A list of politicians who are or have been a head of state (constitutional monarchs, ceremonial presidents, etc); or a head of government (absolute monarchs, prime ministers, executive presidents, etc).
The term "head of state" is a little bit confusing to countries like the United States, where the President is both the head of state and the head of government. The head of state is the ceremonial representative of the country, the head of government runs the country. That's why in the United Kingdom, the King or Queen is the head of state, while the Prime Minister is the head of government. In the British overseas territories and the Commonwealth realms, the Governor General is the de facto head of state as the personal representative of the monarch, and the Prime Minister is that country's head of government. But we won't make that distinction here; anyone who is some sort of national leader qualifies for this list.
- Skanderbeg (Prince of Kastrioti from 1443 to 1468 and Chief of the League of Lezhë from 1443 to 1468)
- Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
- Juan Domingo Perón
- Isabel Perón
- Jorge Rafael Videla *
- Raúl Alfonsín
- Carlos Menem
- Fernando de la Rúa
- Adolfo Rodríguez Saá
- Eduardo Duhalde
- Néstor Kirchner
- Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
- Mauricio Macri
- Javier Milei
- Prime Ministers of Australia (as well as Deputy Prime Ministers and Opposition Leaders who never made it over the line to become PM)
- Brazilian Empire
- Pedro II (second and last Emperor of Brazil)
- Luis Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias (President of the Council of Ministers, or Prime Minister)
- Presidents of the Brazilian Republic
- Presidents of Chile
- Augusto Pinochet: Military dictator and President of Chile (1973-1990).
- Imperial Chinanote
- Qin Shi Huangdi: Chinese Emperor (259-210 BC)
- Taizong of Tang: Chinese Emperor (598/9 - 649 AD)
- Wu Zetian: Chinese Emperor (624-705 AD)
- Modern Chinanote
- Fulgencio Batista: President from 1940-1944 and 1952-1959.
- Fidel Castro: Leader from 1959-2008 (as Prime Minister from 1959-1976, then as President from 1976-2008, as well as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba 1965 to 2011).
- Ancient Egypt
- Hatshepsut
- Akhenaten
- Tutankhamun
- Ramses II
- Alexander the Great (See "Greece" below)
- Cleopatra VII
- Modern Egypt
- Gamal Abdel Nasser: President from 1956 to 1970.
- Predecessor states of unified France
- Kingdom of France (before the French Revolution, and during the Bourbon Restoration)
- Louis XI
- Caterina de Medici: Queen consort of King Henry II.
- Louis XIII
- Cardinal Richelieu: Chief minister of Louis XIII.
- Cardinal Mazarin: Second Chief minister of Louis XIII then during the regency after the latter's death.
- Louis XIV, the Sun-King; undisputed longest-reigning monarch of any sovereign state in world history
- Louis XV
- Louis XVI: Last monarch of the ancien régime
- Marie-Antoinette: Queen consort of King Louis XVI.
- French Republics and French Empires
- Maximilien Robespierre: Leading member of the Committee of Public Safety.
- Napoléon Bonaparte: (First Consul of the Republic 1799 – 1804; Emperor of the French 1804 – 1815)
- Joséphine de Beauharnais: Empress consort of Napoleon I.
- The Presidents of France
- Charles de Gaulle: (Chairman of Free French National Committee 1940-1944, President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1945, and President of the French Republic from 1959 to 1969).
- German monarchs (before and after the unification of the German Empire)
- Maximilian I
- Charles V (also Spain)
- Prussian Kings (also German Emperors from 1871 to 1918)
- Frederick the Great: King of Prussia 1740-1786
- Wilhelm II: King of Prussia and Kaiser of Imperial Germany 1888-1918
- Ludwig II of Bavaria: King of Bavaria 1864-1886
- The Chancellors of Germany
- Otto von Bismarck
- Adolf Hitler: Chancellor, Führer, and dictator of Nazi Germany (1933-1945)
- Joseph Goebbels: Chancellor of Nazi Germany for less than a day (1945)
- Angela Merkel: Chancellor from 2005 to 2021
- The Presidents of Germany
- Karl Dönitz: President for about a week in 1945.
- Alexander the Great (King of the Macedonian Empire from 336 BCE to 323 BCE)
- Matthias Corvinus (King of Hungary from 1458 to 1490, also King of Croatia during the same years)
- The Pradhaan Mantris (Prime Ministers of India)
- The Rashtrapathis (Presidents of India)
Iran / Persia
- Persian/Iranian monarchs
- Islamic Republic of Iran
- Hassan Rouhani (President from 2013 to 2021)
Iraq / Mesopotamia
- Ancient Mesopotamia
- Hammurabi (King of Babylon)
- Ba'athist Iraq
- Saddam Hussein (President of Iraq 1979-2003, Prime Minister 1979-1991 and 1994-2003, and Vice President 1968-1979)
- Ancient Rome
- Kings
- Romulus
- Titus Tatius (co-ruler of Rome with Romulus until his death)
- Numa Pompilius
- Tullus Hostilius
- Ancus Marcius
- Tarquinius Priscus
- Servius Tullius
- Tarquinius Superbus
- Consuls and Dictators
- Roman Emperors
- Kings
- Modern Italy
- Benito Mussolini: Prime Minister, Duce, and dictator of the Kingdom of Italy (1922-1943) and the Italian Social Republic (1943-1945).
- Feudal Japan
- Date Masamune: 16th century Japanese warlord and Daimyō of Sendai Domain (1600–1636)
- Oda Nobunaga: 16th century Japanese warlord.
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi: 16th century Japanese warlord.
- Tokugawa Ieyasu: 16th-17th century Japanese warlord and Shōgun (1603–1605)
- Imperial Japan
- Hideki Tojo: Prime Minister of Japan from 1941 to 1944.
Korea (North, South, and undivided)
- Korean monarchs (before Japanese colonial rule)
- Seondeok: Queen regnant from 632–647.
- The House of I
- Crown Prince Sado: Regent from 1749–1762.
- Yeonsan-gun of Joseon
- The House of Wang
- Modern Korea (after World War II)
- Muammar Gaddafi: Military dictator of Libya (1969-2011). His official titles were "Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council" (1969–1977) and "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution" (1979–2011).
- Genghis Khan (first Khagan of the Mongol Empire from 1206 to 1227)
- Einar Gerhardsen: Prime Minister from 1945 to 1965 (with a brief two-week vacation in 1963).
- Ferdinand Marcos (President 1965–1986, Prime Minister 1978-1981)
- Kingdom of Portugal
- Republic of Portugal
- António de Oliveira Salazar (Prime Minister of Portugal 1932–1968)
- Vlad the Impaler (Prince of Wallachia)
- Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire
- Ivan the Terrible (1547–1584)
- Peter the Great: Tsar (1689–1721), Emperor (1721-1725)
- Catherine the Great (1762–1796)
- Nicholas II (1894-1917)
- Soviet Union
- Vladimir Lenin: Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR (1917–1924) and of the USSR (1923-1924)
- Josef Stalin: General Secretary of the CPSU (1922-1952) and Chairman of the Council of Ministers (1941-1953)
- Georgy Malenkov: Premier (1953-1955)
- Nikita Khrushchev: First Secretary of the CPSU (1953–1964), Premier (1958–1964)
- Leonid Brezhnev: General Secretary of the CPSU (1964–1982), Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1960–1964; 1977–1982)
- Yuri Andropov: General Secretary of the CPSU (1982–1984), Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1984-1984)
- Konstantin Chernenko: General Secretary of the CPSU (1984-1985), Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1984-1985)
- Mikhail Gorbachev: General Secretary of the CPSU (1985–1991), Chairman of the Supreme Soviet (1989-1990), President (1990-1991)
- Russian Federation
- Boris Yeltsin: President (1991-1991)
- Vladimir Putin: President (2000-2008; 2012-present), Prime Minister (1999-2000; 2008-2012)
- Josip Broz Tito (as Prime Minister of Yugoslavia 1944–1963, as President 1953-1980)
- Slobodan Milošević (As president of the constituent Republic of Serbia 1989–1997, as president of Yugoslavia 1997-2000)
- Pre-colonial and colonial-era states
- Shaka Zulu (Zulu Kingdom)
- Modern South Africa
- Spanish monarchs
- The Catholic Monarchs (Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile)
- Joanna of Castile
- Charles V (also Germany)
- Philip II (also Portugal)
- Philip III (also Portugal)
- Philip IV (also Portugal)
- Charles II of Spain
- Philip V
- Ferdinand VI
- Charles III of Spain
- Ferdinand VII
- Francisco Franco (Caudillo of Spain from 1939 to 1975, still dead at last report)
Turkey / Ottoman Empire
- Suleiman the Magnificent: Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1520-1566).
- Idi Amin: Military dictator and President of Uganda (1971-1979).
United Kingdom / Great Britain
- Ancient/early-medieval Britain
- Boudica: Queen of the Iceni tribe in the 1st century AD.
- Edmund the Martyr: King of East Anglia in the 9th century AD.
- English/British monarchy
- Royal dynasties
- The House of Wessex (829 - 1013; 1014 - 16; 1042 - 66)note
- The House of Normandy (1066 - 1135/54)note
- The House of Plantagenet (1154 - 1485)note
- The House of Tudor (1485 - 1603)note
- The House of Stuart (1603 - 49; 1660 - 1714)note
- The House of Hanover (1714 - 1901)
- The House of Windsor (1901 - present)note
- The British Royal Family
- Individual monarchs (all rulers of England/Britain unless otherwise specified)
- Alfred the Great (Petty King of Wessex; styled "King of the Anglo-Saxons" although he did not rule over a united England)
- Æthelflæd (Lady of Mercia)
- Henry II, Curtmantle or FitzEmpress, also (retroactively) Plantagenet
- Eleanor of Aquitaine (Duchess of Aquitaine suo jure and Consort of Henry II)
- Richard the Lionheart (Richard I)
- John, Lackland
- Henry III
- Edward I, Longshanks or Hammer of the Scots
- Robert the Bruce (Robert I, King of Scots)
- Richard II
- Henry IV, Bolingbroke
- Edward IV
- Richard III
- Henry VIII
- Mary I, Bloody Mary
- Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen or Gloriana
- Mary, Queen of Scots
- James VI and I (VI of Scotland and I of England and Ireland)
- Charles I
- Charles II, the Merry Monarch
- James II (II of England and Ireland; also VII of Scotland)
- George III
- Queen Victoria
- Elizabeth II
- Charles III
- Royal dynasties
- Oliver Cromwell (Lord Protector of the English Commonwealth, 1653-1658)
- British Prime Ministers
- Robert Walpole
- William Pitt The Elder
- Lord North
- William Pitt The Younger
- Spencer Perceval
- Lord Liverpool
- George Canning
- Viscount Goderich
- The Duke of Wellington
- The Earl Grey
- Viscount Melbourne
- Robert Peel
- Earl Russell
- The Earl of Derby
- The Earl of Aberdeen
- The Viscount Palmerston
- Benjamin Disraeli
- William Gladstone
- Marquess of Salisbury
- The Earl of Rosebery
- Arthur Balfour
- Henry Campbell-Bannerman
- Herbert Henry Asquith
- David Lloyd George
- Bonar Law
- Stanley Baldwin
- Ramsay MacDonald
- Neville Chamberlain
- Winston Churchill
- Clement Attlee
- Anthony Eden
- Harold Macmillan
- Alec Douglas-Home
- Harold Wilson
- Edward Heath
- James Callaghan
- Margaret Thatcher
- John Major
- Tony Blair
- Gordon Brown
- David Cameron
- Theresa May
- Boris Johnson
- Liz Truss
- Rishi Sunak
- Presidents of the United States of America
- George Washington
- John Adams
- Thomas Jefferson
- James Madison
- James Monroe
- John Quincy Adams
- Andrew Jackson
- Martin Van Buren
- William Henry Harrison
- John Tyler
- James K. Polk
- Zachary Taylor
- Millard Fillmore
- Franklin Pierce
- James Buchanan
- Abraham Lincoln
- Andrew Johnson
- Ulysses S. Grant
- Rutherford B. Hayes
- James Garfield
- Chester A. Arthur
- Grover Cleveland
- Benjamin Harrison
- Grover Cleveland
- William McKinley
- Theodore Roosevelt
- William Howard Taft
- Woodrow Wilson
- Warren G. Harding
- Calvin Coolidge
- Herbert Hoover
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Harry S. Truman
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- John F. Kennedy
- Lyndon Johnson
- Richard Nixon
- Gerald Ford
- Jimmy Carter
- Ronald Reagan
- George H. W. Bush
- Bill Clinton
- George W. Bush
- Barack Obama
- Donald Trump
- Joe Biden
- Jefferson Davis: The first, last, and only President of the Confederate States of America (1861-1865).
Vatican City / Papal States
- Hugo Chávez: President of Venezuela, 1999-2013.
- Ian Smith: Prime Minister of Rhodesia, 1964-79.
Other
- Attila the Hun (Hunnic Empire)
- Simón Bolívar (South America)note
- Charlemagne (Carolingian Empire)note
- Grand Vizier Jafar (Abbasid Caliphate)
- Timur the Lame (Timurid Empire)
- Other Royal Families (current and former dynasties around the world)