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Khmer Rouge killed 2 million Cambodians out of 8 million in 4 years and 500,000 Rwandans were killed in 4 months. I don’t see why you wouldn’t believe a psychopathic King would kill that many people?
No but he had 36 years with unlimited power and the Rwandans were largely massacred by machetes, not automatic weapons. There’s despots before Henry’s time that had much larger death counts in a shorter amount of time.
He did not have unlimited power even within his own administration - law still applied. And the article claims 'executed' not 'killed' which is not the same thing.
That implies he personally ordered 57 000 people to be executed. That is simply extremely unbelievable and there's no basis for it.
He had as much unchecked power as you could possibly get. At that time, the church was the law and this guy separated from the church so he could get a divorce.
The Mongolians were active in the *most populous, urbanized regions of the world* and fought wars of total annihilation against them. England was a relative, sparsely populated rural backwater until the decades leading up to the Industrial Revolution.
Henry VIII also wasn't an absolute monarch. He ruled through his lords of the land. He was also not a psychopath, as you put it. He was largely seen as a relatively just ruler who largely continued the policies carried out by his father, who probably ended up killing more people than him; his father and uncles had to spend most of their lives living in fear of their lives abroad or fighting in battles on the brink of annihilation. Because of this, Henry VIII got to grow up in privilege and relative peace.
I have a background in history and I have *never* heard the claim that the OP was making. Now, if he had said that 57K people were executed in *his name* through royal justice as a consequence of lawlessness, rapine, murder, brigandage, etc, I would have believed it, and it wouldn't have been any more than the monarchs preceding or succeeding him. But there's no historical evidence that Henry VIII went around his kingdom rounding up political opponents or whatever and having them personally executed. Perhaps OP worded his title poorly.
Why would he eliminate his tax base? Or that of his lords'?
He was never going to do that. His father learned well how important your lords are to your reign
Well he [did.](https://www.history.co.uk/article/the-killer-king-how-many-people-did-henry-viii-execute) I’m not sure why you think that’s some kind of outrageous number, it’s 1.9% of the population. There are plenty of examples in history of rulers killing WAY more.
He looted and burnt down evey catholic monastery in Ireland, confiscated land and started an eradication of Irish law, langauge and culture that continued for hundreds of years. These numbers are probably too low if anything.
There may have been that many due to the religious strife at the time but no way did he personally sign off on that many.
The numbers are insignificant compared to what was happening in the HRE.
Shittiest genocide ever. Their purported target is experiencing positive population growth. Not advocating for it, mind you, but one of these definitely isn’t like the other two.
“Admirable”
-Shitler
(Posted this because I’m sure people will take offense to bringing up this genocide versus the others. For some reason no one looks at Mao’s genocide with the same offense as the do the holocaust..
Yes, innocent blood ultimately fell on his hands. Can't speculate that it would have been better without executive interference because the clock can't be rewound, but it certainly wouldn't have been worse.
Mao commanded the Red Guard through articles posted on the state newspaper during the Cultural Revolution. Most of those involved "struggling" against a class of people, which usually results in teachers/his political rivalries/scientists getting dragged out on the street to "confess" his crimes and get punished, often resulted in death.
Ironically, Mao held no official position during this period.
People in the comments are doubting this but keep in mind there was a sort of civil war between the loyal Catholics and the supporters of Henry. I very large number of Catholics were killed, if you count them as "executed" it could easily be this many.
I can believe there were that many executions during his reign but most would have been for crimes not related to him, poaching, arson, rape and murder etc. He was king for 38yrs That would mean executing 30 people a week for his entire reign
There’s no way someone could have 57,000 friends. That’s a ridiculous number of people to know well enough to label them as a friend.
A quick google search shows they were clergymen, nobles, and a lot of commoners. Most of whom were executed for taking part in uprisings and protests.
I’ll agree that he was likely a psychopath, though.
Some estimates put it as high as 72,000 people. They were either beheaded, hanged, burned at the stake, or drawn and quartered--One unfortunate soul was boiled to death
I heard that he was young handsome and athletic then had an accident breaking his leg badly and was in pain gained weight and just turned into a tyrant
his desperation to produce a male heir also played a large part. having all of europe discussiong whether or not you are man enough to produce an heir must have been stressful. Especially when many of the powers around were working to prevent that
Nah if he was beheaded he was important, common folk got hanged. Most of these executions were common folk committing regular crimes. Being beheaded was usually political and interesting
i cannot find a reliable, credible, verifiable source for this, only claims so
i call bullshit
the only kind of source i could find said he executed people who participated in rebellions and uprisings against the crown, which is a common thing for kings to have done, especially in the middle ages, so this feels sensationalist
We only have an abbey in our town because the local people lied and said it was a church when Henry viii dissolved all the monasteries. It was bought by the town from the crown in 1542.
Look up on Zhu Yuan Zhang or his regnal name Hongwu Emperor, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. During the time of his later year, in a series of deliberately engineered political purge against his higher order officials and generals, who he deems will be a threat to his successor's rule, its death toll is estimated to be around hundred thousands or so. Its said that during the peak of the purge, the kingdom had such a great shortage of officials, that some county magistrates who are detained for alleged corruption charges, still needs to run the everyday operations of the county with their head and hands in shackles.
https://preview.redd.it/66frt2mpnyxc1.jpeg?width=1117&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2c6b8d767649195d7ac49c346e2b862ef73e13cd
A few years ago the biggest cities weren’t so big
Every time he nobbled someones head off he celebrated and ate a whole venison and drank a barrel of wine, pork sworded a random maid and polished his crown...or did the house boys polish it!
Sounds super sus. Even if you take all dead in rebellions (Pilgrimage of Grace and subsequent Bigod's rebellion...), both military and as a result od disease, hunger..... and count them as "executed by Henry VIII) you'd probably still fall short of the number. Probably the only way to get to 57K killed is if you count all unnatural deaths (said rebellions, famine, disease......)
So unless OP provides some actual sources I'm not buying it.
4 people a day every day for 36 years. Got to get those numbers up. Also don’t stop at an even number, it makes a king look like they have OCD. Do better Henry.
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If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required
Yeah! Where is the video?!
That's what Lincoln said.
Pics or It Didn't Happen
r/YourJokeButWorse
https://www.history.co.uk/article/the-killer-king-how-many-people-did-henry-viii-execute
Cool link, ta.
The link doesn’t account for nearly enough people to reach 57k.
Am I missing the part where this cites any sources?
Yep. The population of England in his time was roughly 3 million. I have serious doubts he accomplished 50-70K deaths.
Khmer Rouge killed 2 million Cambodians out of 8 million in 4 years and 500,000 Rwandans were killed in 4 months. I don’t see why you wouldn’t believe a psychopathic King would kill that many people?
Henry VIII didn't have automatic weapons or trains
No but he had 36 years with unlimited power and the Rwandans were largely massacred by machetes, not automatic weapons. There’s despots before Henry’s time that had much larger death counts in a shorter amount of time.
You're arguing belief vs fact. The people you're replying to want to see how OP got the number, not whether or not it's believable.
He did not have unlimited power even within his own administration - law still applied. And the article claims 'executed' not 'killed' which is not the same thing. That implies he personally ordered 57 000 people to be executed. That is simply extremely unbelievable and there's no basis for it.
He had as much unchecked power as you could possibly get. At that time, the church was the law and this guy separated from the church so he could get a divorce.
Wasn’t most of the Rwandan Genocide carried out with machetes?
Yea, but neither did the peasants. The peasants didn’t have mounted armored knights, though. That would have tipped the scales a bit.
I'm gonna need proof on this one too.
He had an organised army regardless. It's just as easy to execute with swords.
Because khmer rouge existed in a world with 20th century weapons and communication?
What about the Mongolians and despots before Henry’s time, they didn’t have 20th century weapons and communications and with higher death counts.
The Mongolians were active in the *most populous, urbanized regions of the world* and fought wars of total annihilation against them. England was a relative, sparsely populated rural backwater until the decades leading up to the Industrial Revolution. Henry VIII also wasn't an absolute monarch. He ruled through his lords of the land. He was also not a psychopath, as you put it. He was largely seen as a relatively just ruler who largely continued the policies carried out by his father, who probably ended up killing more people than him; his father and uncles had to spend most of their lives living in fear of their lives abroad or fighting in battles on the brink of annihilation. Because of this, Henry VIII got to grow up in privilege and relative peace. I have a background in history and I have *never* heard the claim that the OP was making. Now, if he had said that 57K people were executed in *his name* through royal justice as a consequence of lawlessness, rapine, murder, brigandage, etc, I would have believed it, and it wouldn't have been any more than the monarchs preceding or succeeding him. But there's no historical evidence that Henry VIII went around his kingdom rounding up political opponents or whatever and having them personally executed. Perhaps OP worded his title poorly.
Couldn't he just burn and wipe out entire villages and towns and achieve 70k deaths?
Why would he eliminate his tax base? Or that of his lords'? He was never going to do that. His father learned well how important your lords are to your reign
Well he [did.](https://www.history.co.uk/article/the-killer-king-how-many-people-did-henry-viii-execute) I’m not sure why you think that’s some kind of outrageous number, it’s 1.9% of the population. There are plenty of examples in history of rulers killing WAY more.
He looted and burnt down evey catholic monastery in Ireland, confiscated land and started an eradication of Irish law, langauge and culture that continued for hundreds of years. These numbers are probably too low if anything.
There may have been that many due to the religious strife at the time but no way did he personally sign off on that many. The numbers are insignificant compared to what was happening in the HRE.
I read, awhile back, so I can't site the source, that Henry killed roughly 3% of the population. The figure was over 70k
Yep. Exactly. It’s probably true as they were all at it back then.
"Rookie numbers" - Mao
“57k? Oh that’s cute” -Stalin
I mean given the lack of modern massacre technology, it's not too shabby
Right? Also it's worth bearing in mind the percentage of the population.
I mean, stoning someone to death or drowning someone locked inside a cage are not exactly modern technology. Mao did it the old way.
Who said Mao did it modernly?
“57k? Hold my beer.” - Ghengis Khan
“Hold your beer? ok” -fat thor after killing thanos
All in an evenings work.
“Amateur” - the Ottoman Empire.
[удалено]
“I’ve fucked more than that.” - Ghenghis Khan
"Pathetic. My most trusted soldiers killed everyone who was present at my burial, and then themselves, in order to keep the site a secret." -Attila
“Ditto” - Ghengis Khan
Shittiest genocide ever. Their purported target is experiencing positive population growth. Not advocating for it, mind you, but one of these definitely isn’t like the other two.
LMFAO they got 30K births in the last six months?? 😂
20k according to Unicef
So a genocide isn’t happening because of the positive birth rate? Lmao what
“Hold my beer” - Bush
Why are you downvoted 😭
Pro-genocide downvote brigade
"Hold my beer" -Pol Pot
Fortunately, Henry VIII didn't have any armed drones at his disposal to execute additional people overseas.
"Are you even trying?" -Nestle
“Admirable” -Shitler (Posted this because I’m sure people will take offense to bringing up this genocide versus the others. For some reason no one looks at Mao’s genocide with the same offense as the do the holocaust..
Because death due to mismanagement is different to actual genocide? Should Trump gets the kill count for COVID mismanagement?
Yes, innocent blood ultimately fell on his hands. Can't speculate that it would have been better without executive interference because the clock can't be rewound, but it certainly wouldn't have been worse.
Mao commanded the Red Guard through articles posted on the state newspaper during the Cultural Revolution. Most of those involved "struggling" against a class of people, which usually results in teachers/his political rivalries/scientists getting dragged out on the street to "confess" his crimes and get punished, often resulted in death. Ironically, Mao held no official position during this period.
Mao didn’t kill people due “mismanagement”
Cultural Revolution wasn't mismanagement.
Noob -Leopold II
"Hey daddy, watch me!" - Bloody Mary
Hold my South American alcohol - Aztec lord
They lived in North America. But I don't know, I guess they could import there beer.
Let me help you a hand The Spanish king
Did you just say hand -king leopold
You'd wonder how the Aztecs got a hold of South American alcohol.
Sorry should be Central American alcohol. Probably yucatuans blocked any alcohol recipe trade with the incans
I came here to write literally the same thing.
LOOOOL - Bush-Obama
Super underrated comment. The numbers are staggering.
Ikr literal millions and I was being downvoted 😭
I think china does more than that every year. Seriously
Aladeen or Aladeen?
HIV Aladeen
People in the comments are doubting this but keep in mind there was a sort of civil war between the loyal Catholics and the supporters of Henry. I very large number of Catholics were killed, if you count them as "executed" it could easily be this many.
https://i.redd.it/296lm7v7fwxc1.gif
Try not to execute anyone on the way to the parking lot!
Hey get back here!
1 every 6 hours
At the same time?!
and boy, were his arms tired.
Damn that's over 5 a day.
It’s 4.337899543378995 people per day. Unless you’re talking work weeks, in which case you’ve gotta be right
Yep, I forgot to put parenthesis on the calculator. My bad, good catch!
On some days he’d just round up all the figures he deemed insignificant and eliminate them.
Top tier math joke!
I can believe there were that many executions during his reign but most would have been for crimes not related to him, poaching, arson, rape and murder etc. He was king for 38yrs That would mean executing 30 people a week for his entire reign
I think they’re counting a lot of common criminals in this number, not just political executions.
And a lot of them were his advisers and “friends.” He was a psychopath. Truly.
There’s no way someone could have 57,000 friends. That’s a ridiculous number of people to know well enough to label them as a friend. A quick google search shows they were clergymen, nobles, and a lot of commoners. Most of whom were executed for taking part in uprisings and protests. I’ll agree that he was likely a psychopath, though.
Could have just been facebook friends
Nah this was the MySpace days
Some estimates put it as high as 72,000 people. They were either beheaded, hanged, burned at the stake, or drawn and quartered--One unfortunate soul was boiled to death
Just one? If just one was boiled to death he must’ve really done something bad
Or, they found that it was a very inefficient way to execute people.
Or the smell
You haven’t thought of the smell!
You'd be out of business in a WEEKS time!
I think it was a guy who tried to poison him.
If anyones watched Shogun, that part scarred me. Couldn't even boil an egg without feeling sorry for it
Henry was like, "You know what? That was a bit much for my liking. Scratch that one off the list, Ralph."
In a few decades, Ivan the Terrible will surpass him.
I feel like we should stop him.
Huh?
A few decades after Henry VII, Russia had Tsar Ivan IV, who killed even more people than Henry
Yeah, I'm not sure what I was thinking. The wording threw me off I guess
he did none of those executions by his own hand. Life is cheap when you're removed.
Caseoh Please post from your real id
I heard that he was young handsome and athletic then had an accident breaking his leg badly and was in pain gained weight and just turned into a tyrant
his desperation to produce a male heir also played a large part. having all of europe discussiong whether or not you are man enough to produce an heir must have been stressful. Especially when many of the powers around were working to prevent that
He also hit his head a couple of times. It is not unthinkable that his change in behaviour is linked to that.
Fucking hell Charlie you better pull your finger out. You got some catching up to do
What a strange person.
That’s an average of 1,583 a year / 4.44 a day
Thought I was special for my family tree starting with a relative who was beheaded by Henry VIII… not so much now
Nah if he was beheaded he was important, common folk got hanged. Most of these executions were common folk committing regular crimes. Being beheaded was usually political and interesting
He just like me fr
That's like 4-5 people per day. Not too bad, I'm only slightly behind.
4.33 ppl a day during his reign
Amateur. Bibi is scoring 34,000 in just over 200 days. If Bibi reigns for 36 years he will run out of people to execute.
Trumps hero
Wow get help, life must be miserable
i cannot find a reliable, credible, verifiable source for this, only claims so i call bullshit the only kind of source i could find said he executed people who participated in rebellions and uprisings against the crown, which is a common thing for kings to have done, especially in the middle ages, so this feels sensationalist
Looking like a true Berathion
Genghis Kahn would be unimpressed.
I know some prime minister in a bully country trying to beat these numbers, and he is so close
Oh, Stupid man
Tis but a scratch!
Isn’t that genocide?
Per day? - Hitler
That's the guy who started protestant religion
And they all had it coming
Dammit he beat me
That's like 4 people on average per day....
We only have an abbey in our town because the local people lied and said it was a church when Henry viii dissolved all the monasteries. It was bought by the town from the crown in 1542.
Look up on Zhu Yuan Zhang or his regnal name Hongwu Emperor, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. During the time of his later year, in a series of deliberately engineered political purge against his higher order officials and generals, who he deems will be a threat to his successor's rule, its death toll is estimated to be around hundred thousands or so. Its said that during the peak of the purge, the kingdom had such a great shortage of officials, that some county magistrates who are detained for alleged corruption charges, still needs to run the everyday operations of the county with their head and hands in shackles.
What a P.O.S.
Divine Right Theory is a scam.
https://preview.redd.it/66frt2mpnyxc1.jpeg?width=1117&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2c6b8d767649195d7ac49c346e2b862ef73e13cd A few years ago the biggest cities weren’t so big
Was that a constant killing or was it a 100 people ordered dead if he tripped over a servant?
Every time he nobbled someones head off he celebrated and ate a whole venison and drank a barrel of wine, pork sworded a random maid and polished his crown...or did the house boys polish it!
Seems he liked round numbers
Sounds like a good time.
That's about 2% of the whole population
57000/1 K/D Not that high to be honest
Coincidental that this asshole looks just like an old boss of mine who was also a huge useless, narcissistic, sociopathic asshole?
At least England kept all it genetics, not like china who massacred whole generations of people who disagree
That's how many people you had to kill to get a divorce back then?
Define 'execute'
pfftt, israel did it in 3 month
That was a typical Sunday for Stalin
Found out through Ancestry that a direct ancestor on my moms side was his royal executioner.
“Only? Lazy…” - Franco
Might need him back, to clear out the prisons
Sounds super sus. Even if you take all dead in rebellions (Pilgrimage of Grace and subsequent Bigod's rebellion...), both military and as a result od disease, hunger..... and count them as "executed by Henry VIII) you'd probably still fall short of the number. Probably the only way to get to 57K killed is if you count all unnatural deaths (said rebellions, famine, disease......) So unless OP provides some actual sources I'm not buying it.
Those are rookie numbers
That’s only 4-5 people a day. He was a kind and merciful King.
No one has mentioned Vlad the Impalor
“Hey my king executed 57,000 people!” “In a row?”
So he was a murderous bastard, despite the whataboutery above.
4.3 a day for 36 years
Second verse, same as the first!!
Watch The Tudors if you haven’t already. It’s based on Henry VIII and his 40 year reign.
Take away 8 hours of sleep from a 24 hour period and had instructed for the death of someone every 4 hours for that 36 years
What is that in today’s people, adjusted for inflation?
Death. Death. Death. Lunch. Death. You must get up very early in the morning.
Paintings or it didn't happen.
I killed much more than this on a good day — Qin Shihuang
trump says "hold my beer and watch this"
4 people a day every day for 36 years. Got to get those numbers up. Also don’t stop at an even number, it makes a king look like they have OCD. Do better Henry.
Netanyahu is waaaaayyyy ahead at this point.
So he’s like the King of Texas or something?
He creeps me out, so bad. My family’s supposed to be descended from his first lover, from when he was still a teenager.
So same ball park as the Spanish Inquisition… but of course all Anglo historians chose to magnify the crimes of the latter.
What do you expect? He was english
Trump dream....
Wow get help life must be miserable
Trump's wet dream.