History’s biggest Badasses
Francis Pegahmagabow
Francis Pegahmagabow was a quiet Ojibwe sniper who turned World War I’s chaos into a disciplined ledger of survival and fear. He came home decorated, unheard, and spent the rest of his life fighting a country that loved his kills more than his voice.
Rank - 126
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
Robert the Bruce
The Scottish king who turned exile, defeat, and civil war into a long, grinding campaign for independence through patience, guerrilla warfare, and ruthless resolve. His victory at Bannockburn made him a national symbol of endurance, proving that stubborn survival can outlast empires built on force alone.
Rank - 130
Paddy Mayne
A founding member of the SAS and one of World War II’s most feared raiders, leading audacious nighttime attacks that destroyed enemy airfields and shattered the myth of rear-area safety. Brilliant, violent, and deeply unstable, he embodied the brutal effectiveness of irregular warfare and became a lasting archetype of special forces legend.
Rank - 131
Jack Churchill
A British Army officer in World War II who went into combat armed with a broadsword, longbow, and bagpipes, turning audacity and spectacle into battlefield weapons. He became legendary for leading commando raids and capturing enemy soldiers through sheer nerve in an age dominated by guns, tanks, and artillery.
Rank - 132
William Marshall
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 Blucher
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
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