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 Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 8:33 am
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The Komnenoi imperial family of Byzantium destroyed itself over the course of several decades as family members backstabbed, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, blinded, executed, and led armed insurrections against one another. By the time Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, no less than 26 members of the Komnenos dynasty had been taken out of commission by their close relatives note
The medieval Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia was a nest of snakes; like the mythical House of Atreus, each generation preyed on the next, pitting father against son, uncle against nephew, brother against brother, and cousin against cousin.
Stefan Nemanja, grand prince of Serbs from 1166 to 1196, was betrayed and imprisoned by his brothers in a cave. He escaped and had his brothers exiled. Later in life, he preferred his younger son, also named Stefan, to his elder son, Vukan, ensuring that Vukan and Stefan would someday clash over the throne.
Stefan Nemanjić, king of Serbia 1217-1228. His first wife, the Byzantine princess Eudokia Angelina, quarrelled with him, declaring that he cheated on her and was "drunk from morning to night", so Stefan threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. She had to seek refuge with Stefan's brother, Vukan, himself a troublemaker and self-proclaimed king.
Stefan Radoslav, son of Stefan Nemanjić and Eudokia Angelina, king of Serbia 1228-1233. He and his wife, Anna Doukaina Angelina of Epiros, were so unpopular that they were driven out and he was replaced by his younger brother, Vladislav.
Stefan Vladislav I, king of Serbia 1233-1243. Deposed by the nobility and replaced by his younger half-brother, Uroš.
Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia 1243-1276. Son of Stefan Nemanjić by his Venetian second wife, Anna Dandolo (herself granddaughter of the notorious doge Enrico Dandolo), he preferred his younger son, Milutin, to his elder son, Dragutin. Dragutin led an armed insurrection against his father and forced him to abdicate.
Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia 1276-1282. Unexpectedly surrendered his throne to his younger brother, Milutin, after being injured in 1282. Some years later Milutin apparently reneged on an agreement to let Dragutin's son Vladislav succeed him, resulting in the brothers quarreling until Dragutin's death in 1316.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin, king of Serbia 1282-1321. Warlike, quarrelsome, and oversexed, he seduced his sister-in-law Erzsébet (daughter of the king of Hungary), with whom he fathered a son. He ditched her for a Bulgarian princess, Anna Terter, and then divorced Anna to marry a five-year-old Byzantine princess, Simonis. He raped Simonis and left her infertile. Upon returning to Constantinople for her mother's funeral in 1317, Simonis begged to stay and had to be forced by her brother the emperor to return to her husband. Milutin sent his son, Stefan Uroš, to the Mongols as a hostage and later had him partially blinded.
Stefan Konstantin, king of Serbia 1321-1322. Son of Milutin and the Hungarian princess, Erzsébet. A three-way war erupted upon his father's death, pitting Konstantin against his half-brother, Uroš, and his cousin, Vladislav (son of former king Dragutin, Vladislav had been imprisoned during Milutin's reign and only released upon his death). Konstantin was captured by his cousin Vladislav and crucified to a tree.
Stefan Uroš III, king of Serbia 1322-1331. Son of Milutin and his Bulgarian wife, Anna Terter, he spent his youth a hostage at the Mongol court and was later partially blinded on the orders of his father. He drove his cousin Vladislav out of the country in 1322. His own son and heir overthrew him and had him strangled.
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, king of Serbia 1331-1355. Son of Uroš III and Theodora of Bulgaria, he was a great warrior-king and lawmaker. He overthrew his father and had him strangled. He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoning while embarking on an offensive against the Turks.
Stefan Uroš V, king of Serbia 1355-1371. Son of Dušan and Elena of Bulgaria, he was a gentle and modest ruler. His uncle Simeon tried to usurp power in Serbia. He also died young under mysterious circumstances (his co-ruler, Vukašin, popularly credited with having murdered him in folk tales, actually died a couple of months before Uroš himself). His death extinguished the dynasty in Serbia.
Although not every child who has a bad upbringing grows up to become a criminal, most serial killers and violent offenders did not have what you would call healthy home lives. The one who takes the cake, however, is Richard Ramirez, aka "The Night Stalker", who had a backstory most cop shows would consider unrealistic. He had an abusive father who beat him, his brother-in-law was a disturbed voyeur who bonded with Richard over stalking people, and his childhood hero was his Vietnam veteran cousin — a Sociopathic Soldier who carried around photos of the atrocities he'd committed (including raping and then beheading a woman).
The Loveless family for the criminal Melinda Loveless who was responsible for being the ringleader of the murder of Shanda Sharer. In public, nobody would believe the Loveless family was screwed up. Behind closed doors, Larry Loveless, the father of Melida, was a psycho and a depraved child molester who molested Melinda and her two older sisters. He also mistreated his wife and raped her in front of their daughters.
Inbreeding was a common flaw among royal families but The House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful and influential royal families in European history, seemed to have the worst luck when it came to intermarriages. Epilepsy, gout, dropsy, depression, unusually-shaped heads, and the telltale Habsburg jaw, all plagued several generations of their descendants which played a crucial role in bringing suffering and eventual ruin to the House of Habsburg.
The Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (Europe) had its share of craziness. By far the worst cases were in the 15th-17th centuries, starting with:
George II of Kakheti, nowadays known as George the Evil. He killed his father, blinded his brother, and went to war against the neighbouring kingdom of Kartli (ruled by a distant cousin from a rival branch of the Bagrationis). He attacked Kartli twice. The second time he was killed and the throne eventually went to his son, Levan.
Levan of Kakheti was married twice and preferred the children from his second marriage to the children from his first. His oldest son Alexander should have been the heir but was The Unfavorite. So when Levan died a power struggle began between Alexander and his half-brother El-Mirza. Eventually Alexander killed El-Mirza and at least one other half-brother.
Alexander's son David overthrew him and seized the throne in 1601. David died a year later and Alexander took the throne again. Three years after that another of Alexander's sons, Constantine, staged an coup, killed his father and one of his brothers, then was killed in the ensuing civil war.
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Big, Screwed-Up Family
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 9:27 am
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The Komnenoi imperial family of Byzantium destroyed itself over the course of several decades as family members backstabbed, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, blinded, executed, and led armed insurrections against one another. By the time Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, no less than 26 members of the Komnenos dynasty had been taken out of commission by their close relatives note
The medieval Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia was a nest of snakes; like the mythical House of Atreus, each generation preyed on the next, pitting father against son, uncle against nephew, brother against brother, and cousin against cousin.
Stefan Nemanja, grand prince of Serbs from 1166 to 1196, was betrayed and imprisoned by his brothers in a cave. He escaped and had his brothers exiled. Later in life, he preferred his younger son, also named Stefan, to his elder son, Vukan, ensuring that Vukan and Stefan would someday clash over the throne.
Stefan Nemanjić, king of Serbia 1217-1228. His first wife, the Byzantine princess Eudokia Angelina, quarrelled with him, declaring that he cheated on her and was "drunk from morning to night", so Stefan threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. She had to seek refuge with Stefan's brother, Vukan, himself a troublemaker and self-proclaimed king.
Stefan Radoslav, son of Stefan Nemanjić and Eudokia Angelina, king of Serbia 1228-1233. He and his wife, Anna Doukaina Angelina of Epiros, were so unpopular that they were driven out and he was replaced by his younger brother, Vladislav.
Stefan Vladislav I, king of Serbia 1233-1243. Deposed by the nobility and replaced by his younger half-brother, Uroš.
Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia 1243-1276. Son of Stefan Nemanjić by his Venetian second wife, Anna Dandolo (herself granddaughter of the notorious doge Enrico Dandolo), he preferred his younger son, Milutin, to his elder son, Dragutin. Dragutin led an armed insurrection against his father and forced him to abdicate.
Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia 1276-1282. Unexpectedly surrendered his throne to his younger brother, Milutin, after being injured in 1282. Some years later Milutin apparently reneged on an agreement to let Dragutin's son Vladislav succeed him, resulting in the brothers quarreling until Dragutin's death in 1316.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin, king of Serbia 1282-1321. Warlike, quarrelsome, and oversexed, he seduced his sister-in-law Erzsébet (daughter of the king of Hungary), with whom he fathered a son. He ditched her for a Bulgarian princess, Anna Terter, and then divorced Anna to marry a five-year-old Byzantine princess, Simonis. He raped Simonis and left her infertile. Upon returning to Constantinople for her mother's funeral in 1317, Simonis begged to stay and had to be forced by her brother the emperor to return to her husband. Milutin sent his son, Stefan Uroš, to the Mongols as a hostage and later had him partially blinded.
Stefan Konstantin, king of Serbia 1321-1322. Son of Milutin and the Hungarian princess, Erzsébet. A three-way war erupted upon his father's death, pitting Konstantin against his half-brother, Uroš, and his cousin, Vladislav (son of former king Dragutin, Vladislav had been imprisoned during Milutin's reign and only released upon his death). Konstantin was captured by his cousin Vladislav and crucified to a tree.
Stefan Uroš III, king of Serbia 1322-1331. Son of Milutin and his Bulgarian wife, Anna Terter, he spent his youth a hostage at the Mongol court and was later partially blinded on the orders of his father. He drove his cousin Vladislav out of the country in 1322. His own son and heir overthrew him and had him strangled.
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, king of Serbia 1331-1355. Son of Uroš III and Theodora of Bulgaria, he was a great warrior-king and lawmaker. He overthrew his father and had him strangled. He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoning while embarking on an offensive against the Turks.
Stefan Uroš V, king of Serbia 1355-1371. Son of Dušan and Elena of Bulgaria, he was a gentle and modest ruler. His uncle Simeon tried to usurp power in Serbia. He also died young under mysterious circumstances (his co-ruler, Vukašin, popularly credited with having murdered him in folk tales, actually died a couple of months before Uroš himself). His death extinguished the dynasty in Serbia.
Although not every child who has a bad upbringing grows up to become a criminal, most serial killers and violent offenders did not have what you would call healthy home lives. The one who takes the cake, however, is Richard Ramirez, aka "The Night Stalker", who had a backstory most cop shows would consider unrealistic. He had an abusive father who beat him, his brother-in-law was a disturbed voyeur who bonded with Richard over stalking people, and his childhood hero was his Vietnam veteran cousin — a Sociopathic Soldier who carried around photos of the atrocities he'd committed (including raping and then beheading a woman).
The Loveless family for the criminal Melinda Loveless who was responsible for being the ringleader of the murder of Shanda Sharer. In public, nobody would believe the Loveless family was screwed up. Behind closed doors, Larry Loveless, the father of Melida, was a psycho and a depraved child molester who molested Melinda and her two older sisters. He also mistreated his wife and raped her in front of their daughters.
Inbreeding was a common flaw among royal families but The House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful and influential royal families in European history, seemed to have the worst luck when it came to intermarriages. Epilepsy, gout, dropsy, depression, unusually-shaped heads, and the telltale Habsburg jaw, all plagued several generations of their descendants which played a crucial role in bringing suffering and eventual ruin to the House of Habsburg.
The Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (Europe) had its share of craziness. By far the worst cases were in the 15th-17th centuries, starting with:
George II of Kakheti, nowadays known as George the Evil. He killed his father, blinded his brother, and went to war against the neighbouring kingdom of Kartli (ruled by a distant cousin from a rival branch of the Bagrationis). He attacked Kartli twice. The second time he was killed and the throne eventually went to his son, Levan.
Levan of Kakheti was married twice and preferred the children from his second marriage to the children from his first. His oldest son Alexander should have been the heir but was The Unfavorite. So when Levan died a power struggle began between Alexander and his half-brother El-Mirza. Eventually Alexander killed El-Mirza and at least one other half-brother.
Alexander's son David overthrew him and seized the throne in 1601. David died a year later and Alexander took the throne again. Three years after that another of Alexander's sons, Constantine, staged an coup, killed his father and one of his brothers, then was killed in the ensuing civil war.
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Big, Screwed-Up Family
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 9:27 am
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The Komnenoi imperial family of Byzantium destroyed itself over the course of several decades as family members backstabbed, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, blinded, executed, and led armed insurrections against one another. By the time Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, no less than 26 members of the Komnenos dynasty had been taken out of commission by their close relatives note
The medieval Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia was a nest of snakes; like the mythical House of Atreus, each generation preyed on the next, pitting father against son, uncle against nephew, brother against brother, and cousin against cousin.
Stefan Nemanja, grand prince of Serbs from 1166 to 1196, was betrayed and imprisoned by his brothers in a cave. He escaped and had his brothers exiled. Later in life, he preferred his younger son, also named Stefan, to his elder son, Vukan, ensuring that Vukan and Stefan would someday clash over the throne.
Stefan Nemanjić, king of Serbia 1217-1228. His first wife, the Byzantine princess Eudokia Angelina, quarrelled with him, declaring that he cheated on her and was "drunk from morning to night", so Stefan threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. She had to seek refuge with Stefan's brother, Vukan, himself a troublemaker and self-proclaimed king.
Stefan Radoslav, son of Stefan Nemanjić and Eudokia Angelina, king of Serbia 1228-1233. He and his wife, Anna Doukaina Angelina of Epiros, were so unpopular that they were driven out and he was replaced by his younger brother, Vladislav.
Stefan Vladislav I, king of Serbia 1233-1243. Deposed by the nobility and replaced by his younger half-brother, Uroš.
Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia 1243-1276. Son of Stefan Nemanjić by his Venetian second wife, Anna Dandolo (herself granddaughter of the notorious doge Enrico Dandolo), he preferred his younger son, Milutin, to his elder son, Dragutin. Dragutin led an armed insurrection against his father and forced him to abdicate.
Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia 1276-1282. Unexpectedly surrendered his throne to his younger brother, Milutin, after being injured in 1282. Some years later Milutin apparently reneged on an agreement to let Dragutin's son Vladislav succeed him, resulting in the brothers quarreling until Dragutin's death in 1316.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin, king of Serbia 1282-1321. Warlike, quarrelsome, and oversexed, he seduced his sister-in-law Erzsébet (daughter of the king of Hungary), with whom he fathered a son. He ditched her for a Bulgarian princess, Anna Terter, and then divorced Anna to marry a five-year-old Byzantine princess, Simonis. He raped Simonis and left her infertile. Upon returning to Constantinople for her mother's funeral in 1317, Simonis begged to stay and had to be forced by her brother the emperor to return to her husband. Milutin sent his son, Stefan Uroš, to the Mongols as a hostage and later had him partially blinded.
Stefan Konstantin, king of Serbia 1321-1322. Son of Milutin and the Hungarian princess, Erzsébet. A three-way war erupted upon his father's death, pitting Konstantin against his half-brother, Uroš, and his cousin, Vladislav (son of former king Dragutin, Vladislav had been imprisoned during Milutin's reign and only released upon his death). Konstantin was captured by his cousin Vladislav and crucified to a tree.
Stefan Uroš III, king of Serbia 1322-1331. Son of Milutin and his Bulgarian wife, Anna Terter, he spent his youth a hostage at the Mongol court and was later partially blinded on the orders of his father. He drove his cousin Vladislav out of the country in 1322. His own son and heir overthrew him and had him strangled.
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, king of Serbia 1331-1355. Son of Uroš III and Theodora of Bulgaria, he was a great warrior-king and lawmaker. He overthrew his father and had him strangled. He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoning while embarking on an offensive against the Turks.
Stefan Uroš V, king of Serbia 1355-1371. Son of Dušan and Elena of Bulgaria, he was a gentle and modest ruler. His uncle Simeon tried to usurp power in Serbia. He also died young under mysterious circumstances (his co-ruler, Vukašin, popularly credited with having murdered him in folk tales, actually died a couple of months before Uroš himself). His death extinguished the dynasty in Serbia.
Although not every child who has a bad upbringing grows up to become a criminal, most serial killers and violent offenders did not have what you would call healthy home lives. The one who takes the cake, however, is Richard Ramirez, aka "The Night Stalker", who had a backstory most cop shows would consider unrealistic. He had an abusive father who beat him, his brother-in-law was a disturbed voyeur who bonded with Richard over stalking people, and his childhood hero was his Vietnam veteran cousin — a Sociopathic Soldier who carried around photos of the atrocities he'd committed (including raping and then beheading a woman).
The Loveless family for the criminal Melinda Loveless who was responsible for being the ringleader of the murder of Shanda Sharer. In public, nobody would believe the Loveless family was screwed up. Behind closed doors, Larry Loveless, the father of Melida, was a psycho and a depraved child molester who molested Melinda and her two older sisters. He also mistreated his wife and raped her in front of their daughters.
Inbreeding was a common flaw among royal families but The House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful and influential royal families in European history, seemed to have the worst luck when it came to intermarriages. Epilepsy, gout, dropsy, depression, unusually-shaped heads, and the telltale Habsburg jaw, all plagued several generations of their descendants which played a crucial role in bringing suffering and eventual ruin to the House of Habsburg.
The Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (Europe) had its share of craziness. By far the worst cases were in the 15th-17th centuries, starting with:
George II of Kakheti, nowadays known as George the Evil. He killed his father, blinded his brother, and went to war against the neighbouring kingdom of Kartli (ruled by a distant cousin from a rival branch of the Bagrationis). He attacked Kartli twice. The second time he was killed and the throne eventually went to his son, Levan.
Levan of Kakheti was married twice and preferred the children from his second marriage to the children from his first. His oldest son Alexander should have been the heir but was The Unfavorite. So when Levan died a power struggle began between Alexander and his half-brother El-Mirza. Eventually Alexander killed El-Mirza and at least one other half-brother.
Alexander's son David overthrew him and seized the throne in 1601. David died a year later and Alexander took the throne again. Three years after that another of Alexander's sons, Constantine, staged an coup, killed his father and one of his brothers, then was killed in the ensuing civil war.
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Big, Screwed-Up Family
Can You Identify This Trope?
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 9:27 am
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The Komnenoi imperial family of Byzantium destroyed itself over the course of several decades as family members backstabbed, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, blinded, executed, and led armed insurrections against one another. By the time Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, no less than 26 members of the Komnenos dynasty had been taken out of commission by their close relatives note
The medieval Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia was a nest of snakes; like the mythical House of Atreus, each generation preyed on the next, pitting father against son, uncle against nephew, brother against brother, and cousin against cousin.
Stefan Nemanja, grand prince of Serbs from 1166 to 1196, was betrayed and imprisoned by his brothers in a cave. He escaped and had his brothers exiled. Later in life, he preferred his younger son, also named Stefan, to his elder son, Vukan, ensuring that Vukan and Stefan would someday clash over the throne.
Stefan Nemanjić, king of Serbia 1217-1228. His first wife, the Byzantine princess Eudokia Angelina, quarrelled with him, declaring that he cheated on her and was "drunk from morning to night", so Stefan threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. She had to seek refuge with Stefan's brother, Vukan, himself a troublemaker and self-proclaimed king.
Stefan Radoslav, son of Stefan Nemanjić and Eudokia Angelina, king of Serbia 1228-1233. He and his wife, Anna Doukaina Angelina of Epiros, were so unpopular that they were driven out and he was replaced by his younger brother, Vladislav.
Stefan Vladislav I, king of Serbia 1233-1243. Deposed by the nobility and replaced by his younger half-brother, Uroš.
Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia 1243-1276. Son of Stefan Nemanjić by his Venetian second wife, Anna Dandolo (herself granddaughter of the notorious doge Enrico Dandolo), he preferred his younger son, Milutin, to his elder son, Dragutin. Dragutin led an armed insurrection against his father and forced him to abdicate.
Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia 1276-1282. Unexpectedly surrendered his throne to his younger brother, Milutin, after being injured in 1282. Some years later Milutin apparently reneged on an agreement to let Dragutin's son Vladislav succeed him, resulting in the brothers quarreling until Dragutin's death in 1316.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin, king of Serbia 1282-1321. Warlike, quarrelsome, and oversexed, he seduced his sister-in-law Erzsébet (daughter of the king of Hungary), with whom he fathered a son. He ditched her for a Bulgarian princess, Anna Terter, and then divorced Anna to marry a five-year-old Byzantine princess, Simonis. He raped Simonis and left her infertile. Upon returning to Constantinople for her mother's funeral in 1317, Simonis begged to stay and had to be forced by her brother the emperor to return to her husband. Milutin sent his son, Stefan Uroš, to the Mongols as a hostage and later had him partially blinded.
Stefan Konstantin, king of Serbia 1321-1322. Son of Milutin and the Hungarian princess, Erzsébet. A three-way war erupted upon his father's death, pitting Konstantin against his half-brother, Uroš, and his cousin, Vladislav (son of former king Dragutin, Vladislav had been imprisoned during Milutin's reign and only released upon his death). Konstantin was captured by his cousin Vladislav and crucified to a tree.
Stefan Uroš III, king of Serbia 1322-1331. Son of Milutin and his Bulgarian wife, Anna Terter, he spent his youth a hostage at the Mongol court and was later partially blinded on the orders of his father. He drove his cousin Vladislav out of the country in 1322. His own son and heir overthrew him and had him strangled.
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, king of Serbia 1331-1355. Son of Uroš III and Theodora of Bulgaria, he was a great warrior-king and lawmaker. He overthrew his father and had him strangled. He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoning while embarking on an offensive against the Turks.
Stefan Uroš V, king of Serbia 1355-1371. Son of Dušan and Elena of Bulgaria, he was a gentle and modest ruler. His uncle Simeon tried to usurp power in Serbia. He also died young under mysterious circumstances (his co-ruler, Vukašin, popularly credited with having murdered him in folk tales, actually died a couple of months before Uroš himself). His death extinguished the dynasty in Serbia.
Although not every child who has a bad upbringing grows up to become a criminal, most serial killers and violent offenders did not have what you would call healthy home lives. The one who takes the cake, however, is Richard Ramirez, aka "The Night Stalker", who had a backstory most cop shows would consider unrealistic. He had an abusive father who beat him, his brother-in-law was a disturbed voyeur who bonded with Richard over stalking people, and his childhood hero was his Vietnam veteran cousin — a Sociopathic Soldier who carried around photos of the atrocities he'd committed (including raping and then beheading a woman).
The Loveless family for the criminal Melinda Loveless who was responsible for being the ringleader of the murder of Shanda Sharer. In public, nobody would believe the Loveless family was screwed up. Behind closed doors, Larry Loveless, the father of Melida, was a psycho and a depraved child molester who molested Melinda and her two older sisters. He also mistreated his wife and raped her in front of their daughters.
Inbreeding was a common flaw among royal families but The House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful and influential royal families in European history, seemed to have the worst luck when it came to intermarriages. Epilepsy, gout, dropsy, depression, unusually-shaped heads, and the telltale Habsburg jaw, all plagued several generations of their descendants which played a crucial role in bringing suffering and eventual ruin to the House of Habsburg.
The Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (Europe) had its share of craziness. By far the worst cases were in the 15th-17th centuries, starting with:
George II of Kakheti, nowadays known as George the Evil. He killed his father, blinded his brother, and went to war against the neighbouring kingdom of Kartli (ruled by a distant cousin from a rival branch of the Bagrationis). He attacked Kartli twice. The second time he was killed and the throne eventually went to his son, Levan.
Levan of Kakheti was married twice and preferred the children from his second marriage to the children from his first. His oldest son Alexander should have been the heir but was The Unfavorite. So when Levan died a power struggle began between Alexander and his half-brother El-Mirza. Eventually Alexander killed El-Mirza and at least one other half-brother.
Alexander's son David overthrew him and seized the throne in 1601. David died a year later and Alexander took the throne again. Three years after that another of Alexander's sons, Constantine, staged an coup, killed his father and one of his brothers, then was killed in the ensuing civil war.
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Video Games
Big, Screwed-Up Family
Can You Identify This Trope?
00:00 00:00
Show Trope Page
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 9:27 am
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The Komnenoi imperial family of Byzantium destroyed itself over the course of several decades as family members backstabbed, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, blinded, executed, and led armed insurrections against one another. By the time Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, no less than 26 members of the Komnenos dynasty had been taken out of commission by their close relatives note
The medieval Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia was a nest of snakes; like the mythical House of Atreus, each generation preyed on the next, pitting father against son, uncle against nephew, brother against brother, and cousin against cousin.
Stefan Nemanja, grand prince of Serbs from 1166 to 1196, was betrayed and imprisoned by his brothers in a cave. He escaped and had his brothers exiled. Later in life, he preferred his younger son, also named Stefan, to his elder son, Vukan, ensuring that Vukan and Stefan would someday clash over the throne.
Stefan Nemanjić, king of Serbia 1217-1228. His first wife, the Byzantine princess Eudokia Angelina, quarrelled with him, declaring that he cheated on her and was "drunk from morning to night", so Stefan threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. She had to seek refuge with Stefan's brother, Vukan, himself a troublemaker and self-proclaimed king.
Stefan Radoslav, son of Stefan Nemanjić and Eudokia Angelina, king of Serbia 1228-1233. He and his wife, Anna Doukaina Angelina of Epiros, were so unpopular that they were driven out and he was replaced by his younger brother, Vladislav.
Stefan Vladislav I, king of Serbia 1233-1243. Deposed by the nobility and replaced by his younger half-brother, Uroš.
Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia 1243-1276. Son of Stefan Nemanjić by his Venetian second wife, Anna Dandolo (herself granddaughter of the notorious doge Enrico Dandolo), he preferred his younger son, Milutin, to his elder son, Dragutin. Dragutin led an armed insurrection against his father and forced him to abdicate.
Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia 1276-1282. Unexpectedly surrendered his throne to his younger brother, Milutin, after being injured in 1282. Some years later Milutin apparently reneged on an agreement to let Dragutin's son Vladislav succeed him, resulting in the brothers quarreling until Dragutin's death in 1316.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin, king of Serbia 1282-1321. Warlike, quarrelsome, and oversexed, he seduced his sister-in-law Erzsébet (daughter of the king of Hungary), with whom he fathered a son. He ditched her for a Bulgarian princess, Anna Terter, and then divorced Anna to marry a five-year-old Byzantine princess, Simonis. He raped Simonis and left her infertile. Upon returning to Constantinople for her mother's funeral in 1317, Simonis begged to stay and had to be forced by her brother the emperor to return to her husband. Milutin sent his son, Stefan Uroš, to the Mongols as a hostage and later had him partially blinded.
Stefan Konstantin, king of Serbia 1321-1322. Son of Milutin and the Hungarian princess, Erzsébet. A three-way war erupted upon his father's death, pitting Konstantin against his half-brother, Uroš, and his cousin, Vladislav (son of former king Dragutin, Vladislav had been imprisoned during Milutin's reign and only released upon his death). Konstantin was captured by his cousin Vladislav and crucified to a tree.
Stefan Uroš III, king of Serbia 1322-1331. Son of Milutin and his Bulgarian wife, Anna Terter, he spent his youth a hostage at the Mongol court and was later partially blinded on the orders of his father. He drove his cousin Vladislav out of the country in 1322. His own son and heir overthrew him and had him strangled.
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, king of Serbia 1331-1355. Son of Uroš III and Theodora of Bulgaria, he was a great warrior-king and lawmaker. He overthrew his father and had him strangled. He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoning while embarking on an offensive against the Turks.
Stefan Uroš V, king of Serbia 1355-1371. Son of Dušan and Elena of Bulgaria, he was a gentle and modest ruler. His uncle Simeon tried to usurp power in Serbia. He also died young under mysterious circumstances (his co-ruler, Vukašin, popularly credited with having murdered him in folk tales, actually died a couple of months before Uroš himself). His death extinguished the dynasty in Serbia.
Although not every child who has a bad upbringing grows up to become a criminal, most serial killers and violent offenders did not have what you would call healthy home lives. The one who takes the cake, however, is Richard Ramirez, aka "The Night Stalker", who had a backstory most cop shows would consider unrealistic. He had an abusive father who beat him, his brother-in-law was a disturbed voyeur who bonded with Richard over stalking people, and his childhood hero was his Vietnam veteran cousin — a Sociopathic Soldier who carried around photos of the atrocities he'd committed (including raping and then beheading a woman).
The Loveless family for the criminal Melinda Loveless who was responsible for being the ringleader of the murder of Shanda Sharer. In public, nobody would believe the Loveless family was screwed up. Behind closed doors, Larry Loveless, the father of Melida, was a psycho and a depraved child molester who molested Melinda and her two older sisters. He also mistreated his wife and raped her in front of their daughters.
Inbreeding was a common flaw among royal families but The House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful and influential royal families in European history, seemed to have the worst luck when it came to intermarriages. Epilepsy, gout, dropsy, depression, unusually-shaped heads, and the telltale Habsburg jaw, all plagued several generations of their descendants which played a crucial role in bringing suffering and eventual ruin to the House of Habsburg.
The Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (Europe) had its share of craziness. By far the worst cases were in the 15th-17th centuries, starting with:
George II of Kakheti, nowadays known as George the Evil. He killed his father, blinded his brother, and went to war against the neighbouring kingdom of Kartli (ruled by a distant cousin from a rival branch of the Bagrationis). He attacked Kartli twice. The second time he was killed and the throne eventually went to his son, Levan.
Levan of Kakheti was married twice and preferred the children from his second marriage to the children from his first. His oldest son Alexander should have been the heir but was The Unfavorite. So when Levan died a power struggle began between Alexander and his half-brother El-Mirza. Eventually Alexander killed El-Mirza and at least one other half-brother.
Alexander's son David overthrew him and seized the throne in 1601. David died a year later and Alexander took the throne again. Three years after that another of Alexander's sons, Constantine, staged an coup, killed his father and one of his brothers, then was killed in the ensuing civil war.
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 9:45 am
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The Komnenoi imperial family of Byzantium destroyed itself over the course of several decades as family members backstabbed, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, blinded, executed, and led armed insurrections against one another. By the time Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, no less than 26 members of the Komnenos dynasty had been taken out of commission by their close relatives note
The medieval Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia was a nest of snakes; like the mythical House of Atreus, each generation preyed on the next, pitting father against son, uncle against nephew, brother against brother, and cousin against cousin.
Stefan Nemanja, grand prince of Serbs from 1166 to 1196, was betrayed and imprisoned by his brothers in a cave. He escaped and had his brothers exiled. Later in life, he preferred his younger son, also named Stefan, to his elder son, Vukan, ensuring that Vukan and Stefan would someday clash over the throne.
Stefan Nemanjić, king of Serbia 1217-1228. His first wife, the Byzantine princess Eudokia Angelina, quarrelled with him, declaring that he cheated on her and was "drunk from morning to night", so Stefan threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. She had to seek refuge with Stefan's brother, Vukan, himself a troublemaker and self-proclaimed king.
Stefan Radoslav, son of Stefan Nemanjić and Eudokia Angelina, king of Serbia 1228-1233. He and his wife, Anna Doukaina Angelina of Epiros, were so unpopular that they were driven out and he was replaced by his younger brother, Vladislav.
Stefan Vladislav I, king of Serbia 1233-1243. Deposed by the nobility and replaced by his younger half-brother, Uroš.
Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia 1243-1276. Son of Stefan Nemanjić by his Venetian second wife, Anna Dandolo (herself granddaughter of the notorious doge Enrico Dandolo), he preferred his younger son, Milutin, to his elder son, Dragutin. Dragutin led an armed insurrection against his father and forced him to abdicate.
Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia 1276-1282. Unexpectedly surrendered his throne to his younger brother, Milutin, after being injured in 1282. Some years later Milutin apparently reneged on an agreement to let Dragutin's son Vladislav succeed him, resulting in the brothers quarreling until Dragutin's death in 1316.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin, king of Serbia 1282-1321. Warlike, quarrelsome, and oversexed, he seduced his sister-in-law Erzsébet (daughter of the king of Hungary), with whom he fathered a son. He ditched her for a Bulgarian princess, Anna Terter, and then divorced Anna to marry a five-year-old Byzantine princess, Simonis. He raped Simonis and left her infertile. Upon returning to Constantinople for her mother's funeral in 1317, Simonis begged to stay and had to be forced by her brother the emperor to return to her husband. Milutin sent his son, Stefan Uroš, to the Mongols as a hostage and later had him partially blinded.
Stefan Konstantin, king of Serbia 1321-1322. Son of Milutin and the Hungarian princess, Erzsébet. A three-way war erupted upon his father's death, pitting Konstantin against his half-brother, Uroš, and his cousin, Vladislav (son of former king Dragutin, Vladislav had been imprisoned during Milutin's reign and only released upon his death). Konstantin was captured by his cousin Vladislav and crucified to a tree.
Stefan Uroš III, king of Serbia 1322-1331. Son of Milutin and his Bulgarian wife, Anna Terter, he spent his youth a hostage at the Mongol court and was later partially blinded on the orders of his father. He drove his cousin Vladislav out of the country in 1322. His own son and heir overthrew him and had him strangled.
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, king of Serbia 1331-1355. Son of Uroš III and Theodora of Bulgaria, he was a great warrior-king and lawmaker. He overthrew his father and had him strangled. He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoning while embarking on an offensive against the Turks.
Stefan Uroš V, king of Serbia 1355-1371. Son of Dušan and Elena of Bulgaria, he was a gentle and modest ruler. His uncle Simeon tried to usurp power in Serbia. He also died young under mysterious circumstances (his co-ruler, Vukašin, popularly credited with having murdered him in folk tales, actually died a couple of months before Uroš himself). His death extinguished the dynasty in Serbia.
Although not every child who has a bad upbringing grows up to become a criminal, most serial killers and violent offenders did not have what you would call healthy home lives. The one who takes the cake, however, is Richard Ramirez, aka "The Night Stalker", who had a backstory most cop shows would consider unrealistic. He had an abusive father who beat him, his brother-in-law was a disturbed voyeur who bonded with Richard over stalking people, and his childhood hero was his Vietnam veteran cousin — a Sociopathic Soldier who carried around photos of the atrocities he'd committed (including raping and then beheading a woman).
The Loveless family for the criminal Melinda Loveless who was responsible for being the ringleader of the murder of Shanda Sharer. In public, nobody would believe the Loveless family was screwed up. Behind closed doors, Larry Loveless, the father of Melida, was a psycho and a depraved child molester who molested Melinda and her two older sisters. He also mistreated his wife and raped her in front of their daughters.
Inbreeding was a common flaw among royal families but The House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful and influential royal families in European history, seemed to have the worst luck when it came to intermarriages. Epilepsy, gout, dropsy, depression, unusually-shaped heads, and the telltale Habsburg jaw, all plagued several generations of their descendants which played a crucial role in bringing suffering and eventual ruin to the House of Habsburg.
The Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (Europe) had its share of craziness. By far the worst cases were in the 15th-17th centuries, starting with:
George II of Kakheti, nowadays known as George the Evil. He killed his father, blinded his brother, and went to war against the neighbouring kingdom of Kartli (ruled by a distant cousin from a rival branch of the Bagrationis). He attacked Kartli twice. The second time he was killed and the throne eventually went to his son, Levan.
Levan of Kakheti was married twice and preferred the children from his second marriage to the children from his first. His oldest son Alexander should have been the heir but was The Unfavorite. So when Levan died a power struggle began between Alexander and his half-brother El-Mirza. Eventually Alexander killed El-Mirza and at least one other half-brother.
Alexander's son David overthrew him and seized the throne in 1601. David died a year later and Alexander took the throne again. Three years after that another of Alexander's sons, Constantine, staged an coup, killed his father and one of his brothers, then was killed in the ensuing civil war.
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Big, Screwed-Up Family
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 9:45 am
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The Komnenoi imperial family of Byzantium destroyed itself over the course of several decades as family members backstabbed, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, blinded, executed, and led armed insurrections against one another. By the time Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, no less than 26 members of the Komnenos dynasty had been taken out of commission by their close relatives note
The medieval Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia was a nest of snakes; like the mythical House of Atreus, each generation preyed on the next, pitting father against son, uncle against nephew, brother against brother, and cousin against cousin.
Stefan Nemanja, grand prince of Serbs from 1166 to 1196, was betrayed and imprisoned by his brothers in a cave. He escaped and had his brothers exiled. Later in life, he preferred his younger son, also named Stefan, to his elder son, Vukan, ensuring that Vukan and Stefan would someday clash over the throne.
Stefan Nemanjić, king of Serbia 1217-1228. His first wife, the Byzantine princess Eudokia Angelina, quarrelled with him, declaring that he cheated on her and was "drunk from morning to night", so Stefan threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. She had to seek refuge with Stefan's brother, Vukan, himself a troublemaker and self-proclaimed king.
Stefan Radoslav, son of Stefan Nemanjić and Eudokia Angelina, king of Serbia 1228-1233. He and his wife, Anna Doukaina Angelina of Epiros, were so unpopular that they were driven out and he was replaced by his younger brother, Vladislav.
Stefan Vladislav I, king of Serbia 1233-1243. Deposed by the nobility and replaced by his younger half-brother, Uroš.
Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia 1243-1276. Son of Stefan Nemanjić by his Venetian second wife, Anna Dandolo (herself granddaughter of the notorious doge Enrico Dandolo), he preferred his younger son, Milutin, to his elder son, Dragutin. Dragutin led an armed insurrection against his father and forced him to abdicate.
Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia 1276-1282. Unexpectedly surrendered his throne to his younger brother, Milutin, after being injured in 1282. Some years later Milutin apparently reneged on an agreement to let Dragutin's son Vladislav succeed him, resulting in the brothers quarreling until Dragutin's death in 1316.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin, king of Serbia 1282-1321. Warlike, quarrelsome, and oversexed, he seduced his sister-in-law Erzsébet (daughter of the king of Hungary), with whom he fathered a son. He ditched her for a Bulgarian princess, Anna Terter, and then divorced Anna to marry a five-year-old Byzantine princess, Simonis. He raped Simonis and left her infertile. Upon returning to Constantinople for her mother's funeral in 1317, Simonis begged to stay and had to be forced by her brother the emperor to return to her husband. Milutin sent his son, Stefan Uroš, to the Mongols as a hostage and later had him partially blinded.
Stefan Konstantin, king of Serbia 1321-1322. Son of Milutin and the Hungarian princess, Erzsébet. A three-way war erupted upon his father's death, pitting Konstantin against his half-brother, Uroš, and his cousin, Vladislav (son of former king Dragutin, Vladislav had been imprisoned during Milutin's reign and only released upon his death). Konstantin was captured by his cousin Vladislav and crucified to a tree.
Stefan Uroš III, king of Serbia 1322-1331. Son of Milutin and his Bulgarian wife, Anna Terter, he spent his youth a hostage at the Mongol court and was later partially blinded on the orders of his father. He drove his cousin Vladislav out of the country in 1322. His own son and heir overthrew him and had him strangled.
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, king of Serbia 1331-1355. Son of Uroš III and Theodora of Bulgaria, he was a great warrior-king and lawmaker. He overthrew his father and had him strangled. He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoning while embarking on an offensive against the Turks.
Stefan Uroš V, king of Serbia 1355-1371. Son of Dušan and Elena of Bulgaria, he was a gentle and modest ruler. His uncle Simeon tried to usurp power in Serbia. He also died young under mysterious circumstances (his co-ruler, Vukašin, popularly credited with having murdered him in folk tales, actually died a couple of months before Uroš himself). His death extinguished the dynasty in Serbia.
Although not every child who has a bad upbringing grows up to become a criminal, most serial killers and violent offenders did not have what you would call healthy home lives. The one who takes the cake, however, is Richard Ramirez, aka "The Night Stalker", who had a backstory most cop shows would consider unrealistic. He had an abusive father who beat him, his brother-in-law was a disturbed voyeur who bonded with Richard over stalking people, and his childhood hero was his Vietnam veteran cousin — a Sociopathic Soldier who carried around photos of the atrocities he'd committed (including raping and then beheading a woman).
The Loveless family for the criminal Melinda Loveless who was responsible for being the ringleader of the murder of Shanda Sharer. In public, nobody would believe the Loveless family was screwed up. Behind closed doors, Larry Loveless, the father of Melida, was a psycho and a depraved child molester who molested Melinda and her two older sisters. He also mistreated his wife and raped her in front of their daughters.
Inbreeding was a common flaw among royal families but The House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful and influential royal families in European history, seemed to have the worst luck when it came to intermarriages. Epilepsy, gout, dropsy, depression, unusually-shaped heads, and the telltale Habsburg jaw, all plagued several generations of their descendants which played a crucial role in bringing suffering and eventual ruin to the House of Habsburg.
The Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (Europe) had its share of craziness. By far the worst cases were in the 15th-17th centuries, starting with:
George II of Kakheti, nowadays known as George the Evil. He killed his father, blinded his brother, and went to war against the neighbouring kingdom of Kartli (ruled by a distant cousin from a rival branch of the Bagrationis). He attacked Kartli twice. The second time he was killed and the throne eventually went to his son, Levan.
Levan of Kakheti was married twice and preferred the children from his second marriage to the children from his first. His oldest son Alexander should have been the heir but was The Unfavorite. So when Levan died a power struggle began between Alexander and his half-brother El-Mirza. Eventually Alexander killed El-Mirza and at least one other half-brother.
Alexander's son David overthrew him and seized the throne in 1601. David died a year later and Alexander took the throne again. Three years after that another of Alexander's sons, Constantine, staged an coup, killed his father and one of his brothers, then was killed in the ensuing civil war.
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Big, Screwed-Up Family
Can You Identify This Trope?
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:29 am
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was only 15 when the trouble started. In 2013, Katherine and the family sued AEG Live (the promoter of what was to be Michael's final tour), claiming they were culpable in Michael's death for hiring the doctor who administered the fatal prescription drug overdose and sought millions, even billions, of dollars in what they claimed would have been his future earnings. They lost that lawsuit, but not before Michael's daughter Paris attempted suicide, suggesting that things will not improve anytime soon.
The Kennedy family is the Trope Codifier for American political families. From Father Joe's bribery and political scandals to the random deaths of older Kennedy children to the lobotomy of Rosemary to John F.'s well-known adultery, they certainly qualify as being screwed up — and that was in the early half of the twentieth century. After the assassinations of JFK and Robert and the murderous and political scandals of later Kennedys — they can write their own edit.
TBN, the world's largest Christian TV network, is run by the Crouch family, was consumed in an ugly legal battle during the 2010s. While televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch presented themselves as wholesome Moral Guardians, some of the allegations put forth in court undercut that image:
In early 2012, Brittany Koper, TBN's former Chief Operating Officer and the granddaughter of Paul and Jan, went public with claims that the family used viewer donations to fund a wealthy lifestyle. She later claimed in affidavits that she was threatened by Paul, Jan, and uncle Matthew Crouch (who she claimed had brandished a gun) when she decided to blow the whistle.
When Brittany's claims broke in the press, Paul and Matthew Crouch appeared on their TV show and made what many people interpreted as an on-air Implied Death Threat. TBN also began firing her close relatives (including her father Paul Crouch Jr, who until that time had been Paul Sr's heir apparent) to force her into silence.
Shortly thereafter, Carra Crouch, a younger granddaughter, claimed she had been raped by a TBN employee when she was 13, and that Jan and a TBN lawyer let the rapist off the hook on the condition that he not seek worker's compensation. (Carra contended that as an ordained minister, Jan was legally obligated to report a sexual assault against a minor.) In June 2017, one year after Jan's death, a jury found her liable for covering up the rape and awarded $2 million to Carra.
Media reports repeated claims made in 2004 that Paul and Jan, despite appearing together on television for forty years as a devoted married couple, couldn't stand each other behind the scenes and had been living in separate residences for years. Eventually, Jan fought Paul for control of the network with help from Matt, and celebrated over Paul's apparent deathbed in anticipation of Matt's promotion as TBN president. After Paul's death in 2013, Jan revamped TBN's schedule to suit her theological views instead of her late husband's. Matt in turn took over TBN after Jan's death in 2016.
The Komnenoi imperial family of Byzantium destroyed itself over the course of several decades as family members backstabbed, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, blinded, executed, and led armed insurrections against one another. By the time Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, no less than 26 members of the Komnenos dynasty had been taken out of commission by their close relatives note In no particular order: Alexios II, his sister Maria porphyrogenita and her husband Renier of Montferrat, Alexios II's illegitimate half-brother Alexios Komnenos, Alexios II's mother Maria of Antioch, Maria's lover Alexios protosebastos, Ioannes Axoukh, Alexios III, his brother Isaakios II, Isaakios II's son Alexios IV, Alexios III and Isaakios II's brothers Theodoros and Konstantinos Angelos, their cousin Alexios Angelos, Andronikos I, Andronikos I's sons Manuel and Ioannes Komnenos, Andronikos Kontostephanos and his four sons, Ioannes and Manuel Komnenos Vatatzes, Alexios Komnenos the Cupbearer, and Andronikos Komnenos Bryennios.
The medieval Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia was a nest of snakes; like the mythical House of Atreus, each generation preyed on the next, pitting father against son, uncle against nephew, brother against brother, and cousin against cousin.
Stefan Nemanja, grand prince of Serbs from 1166 to 1196, was betrayed and imprisoned by his brothers in a cave. He escaped and had his brothers exiled. Later in life, he preferred his younger son, also named Stefan, to his elder son, Vukan, ensuring that Vukan and Stefan would someday clash over the throne.
Stefan Nemanjić, king of Serbia 1217-1228. His first wife, the Byzantine princess Eudokia Angelina, quarrelled with him, declaring that he cheated on her and was "drunk from morning to night", so Stefan threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. She had to seek refuge with Stefan's brother, Vukan, himself a troublemaker and self-proclaimed king.
Stefan Radoslav, son of Stefan Nemanjić and Eudokia Angelina, king of Serbia 1228-1233. He and his wife, Anna Doukaina Angelina of Epiros, were so unpopular that they were driven out and he was replaced by his younger brother, Vladislav.
Stefan Vladislav I, king of Serbia 1233-1243. Deposed by the nobility and replaced by his younger half-brother, Uroš.
Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia 1243-1276. Son of Stefan Nemanjić by his Venetian second wife, Anna Dandolo (herself granddaughter of the notorious doge Enrico Dandolo), he preferred his younger son, Milutin, to his elder son, Dragutin. Dragutin led an armed insurrection against his father and forced him to abdicate.
Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia 1276-1282. Unexpectedly surrendered his throne to his younger brother, Milutin, after being injured in 1282. Some years later Milutin apparently reneged on an agreement to let Dragutin's son Vladislav succeed him, resulting in the brothers quarreling until Dragutin's death in 1316.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin, king of Serbia 1282-1321. Warlike, quarrelsome, and oversexed, he seduced his sister-in-law Erzsébet (daughter of the king of Hungary), with whom he fathered a son. He ditched her for a Bulgarian princess, Anna Terter, and then divorced Anna to marry a five-year-old Byzantine princess, Simonis. He raped Simonis and left her infertile. Upon returning to Constantinople for her mother's funeral in 1317, Simonis begged to stay and had to be forced by her brother the emperor to return to her husband. Milutin sent his son, Stefan Uroš, to the Mongols as a hostage and later had him partially blinded.
Stefan Konstantin, king of Serbia 1321-1322. Son of Milutin and the Hungarian princess, Erzsébet. A three-way war erupted upon his father's death, pitting Konstantin against his half-brother, Uroš, and his cousin, Vladislav (son of former king Dragutin, Vladislav had been imprisoned during Milutin's reign and only released upon his death). Konstantin was captured by his cousin Vladislav and crucified to a tree.
Stefan Uroš III, king of Serbia 1322-1331. Son of Milutin and his Bulgarian wife, Anna Terter, he spent his youth a hostage at the Mongol court and was later partially blinded on the orders of his father. He drove his cousin Vladislav out of the country in 1322. His own son and heir overthrew him and had him strangled.
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, king of Serbia 1331-1355. Son of Uroš III and Theodora of Bulgaria, he was a great warrior-king and lawmaker. He overthrew his father and had him strangled. He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoning while embarking on an offensive against the Turks.
Stefan Uroš V, king of Serbia 1355-1371. Son of Dušan and Elena of Bulgaria, he was a gentle and modest ruler. His uncle Simeon tried to usurp power in Serbia. He also died young under mysterious circumstances (his co-ruler, Vukašin, popularly credited with having murdered him in folk tales, actually died a couple of months before Uroš himself). His death extinguished the dynasty in Serbia.
Although not every child who has a bad upbringing grows up to become a criminal, most serial killers and violent offenders did not have what you would call healthy home lives. The one who takes the cake, however, is Richard Ramirez, aka "The Night Stalker", who had a backstory most cop shows would consider unrealistic. He had an abusive father who beat him, his brother-in-law was a disturbed voyeur who bonded with Richard over stalking people, and his childhood hero was his Vietnam veteran cousin — a Sociopathic Soldier who carried around photos of the atrocities he'd committed (including raping and then beheading a woman).
The Loveless family for the criminal Melinda Loveless who was responsible for being the ringleader of the murder of Shanda Sharer. In public, nobody would believe the Loveless family was screwed up. Behind closed doors, Larry Loveless, the father of Melida, was a psycho and a depraved child molester who molested Melinda and her two older sisters. He also mistreated his wife and raped her in front of their daughters.
Inbreeding was a common flaw among royal families but The House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful and influential royal families in European history, seemed to have the worst luck when it came to intermarriages. Epilepsy, gout, dropsy, depression, unusually-shaped heads, and the telltale Habsburg jaw, all plagued several generations of their descendants which played a crucial role in bringing suffering and eventual ruin to the House of Habsburg.
The Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (Europe) had its share of craziness. By far the worst cases were in the 15th-17th centuries, starting with:
George II of Kakheti, nowadays known as George the Evil. He killed his father, blinded his brother, and went to war against the neighbouring kingdom of Kartli (ruled by a distant cousin from a rival branch of the Bagrationis). He attacked Kartli twice. The second time he was killed and the throne eventually went to his son, Levan.
Levan of Kakheti was married twice and preferred the children from his second marriage to the children from his first. His oldest son Alexander should have been the heir but was The Unfavorite. So when Levan died a power struggle began between Alexander and his half-brother El-Mirza. Eventually Alexander killed El-Mirza and at least one other half-brother.
Alexander's son David overthrew him and seized the throne in 1601. David died a year later and Alexander took the throne again. Three years after that another of Alexander's sons, Constantine, staged an coup, killed his father and one of his brothers, then was killed in the ensuing civil war.
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:29 am
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was only 15 when the trouble started. In 2013, Katherine and the family sued AEG Live (the promoter of what was to be Michael's final tour), claiming they were culpable in Michael's death for hiring the doctor who administered the fatal prescription drug overdose and sought millions, even billions, of dollars in what they claimed would have been his future earnings. They lost that lawsuit, but not before Michael's daughter Paris attempted suicide, suggesting that things will not improve anytime soon.
The Kennedy family is the Trope Codifier for American political families. From Father Joe's bribery and political scandals to the random deaths of older Kennedy children to the lobotomy of Rosemary to John F.'s well-known adultery, they certainly qualify as being screwed up — and that was in the early half of the twentieth century. After the assassinations of JFK and Robert and the murderous and political scandals of later Kennedys — they can write their own edit.
TBN, the world's largest Christian TV network, is run by the Crouch family, was consumed in an ugly legal battle during the 2010s. While televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch presented themselves as wholesome Moral Guardians, some of the allegations put forth in court undercut that image:
In early 2012, Brittany Koper, TBN's former Chief Operating Officer and the granddaughter of Paul and Jan, went public with claims that the family used viewer donations to fund a wealthy lifestyle. She later claimed in affidavits that she was threatened by Paul, Jan, and uncle Matthew Crouch (who she claimed had brandished a gun) when she decided to blow the whistle.
When Brittany's claims broke in the press, Paul and Matthew Crouch appeared on their TV show and made what many people interpreted as an on-air Implied Death Threat. TBN also began firing her close relatives (including her father Paul Crouch Jr, who until that time had been Paul Sr's heir apparent) to force her into silence.
Shortly thereafter, Carra Crouch, a younger granddaughter, claimed she had been raped by a TBN employee when she was 13, and that Jan and a TBN lawyer let the rapist off the hook on the condition that he not seek worker's compensation. (Carra contended that as an ordained minister, Jan was legally obligated to report a sexual assault against a minor.) In June 2017, one year after Jan's death, a jury found her liable for covering up the rape and awarded $2 million to Carra.
Media reports repeated claims made in 2004 that Paul and Jan, despite appearing together on television for forty years as a devoted married couple, couldn't stand each other behind the scenes and had been living in separate residences for years. Eventually, Jan fought Paul for control of the network with help from Matt, and celebrated over Paul's apparent deathbed in anticipation of Matt's promotion as TBN president. After Paul's death in 2013, Jan revamped TBN's schedule to suit her theological views instead of her late husband's. Matt in turn took over TBN after Jan's death in 2016.
The Komnenoi imperial family of Byzantium destroyed itself over the course of several decades as family members backstabbed, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, blinded, executed, and led armed insurrections against one another. By the time Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, no less than 26 members of the Komnenos dynasty had been taken out of commission by their close relatives note In no particular order: Alexios II, his sister Maria porphyrogenita and her husband Renier of Montferrat, Alexios II's illegitimate half-brother Alexios Komnenos, Alexios II's mother Maria of Antioch, Maria's lover Alexios protosebastos, Ioannes Axoukh, Alexios III, his brother Isaakios II, Isaakios II's son Alexios IV, Alexios III and Isaakios II's brothers Theodoros and Konstantinos Angelos, their cousin Alexios Angelos, Andronikos I, Andronikos I's sons Manuel and Ioannes Komnenos, Andronikos Kontostephanos and his four sons, Ioannes and Manuel Komnenos Vatatzes, Alexios Komnenos the Cupbearer, and Andronikos Komnenos Bryennios.
The medieval Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia was a nest of snakes; like the mythical House of Atreus, each generation preyed on the next, pitting father against son, uncle against nephew, brother against brother, and cousin against cousin.
Stefan Nemanja, grand prince of Serbs from 1166 to 1196, was betrayed and imprisoned by his brothers in a cave. He escaped and had his brothers exiled. Later in life, he preferred his younger son, also named Stefan, to his elder son, Vukan, ensuring that Vukan and Stefan would someday clash over the throne.
Stefan Nemanjić, king of Serbia 1217-1228. His first wife, the Byzantine princess Eudokia Angelina, quarrelled with him, declaring that he cheated on her and was "drunk from morning to night", so Stefan threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. She had to seek refuge with Stefan's brother, Vukan, himself a troublemaker and self-proclaimed king.
Stefan Radoslav, son of Stefan Nemanjić and Eudokia Angelina, king of Serbia 1228-1233. He and his wife, Anna Doukaina Angelina of Epiros, were so unpopular that they were driven out and he was replaced by his younger brother, Vladislav.
Stefan Vladislav I, king of Serbia 1233-1243. Deposed by the nobility and replaced by his younger half-brother, Uroš.
Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia 1243-1276. Son of Stefan Nemanjić by his Venetian second wife, Anna Dandolo (herself granddaughter of the notorious doge Enrico Dandolo), he preferred his younger son, Milutin, to his elder son, Dragutin. Dragutin led an armed insurrection against his father and forced him to abdicate.
Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia 1276-1282. Unexpectedly surrendered his throne to his younger brother, Milutin, after being injured in 1282. Some years later Milutin apparently reneged on an agreement to let Dragutin's son Vladislav succeed him, resulting in the brothers quarreling until Dragutin's death in 1316.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin, king of Serbia 1282-1321. Warlike, quarrelsome, and oversexed, he seduced his sister-in-law Erzsébet (daughter of the king of Hungary), with whom he fathered a son. He ditched her for a Bulgarian princess, Anna Terter, and then divorced Anna to marry a five-year-old Byzantine princess, Simonis. He raped Simonis and left her infertile. Upon returning to Constantinople for her mother's funeral in 1317, Simonis begged to stay and had to be forced by her brother the emperor to return to her husband. Milutin sent his son, Stefan Uroš, to the Mongols as a hostage and later had him partially blinded.
Stefan Konstantin, king of Serbia 1321-1322. Son of Milutin and the Hungarian princess, Erzsébet. A three-way war erupted upon his father's death, pitting Konstantin against his half-brother, Uroš, and his cousin, Vladislav (son of former king Dragutin, Vladislav had been imprisoned during Milutin's reign and only released upon his death). Konstantin was captured by his cousin Vladislav and crucified to a tree.
Stefan Uroš III, king of Serbia 1322-1331. Son of Milutin and his Bulgarian wife, Anna Terter, he spent his youth a hostage at the Mongol court and was later partially blinded on the orders of his father. He drove his cousin Vladislav out of the country in 1322. His own son and heir overthrew him and had him strangled.
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, king of Serbia 1331-1355. Son of Uroš III and Theodora of Bulgaria, he was a great warrior-king and lawmaker. He overthrew his father and had him strangled. He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoning while embarking on an offensive against the Turks.
Stefan Uroš V, king of Serbia 1355-1371. Son of Dušan and Elena of Bulgaria, he was a gentle and modest ruler. His uncle Simeon tried to usurp power in Serbia. He also died young under mysterious circumstances (his co-ruler, Vukašin, popularly credited with having murdered him in folk tales, actually died a couple of months before Uroš himself). His death extinguished the dynasty in Serbia.
Although not every child who has a bad upbringing grows up to become a criminal, most serial killers and violent offenders did not have what you would call healthy home lives. The one who takes the cake, however, is Richard Ramirez, aka "The Night Stalker", who had a backstory most cop shows would consider unrealistic. He had an abusive father who beat him, his brother-in-law was a disturbed voyeur who bonded with Richard over stalking people, and his childhood hero was his Vietnam veteran cousin — a Sociopathic Soldier who carried around photos of the atrocities he'd committed (including raping and then beheading a woman).
The Loveless family for the criminal Melinda Loveless who was responsible for being the ringleader of the murder of Shanda Sharer. In public, nobody would believe the Loveless family was screwed up. Behind closed doors, Larry Loveless, the father of Melida, was a psycho and a depraved child molester who molested Melinda and her two older sisters. He also mistreated his wife and raped her in front of their daughters.
Inbreeding was a common flaw among royal families but The House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful and influential royal families in European history, seemed to have the worst luck when it came to intermarriages. Epilepsy, gout, dropsy, depression, unusually-shaped heads, and the telltale Habsburg jaw, all plagued several generations of their descendants which played a crucial role in bringing suffering and eventual ruin to the House of Habsburg.
The Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (Europe) had its share of craziness. By far the worst cases were in the 15th-17th centuries, starting with:
George II of Kakheti, nowadays known as George the Evil. He killed his father, blinded his brother, and went to war against the neighbouring kingdom of Kartli (ruled by a distant cousin from a rival branch of the Bagrationis). He attacked Kartli twice. The second time he was killed and the throne eventually went to his son, Levan.
Levan of Kakheti was married twice and preferred the children from his second marriage to the children from his first. His oldest son Alexander should have been the heir but was The Unfavorite. So when Levan died a power struggle began between Alexander and his half-brother El-Mirza. Eventually Alexander killed El-Mirza and at least one other half-brother.
Alexander's son David overthrew him and seized the throne in 1601. David died a year later and Alexander took the throne again. Three years after that another of Alexander's sons, Constantine, staged an coup, killed his father and one of his brothers, then was killed in the ensuing civil war.
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:29 am
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was only 15 when the trouble started. In 2013, Katherine and the family sued AEG Live (the promoter of what was to be Michael's final tour), claiming they were culpable in Michael's death for hiring the doctor who administered the fatal prescription drug overdose and sought millions, even billions, of dollars in what they claimed would have been his future earnings. They lost that lawsuit, but not before Michael's daughter Paris attempted suicide, suggesting that things will not improve anytime soon.
The Kennedy family is the Trope Codifier for American political families. From Father Joe's bribery and political scandals to the random deaths of older Kennedy children to the lobotomy of Rosemary to John F.'s well-known adultery, they certainly qualify as being screwed up — and that was in the early half of the twentieth century. After the assassinations of JFK and Robert and the murderous and political scandals of later Kennedys — they can write their own edit.
TBN, the world's largest Christian TV network, is run by the Crouch family, was consumed in an ugly legal battle during the 2010s. While televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch presented themselves as wholesome Moral Guardians, some of the allegations put forth in court undercut that image:
In early 2012, Brittany Koper, TBN's former Chief Operating Officer and the granddaughter of Paul and Jan, went public with claims that the family used viewer donations to fund a wealthy lifestyle. She later claimed in affidavits that she was threatened by Paul, Jan, and uncle Matthew Crouch (who she claimed had brandished a gun) when she decided to blow the whistle.
When Brittany's claims broke in the press, Paul and Matthew Crouch appeared on their TV show and made what many people interpreted as an on-air Implied Death Threat. TBN also began firing her close relatives (including her father Paul Crouch Jr, who until that time had been Paul Sr's heir apparent) to force her into silence.
Shortly thereafter, Carra Crouch, a younger granddaughter, claimed she had been raped by a TBN employee when she was 13, and that Jan and a TBN lawyer let the rapist off the hook on the condition that he not seek worker's compensation. (Carra contended that as an ordained minister, Jan was legally obligated to report a sexual assault against a minor.) In June 2017, one year after Jan's death, a jury found her liable for covering up the rape and awarded $2 million to Carra.
Media reports repeated claims made in 2004 that Paul and Jan, despite appearing together on television for forty years as a devoted married couple, couldn't stand each other behind the scenes and had been living in separate residences for years. Eventually, Jan fought Paul for control of the network with help from Matt, and celebrated over Paul's apparent deathbed in anticipation of Matt's promotion as TBN president. After Paul's death in 2013, Jan revamped TBN's schedule to suit her theological views instead of her late husband's. Matt in turn took over TBN after Jan's death in 2016.
The Komnenoi imperial family of Byzantium destroyed itself over the course of several decades as family members backstabbed, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, blinded, executed, and led armed insurrections against one another. By the time Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, no less than 26 members of the Komnenos dynasty had been taken out of commission by their close relatives note In no particular order: Alexios II, his sister Maria porphyrogenita and her husband Renier of Montferrat, Alexios II's illegitimate half-brother Alexios Komnenos, Alexios II's mother Maria of Antioch, Maria's lover Alexios protosebastos, Ioannes Axoukh, Alexios III, his brother Isaakios II, Isaakios II's son Alexios IV, Alexios III and Isaakios II's brothers Theodoros and Konstantinos Angelos, their cousin Alexios Angelos, Andronikos I, Andronikos I's sons Manuel and Ioannes Komnenos, Andronikos Kontostephanos and his four sons, Ioannes and Manuel Komnenos Vatatzes, Alexios Komnenos the Cupbearer, and Andronikos Komnenos Bryennios.
The medieval Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia was a nest of snakes; like the mythical House of Atreus, each generation preyed on the next, pitting father against son, uncle against nephew, brother against brother, and cousin against cousin.
Stefan Nemanja, grand prince of Serbs from 1166 to 1196, was betrayed and imprisoned by his brothers in a cave. He escaped and had his brothers exiled. Later in life, he preferred his younger son, also named Stefan, to his elder son, Vukan, ensuring that Vukan and Stefan would someday clash over the throne.
Stefan Nemanjić, king of Serbia 1217-1228. His first wife, the Byzantine princess Eudokia Angelina, quarrelled with him, declaring that he cheated on her and was "drunk from morning to night", so Stefan threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. She had to seek refuge with Stefan's brother, Vukan, himself a troublemaker and self-proclaimed king.
Stefan Radoslav, son of Stefan Nemanjić and Eudokia Angelina, king of Serbia 1228-1233. He and his wife, Anna Doukaina Angelina of Epiros, were so unpopular that they were driven out and he was replaced by his younger brother, Vladislav.
Stefan Vladislav I, king of Serbia 1233-1243. Deposed by the nobility and replaced by his younger half-brother, Uroš.
Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia 1243-1276. Son of Stefan Nemanjić by his Venetian second wife, Anna Dandolo (herself granddaughter of the notorious doge Enrico Dandolo), he preferred his younger son, Milutin, to his elder son, Dragutin. Dragutin led an armed insurrection against his father and forced him to abdicate.
Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia 1276-1282. Unexpectedly surrendered his throne to his younger brother, Milutin, after being injured in 1282. Some years later Milutin apparently reneged on an agreement to let Dragutin's son Vladislav succeed him, resulting in the brothers quarreling until Dragutin's death in 1316.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin, king of Serbia 1282-1321. Warlike, quarrelsome, and oversexed, he seduced his sister-in-law Erzsébet (daughter of the king of Hungary), with whom he fathered a son. He ditched her for a Bulgarian princess, Anna Terter, and then divorced Anna to marry a five-year-old Byzantine princess, Simonis. He raped Simonis and left her infertile. Upon returning to Constantinople for her mother's funeral in 1317, Simonis begged to stay and had to be forced by her brother the emperor to return to her husband. Milutin sent his son, Stefan Uroš, to the Mongols as a hostage and later had him partially blinded.
Stefan Konstantin, king of Serbia 1321-1322. Son of Milutin and the Hungarian princess, Erzsébet. A three-way war erupted upon his father's death, pitting Konstantin against his half-brother, Uroš, and his cousin, Vladislav (son of former king Dragutin, Vladislav had been imprisoned during Milutin's reign and only released upon his death). Konstantin was captured by his cousin Vladislav and crucified to a tree.
Stefan Uroš III, king of Serbia 1322-1331. Son of Milutin and his Bulgarian wife, Anna Terter, he spent his youth a hostage at the Mongol court and was later partially blinded on the orders of his father. He drove his cousin Vladislav out of the country in 1322. His own son and heir overthrew him and had him strangled.
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, king of Serbia 1331-1355. Son of Uroš III and Theodora of Bulgaria, he was a great warrior-king and lawmaker. He overthrew his father and had him strangled. He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoning while embarking on an offensive against the Turks.
Stefan Uroš V, king of Serbia 1355-1371. Son of Dušan and Elena of Bulgaria, he was a gentle and modest ruler. His uncle Simeon tried to usurp power in Serbia. He also died young under mysterious circumstances (his co-ruler, Vukašin, popularly credited with having murdered him in folk tales, actually died a couple of months before Uroš himself). His death extinguished the dynasty in Serbia.
Although not every child who has a bad upbringing grows up to become a criminal, most serial killers and violent offenders did not have what you would call healthy home lives. The one who takes the cake, however, is Richard Ramirez, aka "The Night Stalker", who had a backstory most cop shows would consider unrealistic. He had an abusive father who beat him, his brother-in-law was a disturbed voyeur who bonded with Richard over stalking people, and his childhood hero was his Vietnam veteran cousin — a Sociopathic Soldier who carried around photos of the atrocities he'd committed (including raping and then beheading a woman).
The Loveless family for the criminal Melinda Loveless who was responsible for being the ringleader of the murder of Shanda Sharer. In public, nobody would believe the Loveless family was screwed up. Behind closed doors, Larry Loveless, the father of Melida, was a psycho and a depraved child molester who molested Melinda and her two older sisters. He also mistreated his wife and raped her in front of their daughters.
Inbreeding was a common flaw among royal families but The House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful and influential royal families in European history, seemed to have the worst luck when it came to intermarriages. Epilepsy, gout, dropsy, depression, unusually-shaped heads, and the telltale Habsburg jaw, all plagued several generations of their descendants which played a crucial role in bringing suffering and eventual ruin to the House of Habsburg.
The Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (Europe) had its share of craziness. By far the worst cases were in the 15th-17th centuries, starting with:
George II of Kakheti, nowadays known as George the Evil. He killed his father, blinded his brother, and went to war against the neighbouring kingdom of Kartli (ruled by a distant cousin from a rival branch of the Bagrationis). He attacked Kartli twice. The second time he was killed and the throne eventually went to his son, Levan.
Levan of Kakheti was married twice and preferred the children from his second marriage to the children from his first. His oldest son Alexander should have been the heir but was The Unfavorite. So when Levan died a power struggle began between Alexander and his half-brother El-Mirza. Eventually Alexander killed El-Mirza and at least one other half-brother.
Alexander's son David overthrew him and seized the throne in 1601. David died a year later and Alexander took the throne again. Three years after that another of Alexander's sons, Constantine, staged an coup, killed his father and one of his brothers, then was killed in the ensuing civil war.
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:30 am
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was only 15 when the trouble started. In 2013, Katherine and the family sued AEG Live (the promoter of what was to be Michael's final tour), claiming they were culpable in Michael's death for hiring the doctor who administered the fatal prescription drug overdose and sought millions, even billions, of dollars in what they claimed would have been his future earnings. They lost that lawsuit, but not before Michael's daughter Paris attempted suicide, suggesting that things will not improve anytime soon.
The Kennedy family is the Trope Codifier for American political families. From Father Joe's bribery and political scandals to the random deaths of older Kennedy children to the lobotomy of Rosemary to John F.'s well-known adultery, they certainly qualify as being screwed up — and that was in the early half of the twentieth century. After the assassinations of JFK and Robert and the murderous and political scandals of later Kennedys — they can write their own edit.
TBN, the world's largest Christian TV network, is run by the Crouch family, was consumed in an ugly legal battle during the 2010s. While televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch presented themselves as wholesome Moral Guardians, some of the allegations put forth in court undercut that image:
In early 2012, Brittany Koper, TBN's former Chief Operating Officer and the granddaughter of Paul and Jan, went public with claims that the family used viewer donations to fund a wealthy lifestyle. She later claimed in affidavits that she was threatened by Paul, Jan, and uncle Matthew Crouch (who she claimed had brandished a gun) when she decided to blow the whistle.
When Brittany's claims broke in the press, Paul and Matthew Crouch appeared on their TV show and made what many people interpreted as an on-air Implied Death Threat. TBN also began firing her close relatives (including her father Paul Crouch Jr, who until that time had been Paul Sr's heir apparent) to force her into silence.
Shortly thereafter, Carra Crouch, a younger granddaughter, claimed she had been raped by a TBN employee when she was 13, and that Jan and a TBN lawyer let the rapist off the hook on the condition that he not seek worker's compensation. (Carra contended that as an ordained minister, Jan was legally obligated to report a sexual assault against a minor.) In June 2017, one year after Jan's death, a jury found her liable for covering up the rape and awarded $2 million to Carra.
Media reports repeated claims made in 2004 that Paul and Jan, despite appearing together on television for forty years as a devoted married couple, couldn't stand each other behind the scenes and had been living in separate residences for years. Eventually, Jan fought Paul for control of the network with help from Matt, and celebrated over Paul's apparent deathbed in anticipation of Matt's promotion as TBN president. After Paul's death in 2013, Jan revamped TBN's schedule to suit her theological views instead of her late husband's. Matt in turn took over TBN after Jan's death in 2016.
The Komnenoi imperial family of Byzantium destroyed itself over the course of several decades as family members backstabbed, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, blinded, executed, and led armed insurrections against one another. By the time Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, no less than 26 members of the Komnenos dynasty had been taken out of commission by their close relatives note In no particular order: Alexios II, his sister Maria porphyrogenita and her husband Renier of Montferrat, Alexios II's illegitimate half-brother Alexios Komnenos, Alexios II's mother Maria of Antioch, Maria's lover Alexios protosebastos, Ioannes Axoukh, Alexios III, his brother Isaakios II, Isaakios II's son Alexios IV, Alexios III and Isaakios II's brothers Theodoros and Konstantinos Angelos, their cousin Alexios Angelos, Andronikos I, Andronikos I's sons Manuel and Ioannes Komnenos, Andronikos Kontostephanos and his four sons, Ioannes and Manuel Komnenos Vatatzes, Alexios Komnenos the Cupbearer, and Andronikos Komnenos Bryennios.
The medieval Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia was a nest of snakes; like the mythical House of Atreus, each generation preyed on the next, pitting father against son, uncle against nephew, brother against brother, and cousin against cousin.
Stefan Nemanja, grand prince of Serbs from 1166 to 1196, was betrayed and imprisoned by his brothers in a cave. He escaped and had his brothers exiled. Later in life, he preferred his younger son, also named Stefan, to his elder son, Vukan, ensuring that Vukan and Stefan would someday clash over the throne.
Stefan Nemanjić, king of Serbia 1217-1228. His first wife, the Byzantine princess Eudokia Angelina, quarrelled with him, declaring that he cheated on her and was "drunk from morning to night", so Stefan threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. She had to seek refuge with Stefan's brother, Vukan, himself a troublemaker and self-proclaimed king.
Stefan Radoslav, son of Stefan Nemanjić and Eudokia Angelina, king of Serbia 1228-1233. He and his wife, Anna Doukaina Angelina of Epiros, were so unpopular that they were driven out and he was replaced by his younger brother, Vladislav.
Stefan Vladislav I, king of Serbia 1233-1243. Deposed by the nobility and replaced by his younger half-brother, Uroš.
Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia 1243-1276. Son of Stefan Nemanjić by his Venetian second wife, Anna Dandolo (herself granddaughter of the notorious doge Enrico Dandolo), he preferred his younger son, Milutin, to his elder son, Dragutin. Dragutin led an armed insurrection against his father and forced him to abdicate.
Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia 1276-1282. Unexpectedly surrendered his throne to his younger brother, Milutin, after being injured in 1282. Some years later Milutin apparently reneged on an agreement to let Dragutin's son Vladislav succeed him, resulting in the brothers quarreling until Dragutin's death in 1316.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin, king of Serbia 1282-1321. Warlike, quarrelsome, and oversexed, he seduced his sister-in-law Erzsébet (daughter of the king of Hungary), with whom he fathered a son. He ditched her for a Bulgarian princess, Anna Terter, and then divorced Anna to marry a five-year-old Byzantine princess, Simonis. He raped Simonis and left her infertile. Upon returning to Constantinople for her mother's funeral in 1317, Simonis begged to stay and had to be forced by her brother the emperor to return to her husband. Milutin sent his son, Stefan Uroš, to the Mongols as a hostage and later had him partially blinded.
Stefan Konstantin, king of Serbia 1321-1322. Son of Milutin and the Hungarian princess, Erzsébet. A three-way war erupted upon his father's death, pitting Konstantin against his half-brother, Uroš, and his cousin, Vladislav (son of former king Dragutin, Vladislav had been imprisoned during Milutin's reign and only released upon his death). Konstantin was captured by his cousin Vladislav and crucified to a tree.
Stefan Uroš III, king of Serbia 1322-1331. Son of Milutin and his Bulgarian wife, Anna Terter, he spent his youth a hostage at the Mongol court and was later partially blinded on the orders of his father. He drove his cousin Vladislav out of the country in 1322. His own son and heir overthrew him and had him strangled.
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, king of Serbia 1331-1355. Son of Uroš III and Theodora of Bulgaria, he was a great warrior-king and lawmaker. He overthrew his father and had him strangled. He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoning while embarking on an offensive against the Turks.
Stefan Uroš V, king of Serbia 1355-1371. Son of Dušan and Elena of Bulgaria, he was a gentle and modest ruler. His uncle Simeon tried to usurp power in Serbia. He also died young under mysterious circumstances (his co-ruler, Vukašin, popularly credited with having murdered him in folk tales, actually died a couple of months before Uroš himself). His death extinguished the dynasty in Serbia.
Although not every child who has a bad upbringing grows up to become a criminal, most serial killers and violent offenders did not have what you would call healthy home lives. The one who takes the cake, however, is Richard Ramirez, aka "The Night Stalker", who had a backstory most cop shows would consider unrealistic. He had an abusive father who beat him, his brother-in-law was a disturbed voyeur who bonded with Richard over stalking people, and his childhood hero was his Vietnam veteran cousin — a Sociopathic Soldier who carried around photos of the atrocities he'd committed (including raping and then beheading a woman).
The Loveless family for the criminal Melinda Loveless who was responsible for being the ringleader of the murder of Shanda Sharer. In public, nobody would believe the Loveless family was screwed up. Behind closed doors, Larry Loveless, the father of Melida, was a psycho and a depraved child molester who molested Melinda and her two older sisters. He also mistreated his wife and raped her in front of their daughters.
Inbreeding was a common flaw among royal families but The House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful and influential royal families in European history, seemed to have the worst luck when it came to intermarriages. Epilepsy, gout, dropsy, depression, unusually-shaped heads, and the telltale Habsburg jaw, all plagued several generations of their descendants which played a crucial role in bringing suffering and eventual ruin to the House of Habsburg.
The Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (Europe) had its share of craziness. By far the worst cases were in the 15th-17th centuries, starting with:
George II of Kakheti, nowadays known as George the Evil. He killed his father, blinded his brother, and went to war against the neighbouring kingdom of Kartli (ruled by a distant cousin from a rival branch of the Bagrationis). He attacked Kartli twice. The second time he was killed and the throne eventually went to his son, Levan.
Levan of Kakheti was married twice and preferred the children from his second marriage to the children from his first. His oldest son Alexander should have been the heir but was The Unfavorite. So when Levan died a power struggle began between Alexander and his half-brother El-Mirza. Eventually Alexander killed El-Mirza and at least one other half-brother.
Alexander's son David overthrew him and seized the throne in 1601. David died a year later and Alexander took the throne again. Three years after that another of Alexander's sons, Constantine, staged an coup, killed his father and one of his brothers, then was killed in the ensuing civil war.
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:30 am
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was only 15 when the trouble started. In 2013, Katherine and the family sued AEG Live (the promoter of what was to be Michael's final tour), claiming they were culpable in Michael's death for hiring the doctor who administered the fatal prescription drug overdose and sought millions, even billions, of dollars in what they claimed would have been his future earnings. They lost that lawsuit, but not before Michael's daughter Paris attempted suicide, suggesting that things will not improve anytime soon.
The Kennedy family is the Trope Codifier for American political families. From Father Joe's bribery and political scandals to the random deaths of older Kennedy children to the lobotomy of Rosemary to John F.'s well-known adultery, they certainly qualify as being screwed up — and that was in the early half of the twentieth century. After the assassinations of JFK and Robert and the murderous and political scandals of later Kennedys — they can write their own edit.
TBN, the world's largest Christian TV network, is run by the Crouch family, was consumed in an ugly legal battle during the 2010s. While televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch presented themselves as wholesome Moral Guardians, some of the allegations put forth in court undercut that image:
In early 2012, Brittany Koper, TBN's former Chief Operating Officer and the granddaughter of Paul and Jan, went public with claims that the family used viewer donations to fund a wealthy lifestyle. She later claimed in affidavits that she was threatened by Paul, Jan, and uncle Matthew Crouch (who she claimed had brandished a gun) when she decided to blow the whistle.
When Brittany's claims broke in the press, Paul and Matthew Crouch appeared on their TV show and made what many people interpreted as an on-air Implied Death Threat. TBN also began firing her close relatives (including her father Paul Crouch Jr, who until that time had been Paul Sr's heir apparent) to force her into silence.
Shortly thereafter, Carra Crouch, a younger granddaughter, claimed she had been raped by a TBN employee when she was 13, and that Jan and a TBN lawyer let the rapist off the hook on the condition that he not seek worker's compensation. (Carra contended that as an ordained minister, Jan was legally obligated to report a sexual assault against a minor.) In June 2017, one year after Jan's death, a jury found her liable for covering up the rape and awarded $2 million to Carra.
Media reports repeated claims made in 2004 that Paul and Jan, despite appearing together on television for forty years as a devoted married couple, couldn't stand each other behind the scenes and had been living in separate residences for years. Eventually, Jan fought Paul for control of the network with help from Matt, and celebrated over Paul's apparent deathbed in anticipation of Matt's promotion as TBN president. After Paul's death in 2013, Jan revamped TBN's schedule to suit her theological views instead of her late husband's. Matt in turn took over TBN after Jan's death in 2016.
The Komnenoi imperial family of Byzantium destroyed itself over the course of several decades as family members backstabbed, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, blinded, executed, and led armed insurrections against one another. By the time Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, no less than 26 members of the Komnenos dynasty had been taken out of commission by their close relatives note In no particular order: Alexios II, his sister Maria porphyrogenita and her husband Renier of Montferrat, Alexios II's illegitimate half-brother Alexios Komnenos, Alexios II's mother Maria of Antioch, Maria's lover Alexios protosebastos, Ioannes Axoukh, Alexios III, his brother Isaakios II, Isaakios II's son Alexios IV, Alexios III and Isaakios II's brothers Theodoros and Konstantinos Angelos, their cousin Alexios Angelos, Andronikos I, Andronikos I's sons Manuel and Ioannes Komnenos, Andronikos Kontostephanos and his four sons, Ioannes and Manuel Komnenos Vatatzes, Alexios Komnenos the Cupbearer, and Andronikos Komnenos Bryennios.
The medieval Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia was a nest of snakes; like the mythical House of Atreus, each generation preyed on the next, pitting father against son, uncle against nephew, brother against brother, and cousin against cousin.
Stefan Nemanja, grand prince of Serbs from 1166 to 1196, was betrayed and imprisoned by his brothers in a cave. He escaped and had his brothers exiled. Later in life, he preferred his younger son, also named Stefan, to his elder son, Vukan, ensuring that Vukan and Stefan would someday clash over the throne.
Stefan Nemanjić, king of Serbia 1217-1228. His first wife, the Byzantine princess Eudokia Angelina, quarrelled with him, declaring that he cheated on her and was "drunk from morning to night", so Stefan threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. She had to seek refuge with Stefan's brother, Vukan, himself a troublemaker and self-proclaimed king.
Stefan Radoslav, son of Stefan Nemanjić and Eudokia Angelina, king of Serbia 1228-1233. He and his wife, Anna Doukaina Angelina of Epiros, were so unpopular that they were driven out and he was replaced by his younger brother, Vladislav.
Stefan Vladislav I, king of Serbia 1233-1243. Deposed by the nobility and replaced by his younger half-brother, Uroš.
Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia 1243-1276. Son of Stefan Nemanjić by his Venetian second wife, Anna Dandolo (herself granddaughter of the notorious doge Enrico Dandolo), he preferred his younger son, Milutin, to his elder son, Dragutin. Dragutin led an armed insurrection against his father and forced him to abdicate.
Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia 1276-1282. Unexpectedly surrendered his throne to his younger brother, Milutin, after being injured in 1282. Some years later Milutin apparently reneged on an agreement to let Dragutin's son Vladislav succeed him, resulting in the brothers quarreling until Dragutin's death in 1316.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin, king of Serbia 1282-1321. Warlike, quarrelsome, and oversexed, he seduced his sister-in-law Erzsébet (daughter of the king of Hungary), with whom he fathered a son. He ditched her for a Bulgarian princess, Anna Terter, and then divorced Anna to marry a five-year-old Byzantine princess, Simonis. He raped Simonis and left her infertile. Upon returning to Constantinople for her mother's funeral in 1317, Simonis begged to stay and had to be forced by her brother the emperor to return to her husband. Milutin sent his son, Stefan Uroš, to the Mongols as a hostage and later had him partially blinded.
Stefan Konstantin, king of Serbia 1321-1322. Son of Milutin and the Hungarian princess, Erzsébet. A three-way war erupted upon his father's death, pitting Konstantin against his half-brother, Uroš, and his cousin, Vladislav (son of former king Dragutin, Vladislav had been imprisoned during Milutin's reign and only released upon his death). Konstantin was captured by his cousin Vladislav and crucified to a tree.
Stefan Uroš III, king of Serbia 1322-1331. Son of Milutin and his Bulgarian wife, Anna Terter, he spent his youth a hostage at the Mongol court and was later partially blinded on the orders of his father. He drove his cousin Vladislav out of the country in 1322. His own son and heir overthrew him and had him strangled.
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, king of Serbia 1331-1355. Son of Uroš III and Theodora of Bulgaria, he was a great warrior-king and lawmaker. He overthrew his father and had him strangled. He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoning while embarking on an offensive against the Turks.
Stefan Uroš V, king of Serbia 1355-1371. Son of Dušan and Elena of Bulgaria, he was a gentle and modest ruler. His uncle Simeon tried to usurp power in Serbia. He also died young under mysterious circumstances (his co-ruler, Vukašin, popularly credited with having murdered him in folk tales, actually died a couple of months before Uroš himself). His death extinguished the dynasty in Serbia.
Although not every child who has a bad upbringing grows up to become a criminal, most serial killers and violent offenders did not have what you would call healthy home lives. The one who takes the cake, however, is Richard Ramirez, aka "The Night Stalker", who had a backstory most cop shows would consider unrealistic. He had an abusive father who beat him, his brother-in-law was a disturbed voyeur who bonded with Richard over stalking people, and his childhood hero was his Vietnam veteran cousin — a Sociopathic Soldier who carried around photos of the atrocities he'd committed (including raping and then beheading a woman).
The Loveless family for the criminal Melinda Loveless who was responsible for being the ringleader of the murder of Shanda Sharer. In public, nobody would believe the Loveless family was screwed up. Behind closed doors, Larry Loveless, the father of Melida, was a psycho and a depraved child molester who molested Melinda and her two older sisters. He also mistreated his wife and raped her in front of their daughters.
Inbreeding was a common flaw among royal families but The House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful and influential royal families in European history, seemed to have the worst luck when it came to intermarriages. Epilepsy, gout, dropsy, depression, unusually-shaped heads, and the telltale Habsburg jaw, all plagued several generations of their descendants which played a crucial role in bringing suffering and eventual ruin to the House of Habsburg.
The Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (Europe) had its share of craziness. By far the worst cases were in the 15th-17th centuries, starting with:
George II of Kakheti, nowadays known as George the Evil. He killed his father, blinded his brother, and went to war against the neighbouring kingdom of Kartli (ruled by a distant cousin from a rival branch of the Bagrationis). He attacked Kartli twice. The second time he was killed and the throne eventually went to his son, Levan.
Levan of Kakheti was married twice and preferred the children from his second marriage to the children from his first. His oldest son Alexander should have been the heir but was The Unfavorite. So when Levan died a power struggle began between Alexander and his half-brother El-Mirza. Eventually Alexander killed El-Mirza and at least one other half-brother.
Alexander's son David overthrew him and seized the throne in 1601. David died a year later and Alexander took the throne again. Three years after that another of Alexander's sons, Constantine, staged an coup, killed his father and one of his brothers, then was killed in the ensuing civil war.
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:30 am
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was only 15 when the trouble started. In 2013, Katherine and the family sued AEG Live (the promoter of what was to be Michael's final tour), claiming they were culpable in Michael's death for hiring the doctor who administered the fatal prescription drug overdose and sought millions, even billions, of dollars in what they claimed would have been his future earnings. They lost that lawsuit, but not before Michael's daughter Paris attempted suicide, suggesting that things will not improve anytime soon.
The Kennedy family is the Trope Codifier for American political families. From Father Joe's bribery and political scandals to the random deaths of older Kennedy children to the lobotomy of Rosemary to John F.'s well-known adultery, they certainly qualify as being screwed up — and that was in the early half of the twentieth century. After the assassinations of JFK and Robert and the murderous and political scandals of later Kennedys — they can write their own edit.
TBN, the world's largest Christian TV network, is run by the Crouch family, was consumed in an ugly legal battle during the 2010s. While televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch presented themselves as wholesome Moral Guardians, some of the allegations put forth in court undercut that image:
In early 2012, Brittany Koper, TBN's former Chief Operating Officer and the granddaughter of Paul and Jan, went public with claims that the family used viewer donations to fund a wealthy lifestyle. She later claimed in affidavits that she was threatened by Paul, Jan, and uncle Matthew Crouch (who she claimed had brandished a gun) when she decided to blow the whistle.
When Brittany's claims broke in the press, Paul and Matthew Crouch appeared on their TV show and made what many people interpreted as an on-air Implied Death Threat. TBN also began firing her close relatives (including her father Paul Crouch Jr, who until that time had been Paul Sr's heir apparent) to force her into silence.
Shortly thereafter, Carra Crouch, a younger granddaughter, claimed she had been raped by a TBN employee when she was 13, and that Jan and a TBN lawyer let the rapist off the hook on the condition that he not seek worker's compensation. (Carra contended that as an ordained minister, Jan was legally obligated to report a sexual assault against a minor.) In June 2017, one year after Jan's death, a jury found her liable for covering up the rape and awarded $2 million to Carra.
Media reports repeated claims made in 2004 that Paul and Jan, despite appearing together on television for forty years as a devoted married couple, couldn't stand each other behind the scenes and had been living in separate residences for years. Eventually, Jan fought Paul for control of the network with help from Matt, and celebrated over Paul's apparent deathbed in anticipation of Matt's promotion as TBN president. After Paul's death in 2013, Jan revamped TBN's schedule to suit her theological views instead of her late husband's. Matt in turn took over TBN after Jan's death in 2016.
The Komnenoi imperial family of Byzantium destroyed itself over the course of several decades as family members backstabbed, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, blinded, executed, and led armed insurrections against one another. By the time Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, no less than 26 members of the Komnenos dynasty had been taken out of commission by their close relatives note In no particular order: Alexios II, his sister Maria porphyrogenita and her husband Renier of Montferrat, Alexios II's illegitimate half-brother Alexios Komnenos, Alexios II's mother Maria of Antioch, Maria's lover Alexios protosebastos, Ioannes Axoukh, Alexios III, his brother Isaakios II, Isaakios II's son Alexios IV, Alexios III and Isaakios II's brothers Theodoros and Konstantinos Angelos, their cousin Alexios Angelos, Andronikos I, Andronikos I's sons Manuel and Ioannes Komnenos, Andronikos Kontostephanos and his four sons, Ioannes and Manuel Komnenos Vatatzes, Alexios Komnenos the Cupbearer, and Andronikos Komnenos Bryennios.
The medieval Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia was a nest of snakes; like the mythical House of Atreus, each generation preyed on the next, pitting father against son, uncle against nephew, brother against brother, and cousin against cousin.
Stefan Nemanja, grand prince of Serbs from 1166 to 1196, was betrayed and imprisoned by his brothers in a cave. He escaped and had his brothers exiled. Later in life, he preferred his younger son, also named Stefan, to his elder son, Vukan, ensuring that Vukan and Stefan would someday clash over the throne.
Stefan Nemanjić, king of Serbia 1217-1228. His first wife, the Byzantine princess Eudokia Angelina, quarrelled with him, declaring that he cheated on her and was "drunk from morning to night", so Stefan threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. She had to seek refuge with Stefan's brother, Vukan, himself a troublemaker and self-proclaimed king.
Stefan Radoslav, son of Stefan Nemanjić and Eudokia Angelina, king of Serbia 1228-1233. He and his wife, Anna Doukaina Angelina of Epiros, were so unpopular that they were driven out and he was replaced by his younger brother, Vladislav.
Stefan Vladislav I, king of Serbia 1233-1243. Deposed by the nobility and replaced by his younger half-brother, Uroš.
Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia 1243-1276. Son of Stefan Nemanjić by his Venetian second wife, Anna Dandolo (herself granddaughter of the notorious doge Enrico Dandolo), he preferred his younger son, Milutin, to his elder son, Dragutin. Dragutin led an armed insurrection against his father and forced him to abdicate.
Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia 1276-1282. Unexpectedly surrendered his throne to his younger brother, Milutin, after being injured in 1282. Some years later Milutin apparently reneged on an agreement to let Dragutin's son Vladislav succeed him, resulting in the brothers quarreling until Dragutin's death in 1316.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin, king of Serbia 1282-1321. Warlike, quarrelsome, and oversexed, he seduced his sister-in-law Erzsébet (daughter of the king of Hungary), with whom he fathered a son. He ditched her for a Bulgarian princess, Anna Terter, and then divorced Anna to marry a five-year-old Byzantine princess, Simonis. He raped Simonis and left her infertile. Upon returning to Constantinople for her mother's funeral in 1317, Simonis begged to stay and had to be forced by her brother the emperor to return to her husband. Milutin sent his son, Stefan Uroš, to the Mongols as a hostage and later had him partially blinded.
Stefan Konstantin, king of Serbia 1321-1322. Son of Milutin and the Hungarian princess, Erzsébet. A three-way war erupted upon his father's death, pitting Konstantin against his half-brother, Uroš, and his cousin, Vladislav (son of former king Dragutin, Vladislav had been imprisoned during Milutin's reign and only released upon his death). Konstantin was captured by his cousin Vladislav and crucified to a tree.
Stefan Uroš III, king of Serbia 1322-1331. Son of Milutin and his Bulgarian wife, Anna Terter, he spent his youth a hostage at the Mongol court and was later partially blinded on the orders of his father. He drove his cousin Vladislav out of the country in 1322. His own son and heir overthrew him and had him strangled.
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, king of Serbia 1331-1355. Son of Uroš III and Theodora of Bulgaria, he was a great warrior-king and lawmaker. He overthrew his father and had him strangled. He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoning while embarking on an offensive against the Turks.
Stefan Uroš V, king of Serbia 1355-1371. Son of Dušan and Elena of Bulgaria, he was a gentle and modest ruler. His uncle Simeon tried to usurp power in Serbia. He also died young under mysterious circumstances (his co-ruler, Vukašin, popularly credited with having murdered him in folk tales, actually died a couple of months before Uroš himself). His death extinguished the dynasty in Serbia.
Although not every child who has a bad upbringing grows up to become a criminal, most serial killers and violent offenders did not have what you would call healthy home lives. The one who takes the cake, however, is Richard Ramirez, aka "The Night Stalker", who had a backstory most cop shows would consider unrealistic. He had an abusive father who beat him, his brother-in-law was a disturbed voyeur who bonded with Richard over stalking people, and his childhood hero was his Vietnam veteran cousin — a Sociopathic Soldier who carried around photos of the atrocities he'd committed (including raping and then beheading a woman).
The Loveless family for the criminal Melinda Loveless who was responsible for being the ringleader of the murder of Shanda Sharer. In public, nobody would believe the Loveless family was screwed up. Behind closed doors, Larry Loveless, the father of Melida, was a psycho and a depraved child molester who molested Melinda and her two older sisters. He also mistreated his wife and raped her in front of their daughters.
Inbreeding was a common flaw among royal families but The House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful and influential royal families in European history, seemed to have the worst luck when it came to intermarriages. Epilepsy, gout, dropsy, depression, unusually-shaped heads, and the telltale Habsburg jaw, all plagued several generations of their descendants which played a crucial role in bringing suffering and eventual ruin to the House of Habsburg.
The Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (Europe) had its share of craziness. By far the worst cases were in the 15th-17th centuries, starting with:
George II of Kakheti, nowadays known as George the Evil. He killed his father, blinded his brother, and went to war against the neighbouring kingdom of Kartli (ruled by a distant cousin from a rival branch of the Bagrationis). He attacked Kartli twice. The second time he was killed and the throne eventually went to his son, Levan.
Levan of Kakheti was married twice and preferred the children from his second marriage to the children from his first. His oldest son Alexander should have been the heir but was The Unfavorite. So when Levan died a power struggle began between Alexander and his half-brother El-Mirza. Eventually Alexander killed El-Mirza and at least one other half-brother.
Alexander's son David overthrew him and seized the throne in 1601. David died a year later and Alexander took the throne again. Three years after that another of Alexander's sons, Constantine, staged an coup, killed his father and one of his brothers, then was killed in the ensuing civil war.
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:30 am
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was only 15 when the trouble started. In 2013, Katherine and the family sued AEG Live (the promoter of what was to be Michael's final tour), claiming they were culpable in Michael's death for hiring the doctor who administered the fatal prescription drug overdose and sought millions, even billions, of dollars in what they claimed would have been his future earnings. They lost that lawsuit, but not before Michael's daughter Paris attempted suicide, suggesting that things will not improve anytime soon.
The Kennedy family is the Trope Codifier for American political families. From Father Joe's bribery and political scandals to the random deaths of older Kennedy children to the lobotomy of Rosemary to John F.'s well-known adultery, they certainly qualify as being screwed up — and that was in the early half of the twentieth century. After the assassinations of JFK and Robert and the murderous and political scandals of later Kennedys — they can write their own edit.
TBN, the world's largest Christian TV network, is run by the Crouch family, was consumed in an ugly legal battle during the 2010s. While televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch presented themselves as wholesome Moral Guardians, some of the allegations put forth in court undercut that image:
In early 2012, Brittany Koper, TBN's former Chief Operating Officer and the granddaughter of Paul and Jan, went public with claims that the family used viewer donations to fund a wealthy lifestyle. She later claimed in affidavits that she was threatened by Paul, Jan, and uncle Matthew Crouch (who she claimed had brandished a gun) when she decided to blow the whistle.
When Brittany's claims broke in the press, Paul and Matthew Crouch appeared on their TV show and made what many people interpreted as an on-air Implied Death Threat. TBN also began firing her close relatives (including her father Paul Crouch Jr, who until that time had been Paul Sr's heir apparent) to force her into silence.
Shortly thereafter, Carra Crouch, a younger granddaughter, claimed she had been raped by a TBN employee when she was 13, and that Jan and a TBN lawyer let the rapist off the hook on the condition that he not seek worker's compensation. (Carra contended that as an ordained minister, Jan was legally obligated to report a sexual assault against a minor.) In June 2017, one year after Jan's death, a jury found her liable for covering up the rape and awarded $2 million to Carra.
Media reports repeated claims made in 2004 that Paul and Jan, despite appearing together on television for forty years as a devoted married couple, couldn't stand each other behind the scenes and had been living in separate residences for years. Eventually, Jan fought Paul for control of the network with help from Matt, and celebrated over Paul's apparent deathbed in anticipation of Matt's promotion as TBN president. After Paul's death in 2013, Jan revamped TBN's schedule to suit her theological views instead of her late husband's. Matt in turn took over TBN after Jan's death in 2016.
The Komnenoi imperial family of Byzantium destroyed itself over the course of several decades as family members backstabbed, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, blinded, executed, and led armed insurrections against one another. By the time Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, no less than 26 members of the Komnenos dynasty had been taken out of commission by their close relatives note In no particular order: Alexios II, his sister Maria porphyrogenita and her husband Renier of Montferrat, Alexios II's illegitimate half-brother Alexios Komnenos, Alexios II's mother Maria of Antioch, Maria's lover Alexios protosebastos, Ioannes Axoukh, Alexios III, his brother Isaakios II, Isaakios II's son Alexios IV, Alexios III and Isaakios II's brothers Theodoros and Konstantinos Angelos, their cousin Alexios Angelos, Andronikos I, Andronikos I's sons Manuel and Ioannes Komnenos, Andronikos Kontostephanos and his four sons, Ioannes and Manuel Komnenos Vatatzes, Alexios Komnenos the Cupbearer, and Andronikos Komnenos Bryennios.
The medieval Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia was a nest of snakes; like the mythical House of Atreus, each generation preyed on the next, pitting father against son, uncle against nephew, brother against brother, and cousin against cousin.
Stefan Nemanja, grand prince of Serbs from 1166 to 1196, was betrayed and imprisoned by his brothers in a cave. He escaped and had his brothers exiled. Later in life, he preferred his younger son, also named Stefan, to his elder son, Vukan, ensuring that Vukan and Stefan would someday clash over the throne.
Stefan Nemanjić, king of Serbia 1217-1228. His first wife, the Byzantine princess Eudokia Angelina, quarrelled with him, declaring that he cheated on her and was "drunk from morning to night", so Stefan threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. She had to seek refuge with Stefan's brother, Vukan, himself a troublemaker and self-proclaimed king.
Stefan Radoslav, son of Stefan Nemanjić and Eudokia Angelina, king of Serbia 1228-1233. He and his wife, Anna Doukaina Angelina of Epiros, were so unpopular that they were driven out and he was replaced by his younger brother, Vladislav.
Stefan Vladislav I, king of Serbia 1233-1243. Deposed by the nobility and replaced by his younger half-brother, Uroš.
Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia 1243-1276. Son of Stefan Nemanjić by his Venetian second wife, Anna Dandolo (herself granddaughter of the notorious doge Enrico Dandolo), he preferred his younger son, Milutin, to his elder son, Dragutin. Dragutin led an armed insurrection against his father and forced him to abdicate.
Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia 1276-1282. Unexpectedly surrendered his throne to his younger brother, Milutin, after being injured in 1282. Some years later Milutin apparently reneged on an agreement to let Dragutin's son Vladislav succeed him, resulting in the brothers quarreling until Dragutin's death in 1316.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin, king of Serbia 1282-1321. Warlike, quarrelsome, and oversexed, he seduced his sister-in-law Erzsébet (daughter of the king of Hungary), with whom he fathered a son. He ditched her for a Bulgarian princess, Anna Terter, and then divorced Anna to marry a five-year-old Byzantine princess, Simonis. He raped Simonis and left her infertile. Upon returning to Constantinople for her mother's funeral in 1317, Simonis begged to stay and had to be forced by her brother the emperor to return to her husband. Milutin sent his son, Stefan Uroš, to the Mongols as a hostage and later had him partially blinded.
Stefan Konstantin, king of Serbia 1321-1322. Son of Milutin and the Hungarian princess, Erzsébet. A three-way war erupted upon his father's death, pitting Konstantin against his half-brother, Uroš, and his cousin, Vladislav (son of former king Dragutin, Vladislav had been imprisoned during Milutin's reign and only released upon his death). Konstantin was captured by his cousin Vladislav and crucified to a tree.
Stefan Uroš III, king of Serbia 1322-1331. Son of Milutin and his Bulgarian wife, Anna Terter, he spent his youth a hostage at the Mongol court and was later partially blinded on the orders of his father. He drove his cousin Vladislav out of the country in 1322. His own son and heir overthrew him and had him strangled.
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, king of Serbia 1331-1355. Son of Uroš III and Theodora of Bulgaria, he was a great warrior-king and lawmaker. He overthrew his father and had him strangled. He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoning while embarking on an offensive against the Turks.
Stefan Uroš V, king of Serbia 1355-1371. Son of Dušan and Elena of Bulgaria, he was a gentle and modest ruler. His uncle Simeon tried to usurp power in Serbia. He also died young under mysterious circumstances (his co-ruler, Vukašin, popularly credited with having murdered him in folk tales, actually died a couple of months before Uroš himself). His death extinguished the dynasty in Serbia.
Although not every child who has a bad upbringing grows up to become a criminal, most serial killers and violent offenders did not have what you would call healthy home lives. The one who takes the cake, however, is Richard Ramirez, aka "The Night Stalker", who had a backstory most cop shows would consider unrealistic. He had an abusive father who beat him, his brother-in-law was a disturbed voyeur who bonded with Richard over stalking people, and his childhood hero was his Vietnam veteran cousin — a Sociopathic Soldier who carried around photos of the atrocities he'd committed (including raping and then beheading a woman).
The Loveless family for the criminal Melinda Loveless who was responsible for being the ringleader of the murder of Shanda Sharer. In public, nobody would believe the Loveless family was screwed up. Behind closed doors, Larry Loveless, the father of Melida, was a psycho and a depraved child molester who molested Melinda and her two older sisters. He also mistreated his wife and raped her in front of their daughters.
Inbreeding was a common flaw among royal families but The House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful and influential royal families in European history, seemed to have the worst luck when it came to intermarriages. Epilepsy, gout, dropsy, depression, unusually-shaped heads, and the telltale Habsburg jaw, all plagued several generations of their descendants which played a crucial role in bringing suffering and eventual ruin to the House of Habsburg.
The Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (Europe) had its share of craziness. By far the worst cases were in the 15th-17th centuries, starting with:
George II of Kakheti, nowadays known as George the Evil. He killed his father, blinded his brother, and went to war against the neighbouring kingdom of Kartli (ruled by a distant cousin from a rival branch of the Bagrationis). He attacked Kartli twice. The second time he was killed and the throne eventually went to his son, Levan.
Levan of Kakheti was married twice and preferred the children from his second marriage to the children from his first. His oldest son Alexander should have been the heir but was The Unfavorite. So when Levan died a power struggle began between Alexander and his half-brother El-Mirza. Eventually Alexander killed El-Mirza and at least one other half-brother.
Alexander's son David overthrew him and seized the throne in 1601. David died a year later and Alexander took the throne again. Three years after that another of Alexander's sons, Constantine, staged an coup, killed his father and one of his brothers, then was killed in the ensuing civil war.
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:34 am
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was only 15 when the trouble started. In 2013, Katherine and the family sued AEG Live (the promoter of what was to be Michael's final tour), claiming they were culpable in Michael's death for hiring the doctor who administered the fatal prescription drug overdose and sought millions, even billions, of dollars in what they claimed would have been his future earnings. They lost that lawsuit, but not before Michael's daughter Paris attempted suicide, suggesting that things will not improve anytime soon.
The Kennedy family is the Trope Codifier for American political families. From Father Joe's bribery and political scandals to the random deaths of older Kennedy children to the lobotomy of Rosemary to John F.'s well-known adultery, they certainly qualify as being screwed up — and that was in the early half of the twentieth century. After the assassinations of JFK and Robert and the murderous and political scandals of later Kennedys — they can write their own edit.
TBN, the world's largest Christian TV network, is run by the Crouch family, was consumed in an ugly legal battle during the 2010s. While televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch presented themselves as wholesome Moral Guardians, some of the allegations put forth in court undercut that image:
In early 2012, Brittany Koper, TBN's former Chief Operating Officer and the granddaughter of Paul and Jan, went public with claims that the family used viewer donations to fund a wealthy lifestyle. She later claimed in affidavits that she was threatened by Paul, Jan, and uncle Matthew Crouch (who she claimed had brandished a gun) when she decided to blow the whistle.
When Brittany's claims broke in the press, Paul and Matthew Crouch appeared on their TV show and made what many people interpreted as an on-air Implied Death Threat. TBN also began firing her close relatives (including her father Paul Crouch Jr, who until that time had been Paul Sr's heir apparent) to force her into silence.
Shortly thereafter, Carra Crouch, a younger granddaughter, claimed she had been raped by a TBN employee when she was 13, and that Jan and a TBN lawyer let the rapist off the hook on the condition that he not seek worker's compensation. (Carra contended that as an ordained minister, Jan was legally obligated to report a sexual assault against a minor.) In June 2017, one year after Jan's death, a jury found her liable for covering up the rape and awarded $2 million to Carra.
Media reports repeated claims made in 2004 that Paul and Jan, despite appearing together on television for forty years as a devoted married couple, couldn't stand each other behind the scenes and had been living in separate residences for years. Eventually, Jan fought Paul for control of the network with help from Matt, and celebrated over Paul's apparent deathbed in anticipation of Matt's promotion as TBN president. After Paul's death in 2013, Jan revamped TBN's schedule to suit her theological views instead of her late husband's. Matt in turn took over TBN after Jan's death in 2016.
The Komnenoi imperial family of Byzantium destroyed itself over the course of several decades as family members backstabbed, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, blinded, executed, and led armed insurrections against one another. By the time Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, no less than 26 members of the Komnenos dynasty had been taken out of commission by their close relatives note In no particular order: Alexios II, his sister Maria porphyrogenita and her husband Renier of Montferrat, Alexios II's illegitimate half-brother Alexios Komnenos, Alexios II's mother Maria of Antioch, Maria's lover Alexios protosebastos, Ioannes Axoukh, Alexios III, his brother Isaakios II, Isaakios II's son Alexios IV, Alexios III and Isaakios II's brothers Theodoros and Konstantinos Angelos, their cousin Alexios Angelos, Andronikos I, Andronikos I's sons Manuel and Ioannes Komnenos, Andronikos Kontostephanos and his four sons, Ioannes and Manuel Komnenos Vatatzes, Alexios Komnenos the Cupbearer, and Andronikos Komnenos Bryennios.
The medieval Nemanjić dynasty of Serbia was a nest of snakes; like the mythical House of Atreus, each generation preyed on the next, pitting father against son, uncle against nephew, brother against brother, and cousin against cousin.
Stefan Nemanja, grand prince of Serbs from 1166 to 1196, was betrayed and imprisoned by his brothers in a cave. He escaped and had his brothers exiled. Later in life, he preferred his younger son, also named Stefan, to his elder son, Vukan, ensuring that Vukan and Stefan would someday clash over the throne.
Stefan Nemanjić, king of Serbia 1217-1228. His first wife, the Byzantine princess Eudokia Angelina, quarrelled with him, declaring that he cheated on her and was "drunk from morning to night", so Stefan threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. She had to seek refuge with Stefan's brother, Vukan, himself a troublemaker and self-proclaimed king.
Stefan Radoslav, son of Stefan Nemanjić and Eudokia Angelina, king of Serbia 1228-1233. He and his wife, Anna Doukaina Angelina of Epiros, were so unpopular that they were driven out and he was replaced by his younger brother, Vladislav.
Stefan Vladislav I, king of Serbia 1233-1243. Deposed by the nobility and replaced by his younger half-brother, Uroš.
Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia 1243-1276. Son of Stefan Nemanjić by his Venetian second wife, Anna Dandolo (herself granddaughter of the notorious doge Enrico Dandolo), he preferred his younger son, Milutin, to his elder son, Dragutin. Dragutin led an armed insurrection against his father and forced him to abdicate.
Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia 1276-1282. Unexpectedly surrendered his throne to his younger brother, Milutin, after being injured in 1282. Some years later Milutin apparently reneged on an agreement to let Dragutin's son Vladislav succeed him, resulting in the brothers quarreling until Dragutin's death in 1316.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin, king of Serbia 1282-1321. Warlike, quarrelsome, and oversexed, he seduced his sister-in-law Erzsébet (daughter of the king of Hungary), with whom he fathered a son. He ditched her for a Bulgarian princess, Anna Terter, and then divorced Anna to marry a five-year-old Byzantine princess, Simonis. He raped Simonis and left her infertile. Upon returning to Constantinople for her mother's funeral in 1317, Simonis begged to stay and had to be forced by her brother the emperor to return to her husband. Milutin sent his son, Stefan Uroš, to the Mongols as a hostage and later had him partially blinded.
Stefan Konstantin, king of Serbia 1321-1322. Son of Milutin and the Hungarian princess, Erzsébet. A three-way war erupted upon his father's death, pitting Konstantin against his half-brother, Uroš, and his cousin, Vladislav (son of former king Dragutin, Vladislav had been imprisoned during Milutin's reign and only released upon his death). Konstantin was captured by his cousin Vladislav and crucified to a tree.
Stefan Uroš III, king of Serbia 1322-1331. Son of Milutin and his Bulgarian wife, Anna Terter, he spent his youth a hostage at the Mongol court and was later partially blinded on the orders of his father. He drove his cousin Vladislav out of the country in 1322. His own son and heir overthrew him and had him strangled.
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, king of Serbia 1331-1355. Son of Uroš III and Theodora of Bulgaria, he was a great warrior-king and lawmaker. He overthrew his father and had him strangled. He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoning while embarking on an offensive against the Turks.
Stefan Uroš V, king of Serbia 1355-1371. Son of Dušan and Elena of Bulgaria, he was a gentle and modest ruler. His uncle Simeon tried to usurp power in Serbia. He also died young under mysterious circumstances (his co-ruler, Vukašin, popularly credited with having murdered him in folk tales, actually died a couple of months before Uroš himself). His death extinguished the dynasty in Serbia.
Although not every child who has a bad upbringing grows up to become a criminal, most serial killers and violent offenders did not have what you would call healthy home lives. The one who takes the cake, however, is Richard Ramirez, aka "The Night Stalker", who had a backstory most cop shows would consider unrealistic. He had an abusive father who beat him, his brother-in-law was a disturbed voyeur who bonded with Richard over stalking people, and his childhood hero was his Vietnam veteran cousin — a Sociopathic Soldier who carried around photos of the atrocities he'd committed (including raping and then beheading a woman).
The Loveless family for the criminal Melinda Loveless who was responsible for being the ringleader of the murder of Shanda Sharer. In public, nobody would believe the Loveless family was screwed up. Behind closed doors, Larry Loveless, the father of Melida, was a psycho and a depraved child molester who molested Melinda and her two older sisters. He also mistreated his wife and raped her in front of their daughters.
Inbreeding was a common flaw among royal families but The House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful and influential royal families in European history, seemed to have the worst luck when it came to intermarriages. Epilepsy, gout, dropsy, depression, unusually-shaped heads, and the telltale Habsburg jaw, all plagued several generations of their descendants which played a crucial role in bringing suffering and eventual ruin to the House of Habsburg.
The Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (Europe) had its share of craziness. By far the worst cases were in the 15th-17th centuries, starting with:
George II of Kakheti, nowadays known as George the Evil. He killed his father, blinded his brother, and went to war against the neighbouring kingdom of Kartli (ruled by a distant cousin from a rival branch of the Bagrationis). He attacked Kartli twice. The second time he was killed and the throne eventually went to his son, Levan.
Levan of Kakheti was married twice and preferred the children from his second marriage to the children from his first. His oldest son Alexander should have been the heir but was The Unfavorite. So when Levan died a power struggle began between Alexander and his half-brother El-Mirza. Eventually Alexander killed El-Mirza and at least one other half-brother.
Alexander's son David overthrew him and seized the throne in 1601. David died a year later and Alexander took the throne again. Three years after that another of Alexander's sons, Constantine, staged an coup, killed his father and one of his brothers, then was killed in the ensuing civil war.
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