The Eight Greatest Acts of Revenge in Human History

The lust for revenge is part of the human condition, here are eight examples of the most brutal from history

Even though it is well documented that the best form of revenge is forgiveness, these people from throughout history had different ideas. Here are the eight greatest acts of revenge in human history.

Genghis Khan massacres the entire Khwarezmian Empire for reneging on a peace treaty

The Khwarezmian Empire sat to the West of the Mongol Empire, and in 1218 A.D., Genghis Khan, the ruler of Mongolia, reached out to its leader, Ala ad-Din Muhammad, with the hopes of agreeing a peace and cooperation treaty with him.

He sent a convoy carrying a message which read, “I am master of the lands of the rising sun while you rule those of the setting sun. Let us conclude a firm treaty of friendship and peace.”

Ala ad-Din Muhammad was initially favourable of these overtures, but foolishly within a year, he reneged on this. A Mongol caravan was taken, and the 500 people attached to it were massacred in the Khwarezmian city of Otrar.

To say this was a big mistake would be an understatement. Genghis Khan unleashed a fury like none seen before — and arguably since — in history. Starting in 1219, and lasting until 1221, he and his Mongol Horde laid waste to the entire Khwarezmian Empire.

Literally, he wiped it from the face of the earth. After he was finished, there was not a single trace of it left. Not even a trace. Yep, it is not wise to cross Genghis Khan.

Saint Olga of Kiev massacres the people of Drevlian for killing her husband

In 912 A.D. Olga of Kiev married Prince Igor and eventually went on to become Queen of Kievan Rus. In 945 A.D. King Igor travelled to meet a Slavic tribe called the Drevylans to demand an increase in tribute.

The problem was the Drevylans didn’t want to dole out more money to the monarch and so decided to instead kill King Igor. Queen Olga was not happy about this to say the least, though she did not admit this at first.

Emboldened by the killing of the king the Drevylans attempted to make peace with Queen Olga, sending ambassadors along with their choice for a king to propose a marriage pact — Prince Mal was their choice, the man who killed King Igor. She had first acted like she was going to accept this proposal, telling them that the next day they would be honoured.

But it was a setup, when they returned the next day expecting to be honoured, she had them thrown into a pit and they were burnt alive, rumour has it that she enquired while they were burning whether they found the honour to their taste.

That was not the end of it. The Drevylans, clueless that this had happened, received a message from her telling them that they should send their most distinguished men to her in Kiev so that she might marry their Prince with due honour. When they duly arrived, a bath was made up for them and they were burnt alive in it.

That was still not the end of it. With still no clue of her vengeful acts, she sent a message telling them that she wanted to come to the city so that she may honour her dead husband’s tomb. They accepted and she did this, paying homage to the tomb and going to a funeral feast. During the feast, Queen Olga waited for them all to get drunk, she then had them slaughtered. 5000 in total were felled.

That was still not the end of it. She called up her army and went to war with the aim of finishing them off, defeating them easily on the battlefield and driving all the survivors back into the cities. When only the main city remained, she laid siege to it. She then seemed to offer them a way out, offering them peace if only they would pay her a tribute of three sparrows and three pigeons for each household.

They accepted; however, all was not what it seemed. She had her men attach rags dipped in sulphur to each of the birds’ legs so when they returned to their nests in the city, it caused the city to burn to the ground. The result was the complete and total killing of the remaining Drevylans.

Gangster Akku Yadav gets his comeuppance at the hands of the women of India

Bharat Kalicharan, who went by the moniker of Akku Yadav, was a monster. He was a brutal sociopath gangster who enjoyed killing and torturing people. His main place of operation was around the slums of the central Indian city of Nagpur, Maharashtrar. The reign of terror he unleashed during the 90s and early 00s was horrific.

What he was most infamous for was handing down gang rapes against women as a warning to others. And not just adult women, often, girls as young as ten would be the target. This was his favourite thing to do.

History has shown that monsters typically do in the end get their comeuppance, and he definitely got his, and at the age of 32. After targeting women for a decade in a brutal reign of terror, in 2004 a woman named Usha Narayane resisted. She said no more. And so she organised a mob and burned down his home.

Yadav, in desperation, went to the police for protection. They gave it to him. Not just that, at a court hearing it was believed that he was going to be acquitted of his crimes due to lack of evidence, this led to a mob of enraged women charging the courthouse. Despite this, Yadav was unrepentant, and on seeing one of his victims, he mocked her, called her a prostitute and said he would rape her again. The police laughed.

She did not. She fell into a fury and said that he would have to kill her because they couldn’t both live on the earth together. “It’s you or me,” she said. She then started hitting him with her shoes.

He was then captured by the mob of several hundred or so furious women who then went on to unleash that fury, stabbing and stoning his body for a full ten minutes. Not just that. They rubbed chilli powder in his face, hacked off his penis, and mutilated his corpse to such an extent it was pretty much obliterated.

Initially, some of the perpetrators were arrested but eventually, everyone was acquitted.

Queen Boudicca’s revenge against the Romans

The story of Queen Boudicca’s revenge is one of the most legendary in history. Boudica, or Boadicea, was Queen of the British Iceni tribe, a Celtic tribe. Born in 30 A.D. in Camulodunum — the Roman capital of Britain and known today as the town of Colchester, England — she went on to marry Prasutagas, king of the eastern Britain tribe known as the Iceni tribe.

In 43 A.D., the Romans conquered southern England. But they allowed Prasutagas to continue ruling over his land. However, when in 60 A.D., Prasutagas died leaving no male heirs, he put into his will that the land he ruled over should be left to Boudica and their two daughters.

The Romans — who ruled over Britain at the time — had other ideas. They ignored his will and annexed his kingdom, plundering it endlessly as if it were a war prize. Not just that, they flogged, raped and tortured Boudicca and her daughters.

This turned out to be a big mistake. In response, Boudicca managed to round up all the tribes that felt wronged by the Romans and assembled an army that numbered approximately 100,000 in size. Boudicca used this army to deadly effect, going from town to town destroying and killing.

Of note, they razed Camulodunum to the ground, massacring its people. Londinium — modern-day London — also suffered the same fate, so much so that even today traces of the charred remains of the razed city can still be found beneath London. The final city of note they attacked was Verulamium, where they did the same again. Brutally cutting people up, impaling them on skewers, crucifying them, hanging them and razing the city.

Her quest for vengeance was eventually ended when she was finally defeated by Roman Governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus during an unreported battle. Using strategic warfare, he managed to get the rebel army to cut off its own escape route. It is believed Boudicca poisoned herself to avoid capture.

But before this happened, Boudicca and her army had managed to slaughter approximately 80,000 people, the majority of whom were Romans.

The revenge of Israel — operation Wrath of God

In 1972, eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were killed by a Palestinian militant group called Black September. The event is called the Munich Massacre and was documented in the Steven Spielberg film Munich.

The massacre caused mass fury amongst the Israeli people and so the government elected that they had to respond. And respond they did, they directed the Mossad, Israel’s National intelligence agency, to launch operation Wrath of God.

The objective was simple: assassinate all members of the Palestinian armed group Black September and operatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that had had a hand in carrying out the Munich Massacre.

Over two decades it is believed that gradually the objectives of the operation were met. And in a rather chilling way. When they closed in on a target, it is reported that they sent flowers along with a letter of condolence to the family of the deceased, hours before carrying out the assassination. The letters read, “A reminder we do not forget or forgive.”

Julius Caesar gets his revenge against the pirates that kidnapped him

Julius Caesar, the man who turned Rome from a republic into an empire, long before he came to power, was once kidnapped by pirates. Yep, a 25-year-old Julius Caesar was captured by pirates while sailing the Aegen Sea. They aimed to ransom him, and they first asked for 20 talents (pieces of silver).

This was their second mistake — the first was of course kidnapping him. Caesar, who was a bit of an outcast at this point and had been cut off from his inheritance due to political infighting, was insulted by the demand and demanded that they ask for a higher ransom, one befitting of his stature. Or at least the one he believed he had.

As a result, the ransom was raised to 50 talents. While in captivity, he kept about him an air of superiority and joked that once released, he would raise a fleet, and pursue and capture the pirates and crucify them while alive. At least the pirates thought he was joking.

Caesar’s associates were able to raise the funds and he was released. And you can probably guess what he did. He raised a fleet, pursued and captured the pirates, and then fulfilled his promise in full bar one detail, as an act of leniency he first had their throats cut and then crucified them. So thoughtful of him.

Peter I of Portugal’s brutal revenge against those who killed his lover

King Afonso IV of Portugal wanted his son to marry Costanza, the daughter of Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena. His reason was that he wanted to seal an alliance with Villena.

All was well at this point, the marriage went ahead in 1340. The problem was that Peter did not love Costanza, he had fallen head over heels in love with her lady in waiting, Inês de Castro — the beautiful and aristocratic daughter of a prominent Galician family, who just so happened to have links to the Castilians — enemies of his father.

Peter embarked on an affair with Inês, and after the death of Constanza, wanted to marry her. His father refused to allow it; Peter though refused to marry any of the princesses his father wanted him to. He would only marry Inês, who he was now living with in secret.

But his father was not having it, he was adamant her connections to the Castilians made her a threat. And so, in 1355, he sent three men who first detained her, and then in front of one of her young children, decapitated her.

Peter was enraged and revolted against his father, who defeated him. His father though died soon after, and so Peter ascended to the throne anyway and became Peter I of Portugal.

One of his first actions was finding the assassins and holding a public trial — he captured two of them. They were found guilty and executed. The way they were executed though was rather gruesome, Peter ripped out their hearts with his own bare hands. He called it justice for what they did to his heart. The irony is that he became known as Peter the Just.

The 47 rōnin avenge the death of their master

In 1701, Asano Takumi-no-Kami Naganori, a young daimyō of the Akō Domain (a small fiefdom in western Honshū — Japan), was tasked along with another Lord, Lord Kamei Korechika of the Tsuwano Domain, to arrange a fitting reception for the envoys of Emperor Higashiyama at Edo Castle.

A man by the name of Kira Kozuke-no-Suke Yoshinaka, a powerful official in the hierarchy of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi’s shogunate, was to give them instructions on proper court etiquette.

However, Kira began insulting both Asano and Kamei. Kamei councillors gave Kira a large bribe to make him be nicer to Kamei. Asano’s councillors did not do the same which made Kira become even more insulting towards Asano — Kira was insulted at the lack of a bribe.

Eventually, unable to take the insults anymore, Asano lashed out, attacking Kira with a dagger, wounding him in the face with his first strike, but then missing with the second, hitting a pillar. The guards then quickly separated them before Asano could do any real damage.

Because of this, Kira was largely unhurt; however, an attack on a shogunate official within the boundaries of the Shogun’s residence was considered a grave offence. Violence in the Edo Castle was also completely forbidden, as was drawing a weapon. As punishment, Asano was ordered to kill himself by seppuku.

With his death, Asano’s goods and lands were all confiscated and so his family was ruined, while his workers which included his samurai were all made into rōnin (leaderless). Basically, they were shamed by association and none of them could find work.

Asano had three hundred men, all of them were now pretty much screwed, forty-seven of them decided to do something about this, refusing to allow their Lord to go unavenged. Led by leader Ōishi, a great samurai, they swore a secret oath to avenge their master by killing Kira — despite knowing that death would be the price of it.

To do it they knew that they would have to lull all suspicions, so they disbanded and became tradesmen and monks. Ōishi himself would begin to frequent brothels and taverns. One day, Ōishi, while returning home drunk, fell down in the street and went to sleep. All laughed at him. He was even attacked but did not respond. Even further, after this, he sent away his loyal wife of 20 years and his children so that when he took his revenge, they would not suffer.

While he was doing this, the other men had covertly gained access to Kira’s house, becoming familiar with the layout and character of all within. One even married the daughter of the man who had built Kira’s house so as to obtain the plans for it. All of this was reported to Ōishi and together they gradually planned their assault, they just had to wait for the right moment.

Eventually it came because Kira, whose men had been spying on Ōishi, became convinced he was safe and so let down his guard. When he did, with the deep snow covering his lands, the 47 launched their attack and after subduing all of Kira’s guards, found Kira himself cowering in the basement.

They offered him the chance of taking his own life, but he refused and so eventually they killed him, severing his head which they laid before the tomb of their master. The price for their vengeance was inevitably their lives. They were sentenced to kill themselves by seppuku, just as their master had been. They complied.

But all was not lost, because there was more behind their actions than just vengeance, their actions led to Asano’s clan being re-established, which meant that the other samurai along with Asano’s other workers and family, who had been cast out in disgrace by society, were able to rebuild their lives. So they didn’t just get revenge, they saved Asano’s entire estate, meaning, unlike the other stories, if you’re going to chase vengeance, make certain it’s one like the 47’s.

That’s all from me, thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy the following:

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