Alexander's Monkey Bite Destabilized Greece

In 1920, Greek king Alexander tried to separate his German Shepherd, Fritz, from a domestic Barbary macaque at the Tatoi estate when a second monkey bit him deeply on the leg and torso. Infection spread through his wounds, and sepsis killed the 27-year-old king a few weeks later. His death helped destabilize the Prime Minister of Greece's government, after which monarchists restored Constantine I, and Greece lost Allied support and the Greco-Turkish War. British statesman Winston Churchill later wrote that the monkey's bite had cost a quarter of a million lives.

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