Customer Reviews

The Death of Kings: A Medical History of the Kings and Queens of England

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this book years ago at Heathrow Airport and devoured it on the flight back to New York. It's the only time I haven't been bored on that 7 hour trip. If you love history, especially English royalty, you will enjoy this. It's well written and while some of the conclusions may be speculative there is enough information on each death to hazard a few guesses on your own. You don't need any medical knowledge to throughly enjoy this book.

Most reviewers here have already written of the many merits of this book. I would just like to add that the author presents each case with a measure of sympathy for the sufferer of ailments which puzzled the best medical minds of their respective time periods.

As an example, the image of Henry VIII conjures up a bully-a domineering and heartless ruler. But considering that Henry was probably dealing with some very serious health issues that affected him not only physically but also psychologically, one begins to understand the relatively swift descent of this monarch from a budding Renaissance prince to a feared sovereign.

The author also presents a more sympathetic view of medical men of ages past, before the benefit of modern scientific discoveries and identification of many illnesses. Though he admits there were many "quacks", Dr. Brewer also educates the reader regarding some astute individuals who were very sincere in their attempts to understand and help their patients. We would not have the medical knowledge of today if it hadn't been for the efforts of these pioneering medical men, who are all too often ridiculed for holding the often very erroneous views of illnesses so prevalent at the time that they lived.

Anyone interested in British history and/or the history of medicine will enjoy this book. The author has reached out across the centuries and provided an honest and interesting look at not only the monarchs and their maladies, but the medical response to their often puzzling and deadly ailments, both physical and mental. Very highly recommended.

Although the surgeon-author is not a gifted writer there are some fascinating facts to be gleaned from this book. For instance, Charles I's corpse had completely disappeared and nobody knew where he was located until centuries after his death in 1649 when he was found to be resting between Henry VIII and Jane Seymour at Windsor. His severed head was still recognizable with the Van Dyke beard in place. Charles died from the axe, of course, and there were several murders (including Richard II and Edward II). The various diseases suffered by English monarchs are discussed in detail.

Queen Anne, for instance, likely suffered from lupus, her obesity and her failure to produce a live child or one that lived longer than a few days, are the reason for that diagnosis. 17 of her dead babies were found in the tomb of Mary Queen of Scots for reasons unknown. Syphilis was rampant among kings, Charles II being perhaps the most notorious lecher. Henry VIII has often been suspected of having syphilis, but the author says unlikely. The ulcer in his leg was not a syphilitic gumma but a wound he had sustained in the jousts and which infected the bone underneath. And poor young Edward VI died horribly of tuberculosis, his hair fallen out, his fingernail gangrenous.

Then there is Queen Victoria whose waist measured 46 inches- she was truly five by five. She succumbed to heart disease and the complications of obesity and is the last monarch discussed in the book.

This history of British royals and how death claimed them is a fine read, not really depressing and certainly not voyeuristic, just interesting. Want to know what happened to Oliver Cromwell's head? Read the book!

I found The Death of Kings a fascinating book. The author is a retired surgeon who decides to analyze the cause of death for England's Kings and Queens, using documents written at the period in time for each King or Queen's reign.

The author, Clifford Brewer, also writes a brief history of the reign for each King and Queen, beginning with Edward the Confessor and ending with Queen Victoria.

Although it does have its flaws (hence the four stars and not five), The Death of Kings is still an interesting read. A lot of reviewers may criticize Brewer's diagnoses, but one must remember that Brewer is of course not able to perform an actual autopsy; he must rely on accounts written at the timeperiod and delve through the superstitions and the malpractices of medieval "doctors". That said, I think this book is really interesting.

If you want a fascinating read, and are not a stickler about perfection, this is a good book. I wish it were longer, though; it is a short book that most readers can blow through in about two days. All in all, I really like this book.

"The Death of Kings" devotes a few succinct pages to every English monarch since Wm. the Conqueror (includes Oliver Cromwell) and offers a modern, scholarly view of the likely causes of death based on what the court physicians of the time reported.
Some diagnoses (such as an arrow in the back) are easy but others, as in the case of Henry VIII, are a combination of maladies and disorders which Dr. Brewer untangles in very readable prose for the layman. There is some speculation - as in the rumors of Elizabeth I actually having a child - but they are afforded only so much as nonprovable supposition deserves. Very interesting book and highly recommended.

The Death of Kings is a 264 page history of the probable causes of death of all the English monarchs from Edward the Confessor (1019 - 1066) to Queen Victoria (1819 - 1901). The author, Clifford Brewer, is a highly experienced, retired surgeon who has done years of research on the topic.

When reading this book, you have to take into consideration:
1. accurate diagnosis of most medical conditions was almost impossible until about 75-100 years ago
2. the precise cause of death may be impossible to obtain without a detailed necropsy, and right now, there's really nothing left of these people to examine

Appendix 1 of the book contains the probable causes of death of England's kings and queens in a very abbreviated fashion. If you're not a doctor or a medical student, chances are that this won't be very informative because it's written in medical terms. Appendix 2 contains descriptions and locations of the royal tombs.

Historically, there are different diseases than we have now - childbirth fever, smallpox, measles, diptheria, tuberculosis, black plague, and typhoid all ran rampant, as did syphilis. This needs to be taken into consideration as well when reading through the book, understanding that back in the day, they didn't have emergency rooms and antibiotics. I also think it's necessary to read this book in small doses. It's more enjoyable and much less intense if you read it that way. Trying to read it in large chunks can be very overwhelming.

Some noted histories:

- William I, who ruptured his bowels or bladder on his saddle horn.
- Henry I, who ate himself to death.
- Edward II was murdered by having a red hot poker shoved in his rectum.
- Henry IV, who died from an overwhelming infection from a severe skin condition.
- Richard III was the only English king to die in battle.
- Henry VIII likely had Cushing's Disease.
- Oliver Cromwell, who died from an infection following a kidney stone.
- James I and II both died from complications of syphilis.
- Anne, one of the few female monarchs, had lupus.

This is a great book to read if you are into history and always wondered about the vague descriptions given in history books as to why people died in olden times. It is pure speculation, taking the symptoms that some historian wrote hundreds of years ago, and trying to figure out what the person really died of. The book will still leave you wanting more information but the only thing to work with is what someone way back when wrote and they hardly had the ability to properly disgnose an illness. This book has many good plausible reasons for their deaths.

I was worried when the introduction tactfully implied that the author was playing fast and loose with the facts. Was that the best person they could get?! Then, I was just plain bored. It wasn't bad as a history lesson, but that's not why I bought the book. Perhaps the fact that I do have a medical background made me more skeptical. I expected to find more than unfounded speculation. I would suggest only reading this book if you did not take any biology classes after you left high school.

Excellent. Interesting, well-written, fascinating. And I'm not even a doctor.

The book's contents were exactly what I'd hoped for, but when it arrived, the book itself was mangled. The top 1/3 of the book was all bent over (not like marking a page to come back to, but like it was stuffed into the mailing envelope crooked.) I've had the book weighted down with other books on top for 1 month and it's still in bad shape.