History textbooks portray kings and queens with flattering portraits and battle victories, but many of history’s most powerful monarchs have had gruesome, humiliating, and downright strange deaths.
King Edward II of England
Deposed by his wife Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer, Edward II spent his imprisonment and was murdered at Berkeley Castle.
Legend says that orders were given that he should be killed in such a way that his body showed no outward signs of mistreatment. The infamous tale claims that this was achieved by forcing a red-hot iron spit into his bowels.
King Martin of Aragon
King Martin I died from deadly indigestion mixed with uncontrollable laughter. Having just eaten a whole roasted eel, King Martin lay down in his bed chambers to rest with stomach pains.
As his jester walked in and joked about a deer hanging from its tail, Martin started to giggle, and before he knew it, he began to choke and died on the spot.
King Alexander III of Scotland
In March 1286, King Alexander III was attending a Royal Council meeting in Edinburgh. It was his second wife’s birthday, and he wanted to get back to her at Kinghorn.
That night there was a violent storm, yet Alexander wanted to ride through it. His nobles and the local ferryman both advised against it.
Lost in the whiteout, Alexander strayed from his guides. His horse slipped near the mouth of a coastal cliff. The King fell from his horse down an embankment and broke his neck.
King George II of Great Britain
King George II was 77 years old when, on October 25, 1760, he arose at 6: 00 am, had his bowl of hot chocolate, and entered his water closet to go to the toilet.
Several minutes later, his valet heard a crashing sound and discovered the king lying on the floor. He had died from a rupture of his aortic aneurysm due to the stress of defecation.
Qin Shi Huang, First Emperor of China
China’s mighty emperor who unified the nation and created the Terracotta Army was deathly afraid of dying. His search for immortality led his court alchemists to concoct elixirs of liquid mercury they assured would prolong his life.
Instead, ingesting toxic mercury pills killed his brain and organs slowly on a journey through his empire. Traveling advisers hid his decomposing body in a cart littered with rotting fish to mask the smell.
King James I of Scotland
King James I was sleeping in his lodgings at Perth when assassins entered. He lifted up floorboards and dropped through into the sewer vault beneath his bedroom, hoping to slip out into the courtyard through the sewer.
However, three days previously James had his escape route covered up when he had the drain bricked over after constantly losing tennis balls down it. Trapped in the dark, he was discovered and killed.
Duke Jing of Jin
Once, a Chinese shaman predicted Duke Jing would not live to see the summer harvest. On the day the new wheat was brought in, Duke Jing had it cooked into porridge. He had the shaman brought to him, executed him for being incorrect, and sat down to eat.
Just before taking his first spoonful, he suffered sudden intestinal cramps. Rushing to the palace privy, he fell into the pit and drowned in human waste.
King Bela I of Hungary
King Bela I spent three years on the throne of Hungary. His time ruling came to a sudden and embarrassing halt. During a royal council session in 1063, he sat on his large wooden throne. The huge wooden throne crashed down from on high with King Bela still seated upon it.
The king was crushed under its weight and badly injured. He was cut from the remains of his throne, dying soon afterwards from his injuries.
King Frederick Barbarossa
Frederick Barbarossa was the Holy Roman Emperor on Crusade. Leading a large army, he tried to cross the Saleph River in what is now Turkey. The bridge was too small to cross all at once, so the old 67-year-old Emperor decided to take a dip.
He rode his horse into the rushing water without hesitation. Frederick fell from his horse and his heavy suit of iron plate dragged him underwater, killing him in shallow water while his army watched in horror.
King Henry I of England
Ignoring his physician’s orders, the English king ate himself into a stupor with his favorite food: lampreys. These bizarre creatures are ancient, jawless fish that resemble giant eels.
He supposedly died of a surfeit of lampreys, suffering from extreme food poisoning and explosive gastrointestinal failure.
King Edmund II of England
Best known by the epithet “Ironside”, Edmund fought hard against Danish invaders but died from humble surroundings. Medieval historians, such as Henry of Huntingdon, wrote that Edmund was sitting on a toilet when he was killed.
He was supposedly relieving himself privately when a dagger or spear was pushed upwards through a hole in the seat by a man hiding in a cesspit beneath.
King William the Conqueror
As William rode through the burning city of Mantes, his horse stepped on hot ashes. The obese king was catapulted forward hard against his iron pommel, busting open his internal organs.
He died weeks later from his injuries in great pain. At his funeral, the swollen corpse was too big for the stone sarcophagus. As priests forced his body inside, it ruptured, releasing a horrid smell that caused the congregation to flee outdoors.
King William II of England
King William “Rufus” was out hunting in the New Forest when he was shot in the chest with an arrow from behind. It is unknown if it was an accident or murder, but the arrow happened to be from one of his nobles, Sir Walter Tirel.
Nobles left the king to die lying in the woods while they fled to protect their own land. The man who happened to pick up William’s body was a local charcoal burner.
King Charles II of Navarre
Nicknamed “Charles the Bad,” this monarch fell ill in his fifties. The cure his doctor prescribed was to swaddle himself head to toe in linen sheets doused in brandy to “heat his blood.”
Having bound the king snugly, a servant girl sliced away the extra fabric with a burning candle thread rather than with scissors. The flame caught the brandy-soaked sheets, setting King Charles ablaze immediately.
King Louis III of France
The teenage king, aged 18, was chasing a young lady who was fleeing from him towards her father’s residence.
He was on horseback and didn’t see a small wooden archway that passed over a doorway. He struck his head on the beam, cracked his skull open, and died soon after.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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13 people in history who were betrayed by their closest allies
The ugliest betrayals in history are the ones that come from the people who were trusted the most, like relatives and other loved ones.
13 people in history who were betrayed by their closest allies
