She turned the savannah into her empire and built walls strong enough to outlast the men who doubted her.
Rank - 136

William Marshal (c.1147–1219) was an English knight and statesman who served four kings and became the most celebrated tournament fighter and battlefield commander of the High Middle Ages. Renowned for his unwavering loyalty and mastery of mounted combat, he helped preserve the English crown during civil war and was later mythologized as the living ideal of chivalry.
Rank - 137

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher was a Prussian field marshal whose relentless aggression helped defeat Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. Famous for charging forward regardless of age or losses, he became a symbol of stubborn resistance and national revenge.
Rank - 141

Bayinnaung rose from minor nobility to command an empire that dominated Burma, Siam, Lan Na, and Laos.
Rank - 158

He rose from vengeance to empire, turning tribal blood feuds into the blueprint for a dynasty.
Rank - 161

Yūsuf ibn Tāshfīn carved an empire from the Sahara to al-Andalus with austere discipline, relentless cavalry, and a quiet ruthlessness that outlived every king who underestimated him.
Rank - 162

Moulay Ismail ruled Morocco like a furnace with a crown, forging unity through terror, the Black Guard, and a fifty-year rei gn where mercy was the only thing he never built.
Rank - 163

Askia Muhammad I rose from seasoned commander to empire-shaping monarch, forging the largest realm in West African history through ruthless discipline, political precision, and relentless conquest.
Rank - 164

Stefan Dušan rode through the Balkan smoke like a man convinced the world was one good conquest away from making sense, leaving empires, enemies, and common sense trampled under his horse’s hooves.
Rank - 165

He built an empire by removing every man who thought birth alone made him safe, and the silence he left behind still sounds like power sharpening its teeth.
Rank - 166

The general who won with charm, math, and other forms of subtle violence.
Rank - 167

Banda Singh Bahadur was a fearless Sikh revolutionary who rose from ascetic origins to lead a populist uprising that shattered Mughal power and redefined resistance in 18th-century India.
Rank - 170

Oliver Cromwell was a 17th-century English general and ruler who reshaped Britain through military victory, regicide, and authoritarian rule.
Rank - 174

Piye rode into a broken Egypt like a storm given human shape—calm, relentless, and absolutely certain he’d been sent to clean up a mess only a Kushite king could tame.
Rank - 176

Sonni Ali was the ruthless 15th-century warlord-king of Songhai who carved an empire out of West Africa with cavalry, river fleets, and a famously uncompromising taste for conquest.
Rank - 177

Blind, defiant, and tethered to his men by reins, John of Bohemia spurred his horse straight into the storm of arrows—because dying blind in battle still beat living to see chivalry die.
Rank - 182

Charles Martel was the bastard-turned-kingmaker who stopped an empire with a hammer and accidentally built one of his own.
Rank - 183

Godfrey of Bouillon stormed Jerusalem with holy fire in his eyes and left it bathed in the kind of righteousness that smells like smoke and blood.
Rank - 184

Bloated, brilliant, and half-dying, Maurice de Saxe turned Fontenoy into a masterpiece of smoke, steel, and spite—the last waltz of France’s hungover genius.
Rank - 188

Khalid ibn al-Walid, the undefeated “Sword of God,” carved an empire from the desert with speed, faith, and a blade that never once tasted defeat.
Rank - 189

Pyrrhus of Epirus won battles so costly they broke his empire, turning his name into the eternal warning that victory can be the most elegant form of defeat.
Rank - 191