A court was the most dangerous room in any kingdom. Proximity to a crown brought land and titles, and it brought the block, the tower and the quiet disappearance — usually decided by people who had dined with you.
Every story in Kings, queens & courts
- Ras Al Khaimah · 1985Al Qasimi Palace: the Ras Al Khaimah Palace No One Lived InA sheikh spent a reported half a billion dirhams on a hilltop palace, then never moved in. The reason is documented. The reason people repeat is not.
- Greenwich · 1966The Tulip Staircase Ghost: What the 1966 Photograph Really ShowsThe experts who examined the famous Greenwich ghost photograph agreed on something the legend never mentions: there must have been someone on the stairs.
- Place des Terreaux, Lyon · 1642The King's Favourite Who Bet Against RichelieuA dazzling young courtier gambled his head against Cardinal Richelieu, and lost it in a public square.
- Jerusalem · 1185The Leper King's Story No Film Would ShowKingdom of Heaven gave him a dignified death behind a silver mask, the truth was far crueller.
- Tyburn, London · 1760The Only Peer Ever Hanged At TyburnA violent nobleman was hanged before a stunned crowd who never expected to see a lord die on the public gallows.
Horsemonger Lane, London · 1803The Colonel Accused Of Plotting To Kill The KingA decorated officer was drawn on a hurdle and beheaded before twenty thousand silent Londoners for a plot historians still debate.
Tower of London, London · 1671The Rogue Who Was Pardoned For Stealing The Crown JewelsCaught red-handed trying to steal the Crown Jewels, he was somehow pardoned and rewarded by the king he robbed.
Cajamarca · 1533The Ransom That Could Not Save An EmperorA tiny band of conquistadors murdered the Inca emperor after taking the largest ransom in history.
Querétaro · 1867The Emperor Who Faced A Firing Squad With DignityAn Austrian archduke lured onto Mexico's throne met a firing squad with a courage that stunned the world.
The Hague · 1672The Brothers Torn Apart By Their Own CountrymenThe leaders of a wealthy, sophisticated republic were torn apart and cannibalised by their own citizens in broad daylight.
Lake Starnberg · 1886The Fairy-Tale King Who Drowned In A LakeA dreaming king who built spectacular castles was declared insane without examination, and died in a lake days later under circumstances still unsolved.
London · 1714The Real Queen Behind The FavouriteThe film shows a campy love triangle, but the real queen buried seventeen children and ruled in constant physical agony.- Sandringham · 1936The King's Death That Was A Secret For Fifty YearsFor half a century the official story was a peaceful passing — until a doctor's own diary revealed the truth.
Gravesend · 1617The Real Woman Behind The Disney PrincessThe real Pocahontas endured war, abduction and forced conversion, and died thousands of miles from everything she knew.
Naples · 1268The Boy-King Beheaded In A Market SquareThe last heir of a glittering medieval dynasty was publicly beheaded at sixteen, horrifying all of Christendom.
Copenhagen · 1772The Doctor Who Ruled A Kingdom In SecretA small-town physician became lover of the queen and ruler of Denmark in all but name — before a scaffold in front of thirty thousand.- Nancy · 1477The Duke Who Fell In A Frozen DitchOne of Europe's richest rulers ended as a half-frozen corpse in a marsh, identifiable only by his scars.
Istanbul · 1185The Emperor Who Faced The Mob With A PrayerA Byzantine emperor who showed no mercy to others met his own three-day public destruction with astonishing calm.
Berlin · 1937The King Who Met Hitler After His ThroneA year after giving up his crown for love, the former king toured Nazi Germany and gave the salute.
Tuileries Palace, Paris · 1792The Guards Who Died For A King Who FledHundreds of soldiers died defending a palace the king they served had already abandoned.
Geneva · 1898The Empress Who Walked Away From Her Own MurderStabbed through the heart by an assassin who wanted someone else, she got up, brushed herself off, and kept walking.
Alexandria · 30 BCThe Queen Rome Rewrote Into A VillainThe seductress of legend was largely built by the propaganda of the man who defeated her.
Berkeley Castle, Berkeley · 1327The King Who May Have Escaped His MurderThe red-hot poker story may be propaganda; a mysterious letter claims the deposed king actually escaped his own killing.
Tower of London, London · 1483The Princes Who Vanished From The TowerTwo boy princes disappeared inside the Tower of London, and after five centuries no one can prove what happened to them.
Redhill · 1987The Queen's Cousins Hidden And Presumed DeadListed as dead for decades, two first cousins of the Queen were quietly living in a long-stay institution.
Baiae · 59Strike The Womb That Bore NeroSent assassins by her own son, she bared her stomach and dared them to strike the womb that had borne an emperor.
Hampton Court, London · 1555The Phantom Pregnancies Of Bloody MaryEngland's first queen regnant endured two phantom pregnancies while Parliament prepared for a birth that never came.
Rome · 768The Pope Blinded Instead Of KilledHis rivals didn't execute him for stealing the papacy, they put out his eyes instead, a punishment worse than death.
Place de la Révolution, Paris · 1794Devoured By The Revolutionary Machine He BuiltHe helped build the tribunal that sent thousands to the guillotine, and then it turned on him too.
New Forest, Hampshire · 1100The King Killed By An Arrow And The Brother Who ProfitedA king died in a forest with an arrow through his chest, and his brother was crowned just three days later.
Tower of London, London · 1542The Queen Beheaded While The Men Went FreeThe youngest, least powerful person at the centre of the scandal was the only one who lost her head.- Ahlden · 1694The Queen Locked Away For Twenty YearsBritain's first Hanoverian king arrived with no queen, because his former wife was locked in a remote manor, all but erased.
Rome · 64Nero Never Fiddled While Rome BurnedThe most famous image of imperial cruelty in Roman history turns out to be almost entirely fabricated.
Place de la Révolution, Paris · 1793The Mistress Who Refused To Die With DignityUnlike every noble before her on the scaffold, she screamed, wept, and begged the crowd for her life.
Place de la Révolution, Paris · 1793She Wrote Women's Rights Into Existence And Was GuillotinedShe demanded the Revolution include women too, and was sent to the same scaffold she had once written about.
Place de la Révolution, Paris · 1794The Innocent Princess Who Comforted Others To Her DeathHer only crime was being born a king's sister, and she spent her final minutes comforting the fellow prisoners dying beside her.
Tordesillas · 1509The Queen Locked Away For Forty-Six YearsBranded 'mad' by the men who wanted her throne, she may have been one of history's most cruelly wronged queens.
Forlì · 1500The Tiger Who Defied The BorgiasA warrior noblewoman who ruled her own city outright dared to defy the most dangerous family in Italy.
Place de la Révolution, Paris · 1794Betrayed By The Friend Who Stood At Their WeddingThe revolutionary firebrand and his devoted wife were destroyed by the very friend who once witnessed their marriage.
Ferrara · 1519The Poisoner Legend That Was Almost Entirely FalseHistory remembers her as a scheming poisoner, but she was really a pawn sold and blamed by the men who used her.
Lumphanan · 1057The Real King Shakespeare Turned Into A MurdererThe real Macbeth was a capable, pious king, so how did propaganda transform him into history's most famous murderer?
Place de la Révolution, Paris · 1793She Faced The Statue Of Liberty Before The Blade FellDestroyed by the revolution she helped build, she turned to a statue of Liberty for her final, famous words.
Xi'an · 210 BCThe Buried Army Guarding A Still-Sealed TombFarmers digging a well uncovered thousands of clay soldiers guarding a tomb that has stayed sealed for over two thousand years.
Rome · 222The Boy Emperor Rome Tried To EraseRome hated him so completely that after killing him, they tried to stuff his body down a sewer to deny him even a grave.
Westminster, London · 1481The Child Bride Whose Coffin Vanished For 500 YearsShe died before she was nine, a pawn of kings, and her tiny coffin was lost until a digging machine tore it open centuries later.
Barnet, London · 1471The Kingmaker Who Died By His Own KingsThe man who made and unmade English kings was finally cut down on the battlefield of his own choosing.
Berkeley Castle, Berkeley · 1327The She-Wolf Who Overthrew Her Own KingA humiliated queen raised an army against her own husband and brought down a King of England.
Rome · 1497The Borgia Pope's Unsolved Family MurderThe pope's own favourite son was murdered and dumped in the Tiber, with suspicion pointing straight at his own brother.
Tower Hill, London · 1521The Duke Whose Royal Blood Was a Death SentenceHis royal Plantagenet blood made him too dangerous to live under a paranoid, sonless Henry VIII.
Paris · 1792The Queen's Friend Whose Head Was Paraded on a PikeShe could have fled the Revolution safely, but chose loyalty to Marie Antoinette, and it destroyed her horrifically.
Naqsh-e Rostam, near Persepolis · 260The Roman Emperor Carved Into a Persian CliffNo Roman emperor suffered a fate worse than his, captured alive and immortalised in stone as a monument to Roman humiliation.
Paris · 1610The Assassin Who Expected To Be A HeroA man stabbed France's most beloved king believing God had sent him, then waited calmly to be captured and celebrated.
Oxford Castle, Oxford · 1142The Empress Who Escaped Through The SnowTrapped in a besieged castle, England's rightful heir was lowered by rope into a snowstorm in white and walked to freedom.
Place de la Révolution, Paris · 1793The Last Farewell Of A Falling KingOn the eve of his execution, Louis XVI told his family he would return in the morning, knowing he never would.
Constantinople · 830The Bride An Emperor Insulted And Never ForgotA Byzantine emperor mocked a brilliant woman at his own bride show, then rode to her monastery decades later still unable to forget her.
Hever Castle, Edenbridge · 1540The Wife Henry VIII Called Ugly To SurviveHenry VIII destroyed his fourth wife's reputation to escape their marriage, and she outlived every wife who came after her.
Tower of London, London · 1542The Woman Who Served Five Doomed QueensA lady-in-waiting survived the fall of two Tudor queens before the scaffold finally came for her too.
Tower of London, London · 1535The Chancellor Who Said No To A KingHenry VIII's closest friend and Lord Chancellor refused to recognise him as head of the church, and paid with his head.
Alexandria · 30 BCCleopatra's Children, Rome's PrizeWithin weeks of Cleopatra's death, Rome hunted down all four of her children, starting with the teenage son of Julius Caesar.
Windsor Castle · 1861The Widow Who Froze A Room For Forty YearsAfter Prince Albert died, Victoria ordered his room preserved exactly as it was for forty unbroken years.
Flodden Field · 1513The Renaissance King Who Lost His Head For HonourScotland's most brilliant king marched to war for an old alliance, and his skull ended up as a curio on an Englishman's shelf.
Westminster, London · 1579The Pamphleteer Who Blessed The Queen With A Bloody StumpA Puritan lawyer wrote against Elizabeth I's marriage plans and paid with his hand, then astonished the crowd with what he did next.
Amarna · 1336 BCThe Pharaoh Who Erased Egypt's GodsA pharaoh tore down a thousand years of religion to worship a single sun god, and Egypt spent centuries erasing him for it.
Tyburn, London · 1541The Man Who Died Worse Than A QueenBefore Henry VIII ever met Catherine Howard, a secret in her past would drag her lover to a death crueler than her own.
Windsor · 1210The Warrior Wife King John Starved To DeathA woman who held a castle against thousands of Welshmen was locked in a dungeon by her own king and left to starve with her son.
Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh · 1567The Husband Blown Up And Strangled In A NightgownMary, Queen of Scots' hated husband was found dead in a garden after his lodging exploded — but he hadn't died in the blast.- Thebes · 1155 BCThe Pharaoh Murdered By His Own HaremA CT scan finally revealed the hidden throat wound that ended the reign of Egypt's last great pharaoh.
Hereford · 1326The Favourite Whose Body Was Sent To Four CitiesThe most hated man in England was executed and quartered so thoroughly that no part of him rested in one place.
Peter and Paul Fortress, St Petersburg · 1718The Son Peter The Great Had Beaten To DeathSentenced to death by his own father, the heir to Russia's throne died in his cell two days later under a knout.
Alexandrov · 1581The Staff That Killed A Tsar's Own HeirA row over his pregnant daughter-in-law's clothing ended with Ivan striking his own son with an iron-tipped staff.
Rome · 192The Emperor Who Fought As A Gladiator For FunGladiator showed him as a scheming villain — the real emperor clubbed amputees to death and billed the treasury for it.
Deir el-Bahri, Luxor · 1458 BCThe Female Pharaoh Erased After DeathShe ruled Egypt through one of its richest eras as a woman wearing the pharaoh's ceremonial beard — then someone tried to erase her.
Tower of London, London · 1554The Nine Days' Queen Who Watched Her Husband's Body PassShe saw her husband's headless body lifted from a cart, and walked to her own scaffold inside the hour.
Constantinople (Istanbul) · 1453The Emperor Who Vanished Into The Ottoman DarkThe last Roman emperor took off his purple robes, asked forgiveness of his men, and walked into the final battle of a 1,123-year empire.
Ipatiev House, Yekaterinburg · 1918The Family Told They Were Only Being MovedWoken at 2am and led to a basement for what they believed was a transfer to safety, the last imperial family brought pillows and their dog.
Tower Green, Tower of London, London · 1536The Queen And The Swordsman Of CalaisConvicted on evidence historians now doubt, a queen was beheaded with a sword — sent for from across the Channel before her trial had even returned a verdict.
Caen · 1087The Conqueror Whose Funeral Fell ApartThe king who took England died alone, stripped of his valuables, and his funeral turned into a grotesque disaster.
Berwick Castle, Berwick-upon-Tweed · 1306The Countess Locked In A Cage For Crowning A KingShe rode in secret to crown Robert the Bruce, and England answered by hanging her in an open cage.
Tower of London, London · 1541The Countess Who Ran From The Executioner's AxeA 67-year-old countess with no trial was told to prepare her soul — and the execution that followed was a butchery.
Pydna · 316 BCThe Queen Mother Who Walked Out To Face Her KillersThe mother of Alexander the Great terrified the soldiers sent to execute her so badly they refused.
Iskorosten (Korosten) · 945The Widow Who Burned A City With BirdsShe buried ambassadors alive, then burned more, then torched an entire city with sparrows carrying fire.
Prinsenhof, Delft · 1584The Bullet Holes Behind The Murder Hall GlassA fanatic waited behind a pillar for a prince to finish lunch, then fired the shots that made him the first head of state shot dead.
Châlus-Chabrol · 1199The Crossbow Bolt That Killed A Crusader KingA rich king besieging a tiny castle over buried treasure took an arrow he never saw coming.
Venice · 1004The Fork That Scandalized VeniceA Byzantine noblewoman marries into Venice's ruling dynasty and horrifies the city by eating with a two-pronged golden utensil instead of her fingers.
Tyre · 1200 BCThe Royal Dye Made From Rotting SnailsFor three thousand years the most coveted colour in the Mediterranean came from a revolting process involving thousands of crushed sea snails.
Tower of London, London · 1235When The Tower Of London Was A ZooFor six centuries England's monarchs kept lions, bears and a polar bear at the Tower, diplomatic gifts nobody knew how to care for.
Largo di Torre Argentina, Rome · 44 BCThe Assassination Of Rome's Most Powerful ManWarned by his wife's nightmare and a soothsayer's omen, Caesar walks into the Senate anyway, straight toward twenty-three daggers.
Tower of London, London · 1600The Birds Whose Wings Are Clipped ForeverLegend says England falls the day these birds leave the Tower, so their flight feathers are trimmed to make sure they never can.- Hungarian Plain · 453The Warlord Who Died On His Wedding NightA man who terrified the Roman Empire for decades survives every battlefield only to die drowning in his own blood in bed.
Place de la Concorde, Paris · 1793The Queen Who Faced The Guillotine With DignityA former queen with white hair and nothing left to lose is woken at dawn and told to prepare for the cart to the scaffold.- Old Palace Yard, Westminster, London · 1618The Widow Who Carried Her Husband's HeadA courtier condemned on a treason charge many believed engineered walks to the scaffold after one last failed gamble for gold.
Babylon · 323 BCThe Conqueror Whose Body Started A WarHe conquered more of the world than any king before him, then died with no heir — and his generals went to war over his corpse.
Čachtice Castle, Čachtice · 1610The Countess Bricked Into Her Own CastleOne of Europe's wealthiest women was sealed inside stone walls for the rest of her life over the deaths of her servants.
Tower Hill, London · 1685The Duke Who Paid The Headsman In AdvanceHe handed the executioner six guineas and begged him not to hack him apart like his last victim — it didn't work.
Bosworth Field · 1485The Last King To Die In Battle, Buried In A Car ParkHe charged straight at his rival hoping to end the war in one blow — and his naked body was slung over a horse and paraded through Leicester.
Rome · 211The Emperor Erased From Every PortraitHe murdered his co-emperor brother in their mother's arms — then had every trace of his face chiselled out of Rome.- Whitehall, London · 1649The King Who Would Not Be Seen To ShiverOn the coldest morning of his life, he asked for an extra shirt so no one would mistake his shivering for fear.
Tyburn, London · 1661The Lord Protector Executed After DeathTwo years after he died in his bed, the king's son had his corpse dug up, hanged, and beheaded.
Greenwich, London · 1593The Pirate Queen Who Sailed To See A QueenAt sixty-three, a sea-captain and pirate chieftain sailed straight to England to demand an audience with Elizabeth I.- Delft · 1584The Assassin Paid In His Victim's Own CoinA stranger too poor to attend church was given money for clothes — he used it to buy the pistols that killed his benefactor.
Tower of London, London · 1478The Duke Drowned In A Barrel Of WineHe betrayed his brother the king twice — and legend says his private execution ended in a butt of Malmsey wine.
Coimbra · 1355The Lovers Portugal Crowned After DeathA king's mistress was murdered in front of her children — and her lover later crowned her corpse queen.
Berwick-upon-Tweed · 1306Caged Above Berwick CastleFor crowning Robert the Bruce with her own hands, an English king locked her in an open cage on a castle wall for years.
Barfleur · 1120The Wreck That Sank a DynastyA drunken crew and a hidden rock drowned the only heir to the English throne on a single reckless night.
Fotheringhay · 1587The Queen Who Dressed for MartyrdomOn her final morning, she revealed a crimson gown beneath her black robes — the color of Catholic martyrdom.
Delhi · 1335Executed by Trained Elephants in DelhiA travelling scholar watched the Sultan's elephants, hooves fitted with blades, cut condemned men to pieces before a royal court.
East Molesey · 1487The Boy King Who Ended Up in the KitchensCrowned king in Dublin at age ten, the pretender's rebellion collapsed at Stoke Field — and he lived out his life turning meat in the royal kitchens.
Münster · 1534The Tailor Who Crowned Himself KingA 25-year-old tailor seized a German city, took sixteen wives, and declared himself king of a new Jerusalem.
London · 1534The Prophet Who Warned a KingShe told Henry VIII he would die within months if he married Anne Boleyn — and paid with her own head instead.
Tyburn, London · 1594The Queen's Physician on the GallowsThe only royal doctor ever executed in English history, his trial may have helped inspire Shakespeare's Shylock.
Tower of London, London · 1613Poisoned in the Tower Over a MarriageImprisoned on a diplomatic post designed to fail, he died slowly of a poison that took months to finish the job.
Hunsdon · 1536The Erased PrincessWeeks after her mother's execution, an Act of Parliament stripped the toddler of her title and left her begging for clothes.
Tower of London, London · 1499Fourteen Years in the Tower for His BloodlineLocked away as a boy for the crime of his birth, he emerged so isolated he could no longer recognize an animal.
Lahore · 1849The Diamond Taken From a Ten-Year-Old KingA legal trap stripped a child king of his mother, his throne, and the most famous diamond in the world.
Tower Green, Tower of London, London · 1601The Executioner He Made, the Axe That Took HimThe man who spared a killer to become London's hangman met that same executioner years later on his own scaffold.
Tower Hill, London · 1536The Man Who Refused to Save HimselfOffered a chance to save his own life, the King's closest attendant chose silence and the executioner's block instead.
Westminster Hall, London · 1521The Sword That Sealed a Traitor's FateBefore a word was spoken, prisoners at Westminster Hall could read their fate in which way the ceremonial blade pointed.
Tower Hill, London · 1547Executed for a Coat of ArmsA dying king found an excuse to destroy England's most powerful noble house over a painted family crest.
Greenwich, London · 1553The Boy King's Hidden CollapseBehind closed doors, the nine-year-old king who inherited a dynasty rotted from a lung disease his advisors desperately hid.
Cumnor, Oxfordshire · 1560The Fall That Kept Elizabeth UnmarriedA noblewoman was found dead at the foot of a staircase, and the mystery cost her husband his chance to marry a queen.- Windsor · 1547The Rotting Death of Henry VIIIEngland's most feared king died fat, diseased, and stinking of infection in a bed few dared approach.
- Flint Castle, North Wales · 1399The Midnight Coup That Shattered a KingA returning exile raised a silent army under cover of storm and shattered a king's authority in minutes.
Tower Hill, London · 1538The Multi-Day Execution of the Exeter PlotA conspiracy of ancient noble families earned a punishment timed to exhaust the entire city of London.
Tower of London, London · 1601The Blunt Blade That Would Not FinishAfter a failed rebellion, an untrained executioner hacked repeatedly at her neck with a dull blade before a mocking crowd.
Tower Green, London · 1542The Madness That Could Not Save HerEnglish law forbade executing the insane, so the King rewrote the law to make sure it would not save her.- Florence · 1478The Assassination Plot Inside a CathedralRival bankers struck during Sunday Mass, but one Medici brother fought his way out alive.
- St Paul's Cathedral, London · 1441The Duchess Who Turned to WitchcraftDesperate for her husband to be king, a duchess conspired with witches to melt a wax effigy of a young king.
- Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh · 1566The Musician Slaughtered at the Queen's TableA queen's trusted secretary was dragged from her private dinner and stabbed to death by her own jealous husband's men.
- Tower of London, London · 1478The Duke Drowned in a Barrel of WineA treacherous royal brother's noble blood spared him hanging, but not a private death in a barrel of wine.
- Old Town Square, Prague · 1400The Twenty-Four-Hour ExecutionA king turned a rebellion's punishment into a full day-long spectacle designed to exhaust an entire city.
- Erfurt · 1184The Floor That Collapsed Beneath the EliteA floor packed with armored nobles gave way and dropped Europe's elite into a sewage pit below.
- London · 1543The Portrait That Became a Death WarrantA court painter's flattering portrait of a bride-to-be enraged a king desperate for the truth.
- Tower of London, London · 1536The Poet Forced to Watch Her DieA poet who loved Anne Boleyn first was locked in a tower room and made to watch her walk to the scaffold.
- London · 1562The Poisoned Coat Meant for the Queen's ManAssassins bypassed his food and laced his riding coat with poison meant to seep in through his sweat.
- Tyburn, London · 1499The Pretender Who Confessed on a PlatformA man who claimed to be a lost prince was forced to publicly unravel his own legend before the gallows.
- London · 1536The Musician Twisted Into a False ConfessionA young lute player was dragged to a private room and tortured until he named a queen as his lover.
- Tower of London, London · 1568The Secret Marriage That Sealed Her FateA love match without the Queen's permission led to a slow, quiet erasure from the world.
- London · 1483The Mistress Forced to Walk BarefootA king's beautiful mistress was publicly humiliated to break her before she ever reached a scaffold.
- Tower of London, London · 1503The Queen Whose Death Broke a KingA desperate late pregnancy killed a beloved queen and drove her husband into total madness.
- Tower Hill, London · 1549The Uncle Who Stalked a PrincessA queen's widower crept into a teenage princess's bedroom at night in a scheme that would cost him his head.
- London · 1562The Lady Who Caught the Queen's SmallpoxShe nursed a dying queen back to health and paid for it with her own face.
- Tower of London, London · 1570The Nobleman Erased in a Stone RoomA young man with royal blood was left to rot for over a decade in a single freezing cell.
- Ludlow Castle, Ludlow · 1502The Golden Prince Who Died Old at FifteenA brilliant young prince died mysteriously with the withered organs of an old man.
- Rome · 48The Empress Who Lived a Double LifeRome's most powerful woman slipped out at night in a wig to chase thrills the palace could never contain.
- Greenwich Palace, London · 1553The Boy King Whose Lungs Rotted Inside HimHis skin turned green and his legs swelled as he coughed up pieces of his own blackened lungs.
- Burgh by Sands · 1307The King Who Wanted His Bones Carried Into BattleDying of dysentery on the border, he ordered his flesh boiled away so his skeleton could lead the army.
- Whitehall Palace, London · 1546The Wife Who Talked Her Way Off The BlockShe read her own death warrant, then walked to Henry and played the weak woman until he tore it up.
- Tower Hill, London · 1536The Brother Executed Alongside The QueenAccused of incest with his own sister on evidence historians now call impossible, he died two days before her.
- Syon House, London · 1547The King's Corpse The Dogs Got To FirstSealed in lead and left overnight, his body leaked and swelled until stray dogs found their way inside the room.
- Tower of London, London · 1483The Boy King Who Vanished Inside The TowerSent to the Tower for his own coronation, he and his brother were seen less and less until they were gone.
- Sudeley Castle · 1548The Wife Who Survived Henry But Not ChildbirthShe finally married the man she'd wanted all along, then died days after giving birth accusing him of hastening it.
- Tower of London, London · 1536The Princess Who Lost Everything OvernightAt two she watched her mother beheaded — at three she had no gowns and no title.
- Kimbolton Castle · 1536The Queen Whose Heart Turned BlackEmbalmers found every organ healthy except one — shrivelled, black, and hideous to look at.
- Clontarf, Dublin · 1014The High King Killed Praying After VictoryHe broke the Vikings at Clontarf, then was murdered in his own tent by men fleeing the battlefield.
- Tower Green, London · 1542The Teenage Queen Who Never Saw Him AgainHenry's fifth wife ran screaming through Hampton Court trying to reach a king who refused to look at her.
- Alexandrov · 1581The Father Who Killed His Own HeirA single blow in a fit of rage killed his son and heir, and the moment was later painted so disturbing a man attacked it with a knife.
- Uppsala · 995The Queen Who Burned Her Suitors AliveTwo kings came to propose marriage; she locked the doors and burned the hall down instead.
- London · 1690The Fashion That Killed Hundreds of WomenA candle and a wide flammable skirt were all it took, and it happened to countless women for two centuries.
- Tower Hill, London · 1540The Chief Minister's Botched BeheadingHenry VIII's most powerful minister was executed by an inexperienced headsman who needed several strikes to kill him.
- Windsor · 1537The Only Wife Henry Chose to Rest BesideShe was the only one of Henry VIII's wives he never divorced, executed, or left.