List of regicides

This is a list of regicides. Different cultures and authors in history have used different definitions for what constitute the crime of regicide, as such it is difficult to make a universally accepted list of what constitutes a regicide. The following is a list of cases of monarchs in history who were deliberately killed in some fashion according to recorded history:

Execution of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, by Édouard Manet

1962 BC Amenemhat I, of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt by his own bodyguards
1526 BC Mursili I, King of the Hittites by his brother-in-law Hantili I
Unknown date in late 2nd millennium BC, Eglon of Moab by Ehud
1155 BC Ramesses III of New Kingdom of Egypt from a neck wound inflicted by conspirators
11th century BC Agag of Amalek by the prophet Samuel
1005 BC Ish-bosheth of Israel, slain by his own captains
900 BC Nadab of Israel, slain by own captain Baasha
885 BC King Elah of Israel, murdered by his chariot commander Zimri
841 BC Jehoram of Israel, murdered by Jehu
836 BC Athaliah, Queen of Judah, by rebels that placed Jehoash on the throne
797 BC Jehoash of Judah by his own servants at Miloh
771 BC King You of Zhou by the Marquess of Shen
767 BC Amaziah of Judah assassinated at Lachish
752 BC Zechariah of Israel murdered by Shallum
740 or 737 BC Pekahiah, King of Israel, assassinated by Pekah, son of Remaliah
732 BC Pekah, King of Israel, by Hoshea
681 BC Sennacherib, King of Assyria, assassinated in obscure circumstances
641 BC Amon of Judah, assassinated by own servants
465 BC Xerxes I of Persia by his chief bodyguard Artabanus
424 BC Xerxes II of Persia by his brother Sogdianus
336 BC Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great in unclear circumstances
330 BC Darius III of Persia, assassinated by his general Bessus
317 BC Philip III of Macedon, executed by his stepmother Olympias
309 BC Alexander IV of Macedon, assassinated at the age of 14 by the regent Cassander
294 BC Alexander V of Macedon, murdered by Demetrius Poliorcetes
281 BC Seleucus I Nicator, assassinated by Ptolemy Ceraunus
249 BC Demetrius of Cyrene, assassinated by his wife Berenice II
246 BC Antiochus II Theos, poisoned by his wife Laodice I
241 BC Agis IV of Sparta, executed by ephors without a regular trial
233 BC Deidamia II of Epirus, assassinated during a republican revolt
227 BC Archidamus V of Sparta, assassinated possibly by orders of his co-ruler Cleomenes III
223 BC Seleucus III Ceraunus, assassinated in Anatolia by members of his army
223 BC Diodotus II of Bactria, killed by the usurper Euthydemus I
214 BC Hieronymus of Syracuse, assassinated by conspirators
207 BC Qin Er Shi through forced suicide put on him by his eunuch Zhao Gao
206 BC Ziying executed by Xiang Yu
185 BC Brihadratha Maurya of India, assassinated by Pushyamitra Shunga during a military parade
149 BC Prusias II of Bithynia, assassinated by supporters of his son
120 BC Mithridates V of Pontus, poisoned at a banquet
116/111 BC Ariarathes VI of Cappadocia murdered by Gordius for Mithridates VI of Pontus
104 BC Jugurtha, King of Numidia, captured by Roman army, paraded in Rome and starved to death in prison
100 BC Ariarathes VII of Cappadocia murdered by Mithridates VI of Pontus
80 BC Ptolemy XI Alexander II, lynched by the citizens of Alexandria
51 BC Ariobarzanes II of Cappadocia, assassinated by Parthian favorites
44 BC Burebista, Great King (Emperor) of Dacia was assassinated by the dacian nobles and his advisors.
44 BC Ptolemy XIV of Egypt, widely suspected to have been poisoned by Cleopatra VII
42 BC Ariobarzanes III of Cappadocia, executed by Gaius Cassius Longinus
36 BC Ariarathes X of Cappadocia, executed by Mark Antony
30 BC Caesarion, executed by Octavian
29 BC Antiochus II of Commagene, executed by Octavian
25 AD the Gengshi Emperor by strangulation from Xie Lu
41 Caligula by a group of conspirators supported by the Roman senate
69 Galba by the praetorian guard
69 Vitellius by Vespasian's troops
96 Domitian by a group of court officials
190 Emperor Shao of Han forced to drink poison by rebels
192 Commodus strangled by his wrestling partner supported by a group of conspirators
193 Pertinax murdered by Praetorian guard
193 Didius Julianus executed on orders by the senate
217 Caracalla murdered by a conspiracy
218 Macrinus, executed by Elagabalus
222 Elagabalus murdered by Praetorian guard
235 Severus Alexander murdered by the army
238 Maximinus I murdered by Praetorian guard
238 Pupienus murdered by Praetorian guard
238 Balbinus murdered by Praetorian guard
253 Trebonianus Gallus by his own troops
253 Aemilian by his own troops
268 Gallienus murdered by his own commanders
275 Aurelian assassinated by Praetorian guard
276 Florianus assassinated by his own troops
282 Marcus Aurelius Probus assassinated by his own troops
307 Severus II forced to commit suicide by Maxentius
310 Maximian forced to commit suicide by Constantine I
325 Licinius executed on orders by Constantine I
350 Constans killed by supporters of Magnentius
359 Gratian murdered by army faction
423 Joannes captured and executed by eastern Roman army
453 Emperor Wen of Liu Song by Crown Prince Liu Shao
455 Valentinian III assassinated
456 Emperor Ankō of Japan, by Prince Mayowa
565 Diarmait mac Cerbaill, King of Tara, by Áed Dub mac Suibni
592 Emperor Sushun of Japan, by Soga no Umako
602 Maurice, Byzantine Emperor, beheaded
610 Phocas, Byzantine Emperor, executed
618 Emperor Yang of Sui, strangled by soldier in coup
656 Uthman ibn Affan, Caliph of Islamic Caliphate, assassinated by rebels
668 Constans II, Byzantine Emperor, assassinated
710 Emperor Zhongzong of Tang poisoned by his wife Empress Wei
904 Emperor Zhaozong of Tang by soldiers sent by Zhu Quanzhong
908 Emperor Ai of Tang poisoned on orders by Zhu Quanzhong
935 Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia killed by his younger brother Boleslaus the Cruel
978 Edward the martyr killed in unclear circumstances
1014 Brian Boru killed in unclear circumstances
1072 Sancho II of Castile and León assassinated by Vellido Dolfos
1174 Andrey Bogolyubsky, Prince of Rus, was murdered by members of Kuchkovich family
1192 Conrad of Montferrat, King of Jerusalem, assassins unknown to history
1199 Richard I of England shot with crossbow by Pierre Basile
1206 Muhammad of Ghor, Sultan of the Ghurid Empire, assassinated while doing evening prayers
1208 Philip of Swabia, king of Germany, assassinated by Otto VIII, Count Palatine of Bavaria
1213 Peter II of Aragon is killed by a northern crusader knight and lieutenant of Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester; during the Battle of Muret
1227 Ken Arok, King of Singhasari, by his stepson Anusapati
1296 Przemysł II, King of Poland, by the Margraves of Brandenburg, some Polish families, or maybe both
1306 Wenceslaus III of Bohemia, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland
1323 Emperor Gong of Song, forced to commit suicide by Emperor Yingzong of Yuan
1323 Emperor Yingzong of Yuan by a plot formed among Yesün Temür's supporters
1327 Edward II of England after forced abdication on behalf of son Edward III of England
1328 Jayanegara, King of Majapahit, by Ra Tanca, his doctor
1359 Berdi Beg of the Golden Horde by his brother Qulpa
1382 Joanna I of Naples was murdered by her cousin Charles II of Hungary
1386 Charles II of Hungary by
1402 the Jianwen Emperor was claimed to have been burned to death in his palace by Zhu Di
1483 Edward V of England by either Richard III or some other party
1488 Alauddin Riayat Shah of Malacca was poisoned by his officer.
1513 Ahmad Shah of Malacca was murdered by his father who later succeed him.
1520 Moctezuma II, Emperor of the Aztecs, by either the Spanish forces led by Hernán Cortés or his own people
1532 Huáscar, Emperor of the Incas, executed by his brother Atahualpa
1533 Atahualpa, Emperor of the Incas, executed by the Spanish
1587 Mary, Queen of Scots executed after a trial by an English court of 36 noblemen over the Babington Plot
1589 Henry III of France by Jacques Clément
1605 False Dmitry I, an impostor who ascended Russian throne, was overthrown and killed by a local mob in Moscow, who shot his remains out of a cannon
1610 Henry IV of France by François Ravaillac
1622 Osman II of the Ottoman Empire by the Grand Vizier Davud Pasha
1648 Ibrahim executed by orders from his mother Kösem Sultan
1649 Charles I of England executed following a trial set up by the Rump Parliament
1699 Mahmud II , Sultan of Johor murdered by Megat Seri Rama, his admiral in carriage.
1747 Nader Shah of the Afshar Dynasty, Shahanshah of Persia (Iran) by Salah Bey
1762 Peter III of Russia deposed and supposedly murdered shortly thereafter
1782 Taksin, King of Thailand, deposed and executed in a coup
1792 Gustav III of Sweden by Jacob Johan Anckarström
1793 Louis XVI of France executed following a trial by the National Convention
1801 Emperor Paul of Russia by Count Pahlen and his accomplices
1815 Joachim Murat, executed in Calabria by orders of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies
1828 Shaka King of the Zulus by his half-brother and successor Dingane and accomplices
1855 Hamengkubuwono V of Yogyakarta by his fifth wife, Kanjeng Mas Hemawati
1867 Maximilian I of Mexico executed after a Mexican court-martial
1881 Alexander II of Russia by Ignacy Hryniewiecki, a member of Narodnaya Volya (People's Will)
1895 Min of Joseon by three mercenary killers allegedly hired by Japanese minister to Korea Miura Goro
1896 Nasser al-Din Shah, Qajar king of Persia (Iran), by Mirza Reza Kermani
1898 Empress Elisabeth of Austria by Luigi Lucheni, an anarchist in Geneva.
1900 Umberto I of Italy by anarchist Gaetano Bresci
1903 Alexander I of Serbia and his wife Queen Draga by a group of army officers
1908 Carlos I of Portugal, assassinated with his son Infante Luís Filipe, Prince Royal of Portugal by Alfredo Luís da Costa and Manuel Buiça, both connected to the Carbonária (the Portuguese section of the Carbonari)
1908 The Guangxu Emperor by arsenic poisoning, perhaps on orders from Empress Dowager Cixi or Yuan Shikai.^[1]^[2]
1913 George I of Greece by Alexandros Schinas
1918 Nicholas II of Russia and the Imperial Family executed by a Bolshevik firing squad under the command of Yakov Yurovsky
1933 Mohammed Nadir Shah, king of Afghanistan, assassinated by student Abdul Khaliq Hazara
1934 Alexander I of Yugoslavia by Vlado Chernozemski, a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
1936 George V of the United Kingdom by Bertrand Dawson, his personal physician, who euthanised the King with a lethal dose of morphine and cocaine so that his death could be announced in the morning papers
1946 Ananda Mahidol of Thailand. The King's death is still a mystery and may have been either regicide or suicide.
1948 Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din, king of North Yemen, assassinated in the Alwaziri coup
1951 Abdullah I of Jordan by Mustafa Ashi
1958 Faisal II of Iraq executed by firing squad under the command of Captain Abdus Sattar As Sab, a member of the coup d'état led by Colonel Abdul Karim Qassim
1975 Faisal of Saudi Arabia by his nephew Faisal bin Musa'id (Assassin publicly beheaded)
1975 Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, widely suspected to have been murdered in his sleep by asphyxiation on the orders of the Derg junta, which had deposed him a year earlier.^[3]
2001 Birendra of Nepal, presumed to be killed by his son Crown Prince Dipendra, in the Nepalese royal massacre. Controversy surrounds this claim.

Some of the aforementioned monarchs, such as Nicholas II and Haile Selassie, had already ceased to be rulers at the time of their deaths.

References[]

^ Mu, Eric. Reformist Emperor Guangxu was Poisoned, Study Confirms". Danwei. 3 November 2008. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
^ 钟里满,耿左车,李军等 (2008). "国家清史纂修工程重大学术问题研究专项课题成果:清光绪帝死因研究工作报告". 清史研究 (4): 1–12.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ "Ethiopian Court Hears How Emperor Was Killed". The Washington Post. December 15, 1994. Archived from the original on 31 December 2017. Retrieved 15 December 2017.

[mu-1] Mu, Eric. Reformist Emperor Guangxu was Poisoned, Study Confirms". Danwei. 3 November 2008. Retrieved 2 November 2011.

[2] 钟里满,耿左车,李军等 (2008). "国家清史纂修工程重大学术问题研究专项课题成果:清光绪帝死因研究工作报告". 清史研究 (4): 1–12.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[WaPo_Ethiopia-3] "Ethiopian Court Hears How Emperor Was Killed". The Washington Post. December 15, 1994. Archived from the original on 31 December 2017. Retrieved 15 December 2017.

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