Exploding Kings & Red Hot Pokers: Gruesome Deaths of Monarchs

Edward II died by red-hot poker. William the Conqueror exploded on his way into the coffin. Mary II went down covered in so many pustules she was unrecognisable.

Kings and Queens are more much more likely than the rest of us to meet a grizzly end. Sometimes it's because they're murdered. Sometimes it's that we try too hard to keep them alive. And sometimes it's because we don't stick them in the ground soon enough once they've gone.

Edited by Tean Stewart-Murray, Produced by Stuart Beckwith and Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long

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