Exploding Kings & Red Hot Pokers: Gruesome Deaths of Monarchs
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal
History Hit
4.7 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2024
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is sponsored by Warner Brothers and Salem's Lot, the spine-tingling new horror film from the legendary Stephen King. |
| 0:09.1 | It is so exciting, it is that time of year. It is spooky season. |
| 0:13.0 | Oh, it's just the best time of year. |
| 0:15.0 | No surprise that we love this time of year, of course. |
| 0:19.0 | There is no better fit for this season than a good horror film. |
| 0:22.0 | Salem's lot is one of Stephen King's |
| 0:25.1 | favorite stories, I'm sure you've heard of it, and it's adapted from the 1975 best-selling |
| 0:30.0 | novel. Salim's Lot follows an author who returns to his hometown in Maine, but things are not as they should be. The place is being preyed upon by a bloodthirsty vampire. |
| 0:42.1 | Of course it is. |
| 0:43.0 | Why wouldn't it be the place is called Salem? |
| 0:45.0 | Salem's lot is the latest adaptation of Stephen King's bestseller. |
| 0:49.0 | From the creators of the record-breaking horror franchise, The Conjuring Universe. |
| 0:53.0 | So take yourself, your mom, your romantic date, or just a pillow to hide behind to see this |
| 0:59.6 | after dark endorsed vampire movie. |
| 1:02.3 | Salem's lot in cinemas October 11th. |
| 1:05.0 | Hello and welcome to After Dark, myths, misdeeds and the paranormal, |
| 1:10.0 | the podcast that takes you to the darker side of history. |
| 1:14.3 | Now they have been beheaded, they've been stabbed, they've been killed by arrows, |
| 1:19.1 | they've been poisoned, tortured, blown up by cannon, they've been splattered all over our history books. Who might we be talking about but the violent and gruesome deaths of kings and queens? |
| 1:31.0 | Yes, you're going to hear all about them with our guests today, Dr. Susie Edge. |
| 1:35.0 | Now, Susie is, as well as being a historian, she's actually a real medical doctor. |
| 1:39.4 | Compared to Anthony and I, our PhDs are not medical in any sense of the word. |
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