20 Disastrous Decisions By Kings And Queens

King Croesus of Lydia was told by the Oracle of Delphi that his crossing of the Halys River would mean the destruction of a great empire. He assumed this meant the great Persian Empire, which was expanding at the time, so when he started his war against Persia, then led by Cyrus the Great, in the 6th century BCE, he ended up destroying his own empire and losing his throne. Funny how that works out.

In 480 BCE, the Persian leader, Xerxes, led a massive (likely exaggerated in ancient accounts) force into Greece and took Athens early in the campaign. By drawing the much larger Persian fleet into the narrow strait at Salamis, the Greeks negated the Persian numbers advantage and won a decisive tactical victory with their much smaller fleet.

In 1066, after Harold Godwinson’s victory over an invading force at Stamford Bridge, Harold and his army traveled south to face an invading army led by William of Normandy. Upon losing the battle at Hastings, Harold was killed, and William claimed the English throne.

King John, later cast as a villain in the Robin Hood legends, alienated those nobles he needed for defense and was defeated by Philip II of France, losing Normandy in 1204. As he exhausted his funds attempting to recapture Normandy, he raised taxes to support his efforts, which angered the barons even further. In 1215, their anger forced him to accept Magna Carta.

Edward II was prone to showing favoritism towards certain people. His favoritism of Piers Gaveston made the nobles so angry that they had Gaveston killed in 1312. Hugh Despenser the Younger, who Edward was equally dependent on, later made just as many enemies. In 1327, Edward was deposed, following an invasion led by Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer.

Richard II’s cousin Henry Bolingbroke had been living in exile when his father died in 1399. Richard confiscated Bolingbroke’s inheritance, and Henry returned to England and mustered supporters. He then took Richard II prisoner and claimed the throne as Henry IV.

So much for being king! In 1520, Christian II, who had fought for years for the Swedish throne, was finally crowned. Just days after his coronation, Christian had nearly 100 of his opponents and Swedish nobles executed in an event now known as the Stockholm Bloodbath, which sparked a rebellion led by Gustav Vasa that resulted in Christian losing the crown.

Moctezuma II allowed Hernán Cortés and his small band of Spaniards into Tenochtitlan in 1519. The Spaniards, with the help of thousands of Indigenous allies who were opposed to Aztec rule, held Moctezuma captive. The city fell in 1521, because of a combination of factors, namely protracted siege, warfare, and epidemic disease.

In 1578, King Sebastian of Portugal, aged 24, led a large Portuguese army into Morocco in search of military glory. The army was annihilated in the Battle of Alcácer Quibir and Sebastian himself disappeared, almost certainly killed in the fighting. Sebastian died without an heir. He was succeeded by his childless great-uncle Henry, and on Henry’s death the throne was claimed by Philip II of Spain in 1580.

Mary, Queen of Scots’s hasty marriage to James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, who was one of the main suspects in her husband Lord Darnley’s murder, just months after his death outraged Scottish nobles and led to Mary’s defeat, imprisonment, and abdication.

In 1588 Philip II of Spain sent the Spanish Armada to invade Elizabeth I’s England following years of increasing tensions. The plan to rendezvous with the Spanish army in the Netherlands failed. The fleet was decimated by a combination of English attacks, storms and disease on its return journey via Scotland and Ireland. Despite the defeat, Spain was still a major power.

In January 1642, Charles I marched armed troops into Parliament and attempted to arrest five members on charges of treason. Though they escaped, Charles’s actions destroyed what little trust there was between him and Parliament. Not surprisingly, civil war broke out later that year.

James II framed his policy as one of religious toleration, but prosecuting the bishops for refusing to promote it provoked fierce backlash. One of the most famous acts of defiance was the refusal of seven bishops to read his declaration of toleration in church, leading to their trial and acquittal. When the court acquitted all seven, the crowds celebrated, and they became popular figures of resistance.

When Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685 and stripped French Protestants of their legal protections, masses of Huguenots fled the country, in spite of prohibitions, taking their skills and expertise to France’s rivals.

Encouraged by a long string of military success, Charles XII of Sweden invaded Russia in 1708. During the harsh winter of 1708 to 1709 the Swedes were decimated; meanwhile, the Russians avoided major engagements and targeted supply lines. Stubbornly, Charles pressed on, only to be annihilated at Poltava in 1709.

George III is still, in the American popular imagination, the principal symbol of British tyranny. However, his power in directing the war was no greater than that of Parliament and a series of ministers. When war with the American colonies began in 1775, George III was committed to their retention; yet as the conflict dragged on and France became involved, Britain’s chances of success were slim. Cornwallis’ army was forced to surrender at Yorktown in 1781, and the war was lost.

In 1791 Louis XVI and his family attempted a flight from Paris. Traveling secretly, Louis was identifiable nevertheless when his conspicuous carriage and delays led to the party being intercepted at Varennes and forced back to Paris. The fiasco undermined the monarchy’s credibility, and republican sentiment was galvanized as a result.

In response to the bad election result of 1830, Charles X promulgated the July Ordinances. In them, he attempted to crush press freedom, dissolve parliament, and change the electoral laws all at once. The people of Paris revolted within days, and the King abdicated and fled into exile.

Russia endured a year of military disasters during WWI. In 1915, Nicholas II removed the commander-in-chief and took control of the army. This was a disastrous decision, as it removed him from Petrograd when civil unrest was escalating, and made him ultimately responsible for military failures. In 1917, the monarchy fell.

Italy became a dictatorship under Mussolini in part because King Victor Emmanuel III refused to declare martial law against the Fascists in 1922 during the March on Rome and instead invited Mussolini, who did not have a majority in parliament, to form a new government. Mussolini used his appointment to crush democracy.

This content was created with the help of AI.