Karma can be a bitch. The old adage that one lives by the sword and dies by the sword has been one that has prevailed throughout recorded history, and for those who have lived lives that have caused untold misery to others, the threat of a similarly miserable situation comes to them was always there.
Sometimes dictators and tyrants manage to escape punishment – some of the greatest criminals of the twentieth century, the likes of Hitler and Stalin, managed to end their lives on their own terms – there is a satisfyingly long list of despots who got what was coming to them. Here, we will talk through some of the worst people that history has to give, safe in the knowledge that something indescribably unpleasant is in the post for them at some point.
Though the word tyrant itself is one of Greek origin – tyrannos, the original Ancient Greek word, simply meant “monarch or ruler of a polis” – the term came into its modern usage in Ancient Rome, a civilization that was far from lacking in potential candidates for this list. We will scan over but a few of the dictatorial maniacs who met their end at the hands of their own people, but the list of tyrannical Roman emperors who were stabbed in the back (and sometimes in the front) by the Praetorian Guard is extensive.
From there, we will cycle forward to the next period of popular uprisings, beginning with the English and French Revolutions. Here we will learn the true meaning of karma, as tyrannical rulers are executed by their own people, only for the leaders of those revolutions to find themselves in the self same position not long afterward. As we said: live by the sword, die by the sword.
We will move into the last hundred years or so, in which the rate of revolutions has skyrocketed, bringing us right up to the present day. It promises to be a long list of bad guys getting their just desserts: so do join us as we take a trip through 12 tyrants who finally got their comeuppance.