Quote Originally Posted by Julian the apostate
are we talking Machievellian Brutality or like completely unessessary and brutal killings.
I would say King Ferdinand and Isabella, Hitler and Stalin (Katyn Forest)Tamurlame, I forgot who lead the crusade that took Jeruselem but i'll pin him 2. Albiet sometimes its not the leader but the troops like in most post-siege sackings from the begining of time right up to 1850-1900.

I just finished a book on THe MOngels, If you fought they would kill all of the elites typically and spare the peasants. It seemed a good system as opposed to the typical oppisite.

Who was the first lord of jerusleam....ummm *thinks deeply*

King baldwin comes to my mind. He wasnt really a king, heres a quote that Im doing from memory "Do not call me king where the king of kings was born. Nor shall I wear a crown where my savior wore one of thorns" Pious guy , and a lucky one at that (The fact that the crusades captured anything was pure luck).

One modern nation that I think excelled at war were the germans. They were said to be cool-headed and treated war as a business, not a passion. They almost defeated 3 nations in ww1 almost by themselves and defeated France in 1 week alone in ww2.