17. Herod had an interfering mother in law.
Herod may have had a good reason for wiping out his male Hasmonean in-laws. For in 35 BC, his mother-in-law, Alexandra began to plot to replace him with her teenage son, Aristobulus. Alexandra started by recruiting her daughter, Mariamne, to help her persuade Herod to replace his High Priest, Hananel with the 16-year-old Aristobulus. The new High priest was very popular with the public, much to Herod’s alarm. However, when Alexandra approached Cleopatra and Mark Anthony to win them over to Aristobulus’s side, Herod had to act. He was so alarmed that Anthony would shift his allegiance to his brother in law, he arranged for a servant to drown the teenager during a party in Jericho.