Medieval rulers and their strange deaths

<![CDATA[The most common reasons of death of medieval rulers were wars, plague and bad sanitary conditions. However, there are some less known but extremely strange and weird reasons behind deaths of medieval rulers as well. Here is a list of some of the oddest reasons that were responsible for the death of the following rulers:

Caliph Al-Musta’sim 1258

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Caliph Al-Musta’sim of Baghdad ruled for 16 years and died immediately after because of the Mongol invasion. Mongols under the leadership of Hulagu Khan captured Al-Musta’sim alive and started planning about killing him. They believed that spilling a royal blood brings bad luck, so they decided to roll him up in a rug. Thereafter, they brought horses and made them trample over the rolled rug that killed him.

Richard I 1199

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A young boy quite in a childish manner grabbed a crossbow and shot at a group of knights on a horseback. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a well-aimed shot that hit Richard I in the shoulder. He turned back to the boy and appreciated his skills. A few days later, Richard I died, as the small wound transformed into a gangrenous wound.

Pope Adrian IV 1159

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Pope Adrian IV met a sudden death in 1159 and the reason behind is quite strange. They say a fly floating in his glass of wine choked him to death. Actually, he was suffering from a peculiar form of tonsillitis that produces excessive pus in one’s throat. So as soon as Pope Adrian took a sip of wine that had a fly in it, it went in and this deadly combination choked him to death.

Bela I of Hungary 1063

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Bela I of Hungary did not raise to fame as much owing to his ruling, as he did owing to his death. He ruled as a King for only three years and met his bizarre death in 1063. He was sitting on his throne, the canopy above collapsed on him, resulting in his sudden death. He had a slew of political enemies, so it is believed that his death was a clever assassination attempt that turned out successful.

Philip, son of Louis VI of France

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One day he was riding on his horse in the streets with his friends along. A pig suddenly jumped in front of his horse making it to trip hard. He fell down badly fracturing his limbs and dying on the day that followed the incident.

Battles or natural calamities used to be the prominent reasons for the death of medieval rulers.  However, some of them died of weird reasons that many people do not know of.