"It's good to be the King!" - Mel Brooks as Louis XVI in History of the World Part I

We have a fascination with royalty. Grace Kelly and the Crown Prince of Monaco enamored our grandparents. Princess Diana stole the hearts of our parents, and 23 million Americans alone watched the wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William.

From the time they're small and start hearing fairy tales every little kid has dreams of being royalty and of having the money and power to have and do everything they've ever wanted. We all grow up to realize that the chances we'll ever be royal is laughable at best, but for a lucky few. But sometimes those lucky enough to be royal push things a little too far.

Here are four royals who made some very questionable life choices.

1. Caligula, Emperor of Rome

When it comes to the brutality and greed of Roman Emperors, you have to be pretty terrible not to be considered an average leader. Caligula is considered one of the worst Emperor's to rule Rome, though it was only for four years. The people rejoiced at first when Caligula came to power as they thought their previous Emperor Tiberius had been terrible.

Caligula soon surpassed he predicessor...in insanity. The Emperor took a liking to dressing as a woman at public events, committed incest with his sister, executed the children of political rivals and made them watch, promoted his horse to consul member, and even declared himself a living god. He also declared war on Posiden the Sea God and commanded his soldiers to march to the sea and throw spears at the water.

Needless to say, the people were less than thrilled with Caligula after a short period of time. The Roman Senator's plotted and murdered the Emperor in his palace, putting an end to his mad rule.

2. Ivan IV 'the Terrible', Tsar of Russia

So, Ivan was named after his grandfather, Ivan the Great, but being named after him didn't certainly didn't pass down any of that greatness if the younger Ivan's moniker doesn't give that away. The future Tsar was known to break out in uncontrollable fits of rage and torture small animals as a boy.

His first years as Tsar, Ivan's ruthless energy was mainly focused on expanding Russia, but it all collapsed with the death of his first wife. The death issued in a 24-year reign of terror in which Russia and the Tsar's family suffered at his hands.

Ivan married seven more times after his first wife's death, and then proceed to execute a few by poisoning and one by drowning. He blinded the architect of St. Basil's cathedral after the commission so that he could never build anything more beautiful. Ivan beat his pregnant daughter-in-law, causing and miscarriage and beat his son to death.

The Tsar finally died of a stroke after a nearly 40-year reign, ending his cruelty. Unfortunately, Ivan had beat his capable son to death, so his incompetent son Fedor took over after him and nearly destroyed Russia.

3. Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia

As you can tell by her title, Catherine was actually a fantastic Russian ruler who greatly improved the country and made it a modern European power. Unlike the previous two rulers in this article, the Empress was intelligent enough to keep her political and private lives separate enough to stay beloved.

A German princess by birth, Catherine married into the Russian royal family when she wed the Crown Prince Peter. When Peter became Emperor Peter III, though, it was discovered that he was the most incompetent person to ever rule a country. The Emperor preferred to stay in his room playing with toy soldiers and his mistresses rather than rule. Jealous Peter also preferred that Catherine kept no man's company even though he couldn't stand her, even going so far as to executing her lover and forcing her to sleep beside his pickled head in a jar.

Needless to say, when the people found out that Catherine and her new lover overthrew their incompetent Emperor Peter and had him executed, they weren't too upset about it. They didn't even care that she had no actual claim to the Russian throne!

Now, Catherine isn't behaving badly with her country, but her personal choices are quite interesting. She is the Empress said to have attempted relations with a horse. Though that may be a rumor, Catherine had numerous lovers throughout her life who she bestowed gifts and titles upon, who conveniently disappeared when they bored her.

4. Elizabeth Bathory, Countess of Hungary

Known as the Blood Countess to history, Lady Bathory's exploits were so horrifying that she was thought to be a vampire. Now she wasn't a vampire, just a serial killer whose associates and servants reported at least 600 kills. Crazy, right? Bathory though that eating the flesh and bathing in the blood of young women would keep her young and beautiful and due to the fact that she was royalty, no one could do anything about it!

Along with her husband, Bathory tormented the people who she ruled over. When he died the killings and torture got worse. Oddly enough, though he built her a torture chamber and participated in the killing and maiming, he seemed to have been able to curb most of her cruelty while he was alive. After his death, there was no one to restrain her impulses. Here's a short list of some of the milder things she did to her servants: burned them with hot irons, ironed the soles of their feet, cut their ears, noses, lips, and other parts with scissors, stitched their lips together, and forced them to cut off, cook, and eat their own flesh.

And these were just the people she needed to keep alive enough to run her castle! What finally took down the Countess was her own bloodlust. She began to bore with killing her young female servants and moved onto the daughters of the nobility. King Mattias of Hungary finally said enough (took him long enough) and, instead of being tortured and executed like her conspirators, had Bathory bricked into a room with a slit left in a door for air and food where she died three years later.