QUESTION David Silva de Carvalho, Sao Paulo, SP
Forget the kind rulers of mythologies and fairy tales. Involved in territorial acquisition strategies or in the control of the popular masses, few monarchs have been really nice or kind to their population in history. Even so, we combed through humanity’s past and found some kings which, if not good all the time, at least made the population very happy with some of their measures.
10) King Louis 9th
WHERE France
WHEN 1226 to 1270
During the Middle Ages, people considered benevolent those kings who followed the ethics of the Church – which, let’s face it, was not one of the more fair. In this, Luís 9º was an ace. He banned nepotism, dueling, gambling, prostitution and blasphemy. For extending the reach of the Church in France, he was canonized, becoming Saint Louis – despite the fact that he was also one of the greatest inquisitors and persecutors of Jews at the time.
9) Emperor Augustus
WHERE Rome
WHEN 27 BC to 14 AD
The sovereign liked to set good examples of virtue. He once stayed at the home of Vedius Pollio, a high government official. During the welcoming party, one of the host’s slaves tripped and broke a crystal glass. Vedius was enraged and ordered him thrown into a pool full of lampreys. The emperor intervened: he saved the slave, freed him and even ordered his soldiers to break all the crystal glasses of the cruel host.
8) Emperor Shun
WHERE China
WHEN 2233 to 2184 BC
Of this legendary emperor of antiquity there are only reports of oral tradition. Shun was considered the founder of Chinese ethical culture, always through his examples. Every time he went fishing, the emperor occupied the part of the river with the fewest fish, leaving the best catch to others. His character was so inspiring that everyone wanted to be his neighbor, and Shun’s isolated house got «pulls» until it became a big city.
7) Emperor Trajan
WHERE Rome
WHEN 98 to 117
Trajan made the Roman people happy by distributing wheat to more of 200 thousand people, from the aristocracy to the plebs. As even so many people were left out, Trajano started to draw a place in the wheat grant every time a citizen died. But the donation was not pure generosity from the emperor. Bread, financed by the Roman wars, was part of the bread and circus policy, which tried to distract the masses with food and entertainment.
6) King George III
WHERE ENGLAND
WHEN 1760 to 1820
He ruled during a turbulent time and was credited with the loss of the 13 American colonies. The truth is that Jorge didn’t care much about politics and preferred to spend his time promoting farming and exchanging ideas with farmers about things in the countryside, often on unannounced casual visits. His stance took the country’s agriculture to a peak and earned him the nickname «Jorge Farmer». The leader was also into astronomy, and financed the construction of the largest telescope at the time. With him, astronomer William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus in 1781.
5) King Steel
WHERE INDIA
WHEN 268 to 232 BC
after killing more of 200,000 people in the conquest of a neighboring kingdom, Açoca had a huge crisis of conscience. A convert to Buddhism, he devoted his efforts to the preservation of all forms of life. During his empire, sport hunting and sacrifices were prohibited, as well as the killing of fish and birds. To heal the injured pets, Açoca created the first hospital for animals in history.
4) Emperor Dom Pedro II
WHERE Brazil
WHEN 1831 to 1889
Determined to be an emperor more virtuous than his father, Pedrinho set aside royal pomp and immersed himself in culture. Instead of parties at the palace, he preferred to dance at balls in the city and was adept at Afro-Brazilian parties. He was in favor of ending slavery and founded a library on ethnography and indigenous languages. He also built Colégio Pedro II, in Rio de Janeiro, where he personally administered tests, selected teachers and individually checked student grades. However, Pedro sinned in the excess of violence in Brazil in the Paraguayan War.
3) King Singye Wangchuck
WHERE Bhutan
WHEN 1972 to 2006
He gave up life in the palace and went to live in a wooden house, far from the excesses of power. To measure the development of his country without strangling economic indices, he created the GNH (Gross Domestic Happiness), which measures the quality of life using factors such as the amount of free time and ecological preservation. After 33 years on the throne, he abdicated so that the country’s first elections could be held.
2) Empress Wu Zetian
WHERE China
WHEN 690 to 705
Wu Zetian was the only female empress in Chinese history. During her reign, the country experienced one of its periods more peaceful and culturally rich. She encouraged the writing of biographies about great female characters and promoted noble women to high political posts. Wu even reduced the tax rate on farmers and replaced aristocrats in public office with scholars, who could only enter their posts after several examinations.
1) Cyrus the Great
WHERE PERSIA
WHEN 559 to 530 BC
Cyrus was one of the first emperors to spare defeated enemies, employing them in administrative positions in his empire. By conquering Babylon, he freed the slaves, established racial equality, and declared that everyone had the right to choose their religion. The decrees were engraved on a clay cylinder that was considered by the UN, in 1971, one of the forerunners of the human rights charter – an idea that, more Later, it was contested by historians who thought that the record was nothing more than a marketing tool by the emperor. The typical “did and showed that he did”.
CONSULTANCY Milton Carlos Costa, professor of the Department of History at Unesp, campus of Assis (SP); Andrea Lucia Dorini, coordinator of the Department of History at Unesp, campus of Assis (SP)
SOURCES Websites Women in World History, BBC, Living History It is Time Magazine