As the old proverb goes, “nothing is certain but death and taxes”. However true the proverb, some of us make the journey to meet the grim reaper in more bizarre fashion than others.
In this, the first in our series of Bizarre History, we take a look at Death. Covering a broad sweep of the grim reapers customers, from the ancient world through to the end of the 19th Century in all the fascinating and gory detail. We have red hot pokers in places you wouldn’t expect, enraged war elephants, death by cake, dancing plague, beer floods, wooden legs used as weapons and many more bizarre causes of death……
Learn more about poor Mithridates an ancient Greek put to death by “Scaphism”, a truly bizarre torture also known as “the boats”, discover the grousome details.
Then we have Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, poisoned by ingesting several pills of mercury, what strange belief made him take it?
Find out how Eleazar Maccabeus came to be crushed underneath a dying elephant.
Saint Antipas, Bishop of Pergamum, was roasted to death in a “brazen bull, what exactly was this grisly way to die?
How did the decapiated head of the enemey of Sigurd the Mighty end up killing him?
Learn more about Béla I of Hungary who died when his wooden throne collapsed upon him.
Why was Inalchuk, governor of the city of Otrar in Central Asia, executed on the orders of Genghis Khan by the pouring of molten silver into his eyes and ears?
What led to King Edward II of England being dispatched with a Red-hot poker thrust into his anus?
Read the tale of György Dózsa a Hungarian peasants’ revolt leader. Condemned to sit on a red-hot iron throne, wearing a red-hot iron crown, with a red-hot sceptre in his hand. Then whilst still alive, his partially roasted body was force-fed to some of his fellow rebels.
Who was George, Lord Dacre, killed by the collapse of a vaulting horse that crushed his skull?
How did Sir Arthur Aston end up beaten to death with his own wooden leg?
Discover the sad tale of Henry Hall, who died from injuries sustained by molten lead falling into his throat whilst looking up at a burning lighthouse.
Read about Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden who died due to digestion problems after having consumed a meal of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, smoked herring, champagne and 14 servings of his favourite dessert Semlas served in a bowl of hot milk.
Discover how the 1814 London Beer Flood killed seven people.
And read the tales of many more unfortunate souls collected by the grim reaper in bizarre fashion………
