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Nero, the fifth Roman emperor must have been one of the worst rulers in ancient history. Born in 37AD, he was the son of Agrippina and through her, direct descendant from Augustus. Agrippina married her second husband, the emperor Claudius, who was also her uncle. He had a son, Britannicus, and Agrippina soon started to promote Nero as Claudius’ successor to the throne. When she saw her efforts failing, she had Claudius poisoned and Nero became emperor. As he was only 17 at the time, Agrippina hoped to exercise power herself, but, in the beginning, Nero listened to the advice of his tutor Seneca and other reasonable men and Rome enjoyed a few years of stability and prosperity.

But Nero soon gave in to his murderous streak and had first his adopted half brother Britannicus and then his own mother Agrippina killed. When Seneca retired in 62, Nero lost all restraint. He divorced his wife Octavia, who was later executed on trumped up charges of adultery and married his mistress Poppaea, after first killing her husband. His passtimes were chariot racing and he considered himself a great singer, poet and composer. He performed in public and the senate was outraged.

The great fire of Rome in 64 gave him an excuse to blame it on the Christians and thus became the first persecutor of the new faith. Although he did provide help for the Roman people who had become homeless by the fire, he built the famous Golden Palace for himself.

As a person, Nero was as ugly as they come. Short, fair haired, with weak blue eyes, a pot belly and thin legs, he was also malodorant and his body covered with spots. In a temper, he kicked his wife Poppaea to death and thereafter married Messalina.

His troops finally had enough and the Gallic and Spanish legions rebelled against him. The senate sided with the troops and declared the deranged ruler enemy of the people in 68 AD. Upon hearing the news, Nero fled Rome and committed suicide in 68 by running a dagger into his throat.

Queen Elizabeth I of England didn’t have it easy until she finally made it to the throne. Born in 1533, she was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. She was a great disappointment for her father, simply by not being a son. He already had a daughter, Anne and was desperate for an heir to the throne.

Despite being female, Elizabeth did enjoy a splendid education. It had become fashionable for the nobles of her time, to educate females as well as sons and the king couldn’t lugg behind. She was particularly apt at languages and, by adulthood, spoke five languages. Elizabeth loved sports and was an accomplished horse woman.

When the king died, his 9 year of son Edward became king and after his death in boyhood, her stepsister Mary became queen. During all these years, Elizabeth had to survive a few implications in plots, which saw her imprisoned in the Tower for a time and banned to remote places.

She finally became queen in 1558. She was able to enjoy the life and pleasures which came with her rank and did not hesitate to do so. She was very popular with her people and had the wisdom to surround herself with knowledgable advisers. She refused to marry and played her availability to her political advantage.

In 1588 Elizabeth defeated the mighty Spanish Armada and reached the zenith of her power and popularity. She had proved, that a female could be a great military leader too.

In her older age, however, she became more and more withdrawn and there are even some allegations of paranoia. She had trouble walking and in 1603 caught a severe cold from which she did not recover. She refused to get appropriate medical assistance, which might have helped her to recover. Worldweary and tired of power and responsibilty she died peacefully in her sleep.

Th e word and name Xanthippe has become synonymous for  jealous, bad tempered wife. She is, of course, a historical figure and the question is, if it is all legend or if she was really as bad as tradition has it.

Little facts are known about her, but legends and stories abound. She was the wife of Socrates (469BC-399BC) and the mother of his three sons. Reportedly, Xanthippe was much younger than the great philosopher, some allege by as much as 40 years. Her family might have been a member of Athenian aristocratic society, but there are no reliable sources to confirm her origin.

Whilst Plato, Socrates’ illustrious pupil, describes  her as a devoted wife and dedicated mother, Aelian depicts her as a jealous shrew. Socrates himself refers to her as the most difficult person to get along with, but goes on to explain, that he chose her precisely for her argumentative nature to try and test his own endurance and patience. His own words are probably the most reliable ones to do Xanthippe justice. Nothing is known about the date and manner of her death.

The Greek philosopher Socrates (469BC - 39BC) epitom of the teachings of wisdom and critisism, hailed as one of the first strictly intellectual martyrs of all times, remains enigmatic. This is primarily due to the fact, that he left no written works of his own, in fact it is doubtful that he ever wrote anything at all. What has come to us about him is mainly through the writings of his most famous pupil Plato and Xenophon. He is however a real historical figure.

Of short and stout stature, Socrates married a pretty and much younger woman, Xanthippe, with whom he had three sons. It will appear that Socrates did not work and did not have any discernible means of income. At his trial he used his poverty as defence for explaining that in fact he was not a teacher. But, no doubt, he was. The basic principle of his philosophy was to question exisiting believes and wisdoms as well as the democratic system, Athens style, which ruled Greek. He taught that leadership and government should be ruled by knowledge, merit and education and not by mere majority. Athens was reeling from its defeat in the Peloponesian Wars and his teachings didn’t go down well. Neither did his criticism of the ancient Gods and the Greeks’ belief.

He accumulated many followers in his sophistic movement, mainly among the young intellectuals of Athens. These activities lead to his famous trial in 399 BC, where he was accused of corrupting the youth and disbelieving in the ancient gods. He did defend himself, but was unapologetic and quite cynical in his words and as a result was sentenced to death. His friends urged him to flee and he would probably not have met with much resistance as they had bribed the prison guards, but Socrates refused, saying that escape would be undignified for a philosopher. He carried out his own execution by drinking the hamlock poison which was provided for him.

Like many great leaders and conquerors whose deeds and achievements have not been recorded by reliable, contemporary historians, Djingis Khan’s life is the subject of much speculation, discussion and controversy. Without a doubt, he is the founder of the Mongol Empire which became the longest lasting empire in history, even topping the Ottoman Empire. Whilst in countries like Iran and Iraq he is still portraied as a genocidal warlord, he is reverred as a hero in Mongolia, Turkey and China.

He was born in 1162 as the son of a nomad chieftain in Central Asia. At the time, many nomadic tribes battled and warred against each other, forged flimsy alliances which would be broken by a new feud. Djingis Khan’s childhood was not an easy one. He succeeded his father at age 13, but his tribe refused to be ruled by such a young boy and he had to flee together with his mother. Fending for survival, surrounded by enemies, no doubt played a vital role in his attitude and acts. Legend has it, that he was born with a blood clot in his hand, a sign that he was destined to become a great leader.

Escaping, protecting his mother and not shying away from killing whoever was in his way, he seized power and began to unify the Mongolian nomad tribes. During his life time his empire stretched from the Black Sea to the Yellow Sea, covering most of Central Asia, China and parts of India.

Fearless himself, Djingis Khan relied upon his trusted generals and granted advancement on merit. Whilst much has been written about his personal cruelty and the atrocities of his troups, he must also be credited with bringing stability to the feuding tribes, consolidating and protecting the silk road, introducing the mongolian script and bringing about the first code of law.

The ‘glittering man’, so called because of his red hair and green-blue eyes, died in 1227. The cause of his death is also disputed, ranging from a fall from his horse to assessination. At his own request, he is buried at an unknown location somewhere in Mongolia. His empire was divided between his sons, who expanded it even further.

We have already looked into the lives and fates of royal wifes and mistresses and Anna Mons cannot be left out in that context. She may be the least known of them, but managed to attract the attention of none less then Peter the Great, Czar of all Russia.

Born in 1672, Anna was the daughter of a Dutch wine merchant, living in the German Quarter of Moscow. Young Peter, who, after his extended trip to Europe and bound on modernising his Russian empire, had encouraged European craftsmen and traders to move to Russia, visited the German Quarter frequently, met Anna and fell in love with her. He was very unhappily married to his first wife and soon Anna became his lover and semi-official mistress. The liaison lasted for 12 years and they had two sons, Peter and Paul.

Peter finally managed to divorce his wife and announced that he planned to marry Anna. He even commissioned the construction of a palace for her. Suddenly, in 1704, Anna was arrested in her rooms together with 30 of her friends and acquaintances. In dubious trials, may of them were found guilty of treason and executed. Anna was lucky to escape that fate. The reasons for her arrest have been disputed among historians ever since. It’s mostly held, that she concealed from the jealous Czar her affair with the Prussian ambassador, Keyserling, whom she eventually married in  1711. Three years later, she died of consumption.

Her brother Willem paid with his life for his entanglement with the royal family. He became the confident and trustee of Peter’s second wife, Catherine and probably more than just a ‘confident’. He allegedly embezzled funds from Catherine’s estate and Peter made short thrift. He was tried, beheaded and quartered, a gruesome death, which Anna had been very lucky to escape.

The novelist Henry James - another famous “Henry” - is a controversial figure. He was born in 1843 in New York City to a wealthy and intellectual family. He spent much of his youth and also later life, travelling in Europe and was schooled by tutors in Geneva, London, Paris, Bologna and Bonn. He briefly attended Harvard to read law but quickly abandones his studies in favour of letters. He is considered as the greatest master of the novel and novella. He lived mostly in London and visited America for the first time in 25 years in 1905.

James’ cosmopolitan lifestyle and experiences influenced the themes and style of his numerous novels. He often depicted young American women or men confronted by the old world values of Europe, a juxtaposition which made for high drama and established his reputation as a writer of literary realism. His technique was to convey the viewpoint of a character from his or her position within the plot and tale.

Although born to a well off family, James had to make a living from his writing until in his late 50s, he came into a small private income from a family inheritance. He wrote extensively, mainly  long novels which were serialized in magazines, as well as travel articles and biographies.

In 1915, he became a British citizen as a way of protest against the reluctace of America to enter the conflict of World War I and as a hommage to his host country. That act caused a lot of hostility towards him. James also wrote several plays, the first of which was a devastating failure. It is thought by some of his biographers, that the experience and crushed hopes of a further career as a play write made him abandon all plans to persue that form of writing any further.

Another controversy surrounds his sexual inclinations. He never married and never had any sexual relationship - at least not with women. He never was an open homosexual either, so a lot of guess work, fuelled by his own ardent letters to close male friends still surrounds that aspect of James’ personality. He died from the consequences of a stroke in 1916 in London.

In the 32 years of his short life, Alexander the Great has managed to conquer most of the world known to the ancient Greeks. He was one of the most successful military commanders of all times and one of the highest educated as well. Born in 356 BC, he was the son of Philip of Macedonia. First king of Macedonia, he quickly turned his attention to Persia which he incorporated in his ever growing empire.

Alexander was fortunate enough to have Aristotle as his tutor and mentor. The Greek philosopher, himself a pupil of Plato, taught Alexander rethoric, literature, science, medicine and of course, philosophy. His other tutor was Leonidas who instilled in Alexander a sense of discipline and the value of military life, preventing him from being a high born spoilt brat and becoming a disciplined soldier instead. Given the background of a strict military upbringing and an educated and open mind thanks to one of the most famous philosophers of all times, it’s not surprising that Alexander became the charismatic leader and successful and ambitious commander he was.

Two interesting issues of Alexander’s life are still disputed by historians. One is his sexual inclinations. Without a doubt, his closest and possibly only friend was probably also his lover, which was nothing extraordinary at the time. On the other hand, he married twice, so was probably bisexual. The other issue is the cause of his death. He died in 323 BC in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon after a long celebration and dinner and much consumption of alcohol. The theories reach from poisoning to malaria, to thyroid fever and simply alcohol poisoning. Nothing definitve has been established.

His reign marked the beginning of the Hellenistic period in history.

Peter I of Russia, better know as Peter the Great, was a man who succeeded in transforming his isolated and backward country into a nation which was able to compete with any other European country. Born in 1672, he didn’t have it easy until he finally achieved control of Russia. First he ruled with his mentally challenged half brother, then his mother became  regent for 10 years whilst he was still stuck with his inefficient half brother as co ruler. However, during his childhood and youth, he developped an interest in sailing and shipbuildings as well as playing war with toy soldiers. After he had finally gained control and power over his empire, he embarked, incognito, on an 18 months trip through Europe. He was only half incognito as he was accompanied by a large entourage. The purpose of the journey was to find help and assistance from other Europen rulers against the Ottoman Empire. Although Peter failed in that respect, the journey laid the foundation for the westernization and civilisation of Russia.

Among other things, an eager Peter learned how to build ships in Amsterdam, about city planning in England and even such skills as how to draw teeth and to catch butterflies. As is well documented, Peter was very tall, over 6 feet, but not of stout stature. He had very small hands and feet, but neverthless possessed many ‘hands on’ skills.

His greatest merit is, that the education he got through experience during his travels, opened his eyes to the deplorable state of his empire. He established a Table of Rank, whereby precedence was awarded by merit and not by birth. He decreed that the children of noblemen, Boyars and even lower rankiing officials had to attend schools and to pass exams. He forced his Boyars to shave their beards and to wear western clothes. He changed the tax system to a fairer taxation . He also prohibited arranged marriages which were the norm amongst the nobility.

In respect of politics he established Russia as a naval power, founded St. Petersburg, expanded his empire and made peace with Sweden. He died in 1725 of a bladder infection which hadn’t been treated properly.

In a series decidated to famous ‘Henries,’ Henry Ford deserves a prominent place. He was born in 1863 in Greenfield/Michigan as a son of a farmer, originally from Cork/Ireland. Although he was brought up in a rural environment and helped out on the farm, Henry disliked farming from an early age on. He left school at age 15 and went to work as an apprentice in a machine shop in Detroit. To better his meagre wages, he repaired clocks and watches in the evening.

When his father gave him 40 acres of land to farm on, Henry duly gave it another try, but soon abandoned the exeperiment. He returned to Detroit and worked as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company.

The ’spark’ for his future career and successful inventiones struck, when Henry read an article about the German engineer Nicholas Otto and his invention of an internal combustion engine.

Literally in his garden shed, Henry experimented and built his first self propelled car, the famous Thin Lizzy in 1896. In 1899 he had raised enough money to start his own company. However, success was slow in coming. There were plenty of failures along the way, difficulties in finding investors and backers, but, like every true pioneer with a great vision, Henry Ford never gave up.

His first successful car, the Model A, saw the light of day in 1909. Thereafter, he made two decisions which revolutionised the world of car manufacture: first he decided to built one model only: his model T. And then he came up with the idea of the assembly line, greatly improving production and keeping prices down. A model’s T assembly time was reduced from 1 hour to 33 minutes. ‘Fordism’ was born. Henry soon saw the potential of covering the nation with his cars by offering a Franchise system which put a Ford dealership in every American city.

He also was politically active, joined the Democratic Party and even tried to negotiate peace during World War I with his Ford Peace Ship.

He died in 1947 of a stroke, leaving his vast fortune to his Ford Foundation but making sure that members of his family stayed in control of the Ford Motor Compny permanently.