20 Of The Most Dramatic Royal Feuds In History

Yep, you read that right. During King Herod the Great’s reign, he had three of his own sons executed between 7 and 4 BC. Why? He feared they’d take over the throne. Hundreds of years later, the Roman writer Macrobius had this to say: you were better off being Herod’s pig (he didn’t eat pork) than his own son.

After their father died, Cleopatra VII and her younger brother, Ptolemy XIII, were meant to rule Egypt together. However, they soon realized they couldn’t share the throne. Their rivalry was so bad that they turned against each other, prompting a war by 48 BC. Cleopatra was the victorious sibling and even ruled alongside her other brother.

Caracalla and Geta despised each other, so their father, Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, chose both of them to rule the empire in 211 AD, hoping the two could finally work out their differences. His plan had the opposite effect and just made their rivalry worse. Just months after their reign, Caracalla had Geta murdered.

This one is debated by historians, and would be pretty tragic if true. Wu Zetian was the consort of the Tang dynasty and was hungry for power. Her eldest son was the crown prince, and he mysteriously died in 675. Her second son, who had been accused of plotting a rebellion, was forced to end his life in 684. Were these deaths fully planned by Wu Zetian so she could remain in power? We may never know.

This is probably one of the cruelest acts a mother could do to her own child. Empress Irene of Athens took over ruling the Byzantine Empire from her son, Constantine VI. When he was ready to sit on the throne, she refused to give up her power. What followed was years of power struggles, leading to Constantine being blinded by Irene’s supporters. Irene got what she wanted because he died shortly after, and she became the first woman to rule the Byzantine Empire as sole emperor.

Emperor Louis the Pious didn’t have the best relationship with his sons. When the line of succession shifted after a new son was born from Louis’ second marriage, the men decided to revolt. In 833, Louis’ three eldest sons confronted him with a large army. The sons had a temporary victory when Louis was forced to step down, but he returned to the throne just a year later.

William the Conqueror may have named his son heir, but he didn’t trust him enough to have any real authority in Normandy. Naturally, Robert was pretty upset about this, so he and his allies (including the French king) seized the castle of Gerberoi. During the surprise attack, Robert ended up wounding his father. There is a happy ending, at least, as the two reconciled.

King Henry II of England liked having all the power to himself. Even though he had crowned his eldest son as co-ruler, he didn’t give him any real power. This led his sons and even his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, to turn on him, launching the Great Revolt in 1173. It ended with Henry as the victor, and Eleanor in captivity for the next 16 years.

This one remains a mystery. Arthur of Brittany had a rivalry going on with his uncle, King John. In 1202, things escalated, and John had Arthur (who was only 15 at the time!) imprisoned. The rest of the story remains unclear. Arthur seemingly vanished. There’s no trace of where he went or how and when he died.

Queen Isabella wasn’t too fond of her husband, Edward II, so she allied with Roger Mortimer, leading to an invasion of England in 1326. The results? Edward was forced to step down and was then imprisoned.

King Afonso IV got a little too involved in the affairs of his son, Infante Pedro of Portugal. He wasn’t thrilled about Pedro’s relationship with his mistress, Inês de Castro, because of her family’s political influence, so he took care of it. And by it, I mean he had her murdered.

Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent’s eldest son, Prince Mustafa, was the popular pick as heir to the throne. However, Suleiman and his wife Hurrem Sultan didn’t want that to happen. So, he blindsided his own son in 1553, having summoned him to his tent before executing him.

Don Carlos was the heir to King Philip II of Spain, but the royal life didn’t seem like something he wanted. His dad feared he would flee Spain, so he arrested him in the middle of the night in 1568, confining him to a set of rooms in the Alcázar palace.

When Mary, Queen of Scots, fled to England in 1568, she thought she could turn to her cousin Elizabeth I for help. But nope, Elizabeth proved to be no help at all and held her cousin under house arrest for a whopping 19 years. Despite what you may believe, these two never actually met. Their rivalry played out entirely through letters, which makes this even pettier.

When King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden passed away in 1632, his widow, Marie Eleonora, fell into a depression. Reportedly, she draped rooms in black for years after his death and even kept his embalmed heart in a gold casket. The Swedish Council didn’t love her behavior, saw her as unstable, and revoked her custody of her 10-year-old daughter. This one is beyond heartbreaking.

Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan’s sons fought a succession war in 1657. Aurangzeb ended up defeating his older brother Dara Shikoh, and eventually had him killed. To make matters so much worse, he then imprisoned their father and reportedly had Dara’s severed head delivered to him.

Tsar Peter the Great didn’t have a good relationship with his son, Tsarevich Alexei. Alexei feared for his safety so much that he fled abroad in 1716. However, when he was lured back to Russia, he was immediately arrested, accused of treason, and experienced such a torturous interrogation that many historians believe he died from the injuries sustained from it.

King Frederick William I of Prussia was abusive toward his son, Crown Prince Frederick. Frederick’s close friend Hans Hermann von Katte tried to help him flee from his father, but the plan failed. Frederick was imprisoned by his father and then, devastatingly, forced to watch Katte be beheaded.

Prince Edward “Bertie” was having an affair with an actress, so in 1861, Prince Albert traveled to Cambridge to set him straight. Supposedly, an already exhausted Albert left the visit extremely unwell and died just weeks later. Queen Victoria blamed Bertie for causing so much distress that it led to Albert’s death. I’m not sure how you repair your relationship after an accusation like that.

Empress Dowager Cixi didn’t like her nephew Emperor Guangxu’s Hundred Days’ Reform movement, so she put an end to it and confined him to an island for the rest of his life. This story then takes a mysterious turn. On November 14, 1908, Guangxu died suddenly, with Cixi dying the next day. A 2008 study suggests that Guangxu had been poisoned, but it still doesn’t answer how, though we can have our theories.