| Lists of unusual deaths | ||
|---|---|---|
| Antiquity | ||
| Middle Ages | Renaissance | Early modern period |
| 19th century | 20th century | 21st century |
| Animal deaths | ||
This list of unusual deaths includes unique or extremely rare circumstances of death recorded throughout the Renaissance period, noted as being unusual by multiple sources.
| Name of person | Image | Date of death | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence |  | 18 February 1478 | The 1st Duke of Clarence was allegedly executed by drowning in a barrel of Malmsey wine, apparently his own choice once he accepted he was to be killed. [1] [ verification needed ] [2] [3] [ unreliable source? ] |
| Charles VIII of France |  | 7 April 1498 | The French king died as a result of striking his head on the lintel of a door while on his way to watch a game of real tennis. [4] : 105 [5] [6] |
| Victims of the 1518 dancing plague | July 1518 | Several people died of either heart attacks, strokes or exhaustion during a dancing mania that occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace (Holy Roman Empire). [2] [7] [8] | |
| Pietro Aretino |  | 21 October 1556 | The influential Italian author and libertine is said to have died of suffocation from laughing too much at an obscene joke during a meal in Venice. Another version states that he fell from a chair from too much laughter, fracturing his skull. [9] [ verification needed ] [10] [ unreliable source? ] |
| Henry II of France |  | 10 July 1559 | On 30 June 1559, a tournament was held near Place des Vosges to celebrate the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis with the French king's longtime enemies, the Habsburgs of Austria, and to celebrate the marriage of his daughter Elisabeth of Valois to King Philip II of Spain. During a jousting match, Henry, wearing the colors of his mistress Diane de Poitiers, [11] was wounded in the eye by a fragment of the splintered lance of Gabriel Montgomery, captain of the King's Scottish Guard. [12] Despite the efforts of royal surgeons Ambroise Paré and Andreas Vesalius, the court doctors ultimately "advocated a wait-and-see strategy"; [13] as a result, the king's untreated eye and brain damage led to his death by sepsis ten days later. [14] His death played a significant role in the decline of jousting as a sport, particularly in France. [15] |
| Amy Robsart |  | 8 September 1560 | The 28-year-old wife of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester was found dead by a staircase with two wounds on her head and a broken neck. Theories suggest she threw herself down the stairs. [16] [17] |
| Hans Staininger |  | 28 September 1567 | The burgomaster of Braunau am Inn (then Bavaria, now Austria), died when he broke his neck by tripping over his own beard. [18] [19] The beard, which was 4.5 feet (1.4 m) long at the time, was usually kept rolled up in a leather pouch. [20] |
| Marco Antonio Bragadin |  | 17 August 1571 | The Venetian Captain-General of Famagusta in Cyprus, was gruesomely killed after the Ottomans took over the city. He was dragged around the walls with sacks of earth and stone on his back; next, he was tied to a chair and hoisted to the yardarm of the Turkish flagship, where he was exposed to the taunts of the sailors. Finally, he was taken to his place of execution in the main square, tied naked to a column, and flayed alive. [21] Bragadin's skin was stuffed with straw and sewn, reinvested with his military insignia, and exhibited riding an ox in a mocking procession along the streets of Famagusta. The macabre trophy was hoisted upon the masthead pennant of the personal galley of the Ottoman commander, Amir al-bahr Mustafa Pasha, to be taken to Constantinople as a gift for Sultan Selim II. Bragadin's skin was stolen in 1580 by a Venetian seaman and brought back to Venice, where it was received as a returning hero. [22] |
| Victims of the Black Assize of Oxford 1577 |  | July 1577 | In Oxford, England, at least 300 people, including Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer Sir Robert Bell and Serjeant Nicholas Barham, died in the aftermath of the trial of Rowland Jenkes, a Catholic bookseller convicted of distributing pamphlets defaming Queen Elizabeth I, at the assize at Oxford. The dead reportedly included no women or children. [23] [24] |
| Mary, Queen of Scots |  | 8 February 1587 | The 44-year-old queen of Scotland was told that she was to be executed for plotting the assassination of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. However, when the executioner, only known as Bull, prepared to chop off her head with an axe, the first blow did not kill Mary. It only hit her head. The second blow severed her neck, but the tendon was still left. The executioner later pulled off Mary's head only to reveal that her hair was a wig. [25] [26] |
| Andrew Perne |  | 26 April 1589 | The Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University and Dean of Ely was known for his frequent religious conversions to match the established faith of the time in England. He reportedly died due to having heard the jester of Queen Elizabeth I make a joke about his uncertain spiritual state, referring to him as "one that is neither heaven nor earth, but hangs betwixt both". [24] [27] |
| Tycho Brahe |  | 24 October 1601 | The astronomer contracted a bladder or kidney ailment after attending a banquet in Prague and died eleven days later. According to Johannes Kepler's first-hand account, Brahe had refused to leave the banquet to relieve himself, because it would have been a breach of etiquette. [28] [29] [30] After he had returned home, he was no longer able to urinate, except eventually in very small quantities and with excruciating pain. [30] [31] Though initially ascribed to a kidney stone, and later still to potential mercury poisoning, modern analyses indicate Brahe's death resulted from a fatal case of uremia caused by an inflamed prostate. [32] [33] |
Tycho Brahe, generally called Tycho for short, was a Danish astronomer of the Renaissance, known for his comprehensive and unprecedentedly accurate astronomical observations. He was known during his lifetime as an astronomer, astrologer, and alchemist. He was the last major astronomer before the invention of the telescope. Tycho Brahe has also been described as the greatest pre-telescopic astronomer.
Charles IX was King of France from 1560 until his death in 1574. He ascended the French throne upon the death of his brother Francis II in 1560, and as such was the penultimate monarch of the House of Valois.
Henry II was King of France from 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I and Duchess Claude of Brittany, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder brother Francis in 1536.
Diane de Poitiers was a French noblewoman and prominent courtier. She wielded much power and influence as King Henry II's royal mistress and adviser until his death. Her position increased her wealth and family's status. She was a major patron of French Renaissance architecture.
The Château du Clos Lucé, formerly called Manoir du Cloux, is a large château located in the center of Amboise, in the department of Indre-et-Loire, in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. It is located in the natural Val de Loire region. Built by Hugues d'Amboise in 1471, the palace has known several famous owners such as the French king Charles VIII and Leonardo da Vinci. Clos Lucé is 500 metres from the royal Château d'Amboise, to which it is connected by an underground passageway.
Uraniborg was an astronomical observatory and alchemy laboratory established and operated by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. It was the first custom-built observatory in modern Europe, and the last to be built without a telescope as its primary instrument.
John Louis Emil Dreyer, also Johan Ludvig Emil Dreyer, was a Danish astronomer who spent most of his career working in Ireland. He spent the last decade of his life in Oxford, England.
These are a series of incomplete lists of unusual deaths, unique or extremely rare circumstances of death recorded throughout history, noted as being unusual by multiple sources.
Sweating sickness, also known as the sweats, English sweating sickness, English sweat or sudor anglicus in Latin, was a mysterious and contagious disease that struck England and later continental Europe in a series of epidemics beginning in 1485. Other major outbreaks of the English sweating sickness occurred in 1508, 1517, and 1528, with the last outbreak in 1551, after which the disease apparently vanished. The onset of symptoms was sudden, with death often occurring within hours. Sweating sickness epidemics were unique compared with other disease outbreaks of the time: whereas other epidemics were typically urban and long-lasting, cases of sweating sickness spiked and receded very quickly, and heavily affected rural populations. Its cause remains unknown, although it has been suggested that an unknown species of hantavirus was responsible.
SN 1572, or B Cassiopeiae, was a supernova of Type Ia in the constellation Cassiopeia, one of eight supernovae visible to the naked eye in historical records. It appeared in early November 1572 and was independently discovered by many individuals.
Dancing mania was a social phenomenon that may have had biological causes, which occurred primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. It involved groups of people dancing erratically, sometimes thousands at a time. The mania affected adults and children who danced until, allegedly, they collapsed from exhaustion and injuries, and sometimes died. One of the first major outbreaks was in Aachen, in the Holy Roman Empire, in 1374, and it quickly spread throughout Europe; one particularly notable outbreak occurred in Strasbourg in 1518 in Alsace, also in the Holy Roman Empire.
Francis III was Dauphin of France and, after 1524, Duke of Brittany. Francis and his brother, Henry, were exchanged as hostages for their father, Francis I, who had been captured at the Battle of Pavia. They would be hostages for three years. Made duke of Brittany in 1532, this precipitated Brittany's integration with the Kingdom of France. Francis died 10 August 1536, possibly from tuberculosis.
SophiaThott Lange, known by her maiden name, was a Danish noblewoman and horticulturalist with knowledge of astronomy, chemistry, and medicine. She worked alongside her brother Tycho Brahe in making astronomical observations.
The Great Comet of 1577 is a non-periodic comet that passed close to Earth with first observation being possible in Peru on November 1 1577. Final observation was made on January 26, 1578. Tycho Brahe was one the most distinguished observers of this comet, making thousands of precise measurements about it. The observations made by Brahe led him to believe the comet was outside of the orbit of the sun and moon. There were many independent observers of the comet from across the world. Many had different explanations for the comet. Some, such as Sultan Murad III, saw the comet as an evil omen. Others took a scientific approach, like Michael Mästlin who used the comet to fill gaps in Copernicus's model of the universe. It inspired artists, like Jiri Dschitzky, who made an engraving of the comet as it passed over Prague. Currently, using JPL Horizons, it is believed that the comet is 324 AU from the sun.
The dancing plague of 1518, or dance epidemic of 1518, was a case of dancing mania that occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace, in the Holy Roman Empire from July 1518 to September 1518. Somewhere between 50 and 400 people took to dancing for weeks. There are many theories behind the phenomenon, the most popular being stress-induced mass hysteria, suggested by John Waller. Other theories include ergot and religious explanations. There is controversy concerning the number of deaths.
An astronomical catalog or catalogue is a list or tabulation of astronomical objects, typically grouped together because they share a common type, morphology, origin, means of detection, or method of discovery. The oldest and largest are star catalogues. Hundreds have been published, including general ones and special ones for such objects as infrared stars, variable stars, giant stars, multiple star systems, star clusters, and so forth.
The October 1503 papal conclave elected Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere as Pope Julius II to succeed Pope Pius III. The conclave took place during the Italian Wars barely a month after the papal conclave, September 1503, and none of the electors had travelled far enough from Rome to miss the conclave. The number of participating cardinals was thirty-eight, the College of Cardinals having been reduced by the election of Piccolomini as Pius III, who did not elevate cardinals. At a consistory on 11 October Pope Pius had proposed to make Cardinal d'Amboise's nephew a cardinal, as part of his effort to conciliate the French, but the response from the cardinals was not enthusiastic.
In the folklore of Scandinavia, Tycho Brahe days are days judged to be especially unlucky, especially for magical work, and important business transactions. Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) was a Danish astronomer, astrologer, and alchemist and as such achieved some acclaim in popular folklore as a sage and magician.
Jacques-Pierre Orillard, comte de Villemanzy was a French military commissary, responsible for arranging army supplies. Before the French Revolution he served in the French expedition that supported the American Revolution. He continued to serve with the army after the revolution, although he arranged to be a prisoner of the enemy during the Reign of Terror. After being exchanged, he became chief commissary in the French Army of Italy led by Napoleon, who was impressed by his performance. He continued to serve as a senior commissary to Napoleon's armies until 1809, when he retired and was made a Senator and later a Count of the Empire. After the Bourbon Restoration of 1814 he was made a Peer of France.
To some of the most distinguished of our race death has come in the strangest possible way, and so grotesquely as to subtract greatly from the dignity of the sorrow it must certainly have occasioned.
All who looked into this curious death had dwelled on the frontal blow to head [ sic ] that the king had sustained right before his demise and had not considered alternative scenarios.
In 1518, one of the strangest epidemics in recorded history struck the city of Strasbourg.
Ce sont les « Annales de Brant », la chronique de Hieronymus Gebwiller et la réponse du Magistrat de Strasbourg à l'évêque, qui lui demandait des informations sur cette inhabituelle maladie...[These are the "Annales de Brant", the chronicle of Hieronymus Gebwiller and the response of the Magistrate of Strasbourg to the bishop, who asked him for information on this unusual disease...]
Does there not lurk within the heart of every orthopedist interest in the unusual?
Though precisely why or by who remains unclear, I struggle to see how, given the strangeness of the circumstances, many historians are so quick to rule out murder.
Dieser Hanns Steininger mußte das Opfer seiner angestaunten Merkwürdigkeit werden...[This Hanns Steininger had to become the victim of his astonished strangeness...]
"...Es dürfte sich aber bei all diesen seltsamen Erzählungen mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit um Volkssagen handeln", resümieren Manfred und Tamara Rachbauer.["...But all these strange tales are most likely folk tales," Manfred and Tamara Rachbauer conclude.]
It fortuned that a Manuscript fell into my hands, collected by an ancient Gentleman of York, who was a great observer and gatherer of strange things and facts, who lived about the time of this accident happening at Oxford, wherein it is related thus...
The execution in itself was an unusual one...
Fuller, the historian, tells an extraordinary story relating to Doctor Perne's death, which he attributes to the mortification he received from a jest passed upon him by the Queen's fool.
At the time of Tycho's death, in 1601, the blame fell on his failure to relieve himself while drinking profusely at the banquet, supposedly injuring his bladder and making him unable to urinate.
Many of history's most important figures have suffered strange deaths that do not seem to befit their noble legacy.
