Battles, Blood, and Bowels: 'Mortal Monarchs' by Suzie Edge – Book Recommendation

 

Travelling back in time again today, with Suzie Edge’s history of the English monarchy with a twist, focussing on the diverse deceases of these past potentates.

Death is a great leveller, and even monarchs expire, of course. Whilst some royal ends seem relatively routine, others involve blades, bugs, murder, mysterious maladies, villainy, viruses, and good old gluttony. Dysentery puts in several appearances, especially early on. It seems many of our esteemed rulers died of diarrhoea. Edge also suggests that ‘the exuberance of their physicians’ killed quite a few kings—apparently, they liked bleeding, blistering, and applying red-hot irons to their victims/patients. That sounds a bit like the favoured chastisements of various of the sovereigns themselves, so who says there’s no justice in the world? Despite one or two historical errors, Edge provides a witty and medically informed insight into 1,000 years of gross and gruesome dynastic demises. A word of warning, though: don’t read on a full stomach.