History’s biggest Badasses
Charles XII of Sweden
Charles XII of Sweden was a warrior-king who personally led his armies through the Great Northern War, turning early victories into legend through ferocious discipline and reckless courage. His refusal to compromise or retreat ultimately shattered Sweden’s empire, leaving behind a mythic figure admired for bravery and criticized for destroying everything he fought to protect.
Rank - 125
Albert Jacka
Albert Jacka was an Australian soldier and the first from his nation to receive the Victoria Cross in World War I for recapturing a trench at Gallipoli in 1915. He survived extraordinary frontline violence only to die young in peacetime, his legend growing larger as his body finally gave out.
Rank - 128
Mehmed II “The Conqueror”
Mehmed II “the Conqueror” was the Ottoman sultan who captured Constantinople in 1453, ending the Byzantine Empire and reshaping the balance of power between East and West. A scholar-warrior with ruthless ambition, he fused gunpowder, centralized rule, and imperial vision to build the foundation of a world-spanning Ottoman state.
Rank - 140
John Hunyadi
John Hunyadi (c. 1407–1456) was a Hungarian military commander and crusader who repeatedly halted Ottoman expansion into Central Europe. His decisive defense of Belgrade in 1456 delayed Ottoman advances for decades and cemented his reputation as the Balkans’ last great shield.
Rank - 144
Georgios Karaiskakis
Greek revolutionary commander of the War of Independence, famed for ruthless guerrilla tactics, obscene candor, and battlefield brilliance. A klepht turned national hero who fought the Ottoman Empire with ambushes, audacity, and a terminal disregard for authority.
Rank - 151
John III Sobieski
John III Sobieski was the Polish king who thundered downhill at Vienna and changed Europe’s fate in a single charge.
Rank - 152
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the soldier-statesman who crushed an invasion at Gallipoli and then dismantled a collapsing empire to build a fiercely secular modern Turkey.
Rank - 154
Stefan Dušan 'the Mighty'
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
Vlad III Tepes
Vlad III Țepeș turned a bleeding borderland into a kingdom defended by terror, crafting a legacy where strategy and brutality became the same blade.
Rank - 168
Adrian Carton de Wiart
A walking catalogue of injuries, Adrian Carton de Wiart charged through the twentieth century’s worst battles with the attitude of a man personally offended by mortality.
Rank - 175
Pyrrhus of Epirus
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
