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

~ Clifford Brewer (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Abson Books (January 30, 2000)
• ISBN-10: 0902920995
• ISBN-13: 978-0902920996
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #588,681 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great and fascinating read, January 18, 2008

By	History Lover (New Hyde Park, N.Y. United States) - See all my reviews

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book if you want to know more about illnesses people died of, November 27, 2007

By	Ana Vaquer Flynn (Fort Myers, FL) - See all my reviews

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.

4.0 out of 5 stars British kings and queens meet the grim reaper, October 22, 2009

By	P. B. Sharp (Las Cruces, NM) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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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!