Most Badass Figures of History

[Jubal]

That is moderately disturbing. I guess if one's going to be a villain and murder people horribly, at least getting known as "The Blood Countess" is something to show for it...?

I've got some genuine additions:
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, the leper king. Had one of the most debilitating diseases in history, still ruled his kingdom very effectively for about six years until he was blind and couldn't walk, that period including the total loss of function in his sword-arm, which he responded to by learning to fight left handed.

Enrico Dandolo, doge of Venice at the time of the Fourth Crusade. For those who don't know, the Fourth was the one that went wrong. Really wrong. The intention was to take a Venetian fleet to Egypt and capture it with Frankish knights, but this didn't exactly happen, mostly because not enough Crusaders turned up to pay the Venetians.

The Crusade thus ended up capturing parts of the Dalmatian coast for Venice, then taking a load of Aegean islands for Venice on their way to Constantinople where in exchange for help in a coup a deposed Emperor had offered huge amounts of money, to be used to pay the Venetians. This ended with the Emperors all being overthrown and replaced with a candidate backed by Venice.

This entire episode was not masterminded by an energetic, domineering-looking doge in the prime of his life. It was masterminded by a blind eighty year old man named Enrico Dandolo. In retrospect for Europe in general and particularly Byzantium the crusade was A Bad Thing, but for the Venetians at the time they'd just pulled off the biggest trade coup in history, including pulling down an entire Empire pretty much just to open up the Black Sea trade routes, and not only this people were paying them to do it. Magnificent Bastard of history award at the very least.

[Scarlet]

I'm not sure about the exclusively virgin or the bathing in the blood bit.. But massive serial killing yes! (I have a slightly worrying obsession with this stuff o.O)

[Jubal]

I just always found serial killing kind of weird, creepy and disturbing and just generally something I don't want to dwell on too much. A lot of people do seem to get quite fascinated by it though.

[Scarlet]

Weird, creepy and disturbing, yes. I agree.

[Silver Wolf]

I've heard of "The Blood Countess" before.
Genuinely fascinating.

Jubal, your additions are also great.

[Lady Grey]

Hahaha, love the additions :p

What about Giacomo Casanova?
He seems to have done a bit of everything, and David Tennant played him once. :p

[Clockwork]

Edward Teach aka Blackbeard, wove cannon fuses into his bead and lit them before raids, before boarding and whilst keeping his crew locked in the brig. Despite only standing 5' 6" (okay he was a giant for that time) it took 23 stab wounds and 6 pistol shots to finally kill him. Pirates are worse shots than stormtroopers evidently. Tough SoB but not quite the same as the next guy.

Rasputin, some say he might even be alive today. Those people are crazy or idiots, he's dead but it took a hell of a lot to do the job. First, cyanide poisoned cakes, a shot through the back of the head, when he then got up and tried to strangle his attacker he was beaten with clubs and shot 3 more times. After that he was bound and thrown into an icy lake. Post mortem showed that the cause of death was drowning. That, friends, is truly badass.

[Jubal]

I don't think the height difference was so significant that 5ft6 would have been giant by any means; roughly average at best. Given the modern UK average is 5ft11 and 5ft6 is about average for men in really malnourished countries...

It's also my own height.


As to Rasputin I think there's been a lot of debate over the veracity of the stories about his death, though I can't remember the details. Generally weird as hell though.

[Phoenixguard09]

Big fan of King Baldwin IV.

King Jan Sobieski of Poland. Broke the siege of Vienna at the head of his charging hussaria.

[Pentagathus]

Big Bad Pent, nth of his name..

[Jubal]

I wish to submit for consideration the random Danube ferryman in the 1140s who was ordered to ferry Manuel I Komnenos over the river, and more or less told him to bugger off until he'd sorted out the local Cuman raiders. Not exactly the most high-grade military toughness, but a hell of a ballsy move nonetheless (and it worked, for that matter).

[Phoenixguard09]

That's pretty cool.

[Phoenixguard09]

My own addition, who is not a historical figure as such, but is still awesome, M3 the Wolverine.
http://www.badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?id=535838729020

[Clockwork]

Honey Badgers and Wolverines are insane

[DeepCandle Games]

Ned Kelly is probably the best I can think of, I'm not all too familiar with historical figures.