She forced a prince to marry her, then destroyed his rivals

Olga of Kiev

She was born into the brutal, raw world of the early medieval Kievan Rus' around the beginning of the tenth century. She married Prince Igor, the ruler of Kiev, throwing her directly into the center of a volatile, high-stakes realm built on tribute and military might.

Her life completely shattered in 945 when Igor went to collect tribute from the rebellious Drevlian tribe. The Drevlians grew tired of his increasing financial demands, captured the prince, tied him to bent birch trees, and released them, tearing his body in half. Because her son Svyatoslav was only a toddler, the young widow immediately assumed the regency, leaving a tribe of brutal warriors thinking they could easily crush and manipulate a helpless woman.

The Drevlians severely underestimated her rage. Hoping to claim the throne of Kiev, they sent twenty of their top ambassadors to suggest that Olga marry their own Prince Mal. Olga welcomed the diplomats warmly, told them she would honour them the next day, and instructed them to stay in their boats. Overnight, her men dug a massive, deep trench. The next morning, the Drevlian ambassadors were carried in their boats straight to the trench and thrown inside. Olga walked to the edge, looked down at them, and ordered her men to bury the screaming diplomats alive.

Instead of stopping there, Olga launched a masterful psychological trap to destroy the rest of the Drevlian leadership. She sent a message to Prince Mal pretending to accept his proposal but demanding their most distinguished men come to Kiev to escort her. When this second, prestigious delegation arrived, Olga offered them entry to a bathhouse to clean themselves after their long journey. As soon as the Drevlian elite walked inside, her soldiers bolted the heavy wooden doors from the outside and burned the building to the ground, incinerating everyone within the walls.

With the Drevlian leadership effectively decapitated, Olga marched her army straight into their territory. She held a massive funeral feast for her husband on Drevlian land, inviting the remaining tribal elites to drink with her in a show of peace. Once the Drevlians became heavily intoxicated and defenseless, Olga gave a ruthless command to her soldiers. Her army fell upon the drunk tribesmen, slaughtering over five thousand of them in a single night of absolute carnage.

Her final, most famous act of vengeance came during the siege of the Drevlian capital of Iskorosten. After a year of stalemate, Olga offered a peaceful surrender, asking only for a tiny tribute of three pigeons and three sparrows from each house. The relieved townspeople gladly gathered the birds and sent them to her. That night, Olga ordered her soldiers to tie sulfur wrapped in small pieces of cloth to the feet of each bird. When the birds were released, they flew straight back to their nests in the thatched roofs of the city. Iskorosten erupted into a massive, unstoppable firestorm, and Olga's troops slaughtered or enslaved every single person fleeing the flames.

Having utterly erased her enemies from history, Olga transitioned from a ruthless warlord into a brilliant, visionary state builder. She completely overhauled the tribute system, creating the first legal administrative reforms in Eastern Europe. In the 950s, she traveled to Constantinople and converted to Christianity, becoming one of the very first rulers of the Rus' to embrace the faith. She died peacefully on 11 July 969, and her tireless efforts to spread Christianity eventually led the Eastern Orthodox Church to canonize her as a saint, forever cementing her legacy as a terrifying warrior and a holy icon.