Mortal Monarchs: 1000 Years of Royal Deaths

by Suzie Edge

How the monarchs of England and Scotland met their deaths has been a shocking mixture of violence, infections, overindulgence, and occasional regicide. In Mortal Monarchs, medical historian Dr. Suzie Edge examines 1,000 years of royal deaths to uncover the plots, accusations, rivalries, and ever-present threat of poison that the kings and queens of old faced.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Audiobook, Historical, Royalty, Death, Biography

318 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2022

Reviews

[Andy Marr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting, but this is very much a story of the English monarchs. Unfortunate for me, who bought the book on the strength of its claim that it told of the deaths of the Scottish monarchs, too.

[Jessica Minton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found suzie on tiktok when she first started out and been a follower ever since, she brings history to life, I love it when I hear "shall we open another coffin", and this book is so informative but also isn't academically boring! I binge read this in 1 day! Definite read if you love history and medicine!

[TL *Humaning the Best She Can* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, read this faster than I thought, cool 😎

3.5 stars-4 stars in different parts of the book.

Saw this for cheap (don't remember where I heard of it.. but it was probably on goodreads) on my wishlist so figured "eh, why not?" and snatched it up 👍🏼.

This one did keep my interest.. some placed it dragged some but it didn't affect my reading experience.

Reading some of the dynamics and whatnot, yeesh! I wanted to : smack people and put them in time out, get them to a therapist, tell Jerry Springer he would have new guests coming.
I definitely would have had very high anxiety if any of the earlier monarchs were my family (or if I was one in a previous life.. hope not).

So many health issues as well...not surprising but still... one bloodline I wondered if they were just cursed


Once again, I say teach this stuff in history classes in high school. Definitely would get their attention.

Would recommend 👌 My advice, take your time with this one and let it simmer in your brain, do some research as you go.

History nerd in me is happy 😊 .

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suzie Edge is, like myself, a doctor obsessed with history and death mechanisms. This book is so well written! - both suitable for people who aren't health experts but interesting enough in manner that isn't too simplistic for doctors to learn. From cancer, gout, arrows in the eye and the ocasional regicide, many manners of death are discussed, always with an introduction of the monarch itself beforehand.

I highly recommend this fun book if you enjoy British history, medical history and curiosities.

Shall we dig another coffin? 🙈

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 4 out of 5]

Royal reads project

I really enjoyed this book. I did audio format.
As an American I should prob be embarrassed that I cannot recite much of a chain of presidential names at any time in history, but I can recall all of the British monarchs in order starting with William the Norman ( I have a problem with calling someone who has not pissed me off a bastard, and he wasn’t born a conqueror). Yes I need to move across the ocean, but that takes money, and I’m currently spending all of my on stitch fix don’t judge.
Anyway I digress. I’ve never really consciously thought about their deaths as a group. Yes of course you read enough nonfiction that’s obviously covered, but I found it so informative reading a book that actually focused on each demise with symptoms, possible contractions, the various autopsies, how health problems may have truly affected births of heirs (cough, Henry VIII cough) I could go on. And even though it covers centuries it’s not at all dull or drawn out. For those of you who are British monarchy fans and lovers (so he ginger whingies this is not for you), I recommend this for sure.

[Robert Lambregts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, well this is historical non-fiction as I've never read it before. Mind you, it's 1000 years of British monarchs and the way they died. Including all the gore and dirt. heads rolling, intestines leaking, hearts, brains, lungs and more malfunctioning. In explicit detail, with satire and humor, Dr. Suzie Edge has written it all down. I see this as a perfect book that you just pick up to read another death in between other things. between books, between laundry and bed, between morning and afternoon during your daily lunch break at work. Mind you, your co-workers might find you slightly odd for enjoying such a read, but I've experienced it's also a perfect topic of conversation.
Anyway, this might sound morbid, but it's my kind of guilty pleasure to read about these things and the way this book was written couldn't have been more perfect. 5 full stars. One of my faves of the year.

[Jocelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered Dr Suzie Edge on TikTok. Immediate follow - I loved her videos. And i was so excited when I learned she had a book!! Mortal Monarchs is excellent. I definitely had a hard time not skipping around - but as I actively try not to be a menace, I read it in order 😊
I openly laughed out loud at the humor and oven throughout this well written, super fascinating book. I wholeheartedly recommend!

PS Dr Edge: if you ever write a follow up that included Queen Elizabeth, may she rest in peace, I’ll be at the front of the line to purchase that updated book!
I can’t wait to start Vital Organs!

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy going read going through English monarchs deaths from Harold to Elizabeth II

[Finuala · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh thank goodness, I've finally finished this; a testament to my stubbornness overruling my good sense. Of course, I'd have finished it far sooner if I hadn't put it aside in exasperation of the sheer number of errors in the history, not to mention some slightly dodgy genetics. Honestly, who was this written for? You'd have to know your history in order to catch the errors, so I can only conclude it's written for those who don't care. The English is clunky, the humour is worse and seriously, the prurience in some of the entries, even after the author herself says that recorded causes of death often spoke to the monarch's life and reign, was childish. Specifically, Edward II's death by hot poker has long since been discredited and frankly, if his biographer takes some of her valuable time to leave a review essentially condemning the schoolgirl humour, then you should probably have a good hard look at yourself. But no, let's simply continue because it's, what, titillating? Ugh.

This is a book for which a good throwing from a fast moving vehicle is far too good a fate. Do yourself a favour and read a decent history. Or even a cereal box.

[The_Full_Brontë · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review haiku:

An entertaining
But very lightweight hist’ry.
I wanted more heft.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

History! Drama! Plots! Medical Mysteries! What's not to love? This book was right up my alley, and I kept wanting to read on to find out how the next king died. The only downside I can mention is that reading this book went slowly because I kept having to go over to Wikipedia to look up more historical information. Thanks to this book I have now acquired the completely useless skill of being able to name all English monarchs from Edward the Confessor up 'til now in chronological order. That might come in handy as a party trick one day ...

By the way, I couldn't properly update my reading progress because Goodreads claims this book has only 256 pages whereas my copy clearly had 312 pages ...

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mortal Monarchs: 1000 years of royal deaths by Dr. Suzie Edge is refreshing and easy to read. Dr. Edge is a molecular cell biologist who has worked in clinical medicine in a variety of medical specialties. She adds a wonderful bit of humor into the nonfiction biography she has written, along with a healthy dose of medicine. I highly recommend it to you if you enjoy science and history.

[Emily S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Shall we open another coffin?”

[Gill Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing and informative. A great read. Although if you are at all squeamish, I might give it a miss.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting read for those interested in history with a (big) bit of macabre and death

[DancingMarshmallow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall: 2.75 stars

Eh, this was fine. It's a quick, breezy read that takes a cheeky stance with history, but I sometimes felt like the author was trying a little too hard to be funny and "modern" (I don't think anyone needs comparisons to viral tweets to understand how an in-person rumor mill might work, even in the medieval period). I also thought the author was sometimes being deliberately gross just for "cool" points. Okay, we get it: bodies make corpse juices. Repeating this fact over and over again in gory detail isn't, in my opinion, treating the fact of bodies with frankness and honesty. It's just being a little juvenile. YMMV.

What I did enjoy was the author's point (obvious, if you think about it, but still interesting) that the deaths of monarchs reflect the common deaths of their time periods and the risks of those time periods (medieval beheadings and dysentery morphing into modern strokes and heart attacks). There's also some interesting little tidbits here, and if you enjoy both the British monarchy and morbid history, you'll probably have some fun here. Just don't expect anything revolutionary.

[Shawn Thrasher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don’t listen to this while you are eating - the details can get quite graphic. That aside, great fun. Suzie Edge, who excellently reads her own book, takes each king from William I through George VI and explains in detail how they died - with some extras like Henry VIII’s wives thrown in. Generally, biographies don’t go into medicinal detail about the subject’s demise, so this was quite interesting. Edge takes on some myths of kingly deaths as well. Interestedly Richard III, found under a carpark, is the king we know the most about, because modern science was able to look carefully at his remains.

[Jacob Stelling · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting at times, and did commit the cardinal historical sin of speculating on specific medical causes of death, but was enjoyable overall.

The format did become a little repetitive, but the added context of the reigns and the discussion of the link between the story of the monarchs’ deaths and their reigns, such as the likely link between Edward II’s possible homosexuality and his death by hot poker, made for some interesting moments.

[Tracey Allen at Carpe Librum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mortal Monarchs - 1000 Years of Royal Deaths by Suzie Edge gives the reader a short overview of the deaths of 48 monarchs in England and Scotland over the last 1000 years. Beginning with the demise of Harold Godwinson in 1066 and concluding with the death of George VI in 1952, a chapter is devoted to each monarch.

Listening on audiobook, the chapters vary from approx 4-15 minutes in duration, and I found them to be just the right length. However, as I realised just how many deaths the author needed to cover, the repetitive format did start to become a little tedious. Fortunately the short chapters meant I could return to the book every now and again for another monarch's bloody passing from consumption, sweating sickness, dysentery or war wounds.

The author is a medical doctor and historian and when listening to the chapter dedicated to King Henry V who died of dysentery in 1492, I learned more about how the body expels a pathogen through either vomiting or diarrhoea.

"Diarrhoea is the body's way of getting rid of bacteria causing problems within the gut by emptying out toxins or poisons fast. For faeces to leave the body in a hurry, we cannot just rely on the action of peristalsis, the normal push/pull movement of the gut tubes that move the human waste along. If you still need more of a push, then the abdominal muscles will help by contracting. They squeeze as hard as they can to push out faecal matter fast. That is why it hurts. It can also be worryingly dehydrating as water is pulled into the gut to help dilute and remove the offending bacteria." Chapter 17

This was a huge revelation to me. Firstly, I had no idea that water is pulled into the gut from around the body, which is what causes the dehydration symptoms of headache and so on. Secondly, I had no clue that the water was pulled into the gut in order to dilute the offending bacteria and ease its passage. I guess I never gave much thought to where the water came from or why it was there, but next time - let's hope it's far into the future - I'll be more informed.

Fortunately, Mortal Monarchs was published during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II and so it doesn't include her death in 2022. This does date the book now that Charles III is King, but as a royalist, I don't feel the book is lacking. I think it'd be strange to read an updated version where her cause of death was included and discussed in this manner.

Mortal Monarchs will appeal to trivia and history buffs and I just wish I could retain all of the monarchs names in order and the dates and means of their passing.

Having read Vital Organs: A History of the World's Most Famous Body Parts and History Stinks!: Poo Through the Ages , I continue to learn from Dr Suzie Edge, so I'm looking forward to the release of History Stinks!: Wee, Snot and Slime Through Time in 2025. I can't imagine what I'll learn about the human body but I'll be sure to let you know!

[Nhi Lam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another 5 star non-fiction read about deaths and diseases!
Because of the power outages due to ex-TC Alfred, I was able to finish this book, thankfully (maybe?).
It was a very easy read, especially for someone with no background information on the British monarchy. Literally it was my first read of the monarchy ever. The author made it super easy to follow, albeit challenging at times as everyone had the same name (Richard, Henry, George, Edward etc)
I really enjoyed this book. I wouldn’t say that it has made me wanting to look more into British monarchies, but it definitely helped me see the intrigue in learning about them.

[Jessica - How Jessica Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suzie is one of my fave follows on TikTok, and listening to her voice for the whole audiobook was great!

I’m glad I also bought the ebook to refer back to though; it’s a great resource.

If you have a teenager who needs to learn some British history, this is a delightfully entertaining way to learn about the monarchy! Definitely recommended.

[Peyton Labiak · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars! objectively a very good, well written, easy to read book

subjectively, it was more medical than i thought (my fault for not reading more about it LOL), and as the least STEM person ever, this made it a bit more difficult for me to dive into

still very interesting overall with good pacing

[Michelle Rupe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the audiobook quite a bit.

[India (IndiaReadsALot) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many men died of dysentery. Overwhelmingly so.

[Han · Rating 5 out of 5]

Been a bit obsessed with Suzie’s TikTok’s for ages, so this was a nice lil change to my normal reads (probably a weird way to speak about a book explaining the way every monarch in history died ☠️)

[Pati Besteman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I follow Suze Edge on TikTok because I love everything British and royalty so I was excited for this book. A little dry in places but I love her humor and enjoyed reading about royal deaths.

[SheLove2Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll admit I do not know as much about the history of British monarchs as some people. I certainly know how they died, after reading this. I wish there had been a chart in my edition, because after the many, many Edward/Mary/Henry/Elizabeth/George entries, you kind of lose track of who you're reading about. (Would it kill them to pick a different name?) I will say after reading this, you kind of get an idea of why the current Windsor/Mountbatten family is bat-shit crazy.

Disclaimer: if you have a weak stomach I recommend not reading this or at the very least, not reading it during dinnertime. The author is very fond of words like leaking, dripping, etc.

[Craig Rowland · Rating 3 out of 5]

mortal monarchs [1] by Suzie Edge tracked the deaths of the past millennium of monarchs who ruled over the British isles. In addition to all of the kings and queens, some others, like the six wives of Henry VIII, were also covered. Chapters were short, with the final page on Elizabeth II being only page 312. The front cover illustration certainly made the subject matter intriguing, as beheadings were not uncommon in the first six centuries of the last millennium for doing away with inconvenient royals. The very first years of royal deaths, though, were more likely as a result of dysentery or battle injury. Thus the same reasons for death, over and over, made the beginning of the book a dull read. With already short chapters telling much the same story, I grew bored, until the monarchs started demanding their rivals or wives have their heads chopped off.

Edge is a doctor who spent part of each chapter analyzing the physiological processes that each royal body underwent at the point of death. So for deaths caused by dysentery, she wrote about a lot of diarrhea. From heart attacks to just plain old age, all were analyzed from the medical point of view. I have a weak stomach for blood and gore and at times I found her descriptions of royal decapitations to be so off-putting I didn’t want to turn the page. Court documents recorded the circumstances of these ordered decapitations, and how successful each blow of the axe was each time the blade struck skin. The author did have a sense of humour, thankfully, and injected amusing asides when writing about kingly autopsies or queenly rivalries that could have come straight out of a soap opera.

During the nineteenth century there was a trend to open the coffins of kings and queens and poke around inside. Edge reported on the states of decay and adipocere for each monarch. Sometimes the contents of these coffins were pilfered for souvenirs and icons.

modern monarchs was a short read told in a pop historical narrative by a doctor who only changed tone when writing about disease and death. In these postmortems Edge opted for a more academic tone. I found that the pace slowed down whenever she used lengthy medical terminology. Scientific terms were always in italics, which are difficult to read in a cursive font.

[1] Of course there’s a footnote. The title is entirely in lowercase on the formal title page and is in lowercase on the header of each page thereafter. The subtitle is not included on the formal title page.

[Katy Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting combination of history and science - just don't eat while reading (you've been warned).

This was absolutely fascinating stuff. Sequential look at every monarch (and occasional spouses/family members when appropriate) we've had in England since 1066 and a VERY graphic description of their (likely) death.

So it's a biology fan's dream - a description of just what that arrow really would have done to our Conqueror. Or what happens when a body becomes bloated with feasting bacteria. What syphilis, strokes, heart attacks, pokers applied to the body - what they'd do system by system to cause death.

So it's very educational. And I loved the fact we get the context, of the reign in question in each case. I actually wanted MORE detail of their ruling years in many cases, but this information is available elsewhere of course. The point of the book is to look at how each died.

And interestingly, I took from this the point that the reported death of each is what the chroniclers WANTED us to think about both the deaths and the lives of the people who ruled us. Those who weren't liked were, coincidentally, historically remembered for grisly or morally 'just' deaths:
"how the King died is always about more that what really killed him."

This is witty, with a lot of in-jokes and references, chock full of accurate and engrossing medical detail, and reminds us that we are all mortal, whoever we are, and that our kings and queens exemplify the population in the range and indignity of their demises. What matters is what came before, a good lesson for us all.

I have already shown my copy to plenty of friends, and it's one I'll want to read again and er, re-digest.

[jandjsalmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute delight. Which sounds funny considering the subject matter, but it really was. Dr. Edge is both hilarious and informative and I enjoyed this book very much.