History’s biggest Badasses
Baldwin I of Jerusalem
Baldwin I of Jerusalem was the first king of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, a hard-edged Frankish warlord who turned conquest into governance. He secured and expanded the kingdom through relentless warfare, political pragmatism, and a clear-eyed understanding that survival mattered more than sanctity.
Rank - 150
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
Audie Murphy
At Holtzwihr, Audie Murphy climbed a burning tank destroyer and dared an armored battalion to try and take it back.
Rank - 156
Bernard Freyberg
A fearless New Zealand–born commander famed for leading from the front in both World Wars.
Rank - 173
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was a 17th-century English general and ruler who reshaped Britain through military victory, regicide, and authoritarian rule.
Rank - 174
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
Bartholomew “Black Bart” Roberts
Bartholomew “Black Bart” Roberts was the ruthless, impeccably dressed Welsh pirate who terrorized the Atlantic before dying in a blaze of cannon fire in 1722.
Rank - 178
Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny (1908–1975) was an Austrian SS commando famed for his audacious World War II special operations.
Rank - 179
John of Bohemia, the Blind King
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 “The Hammer”
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
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
Joan of Arc
A teenage peasant turned holy warlord, Joan of Arc burned her way from battlefield glory to martyrdom and sainthood.
Rank - 186
Maurice De Saxe
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
Cúchulainn
He died on his feet so Ireland wouldn’t have to—but she did anyway, again and again, just to keep him company.
Rank - 190
Vercingetorix
Vercingetorix burned his world to save it—and when the ashes settled, even Caesar couldn’t put out the legend.
Rank - 198
