped priorities. Here&#39;s a list of the weirdest royals and strangest royal families throughout history, what made them that way, and how it might have affected the country they ruled.&nbsp;

Long before the concept of &quot;designer babies&quot; created in a lab&nbsp;became the stuff of science fiction, inbreeding in royal families was viewed as a way to ensure genetic purity. Intermarriage ensured that no &quot;common&quot; blood sullied pure, aristocratic bloodlines. What could go wrong?

A lot, actually. Birth defects caused by inbreeding were rampant in royal families from Russia to Portugal and even in ancient Egypt, where the practice of sibling marriage was considered godly behavior. Hereditary diseases caused by inbreeding - <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/porphyria-vampire-disease/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">such as porphyria</a>, among others - get handed down through thin gene pools, particularly in the&nbsp;many cases where intentional close marriage is used to&nbsp;ensure&nbsp;that&nbsp;royal blood (and its recurrent flaws) are kept in the family. For example,&nbsp;Queen Victoria, a <a href="https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Habsburg-Jaw-And-Other-Royal-Inbreeding-Deformities-and-Disorders" target="_blank">major proponent </a>of pure bloodlines, married her <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/prince-albert-facts-queen-victoria-husband-children-death-cousins-wedding-marriage-itv/" target="_blank">cousin Albert</a>, and the two had nine children who then passed hemophilia to royal families throughout Europe.&nbsp;

While all these families hoped close intermarriage would keep their royal families stronger, in many cases, illness, madness, and infertility caused by inbreeding ended up tearing them apart.

The grounds of British royal palaces are a bloody mess, or at least they were in the past - as centuries-old&nbsp;history haunts the same places today. Although these royal estates are among&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-most-beautiful-buildings-around-the-world " target="_blank">the most beautiful buildings in the world</a>, the spirits that stalk palace grounds remind those in the present day of&nbsp;past tragedies. From the winding&nbsp;cloisters of Windsor&nbsp;Castle to the looming fortress walls of the Tower of London, the unsettled spirits of past monarchs and their minions wander and lurk. Apparitions, screams, and even bloodstains serve as unsettling reminders of past inhumanities.

No one, however, is staying away from these&nbsp;castles and fortresses, which are lively tourist spots. Britain&#39;s palaces are <a href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/historical-landmarks-to-see-before-i-die " target="_blank">historical landmarks anyone should see</a>&nbsp;before they leave this world themselves. But if you&#39;re looking for some royal paranormal activity (or looking to avoid it), here are the places to keep an eye and ear out for when it comes to haunted British history.

Historical Figures

Pop culture loves royals. From biopics about the romantic lives&nbsp;of queens to blockbusters that present monarchs as the bad guys, royalty tropes are everywhere. But just how accurate are these common tropes? Like nobility tropes, tropes about historical royals come in different forms. Some completely misrepresent historical figures, while others peddle inaccurate ideas about the function of royal duties.

One thing royal tropes&nbsp;have in common is that they usually oversimplify the wildly complicated past. Typically, this is done in the interest of telling a specific story, whether the royal is&nbsp;a central character or not.&nbsp;The series&nbsp;The Crown, for example, <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/historical-inaccuracies-in-the-crown/setareh-janda" target="_blank">twists facts</a>&nbsp;to promote the idea that Queen Elizabeth II has struggled to reconcile her personal life and her regal duties.

No matter how they do it or which figure from the past they reimagine, <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/things-movies-get-wrong-about-historical-kings/setareh-janda" target="_blank">tropes about historical kings</a> and queens sacrifice fact in service of fiction.

Who are the most stunning&nbsp;royal women? The beautiful ladies on this list include princesses and queens from all over the world. Each one is, without a doubt, worthy of inclusion on any attractive&nbsp;royals list. Some of them are the wives and daughters of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/richest-royals-in-the-world/worlds-richest-people-lists" target="_blank">world&#39;s richest royals</a>, too. The question is, who do you believe is the fairest of them of all? Vote for the royal stunners you love the most and vote down any you don&#39;t like.

Any list of beautiful&nbsp;royal women should absolutely include Rania al Abdullah. She&#39;s more commonly known as Queen Noor of Jordan, and she&#39;s anything but common. This woman is&nbsp;whip-smart and the perfect example of a&nbsp;royal role model. She&#39;s been the Queen of Jordan for decades, now, and she just keeps getting more gorgeous (and turning up on lists of <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/most-beautiful-famous-women-of-all-time/joanne?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">the most beautiful women of all time</a>).

And there is, of courses,&nbsp;Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge.&nbsp;From day one, Kate Middleton captured the hearts of everyone. She exudes class,&nbsp;beauty, and royalty. She also has great genes: Her sister, Pippa, is extremely easy on the eyes, too.

This international list of hot royal women proves that the world&#39;s <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/hottest-royal-men/christiebuckner&lt;br/&gt;" target="_blank">hottest royal men</a> have a wonderful pool of stunning female&nbsp;beauties to woo. It&#39;s not likely that you&#39;ll see any of the beautiful ladies&nbsp;listed here doing sexy poses&nbsp;on the cover of Maxim, but take a look at the photos and use your imagination.

Images of contemporary royals are everywhere - Prince Harry&#39;s red hair and&nbsp;Queen Elizabeth II&#39;s&nbsp;height can be seen on everything from tea towels to tabloids. But what about royals in the past? What did they actually look like?

Though it&#39;s hard to get an accurate picture&nbsp;- there are no photographs from the 15th century, of course, and portrait artists may have often bent the truth to flatter their patrons&nbsp;- firsthand written descriptions still exist.

But just because these are eyewitness accounts doesn&#39;t mean they are objective. Biases inform how people saw <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/whoa-historical-kings/mallory-weiler/" target="_blank">royals throughout history</a>. Written descriptions weren&#39;t just straightforward lists of physical features; writers sometimes inserted politics into their accounts and characterized royal rule through descriptions of their looks: virtuous rulers, for instance, were often presented as good-looking ones. (Conversely, rulers who fell out of favor with history -&nbsp;such as Richard III -&nbsp;could become inextricably linked with physical abnormalities.)

Accurate or not, these physical descriptions provide a window into what historical royals <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/what-famous-royals-really-looked-like/crystal-brackett" target="_blank">may have looked like</a> - and how conceptions of beauty have changed over time.

The true cost&nbsp;of the royal family is an incredibly complex matter, with public and private funds factoring into their value, but the cost of keeping up <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-royal-residence/crystal-brackett" target="_blank">royal palaces</a> is -&nbsp;without a doubt -&nbsp;very expensive. The Queen gets paid in tax dollars thanks to the Sovereign Grant, which gives her finances to pay for travel, palace upkeep, and payroll expenses. But the sheer cost to run Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle,&nbsp;Holyrood Palace, and other estates is staggering. The <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/most-lavish-dowries-in-history/carly-silver" target="_blank">buildings date back centuries</a> and continue to be used&nbsp;as <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/british-royal-family-scandals/cleo-egnal" target="_blank">workplaces and residences for royals,</a> <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/rules-and-regulations-for-a-royal-british-wedding/shonna-wright" target="_blank">for countless ceremonies throughout the year</a>, and are visited by hundreds of thousands of people annually. With all the tourism they drum up some of these expenses might make sense - you&#39;ve got to spend money to make money, after all - but are all these millions of pounds worth the pay off? Vote below and let us know what you think!

Fashion

The 2018 royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle&nbsp;marks another grandiose moment in the annals of royal matrimony. Though celebrity attendees and fancy hats always stand out, everyone always remembers the most beautiful royal wedding dresses. Whether you admit it or not, royal wedding gowns are just another reason <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/why-do-americans-care-about-the-royal-wedding/rylee_en" target="_blank">you obsess over royal weddings</a>. Stunning royal wedding dresses outshine any and all tiaras, crowns, or sassy royal children, and never cease to keep the bride at the center of the ceremony.For the royal wedding of 2018, certain <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/beauty-rules-for-royals/jessica-defino" target="_blank">royal dress codes</a> must be followed by the lucky couple and their guests alike. While this ceremony definitely resembles other regal marriages, plenty of&nbsp;royal <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/wedding-dresses-from-around-the-world/jessica-lawshe?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">wedding dresses from around the world</a> showcase marriage customs atypical from your standard Western-Euro wedding. The best royal wedding gowns appear below, featuring royalty from Asia, Africa, and Europe.You could be the king, but watch the soon-to-be queen saunter down the aisle knowing she looks – and happens to be worth – a million bucks.

Many kings and queens from around the world own and maintain numerous properties, but where royals actually choose to live says a lot about them and how they view their roles.

When you think about royalty and where they spend their time, your mind may conjure up images of rooms decorated with gold, marble, and glass. For the most part, you&#39;re right. Royal palaces and castles from around the globe confirm the&nbsp;connection between luxury and royalty. But not all royal homes are the same.

Several of the wealthiest, most powerful, and <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/cutest-royal-couples/klindell" target="_blank">most beloved&nbsp;monarchs</a> live and work in official residences, while others choose to inhabit royal homes that are much more modest or secluded. Royals often live in homes that reflect the culture and traditions of their people and their land. Sometimes, kings and queens don&#39;t have a choice and must live at a location <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/weird-rules-royal-family-must-follow/eric-eidelstein" target="_blank">determined for them</a>. Even in these&nbsp;instances, though, it&#39;s pretty clear - it&#39;s good to be king or queen.&nbsp;

Seeing history through black and white pictures creates a&nbsp;sort of distance - it shows just how long ago those times were. When the same photos from the 1800s and early 1900s are splashed with color to reflect what they would have looked like with today&#39;s technology, the pictures - and the figures in them - truly come to life. <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/colorized-photos-us-civil-war/kellen-perry" target="_blank">Colorized photos from the Civil War</a>, for instance, make viewers&nbsp;feel like they&#39;re&nbsp;basically time traveling. And royals are no different.&nbsp;

Kings and queens have been ruling the world for centuries, and dozens of monarchies still exist today. Nonetheless, the colorized pictures we have available of historical royals are special. It&#39;s almost as if these royals could be alive and ruling today with the color bursting on film.

Who are the best actors who have played royals? One tried-and-true pathway to success for actors in Hollywood is by <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/actors-who-should-play-english-royals/quinn-armstrong" target="_blank">playing a royal</a>, since many actors who played royals have received critical acclaim and accolades for their performances. For example, several actresses who have played royalty - including&nbsp;Olivia Colman, Helen Mirren, and Judi Dench - have won Oscars, Golden Globes, and Emmys. Likewise, some of the best royals actors - like Colin Firth, among others - have earned award recognition&nbsp;for their work.

Each actor approaches his or her royal&nbsp;role differently. Some <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/martin-luther-king-jr-actors/ranker-film?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">actors who have played kings</a>, and actresses who have played queens, use their prep time to undertake extensive historical research, while others evaluate historical figures just like any other character. But all&nbsp;have the challenge of portraying historical figures in a unique way, since many royals have been played by several different actors over the years.

Vote up the actors who did the best job bringing historical royals to life.

British

<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/most-lavish-dowries-in-history/carly-silver" target="_blank">Royal weddings</a> over the last century have run the gamut. They’ve ranged from quiet&nbsp;partnerships&nbsp;to over-the-top royal weddings in Westminster Abbey that have ended in heartbreak. The royal marriages of the last 100 years have been as varied, fascinating, romantic, and troubled as the people who have married into the royal family - and they've had mixed success.Can royalty marry commoners? Absolutely.&nbsp;While the public generally assumes that royals are only supposed to marry other royals, there are plenty of Cinderella stories in the last 100 years that turn that notion on its head.&nbsp;The children and grandchildren of monarchs have married both elites and people from more humble backgrounds. Prior to 2018, the last commoner to marry British Royalty was Catherine Middleton in 2011, but that title has gone to Meghan Markle when she wed&nbsp;Prince Harry in 2018. In fact, it is becoming more and more common for royals -&nbsp;both in the United Kingdom and elsewhere -&nbsp;to opt for common spouses over royal ones. Though members of the British Royal Family have had to <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/rules-and-regulations-for-a-royal-british-wedding/shonna-wright" target="_blank">seek the monarch’s permission before marrying</a> - thanks to the Royal Marriages Act of 1774, which wasn’t repealed until 2013 - they have increasingly chosen to marry&nbsp;outsiders.&nbsp;Indeed, people who have married into the British Royal Family have come from all walks of life: artists, athletes, attention-seekers, and homebodies have all joined the House of Windsor.

A List of royal twins, with photos! This list includes both fraternal and identical twins who were also royalty. Only 2% of the world's population are twins, and only 0.2% are identical twins. Why have a singleton when you can double the kids for double the fun? To this day, twins are considered exotic. Couples trying for their first child often muse that fraternal twins (one boy, one girl) would be ideal. In scientific terms, identical twins are known as &quot;monozygotic&quot; and fraternal twins as &quot;dizygotic.&quot; While twins may be unusual, some researchers suggest that as many as 1 in 8 pregnancies begin as twins, however, only one fetus is brought to full term as the other disintegrates. This is known as &quot;Vanishing Twin Syndrome&quot;. There is also such a thing as semi-identical twins in which the twins inherit identical genes from their mother, but different genes from their father. This list of royal twins in history includes all types of twins, and they have all done something notable.

Mary &#34;Serene Highness&#34; of Teck

The concept of nobility is kind of silly. Just because your great-great-grandfather was a duke doesn&rsquo;t mean that you should get a fancy title yourself. But some people just need an official nickname to make themselves feel important, and that kind of thinking is why there are so many weird royal titles floating around. Some of the titles were placed on the heads of the nobles by their family members, and some of the funny royal titles were given by their constituents and friends who were critical of their policies -&nbsp;and the names kind of stuck. If you&rsquo;re tangentially related to nobility and need some inspiration for what to call yourself, check out these weird royal titles in history and get to brainstorming.

There are all sorts of silly nicknames and titles in the world of royalty, but some members of the royal family of England have taken their weird noble titles too far -&nbsp;so much so that some can&#39;t even be shared in polite company. As you&rsquo;ll soon come to find, there&rsquo;s one modern royal who has so many titles that it would take a paragraph just to type them all down. There are definitely some head-scratchers in these weird titles of nobility, and the less effectual the noble is, the more sarcastic the title sounds. As you read these silly nobility titles, vote up the strangest and silliest titles held by royals and nobility throughout history.

World History

Historic royal families experienced plenty of problems. From inbreeding to international disputes, royals dealt with them all. Even domestic squabbles were more dramatic. In fact, if a monarch got peeved with one of their relatives - especially if that individual posed a legitimate threat to the throne - that <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-kings-queens-game-of-thrones/ranker-of-thrones?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">king or queen</a> might just execute them.

When you think of rulers who executed members of their own families, King <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/the-battles-of-henry-viii-of-england/reference?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Henry VIII of England</a> likely comes to mind. He bumped off two of&nbsp;his wives - Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard - who were his blood relatives. In addition, Henry decided to get rid of any potential claimants to the Tudor throne by chopping off their heads - even if they were elderly. That bloodthirsty instinct seems to have run in the family. His daughter, Elizabeth I, also had close relatives executed. But the Tudors were far from an anomaly; they were typical of rulers throughout the ages who killed their family members for political purposes.

What other killer rulers have popped up throughout history? Keep reading to find out.

A Jousting Accident Unseated The King Henry II Of France

The royal houses of Europe have had a bloody history. From battles to coups and&nbsp;assassinations, kings and queens have suffered deaths ranging from the serene&nbsp;to the ridiculous. After all, death is central to the idea of monarchy: new kings and queens can ascend the throne only after their predecessors have died. Monarchy itself is built on the condition of death.

But that does not mean all royal deaths are&nbsp;dignified. Many kings and queens have gone gently into that dark night&nbsp;thanks to respectable&nbsp;illnesses. Others have been victims of political struggles. Still others have not been so lucky in death, and they exemplify&nbsp;some of the stupidest ways royals have died. Like royals who had&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/unflattering-royal-portraits/danielle-ownbey" target="_blank">terrible portraits</a>, <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/bizarre-obsessions-of-royals-in-history/chase-christy" target="_blank">bizarre obsessions</a>, or were <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/weird-royals-in-history/danielle-ownbey" target="_blank">just plain weird</a>, these dumb&nbsp;royal deaths prove that, at the end of the day, people who sit on thrones and wear ancient crowns are just as mortal as&nbsp;those over whom they claim authority. Some of the dumbest ways royals have died also happen to be some of the most entertaining.&nbsp;

Royals need friends, too. Sometimes,&nbsp;they choose soothsayers, sorcerors, or the like&nbsp;to advise them (or to do their dirty work). More often than not, the results aren&#39;t good for those&nbsp;who live under the rule. Royal henchmen also often have their own agenda, which doesn&#39;t always bode well for others. However, not all royal advisors were&nbsp;villainous. Some, such as court magicians, clairvoyants, or self-proclaimed wizards, were simply strange&nbsp;people who spun&nbsp;alluring tales of their ability to predict the future and cure all manner of maladies.&nbsp;

From the famed Rasputin to the lesser-known Charles-Henri Sanson, the following are notorious henchman and performers of wizardry who&nbsp;got blood on their hands so the royals didn&#39;t have to,&nbsp;cast a dark influence over entire nations, or got up to some generally bizarre stuff on the backs of their inflated sense of self-importance. &nbsp;

Weddings

This list features normal people who married royalty, loosely ranked by fame and popularity. Typically royal families like to see their children marry fellow royals, but every once in a while a &quot;commoner&quot; sneaks into the castle. Some of these ladies and gents have become famous due to their royal spouses, while others were already famous in their own right before <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/worst-royal-marriages/setareh-janda?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">marrying into royalty</a>.Which normal people have married members of the royal family? Princess Diana is the most notable non-royal to have married royalty. Born Diana Spencer to John Spencer and Frances Roche, she married Charles, the Prince of Wales on July 29, 1981. The couple had two sons, William and Harry, before they divorced in 1996. Prince Charles previously dated Diana's sister, Lady Sarah, before beginning his courtship with his future wife. Diana's son Prince William also married a non-royal bride, tying the knot with Kate Middleton in 2011.Are you surprised that royals have married normal people? What do you think it would be like to marry into royalty? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

When you picture a royal monarch seated&nbsp;on&nbsp;the throne, you’re probably imagining some strapping&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/hottest-royal-men/christiebuckner">royal hunk</a>&nbsp;or bejeweled and beautiful lady seated neatly in a tall throne and wearing a golden crown, right? Would you ever picture a baby taking the throne? Probably not, but it's a thing that's certainly happened throughout history.&nbsp;In fact, some of the youngest people who became&nbsp;monarchs&nbsp;were less than a year old at the time of their ascension. Some&nbsp;were even crowned in utero, but&nbsp;that didn’t necessarily mean they could rule the moment they were born. Until they came of age, baby kings and queens were supported by a regent – someone who would legally rule until the minor monarch came of age –&nbsp;often comprised of mothers, uncles, aunts, or grandparents. Sometimes, these regents did well in keeping the kingdom afloat until the child could take control of the throne, other times, greed and power overtook their desire to rule.&nbsp;&nbsp;So, were all young inheritors of the throne always successful? Sadly, no. However, there were&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/notable-monarch_s)/reference">notable monarchs</a>&nbsp;– like&nbsp;Sobhuza&nbsp;II of Swaziland and Liu Zhao of China – who fared&nbsp;better,&nbsp;made&nbsp;strong impacts on their&nbsp;kingdoms,&nbsp;and often ruled for lengthy periods, leaving behind a strong country and many descendants. Others did what they could during their often short-lived rules.&nbsp;

We Will Never Be Royals

pageType

top_fb_2-3

exclude_RLblocks

ticker_exclude

tier_3

site_wide_RL_exclude

pushable

wh_team

Resting Places

Kings, emperors, tsars, pharaohs, sultans - there are a lot of names for male rulers throughout history and across geographical boundaries. Regardless of the moniker, these men have led people and countries - some with greater success than others.

A king can be a military leader, a political diplomat, or an advocate for his people. Sometimes, he may just be a figurehead placed on a throne while others do the work behind the scenes. The efficacy, likeability, humility, and legacy of a king might carry over from life to death, influencing how his physical body is left to posterity.&nbsp;

Graves from historical kings reflect the complexities of the position. The remains of a regal monarch may have a simple coffin, while the body of a&nbsp;twice-exiled emperor&nbsp;occupies a monument all his own.

What The Graves Of 31 Historical Kings Actually Look Like

General

Other

Best Rankings of Random Cool Facts + Stuff

other

United States

Melissa Sartore

Gender

Women

Age 30 and over

Gen Xers

Age under 50

Region

American

West Coast US

Us States

Tutankhamun - Valley Of The Kings, Egypt

Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun (Ancient Egyptian: twt ꜥnḫ ı͗mn) () also known by the Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen (British ), reconstructed  /taˈwaːt ˈʕaːnxu ʔaˈmaːn/ (MK), (c. 1341 – c. 1323 BC) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty (ruled c. 1332 – 1323 BC in the conventional chronology), during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom. He has, since the discovery of his intact tomb, been referred to colloquially as King Tut.
The 1922 discovery by Howard Carter of Tutankhamun's nearly intact tomb, funded by Lord Carnarvon, received worldwide press coverage. It sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamun's mask, now in the Egyptian Museum, remains a popular symbol. In February 2010, genetic testing confirmed that he was the son of the mummy found in the tomb KV55, believed by some to be Akhenaten. His mother was his father's sister and wife, whose name is unknown but whose remains are positively identified as The Younger Lady mummy found in KV35. The deaths of a few involved in the discovery of Tutankhamun's mummy have been popularly attributed to the curse of the pharaohs.

Charlemagne - Aachen, Germany

Charlemagne

Charlemagne (English: ; French: [ʃaʁləmaɲ]) or Charles the Great (2 April 742 – 28 January 814), numbered Charles I, was king of the Franks from 768, king of the Lombards from 774, and emperor of the Romans from 800. During the Early Middle Ages, he united the majority of western and central Europe. He was the first recognised emperor to rule from western Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state that Charlemagne founded is called the Carolingian Empire. He was later canonized by Antipope Paschal III.
Charlemagne was the eldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, born before their canonical marriage. He became king in 768 following his father's death, initially as co-ruler with his brother Carloman I. Carloman's sudden death in December 771 under unexplained circumstances left Charlemagne as the sole ruler of the Frankish Kingdom. He continued his father's policy towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in northern Italy and leading an incursion into Muslim Spain. He campaigned against the Saxons to his east, Christianizing them upon penalty of death and leading to events such as the Massacre of Verden. He reached the height of his power in 800 when he was crowned "Emperor of the Romans" by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day at Rome's Old St. Peter's Basilica.
Charlemagne has been called the "Father of Europe" (Pater Europae), as he united most of Western Europe for the first time since the classical era of the Roman Empire and united parts of Europe that had never been under Frankish or Roman rule. His rule spurred the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of energetic cultural and intellectual activity within the Western Church. Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire considered themselves successors of Charlemagne, as did the French and German monarchs. However, the Eastern Orthodox Church views Charlemagne more controversially, labelling as heterodox his support of the filioque and the Pope's recognition of him as legitimate Roman Emperor rather than Irene of Athens of the Byzantine Empire. These and other machinations led to the eventual split of Rome and Constantinople in the Great Schism of 1054.Charlemagne died in 814, having ruled as emperor for almost 14 years and as king for almost 46 years. He was laid to rest in his imperial capital city of Aachen. He married at least four times and had three legitimate sons, but only his son Louis the Pious survived to succeed him.

Edward II Of England - Gloucester, England

Edward II of England

Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Carnarvon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to the throne following the death of his elder brother Alphonso.  Beginning in 1300, Edward accompanied his father on campaigns to pacify Scotland, and in 1306 was knighted in a grand ceremony at Westminster Abbey. Following his father's death, Edward succeeded to the throne in 1307. He married Isabella, the daughter of the powerful King Philip IV of France, in 1308, as part of a long-running effort to resolve tensions between the English and French crowns.
Edward had a close and controversial relationship with Piers Gaveston, who had joined his household in 1300. The precise nature of his and Gaveston's relationship is uncertain; they may have been friends, lovers or sworn brothers. Edward's relationship with Gaveston inspired Christopher Marlowe's 1592 play Edward II, along with other plays, films, novels and media. Many of these have focused on the possible sexual relationship between the two men. Gaveston's power as Edward's favourite provoked discontent among both the barons and the French royal family, and Edward was forced to exile him. On Gaveston's return, the barons pressured the king into agreeing to wide-ranging reforms, called the Ordinances of 1311. The newly empowered barons banished Gaveston, to which Edward responded by revoking the reforms and recalling his favourite. Led by Edward's cousin, the Earl of Lancaster, a group of the barons seized and executed Gaveston in 1312, beginning several years of armed confrontation. English forces were pushed back in Scotland, where Edward was decisively defeated by Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Widespread famine followed, and criticism of the king's reign mounted.
The Despenser family, in particular Hugh Despenser the Younger, became close friends and advisers to Edward, but Lancaster and many of the barons seized the Despensers' lands in 1321, and forced the king to exile them. In response, Edward led a short military campaign, capturing and executing Lancaster. Edward and the Despensers strengthened their grip on power, formally revoking the 1311 reforms, executing their enemies and confiscating estates. Unable to make progress in Scotland, Edward finally signed a truce with Robert. Opposition to the regime grew, and when Isabella was sent to France to negotiate a peace treaty in 1325, she turned against Edward and refused to return. Instead, she allied herself with the exiled Roger Mortimer, and invaded England with a small army in 1326. Edward's regime collapsed and he fled to Wales, where he was captured in November. The king was forced to relinquish his crown in January 1327 in favour of his 14-year-old son, Edward III, and he died in Berkeley Castle on 21 September, probably murdered on the orders of the new regime.
Edward's contemporaries criticised his performance as king, noting his failures in Scotland and the oppressive regime of his later years, although 19th-century academics later argued that the growth of parliamentary institutions during his reign was a positive development for England over the longer term. Debate over his perceived failures has continued into the 21st century.

Louis XVI Of France (And Marie Antoinette) - Saint-Denis, France

Louis XVI of France

Louis XVI  (French pronunciation: ​[lwi sɛːz]; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793), born Louis-Auguste, was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as citizen Louis Capet during the four months before he was guillotined. In 1765, at the death of his father, Louis, son and heir apparent of Louis XV, Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin of France. Upon his grandfather's death on 10 May 1774, he assumed the title "King of France and Navarre", which he used until 4 September 1791, when he received the title of "King of the French" until the monarchy was abolished on 21 September 1792.
The first part of his reign was marked by attempts to reform the French government in accordance with Enlightenment ideas. These included efforts to abolish serfdom, remove the taille (land tax) and the corvée (labour tax), and increase tolerance toward non-Catholics as well as abolish the death penalty for deserters. The French nobility reacted to the proposed reforms with hostility, and successfully opposed their implementation. Louis implemented deregulation of the grain market, advocated by his economic liberal minister Turgot, but it resulted in an increase in bread prices. In periods of bad harvests, it would lead to food scarcity which would prompt the masses to revolt. From 1776, Louis XVI actively supported the North American colonists, who were seeking their independence from Great Britain, which was realised in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The ensuing debt and financial crisis contributed to the unpopularity of the Ancien Régime. This led to the convening of the Estates-General of 1789. Discontent among the members of France's middle and lower classes resulted in strengthened opposition to the French aristocracy and to the absolute monarchy, of which Louis and his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette, were viewed as representatives. Increasing tensions and violence were marked by events such as the storming of the Bastille, during which riots in Paris forced Louis to definitively recognize the legislative authority of the National Assembly. Louis XVI was initiated into masonic lodge Trois-Frères à l'Orient de la Cour.Louis's indecisiveness and conservatism led some elements of the people of France to view him as a symbol of the perceived tyranny of the Ancien Régime, and his popularity deteriorated progressively. His disastrous flight to Varennes in June 1791, four months before the constitutional monarchy was declared, seemed to justify the rumors that the king tied his hopes of political salvation to the prospects of foreign intervention. The credibility of the king was deeply undermined, and the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic became an ever-increasing possibility. 
In a context of civil and international war, Louis XVI was suspended and arrested at the time of the Insurrection of 10 August 1792; one month later, the absolute monarchy was abolished; the First French Republic was proclaimed on 21 September 1792. He was tried by the National Convention (self-instituted as a tribunal for the occasion), found guilty of high treason, and executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793, as a desacralized French citizen under the name of "Citizen Louis Capet," in reference to Hugh Capet, the founder of the Capetian dynasty – which the revolutionaries interpreted as Louis' surname. Louis XVI was the only King of France ever to be executed, and his death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continuous French monarchy. Both of his sons died in childhood, before the Bourbon Restoration; his only child to reach adulthood, Marie Therese, was given over to the Austrians in exchange for French prisoners of war, eventually dying childless in 1851.

Kings, emperors, tsars, pharaohs, sultans - there are a lot of names for male rulers throughout history and across geographical boundaries. Regardless of the ...