Important breakthroughs that you might have missed
From adolescence, Mao experienced periodic bronchitis, and even had tuberculosis, garnering a long history of chronic obstructive airways disease. He tried to keep his deteriorating health a secret, but in 1974 he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). His muscle weakness worsened, and he lost the ability to speak coherently before he passed away two years later.
Diverticulitis isn't rare among the elderly, but it can be be incredibly painful and potentially fatal. Castro had multiple operations for diverticulitis in 2007, with one of his three failed surgeries requiring five months of recovery while his brother Raúl took the reins of government, The Guardian reports. But his health issues never eased, and he retired in 2008, only to die eight years later.
The founder of the People's Republic of China and chairman of the Chinese Communist Party was reportedly very bad at keeping up his hygiene. He apparently refused to bathe and brush his teeth, instead opting for hot towels and tea, according to Kathlyn Gay’s biography ‘Mao Zedong's China.’ This led to the development of abscesses and tooth decay, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. He also suffered a series of heart attacks in the final years of his life.
The Cuban revolutionary turned communist despotic leader had lived most of his life in good health, but by the age of 80 he had come down with a serious case of diverticulitis, also known as intestinal inflammation.
The ruler’s incontinence was so bad that "he began a routine of remaining seated at the conclusion of meetings until everyone—except his aides—had departed," lest anyone see his urine-soaked pants, writes biographer Jay Taylor in ‘Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China.’
When the Chinese Nationalist and former leader of the Republic of China was in his seventies, he developed urinary problems. He underwent surgeries for the issue, but they left him incontinent, which means he was unable to control his bladder.
Adolf Hitler's physical ailments have been hotly debated for years. Many believe he suffered from Parkinson's disease starting around 1933, when he became dictator in Germany. Researchers cite his frequent hand tremors, along with premorbid personality traits like extreme mental rigidity and excessive pedantry, which are often signs of Parkinson's disease.
Former premier of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin’s health began to decline in 1945, after he had what historians believe were a series of strokes or heart attacks. Along with his body, his mental state deteriorated, and he became increasingly paranoid.
The doctor who tended to Stalin shortly before his passing in 1953 claims the Soviet dictator suffered from atherosclerosis, which is a hardening of his brain arteries, and believed Stalin had suffered from it for years. In his memoirs, the doctor alleged, "It is easy to imagine that in Stalin it caused him to lose the ability to distinguish between what was good and bad and who is a friend and who is an enemy," reports The Telegraph.
Parkinson's, a degenerative affliction of the nervous system, also has a cognitive impact in non-motor symptoms like disturbed sleep, proneness to temper tantrums, phases of depression, suspiciousness, and lack of trust in colleagues. Some studies allege that Parkinson's could have helped lead Hitler to make poor military decisions and thus had a tangible impact on WWII.
Though Richard III was successful in introducing reforms to the kingdom, he is said to have had scoliosis, or a curved spine, the whole time. Apparently since he was a teen his shoulders weren't even, and he likely had back spasms and was in pain a lot of the time.
Even the powerful Vladimir Lenin, architect of the Russian Revolution, was not powerful enough to avoid an STI. Historian Helen Rappaport claims the leader of Soviet Russia contracted syphilis after an alleged rendezvous in Paris. Decades later, Lenin was reportedly seen by a syphilis specialist and even took a specific medicine prescribed to treat syphilis in 1922.
Syphilis can lead to neurological issues, and in his final years Lenin suffered “short episodes of loss of consciousness, numbness of the right hand, throbbing headaches, sleeplessness, hallucinations, loss of appetite and epileptic seizures,” The Guardian reports. Some don’t buy it, though, and his death certificate officially declared that he died of cerebral atherosclerosis, although his two personal physicians reportedly refused to sign it. Others still believe it was stress that triggered strokes and led to his death in 1924.
The famed Emperor of France didn’t live long after his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, after which he was exiled on the island of St. Helena. For a long time there were rumors around his 1821 death of poisoning by arsenic, but historians now largely believe Napoleon suffered from stomach cancer, National Geographic reports.
The former dictator of Spain reigned for several decades before he began to show signs of Parkinson’s disease, including hand tremors and muscle weakness in his face. He also had ulcers in his stomach, which are a side effect of Parkinson’s, Enrique Moradiellos writes in his biography.
Unlike some of the other people on this list, Franco’s poor health appeared to have actually mildened his ruthlessness by the end of the 1960s. He eventually let others govern, which resulted in reforms throughout Spain.
Not only did gastric cancer also take his father’s life, but an autopsy in 1821 revealed lesions in Napoleon's gut, and modern researchers found evidence of bleeding in his intestines. In the last years of his life, he is also said to have lost a lot of weight, suggesting the cancer was in an advanced stage. Some say his diet of rich French salty foods may have been to blame.
Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who notably ruled through martial law, started to display signs of lupus when he was in his early sixties. The autoimmune disease got so bad that he underwent kidney transplants in 1983 and 1984.
He became so weakened that he relied on his wife Imelda to act as the head of government, as detailed in Katherine Ellison’s ‘Imelda: Steel Butterfly of the Philippines.’ Her reign was brief, however, and the couple were soon forced to flee the Philippines in 1986. Marcos died three years later.
After the coma, Duvalier was markedly more paranoid and ruthless, which his physician believed was due to neurological damage that affected his mental health. By the time he had passed in 1971, also due to complications related to diabetes, around 30,000 Haitians had reportedly died under his rule.
Haiti's former president François Duvalier suffered from diabetes and a roster of related afflictions. Most notably in 1959, he suffered a diabetes-induced heart attack that sent him into a coma for nine hours.
One of the least liked Russian tsars was certainly Ivan IV, who was known for being paranoid and prone to fits of anger—so intensely that he even killed his own son, his only heir. Some believe his foul mood was in part from severe arthritis from a young age, suggesting he was experiencing a lot of physical pain. The medicine he took, which reportedly included arsenic and mercury, could also have contributed to his paranoia.
In 2013, scientists posthumously diagnosed the French revolutionary and overseer of the Reign of Terror with sarcoidosis, which is a painful inflammation of the organs. Suspicion of his poor health stemmed from his twitches and jaundice, starting in 1791. His pain was cut short when he was taken to the guillotine a few years later.
Sources: (History) (The Guardian)(Reuters) (The Telegraph) (The Independent) (The Guardian) (National Geographic)
See also: History's cruelest despots and dictators
For three decades, Mobutu Sese Seko ruled Zaire (the Democratic Republic of the Congo) ruthlessly and corruptly. It was only in his sixties that his failing health became public knowledge. He traveled to France to treat his prostate cancer, which is when his political rivals took control of the country and forced him into exile. He died soon after in Morocco.
So-called Herod the Great actually had quite despotic tendencies, which modern scholars partly attribute to his lethal combination of kidney disease and Fournier's gangrene, a gangrenous infection of the male privates. His presumed discomfort may have affected his mental state, making him more irritable and cruel, so much so that he even tried to take his own life, and with a paring knife according to Peter Richardson and Amy Marie Fisher’s ‘Herod: King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans.’
Whether it left brain damage or not, the event was likely to have worsened his preexisting leg ulcers, which he’d reportedly suffered with since at least 1527. The ulcers caused him immense pain, particularly since they were routinely "cauterized with red-hot irons," according to the medical paper ‘Henry VIII, leg ulcers and the course of history’ by CR Chalmers and EJ Chaloner. Some guess the pain made his tyrannical tendencies worsen.
While many historians first suspected Caesar had epilepsy, more recent scholarship in around 2018 suggests he suffered from strokes. Doctors Francesco M. Galassi and Hutan Ashrafian of Imperial College London argue that Caesar may have been afflicted by cerebrovascular disease, which is a group of conditions that affect blood flow and the blood vessels in the brain. Still, only assassins could take Caesar down.
Beloved in his youth, King Henry VIII got older and became overweight, overbearing, and vicious—he ordered the killing of two of his six wives and thousands of others. Many trace his actions back to a 1536 jousting mishap that is suspected to have resulted in a long-lasting brain injury, The Independent reports. Though others discount that theory.
But he is also said to have kept his condition concealed from the public up until he was killed in battle, because in the Elizabethan period disability was often viewed as a sign of moral impairment, as Katherine Schaap Williams writes in ‘Richard III and the staging of disability.’ Either that, or he was assigned this disability (particularly in Shakespeare’s play) to further denigrate his reputation.
Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman general-turned-dictator, was actually renowned by many for his military skill, but there was one battle many don’t know about. Roman biographer Suetonius claimed Caesar "was subject to sudden fainting fits and disturbances in his sleep. He was likewise twice seized with the 'falling sickness,' while engaged in active service."
One could argue it takes a great unhappiness to inflict so much unhappiness on others, and when you learn about the illnesses that plagued some of history’s most notorious despots, it seems rather logical!
Ranging from the curable to the fatal, many modern scholars argue that these infamous leaders’ afflictions could very well have played a role in creating their reputations by making them even more irritable and cruel. Though, it should be said, no illness excuses villainy—it just provides more context.
Intrigued? Click through to find out more.
Diseases that affected famous despots
The fateful disorders of notorious dictators
LIFESTYLE Curiosities
One could argue it takes a great unhappiness to inflict so much unhappiness on others, and when you learn about the illnesses that plagued some of history’s most notorious despots, it seems rather logical!
Ranging from the curable to the fatal, many modern scholars argue that these infamous leaders’ afflictions could very well have played a role in creating their reputations by making them even more irritable and cruel. Though, it should be said, no illness excuses villainy—it just provides more context.
Intrigued? Click through to find out more.