Curated playlist
Monarchs taken prisoner in wartime
- NapoleonNapoleon crowned himself emperor with a replica of Charlemagne's crown. The pope had just anointed him.
- Napoleon IIINapoleon III escaped a life sentence by walking out of prison dressed as a laborer.
- Francis I of FranceFrancis I became king of France because three men ahead of him died without sons. He was crowned in 1515 at age twenty.
- Maximilian I of MexicoFacing a firing squad in 1867, Emperor Maximilian of Mexico handed each executioner a gold coin.
- Charles I of EnglandCharles I wore two shirts to his own execution. It was bitter cold, and he feared shivering would look like fear.
- Louis IX of FranceLouis IX became king of France at 12 and later a Catholic saint. He is the only French king ever canonised.
- JugurthaJugurtha, king of Numidia, called Rome a city for sale after watching Roman officers take gifts.
- Valerian (emperor)Emperor Valerian became the first Roman emperor captured alive in battle. Persia's Shapur I took him at Edessa in 260.
- ZenobiaZenobia took power in 267 for her ten-year-old son and soon invaded Egypt. Her Palmyrene empire reached Ancyra by 271.
- PuyiPuyi, the last emperor of China, was born in Beijing on the 7th of February 1906 and died on the 17th of October 1967. A commentator named Wen Yuan-ning once quipped that Puyi had been "made emperor three times without knowing why and…