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.
- Presidents of Chile
- Augusto Pinochet: Military dictator and President of Chile (1973-1990).
- Imperial Chinanote
- Qin Shi Huangdi: Chinese Emperor (259-210 BC)
- Wu Zetian: Chinese Empress (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).
- Ancient Egypt
- Akhenaten
- Tutankhamun
- Ramses II
- Alexander the Great (See "Greece" below)
- Cleopatra VII
- Modern Egypt
- Gamal Abdel Nasser: President from 1956 to 1970.
- Kingdom of France
- Louis XI
- Louis XIII
- Cardinal Richelieu: Chief minister of Louis XIII.
- Louis XIV
- Louis XV
- Louis XVI
- Marie Antoinette: Queen consort of King Louis XVI.
- Revolutionary/Napoleonic France
- Maximilien Robespierre: Leading member of the Committee of Public Safety.
- Napoléon Bonaparte: First Consul of the Republic, then made himself the Emperor of France.
- Modern France
- The Presidents of France
- Charles de Gaulle: President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1945 and President of the French Republic from 1958 to 1969.
- The Presidents of France
- Pre-Unification
- Maximilian I
- Charles V (Also Spain)
- Prussian Kings
- Frederick the Great: King of Prussia 1740-1786
- King Ludwig II of Bavaria: King of Bavaria 1864-1886
- Post-Unification
- The Chancellors of Germany
- Otto von Bismarck
- Adolf Hitler: Chancellor, Führer, and dictator of Nazi Germany (1933-1945).
- Angela Merkel
- The Presidents of Germany
- The Chancellors of Germany
Iran / Persia
- Persian Empire
- Modern Iran
- Ancient Rome
- Roman Republic
- Roman Emperors
- 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.
- Fuuma Kotaro: 16th century Japanese warlord.
- Oda Nobunaga: 16th century Japanese warlord.
- Tokugawa Ieyasu: 16th-17th century Japanese warlord.
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi: 16th century Japanese warlord.
- Modern Japan
- Hideki Tojo: War Minister and Prime Minister of Japan during most of World War II.
Korea (North, South, and pre-1948)
- Before 1948:
- The House of I
- Crown Prince Sado: Regent from 1749–1762.
- Yeonsan-gun of Joseon
- The House of Wang
- The House of I
- Afterwards:
- Muammar Gaddafi: Military dictator of Libya (1969-2011). His official titles were "Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council" and "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution".
- Einar Gerhardsen: Prime Minister from 1945 to 1965 (with a brief two-week vacation in 1963).
- Joanna of Castile
- Charles V (also Germany)
- Francisco Franco (still dead at last report)
- 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
- Individual Monarchs
- Alfred the Great
- Æthelflæd
- Henry II
- Eleanor of Aquitaine (Henry II's Queen)
- Richard the Lionheart
- John
- Henry III
- Edward I
- Robert the Bruce
- Richard II
- Henry IV
- Richard III
- Henry VIII
- Mary I
- Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen.
- Mary, Queen of Scots
- James VI and I
- Charles I
- Charles II
- James II
- Queen Victoria
- Elizabeth II
- English Commonwealth
- Oliver Cromwell (Lord Protector, 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
- Arthur Balfour
- Henry Campbell-Bannerman
- Herbert Henry Asquith
- David Lloyd George
- Bonar Law
- Stanley Baldwin
- Ramsay Mac Donald
- 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
- The 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.
Other
- Attila the Hun (Hunnic Empire)
- Simón Bolívar (South America)note
- Charlemagne (Carolingian Empire, counts for Germany, France, the Low Countries and Northern Italy)
- Grand Vizier Jafar (Abbasid Caliphate)
- Hammurabi (Babylon)
- Nelson Mandela (South Africa)
- Other Royal Families (everywhere that's not the UK or Monaco)
- Shaka Zulu (Zulu Kingdom)
- Timur the Lame (Timurid Empire)
