JAMES BRADLEY
While that is certainly true and has been borne out by history, the same thing can be said of democratic rulers and even many democratic politicians of lower rank. Yes men abound and not politicians not only want them but arguably need them in order to maintain the assurance and positivity that most voters associate with good leadership.
James Bradley FRS (1692–1762) was an English astronomer and priest who served as the third Astronomer Royal from 1742. He is best known for two fundamental discoveries in astronomy, the aberration of light (1725–1728), and the nutation of the Earth's axis (1728–1748). These discoveries were called "the most brilliant and useful of the century" by Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, historian of astronomy, mathematical astronomer and director of the Paris Observatory, in his history of astronomy in the 18th century (1821), because "It is to these two discoveries by Bradley that we owe the exactness of modern astronomy. ... This double service assures to their discoverer the most distinguished place (after Hipparchus and Kepler) above the greatest astronomers of all ages and all countries."
