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MagicToenail
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06 Feb 2016, 7:55 am

I know there are a lot of amateur and even professional historians on the forums here.
Has anyone ever written about the possibility that certain monarchs and world leaders had Aspergers?
I remember hearing on C-SPAN about an author suspecting that Calvin Coolidge may have been on the spectrum.
Here a few possibilities that jump out at me, I know that it is often very hard to diagnose Aspergers even among living subjects with highly trained professionals, let alone with persons dead centuries
Hirohito-a lot of this depends on believing the post war white myth that he was a more or less helpless pawn of hardliners like Tojo, verses some views that he was highly engaged and competent. According to the Emperor's defenders, he was far more absorbed in writing poetry and marine biology than matters of state.
Edward II of England- was more interested in breeding horses and greyhounds and doing manual labor and rowing boats-which was considered extremely odd by his contemporaries. But probably being gay he might just have had a taste for lower class muscular men. His utter cluelessness about the moods of his court and the nobility are probably greater evidence of being on the spectrum.
Louis XVI of France, another clueless monarch-obsessed with watchmaking and lock picking
Henry VI of England-certainly he had other problems, his catatonia or periodic memory loss is not explained by being on the spectrum. his social cluelessness and obsession with religion and learning to the exclusion of all other matters of state might indicate he was on the spectrum.
Alexander I of Russia-possibly just walked away from the crown to become a religious hermit after he helped defeat Napoleon. If you dont believe he was murdered Even before this his contemporaries thought him exceedingly odd and "crazy"
Ludwig II of Bavaria. exceedingly odd, obsessed with castle building, Nordic myths, art and Wagner and swans.
Most of there reigns were ultimately disastrous-but a lot of NT rulers were lousy monarchs. Nicholas II (moron), Mary Queen of Scots (airhead) etc...
I personally think an Aspie can be a good ruler, even in an absolute monarchy,although they are handicapped with probably having great trouble "reading" their court and cabinets moods.



Last edited by Feyokien on 26 Sep 2020, 1:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.: Removed wall of whitespace

greenheron
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06 Feb 2016, 8:17 am

Nicholas II has been canonized as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church, and as a martyr by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. The man was not a moron.



MagicToenail
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06 Feb 2016, 8:34 am

You can be pious and still a moron.



MagicToenail
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06 Feb 2016, 9:09 am

greenheron wrote:
Nicholas II has been canonized as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church, and as a martyr by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. The man was not a moron.
While Nicholas almost certainly had an IQ over 70 because he spoke several languages, he was incompetent and made the wrong decisions at every critical juncture-you could look at the Russian Revolution as the Romanov Darwin awards.
There was an interesting historical what if that has been postulated, The eldest Romanov daughter Olga was considered rather bright, and an Olga regency might have saved the Romanovs' lives and perhaps even the monarchy. A lot of historians believe even little Alexei had a better grasp of their situation than Nicholas did.



Dylanperr
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02 Mar 2019, 11:41 am

It is likely that Prince John of the UK is.



Dylanperr
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20 Jan 2020, 2:48 am

I heard that autism can be really hard to diagnose on historical figures. So that the possibility of finding Autistic monarchs could be hard to find but it is interesting at the same time.



Dylanperr
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22 Jun 2020, 2:46 am

I heard Charles I of England could of had some signs of Autism.



Dylanperr
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22 Jun 2020, 2:54 am

greenheron wrote:
Nicholas II has been canonized as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church, and as a martyr by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. The man was not a moron.

Nicholas II was very unprepared to come to the throne and couldn't rule effectively and unfortunately ended up being very incompetent. One of the biggest advantages of a monarchy is that the future rulers can be prepared and taught from a very young age to be able to rule, and the Romanovs basically wasted that opportunity with Nicholas II as well as many of the other Russian Tsars as well.



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23 Jun 2020, 5:43 am

I nominate Tycho Brahe, the astronomer with the silver prosthetic nose. Much of the eccentricity of Monarchs may stem from severe inbreeding. Arranged marriages were often the most reliable treaties between nations, but the rich were a small group. Some were very sickly and/or deformed.



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23 Jun 2020, 5:52 am

This may be off-topic, but I once knew an Irish MD who was adamant that Prince Charles should be skipped in the line of succession, but wouldn't say why. He seemed to be quoting a position so popular it should need no explanation. Have you any details?



kraftiekortie
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23 Jun 2020, 5:37 pm

Supposedly, Charles has Aspie-like traits.



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23 Jun 2020, 5:44 pm

kraftiekortie wrote:
Supposedly, Charles has Aspie-like traits.

Hmm. That MD knew that I had 'em too, and we got along fine.



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23 Jun 2020, 5:49 pm

MagicToenail wrote:
Were there Aspie monarchs?
I don't know if butterflies can even have Asperger's Syndrome!



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23 Jun 2020, 5:59 pm

Dylanperr wrote:
I heard Charles I of England could of had some signs of Autism.


He was certainly aloof and utterly out of touch with a fixation on rules and how they were to be prioritized, but I doubt we'll ever have enough details to make discussion of the topic amount to more than speculation.

It wouldn't surprise me if there may have been a monarch who would meet the criteria for asperger's or HFA under modern understandings.

In the novel I'll probably never finish writing, a few of the characters show ASD traits and one fairly major character is supposed to have ASD, but obviously I can only show and hint at it since there's no concept analogous to an ASD diagnosis.


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23 Jun 2020, 6:01 pm

Fnord wrote:
MagicToenail wrote:
Were there Aspie monarchs?
I don't know if butterflies can even have Asperger's Syndrome!


I met an aspie butterfly, he collected humans by impaling them to a corkboard. I haven't collected butterflies since.


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The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. —Malcolm X
Just a reminder: under international law, an occupying power has no right of self-defense, and those who are occupied have the right and duty to liberate themselves by any means possible.


Dylanperr
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15 Sep 2020, 2:45 am

Likely Peter III.