Olga of Kiev burnt down villages using pigeons, buried her enemies alive, and was generally no saint – except she was, because she was literally anointed a saint for her efforts. Her title? “Equal to the apostles.”
Basically, after conducting a reign of terror on the Drevlians, the people who’d killed her husband – burying them alive, locking them in a bathhouse and setting it on fire, poisoning a ton of people at a banquet – she arrived at the Drevlian city gates. They were like, “What the fuck will it take you to go away!? We surrender already!” and she replied, “Oh, really? Well, just as a token of goodwill, give me 3 pigeons and 3 sparrows from each home.” (they had thatched roofs and apparently a real bird infestation problem).
The Drevlians, thinking they got off easy, dutifully handed over the birds. Olga promptly tied burning bags of sulfur to said birds and sent them all home at once, thus igniting the entire city. When people fled out of the city gates, her men stabbed them. Thus ended the Drevlians.
Worth noting: this whole story is almost certainly old-school Russian propaganda, but it’s really fun propaganda. Notably, Genghis Khan was said to have done the same thing, except with setting cats on fire. While it’s unlikely either are true, if both are, it’d mean Genghis might have taken a lesson from Olga, which is a prospect that amuses me.
FantasyBoudicca 