Warrior Kings Who Led Their Own Armies

Alexander became king of Macedonia at age 20 after his father, Phillip II, was assassinated. After vanquishing internal rivals, Alexander began his campaign of historic conquests in 334 B.C. by invading the Achaemenid Empire in Persia as his father had planned to do. He spent most of his reign leading military campaigns through northeast Africa and southwestern Asia. He built many cities and named some of them, such as Alexandria in Egypt, after himself. He died in Babylon at the age of 32.

Darius I, known as The Great, had to fend off rebellion in Persia’s eastern provinces after he assumed the throne – an ascension laced with intrigue and violence. Considered an excellent soldier, Darius conquered Egypt, the Indus Valley, and Thrace (parts of modern-day Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey), among other regions. Though he controlled trade routes around Greece, he also felt compelled to conquer Greece itself. A storm scattered his navy off Mount Athos in 492 B.C., and two years later, his soldiers were famously defeated by the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon. A third expedition was planned but a revolt in Egypt delayed the operation and Darius died before it was launched.

After quelling revolts in Babylon and Egypt, King Xerxes I led the Persian Empire northwest toward Greece. Historians doubt there was a political or economic reason for Xerxes to wage war, though there is speculation that his close advisers might have reminded the emperor of the humiliation suffered by Persian troops at the hands of the Greeks during the reign of his father, Darius I. Xerxes assembled a massive army that by some modern estimates totaled 360,000 troops and a naval force of up to 800 ships. His navy was defeated at Salamis, however, and his invasion of Greece was thwarted, changing European history forever.

The reign of Emperor Tang Taizong, the second emperor in the Tang Dynasty, is considered as one of the golden ages of China. During his reign, the Chinese empire included present-day China, Mongolia, Vietnam, and extended to modern-day eastern Kazakhstan. He was considered a skilled military leader, with most of his campaigns – many against Turkic peoples in Central Asia, in the far western part of the empire – conducted over a nine-year period ending in 649.

A physically imposing warrior-king, Charlemagne was an enlightened ruler and an energetic and militarily astute leader, not to mention the first emperor of what later became known as the Holy Roman Empire. Charlemagne’s military tasks were to defend his realm against external opponents and internal foes; take advantage of changing power relationships; and spread Christianity. It took Charlemagne 30 years to subdue his Saxon enemies. He turned south and seized the Lombard region and became its king. He annexed Bavaria and defeated the Asiatic Avar nomads in eastern Europe. Charlemagne was less successful in trying to expel the Muslims from Spain but did make France’s border with that country more secure.