YEONGJO OF JOSEON
Image © WikicommonsImage © WikicommonsEMPRESS ANNA OF RUSSIA
(1730–1740)
Anna Ivanovna was the daughter of “Ivan the
Ignorant”, who was also mentally unstable, and so
Anna’s uncle, Peter the Great, acted as ruler. Anna
was practically illiterate, and supposedly had awful
manners. After she was married, her uncle organised
a parody of the wedding acted out by dwar fs, which
provided a cruel commentar y on Anna’s miserable
disposition. In 1730, she became empress. The
council of men who put her in power believed that
they would be able to control her, but Anna was
having none of that. She brought the brutal secret
police back into power to do her bidding, and spent
the better par t of her rule tor turing nobleman. She
organised a wedding between Prince Mikhail and
her maid, and had a special palace made of ice
for the event. She dressed the par ty as clowns and
made them spend the night in the ice palace –
during one of the worst Russian winters in years.
PRINCE SADO OF KOREA
(1735–1762)
Prince Sado was married at nine years old. The
poor child was allegedly loathed by his father,
Yeongjo of Joseon, for no clear reason. After
contracting the measles, the young prince took a turn
towards insanity, which earned him no favours with
his unloving father, who, in another turn of cruelty,
washed Sado’s mouth out, and made him change
his clothes ever y time he spoke. This did little to help
Sado out of his deliriums, and he suf fered from terrible
delusions. He developed his own obsession with
clothes, and would often burn them. Sado descended
into severe madness, and physically abused his
ser vants in fits of rage. He terrorised his own sister.
His father then put his son into a rice chest, where
the prince died eight days later. While Sado was
unspeakably cruel as an adult, his father’s treatment
of him as a child would have cer tainly contributed
to his insanity.
No.46 Issue 43131