50 Unbelievable but True Facts About Kings – Part 4

Royal history is filled with stories so strange they sound invented. This fourth collection follows kings who survived assassins, built enormous weapons, kept extraordinary animals, imposed bizarre laws, and sometimes met deaths caused by everything from low doorways to molehills. Together, these 50 tales reveal how courage, cruelty, eccentricity, and sheer bad luck shaped rulers and their kingdoms across the centuries. Catch up with Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

1 Casimir’s Tomb Released Toxic Fungus

In May 1973, a 12-member conservation team opened the tomb of Polish king Casimir IV Jagiellon at Krakow’s Wawel Cathedral to assess it for restoration. Over the following years, 10 members reportedly died prematurely and unexpectedly, inspiring rumors of a “Jagiellonian curse.” Microbiologist Boleslaw Smyk later identified Aspergillus flavus inside the tomb, a fungus capable of producing highly toxic and carcinogenic aflatoxins.

2. Frederick the Great ruled Prussia from 1740 to 1786 and became celebrated for his military strategy and battlefield leadership. Most modern scholars consider him primarily homosexual, although the nature of his relationships remains debated. After suffering a demoralizing defeat at the Battle of Kolin in 1757, Frederick wrote, “Fortune has it in for me; she is a woman, and I am not that way inclined.”

3. In 1668, Louis XIV received a female African elephant from the Congo as a diplomatic gift from Portugal and housed her in the Royal Menagerie of Versailles. Her daily diet consisted of 80 pounds of bread, 12 liters of wine, vegetable soup containing bread and rice, and as much grass as she wanted. She lived at Versailles for 13 years but developed severe muscle loss during her final year and sometimes required a crane to lift her upright. After her death in 1681, Claude Perrault dissected her, and her skeleton eventually entered France’s National Museum of Natural History.

4. Prussian King Frederick William I created a regiment of exceptionally tall soldiers officially called the Grand Grenadiers of Potsdam, but better known as the Potsdam Giants. Recruits had to stand more than six feet tall, and their pay increased according to their height. Many men were kidnapped or sold into the regiment, while others were produced by pairing its soldiers with tall women in an attempt to breed future giants. Frederick William considered the men too valuable for combat and restricted them to parade-ground duties, but his son Frederick the Great transferred most of them into active units after inheriting the throne in 1740.

5. During the 1304 siege of Stirling Castle, English king Edward I commissioned an enormous trebuchet called Warwolf. One hundred royal carpenters spent months constructing the machine, which could reportedly launch a 300-pound boulder using a counterweight weighing roughly 15 tons. The Scots inside the castle surrendered by the mere sight of it, but Edward had invested too much time and money to abandon the demonstration. He ordered the Scots back inside, unleashed Warwolf against the castle, and accepted their surrender only after witnessing the weapon in action.

6 Frederick Augustus Denied Porter Duties

Frederick Augustus III, the last king of Saxony from 1904 to 1918, became known for his informal manner and self-deprecating humor. According to a popular story, a woman saw him standing in military uniform on a railway platform, mistook him for an employee, and asked him to move her trunk. Frederick reportedly replied, “Madam, I am not a porter; I only look like one.”

7. Viking forces besieged Paris from November 885 until October 886, but Count Odo and the city’s defenders prevented them from capturing it. Emperor Charles the Fat eventually arrived with an army but stopped short of attacking the invaders. Instead, he allowed them to sail farther up the Seine and plunder rebellious Burgundy while promising them 700 livres, approximately 257 kilograms, of silver. Charles paid the silver after the Vikings withdrew the following spring, infuriating the Parisians who had spent months defending their city.

8. According to legend, French king Louis III mounted his horse in 882 and pursued a girl who fled into her father’s house. Louis attempted to ride through the doorway, struck his head against its low lintel, fell from his horse, and fractured his skull. He died on August 5 at around age 17 without children, leaving his brother Carloman II as the sole king of West Francia. Louis is one of two French kings said to have died after hitting a door lintel, the other being Charles VIII.

9. After the Royalist defeat at the Battle of Worcester in September 1651, the future King Charles II fled across England with a £1,000 reward offered for his capture. The Pendrell brothers disguised him as a farm laborer, concealed him from Parliamentarian soldiers, and helped guide him between hiding places before he escaped to France. Following the monarchy’s restoration in 1660, Charles rewarded the family with pensions, including a £100 annual payment intended for Richard Pendrell’s descendants in perpetuity. Descendants reportedly continue to receive payments administered through the family’s private trust.

10. German-Danish physician Johann Friedrich Struensee became personal doctor to Denmark’s mentally ill King Christian VII and gradually rose to become the country’s de facto ruler. Between December 1770 and January 1772, he issued 1,069 cabinet orders, abolishing torture, forced labor, and press censorship while banning the colonial slave trade and introducing numerous administrative reforms. Struensee also became the lover of Queen Caroline Matilda, and their affair created a public scandal after she gave birth to a daughter widely believed to be his. A palace coup removed him in January 1772, and he was convicted of usurping royal authority before being executed on April 28.

11 Richard Pardoned His Crossbow Killer

On March 26, 1199, King Richard the Lionheart was struck in the shoulder by a crossbow bolt while besieging Chalus-Chabrol in France. The captured crossbowman claimed that Richard had killed his father and two brothers and that he had fired the bolt in revenge. As his wound turned gangrenous, Richard forgave the attacker and ordered him released with 100 shillings. Richard died on April 6, but according to one chronicler, mercenary captain Mercadier disregarded the pardon and had the crossbowman flayed alive and hanged.

12. After Napoleon defeated Prussia in 1806, a peace agreement limited its standing army to 42,000 men. Scharnhorst responded with the Krumpersystem, under which each company regularly placed three to five trained soldiers on extended leave and replaced them with inexperienced recruits. Once trained, those recruits could also leave and make room for another group, allowing Prussia to build a reserve without exceeding the official limit. By 1813, the system had helped create hundreds of thousands of additional trained soldiers who could be recalled for war.

13. Austrian emperor Ferdinand I, the son of Francis II, the last Holy Roman emperor, became known as “the Benevolent” because of his passive but well-intentioned nature. Ferdinand suffered from severe epilepsy and reportedly experienced as many as 20 seizures per day, leaving a regency council to manage much of the government after he inherited the throne in 1835. When he attempted to consummate his marriage to Maria Anna of Savoy, he reportedly suffered five seizures, and the couple remained childless. Following the revolutionary upheavals of 1848, Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his nephew Franz Joseph and lived in retirement until 1875.

14. In 1283, English king Edward I ordered the execution of Dafydd ap Gruffudd, the last native Prince of Wales before Edward’s conquest. Eighteen years later, Edward granted the title to his son and heir, Edward of Caernarfon, who later became Edward II. His appointment began the tradition of monarchs granting the title to their male heirs apparent.

15. Russian emperor Ivan VI ascended the throne in October 1740 at only two months old, but his cousin Elizabeth Petrovna overthrew him 13 months later. Ivan spent the rest of his life imprisoned, much of it isolated from his family. After his transfer to Shlisselburg Fortress, his identity was concealed so thoroughly that even the commandant did not know who he was. Guards murdered the 23-year-old Ivan in 1764 under secret orders when army officer Vasily Mirovich tried to free him and declare him emperor once more.

16 William Adopted Alcohol-Only Weight-Loss Diet

Toward the end of his life, William the Conqueror reportedly became so heavy that his horse visibly struggled beneath him. King Philip I of France mocked William’s size by comparing his confinement to that of a woman after childbirth. In 1087, William tried to slim down by remaining in bed, refusing all food, and consuming only alcohol.

17. In 1087, William the Conqueror was injured during an attack on Mantes, possibly when his horse leaped over a ditch and drove his protruding stomach against the saddle’s pommel. The impact reportedly ruptured his internal organs, and William died at age 59. After his death, household servants seized his weapons, vessels, clothes, linens, and royal furnishings. They abandoned his almost naked body on the floor, leaving a common knight to arrange the funeral.

18. Queen Charlotte died at Kew Palace in November 1818 while her gravely ill husband, King George III, remained isolated at Windsor Castle. Her state coffin rested beneath a canopy in Kew’s dining room before being carried to Windsor. Officials covered the castle’s cobbled courtyards with straw so George could not hear his beloved wife’s funeral procession. He was likely unaware of his wife’s passing.

19. According to one traditional story, French king Louis XI plotted to kill a court astrologer who correctly predicted a death in his court, fearing he’d done it himself. Before proceeding, Louis challenged the man to predict when he would die. Realizing the king’s intention, the astrologer replied, “I shall die just three days before your Majesty.” The answer frightened the superstitious Louis into sparing his life.

20. Radbod, the pagan king or duke of Frisia from around 680 to 719, ruled lands that included part of the modern northern Netherlands. According to legend, the monk Wulfram nearly baptized him but admitted that Radbod’s pagan ancestors were not in Heaven. Radbod withdrew and declared that he preferred eternity in Hell with his ancestors to Heaven with “a pack of beggars.”

15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History

21 Louis IX Fed Beggars Personally

French king Louis IX died from dysentery near Tunis in 1270, during the Eighth Crusade. Pope Boniface VIII canonized him in 1297, making Louis the only king of France declared a saint. His household served meals to more than 100 poor people on ordinary days, and Louis often served them himself. He also abolished trials by ordeal and combat, permitted appeals to the monarch, and introduced the presumption of innocence into criminal proceedings.

22. In 1191, English king Richard I imprisoned Cypriot ruler Isaac Komnenos in silver chains because he had promised not to place him in irons. Isaac had captured survivors and treasure from Richard’s storm-damaged Crusader fleet, then refused demands to release them. Richard landed at Lemesos and conquered Cyprus by June 1, forcing Isaac to surrender. He later sold the strategically important island to the Knights Templar.

23. On January 27, 1547, Henry VIII’s physicians concluded that he was dying but reportedly feared telling him because predicting the king’s death could invite accusations of treason. Sir Anthony Denny, Henry’s closest attendant, warned him that he was unlikely to live and urged him to prepare for death. Henry requested Archbishop Thomas Cranmer but became nearly unconscious before he arrived. Unable to speak, Henry reportedly squeezed Cranmer’s hand as a final sign of faith and died early the following morning.

24. At the Battle of Neville’s Cross in 1346, Scottish king David II was struck twice in the face by arrows as his army collapsed. Contemporary accounts say he fled and hid beneath a bridge over the River Browney until English soldiers spotted his reflection in the water. When John de Coupland tried to capture him, the wounded king fought back and knocked out two of Coupland’s teeth. David endured 11 years of English captivity before being ransomed and eventually died in 1371.

25. Spanish king Alfonso XII died in 1885, while his wife, Maria Christina, was pregnant. Alfonso XIII was born at Madrid’s Royal Palace in May 1886 and immediately became king, with his mother serving as regent. Just after his birth, attendants carried the naked infant on a silver tray to Prime Minister Praxedes Mateo Sagasta. Five days later, Alfonso was baptized with water from the River Jordan while wearing the Golden Fleece.

Please leave this field empty

Sign up to our Newsletter & get

FREE!! 1000 Facts E-BOOK

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.