7. Empress Zhao Feiyan and Consort Zhao Hede
Born: 32 BC; /
Died:1 BC; 7 BC
Until now we have witnessed how vicious one woman can be. Now, the time has come to see how malicious two women can be. So, meet two evil sisters, the older Empress Zhao Feiyan and the younger Consort Zhao Hede that rank 7th in our list of most evil female rulers in history. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that those two beauties dazzled the great Emperor Cheng of the Chinese Han Dynasty. Considering their humble origins, they accomplished a lot becoming the imperial consorts. As they set their feet on the court, the blood-spilling begun! In pursuance of power and throne, they removed Empress Xu and Consort Ban, accusing them of witchcraft. Soon after, Feiyan became empress. However, when Feiyan gained the title she lost Emperor’s affection in favor of her sister Hede. Once Feiyan’s initial jealousy was not on their way, the sisters buried their hatchets. During the next decade, they had many unsuccessful attempts to give the Emperor an heir. They even committed adultery with other men in order to get pregnant. To make things worse, they were the masterminds of many tactics that included abortions, poisonings, and assassinations of other Emperor’s concubines and their infants. Even the sudden death of Emperor Cheng is under the veil of secret. Allegedly he died from a stroke, but the story behind is that Consort Hede gave him a dose of aphrodisiac that he couldn’t handle. Consort Zhao Hede killed herself shortly after. Empress Zhao Feiyan had a similar destiny considering that she also committed suicide, after being demoted to a commoner due to the exposure of her and her sister’s evil deeds.
5. Catherine de’ Medici (Catherine de Medicis)
Born: April 13, 1519 – Florence, Italy
Died: January 5, 1589 – Blois, France
It’s not a mistake to define Catherine, the next one in our list of most evil female rulers in history, as a pretty ambitious mom, considering that three of her sons were kings of France and two daughters were married to one. Not to mention that she had five children more in her marriage with the Duke of Orléan, later known as King Henry II of France. For 26 years of their marriage, she lived in a shadow of his mistress Diane de Poitiers. Nevertheless, she never gave up, and one might say that her time has come after the sudden death of her husband. After that, the Italian gal from Florence, well educated and thick-skinned due to life without parents, became the most powerful woman of the sixteenth century France. During three decades of her power, she ruled through her sons as regent and their closest adviser. The Nostradamus and the Ruggeri brothers were her pals, and therefore some associate her suspicious acts with the Occult. Although responsibility for starting the French Wars of Religion in 1562 cannot be attributed to her, the Huguenot massacre of St. Bartholomew can. Despite what some historians are saying in her defense, the woman was in charge through her son Charles IX, at the time. More than three thousand Protestants were killed that week, starting the night of 23-24 August 1572. The prosecution was spreading through the France late into the autumn. To make things worse, the massacre started only a few days after her youngest daughter’s wedding with Huguenot – Henry III of Navarre. It’s not hard to imagine that a vicious mother planned all this and thus lured Huguenots to come to her doorstep. So, there’s nothing left to be said except that she was a product of selfish ambition, a cold and calculating woman who used her children as a tool in gaining the power and legitimacy. And now, let’s see who else we have in our list of most evil female rulers in history.
