Brandy-Soaked Linen Burned Charles Alive

Charles II of Navarre, later nicknamed "the Bad," repeatedly changed sides during the Hundred Years' War while pursuing his claims in France. According to the best-known account of his death, illness left him unable to use his limbs, so a physician ordered attendants to wrap him in brandy-soaked linen, a common practice at the time. While sewing the covering around him, a female attendant used a candle to burn off the remaining thread and accidentally ignited the fabric, and he burned alive in 1387.

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