I agree, but not with the part where you're terrified to be in his shoes.
In his shoes, I'd have lived like a Kingly Bastard, and just like everyone else, had to die some day, and that day came after milking life beyond its last drop... He would have had to be pretty unconscious or foolish to go all this time, or even make the first step with the end in mind (and I think someone of his caliber knew what the end was, as he first undertook the means to it), fearing that end. If that's what happened, then I agree.. but I don't think that's how it happened.
I think that even if I were such a tyrant, I couldn't have made it so far without a pretty accurate understanding of how life works, so that when the noose went around my head, it would have felt like the Right thing. I would have gone with a clear conscience.
That's what I mean when I say he is not special.. he went out in an orderly way, relative to the seeds he'd planted.
I don't mean to split hairs, just pointing out why I come to a different conclusion from the same premise.