30 Interesting Facts About Kings – Part 1

Here are 25 Interesting Facts About Kings.

1-5 Interesting Facts About Kings

1. In 1974, Egyptologists observed Ramesses II’s mummy’s condition was rapidly deteriorating and flew it to Paris for examination. He was issued an Egyptian passport that listed his occupation as “King (deceased)”. The mummy was received outside Paris, with full military honors befitting a king. – Source

2. The Vikings sacked Paris in 845 and did not leave until King Charles the Bald paid them 5,670 lbs of silver and gold. – Source

3. In 1140, when the Weibertreu Castle of Germany was defeated by King Konrad III, the women of the castle were granted free departure and allowed to take what they could carry. Thinking quickly, the women carried the men on their backs. The king kept his word and let the men live. – Source

4. King George V’s physician gave the dying king a lethal dosage of morphine and cocaine to hasten his death so that it could be announced in the morning edition of The Times rather than “less appropriate evening journals.” – Source

5. The Prince of Wales [later King Henry V], was struck in the face by an arrow in his first battle while leading soldiers. Rather than leaving the field, he reportedly stated that “he would rather die than stain his soldierly reputation by flight.” He was sixteen at that time. – Source

11-15 Interesting Facts About Kings

6. The Danish King Harald Blatand ate so many blueberries that his teeth stained blue. “Bluetooth” is named after him because of his ability to unite warring Scandinavian factions, just as Bluetooth unites wireless devices. The Bluetooth logo is also a combination of the King’s Runic initials. – Source

7. King George VI was appalled when the South African government instructed him to only shake hands with white people while on his visit there in 1947. He referred to his South African bodyguards as “the Gestapo”. – Source

8. After French soldier Jean Bernadotte showed kindness to a few Swedish soldiers, he became so popular in Sweden that the Swedes decided to make him their king when a vacancy came up, despite him never having set foot in Sweden before. The House of Bernadotte rules Sweden to this day. – Source

9. Unlike other languages, the Korean script was a deliberate invention by a king, and is often considered the most scientific writing system in the world. – Source

10. King Louis XIV was offered biological weapons by an Italian chemist. He refused to buy it, and paid the chemist an annual salary to never sell his weapon to anyone else. – Source

11-15 Interesting Facts About Kings

11. The late King Olav V of Norway used to travel by public transport. He was nicknamed Folkekonge, “The people’s king”. – Source

12. After Hawaiian King Kamehameha was hit in the head with a paddle by a frightened fisherman during a battle, he not only spared the man’s life but decreed a “Law of the Splintered Oar” protecting civilians in war that’s still part of Hawaii law in the State constitution. – Source

13. The Greek king Mithridates VI attempted suicide by poisoning himself, but failed because he acquired immunity to many poisons that he took in small doses throughout his life. – Source

14. When Mahatma Gandhi once went to meet the King of Britain in a simple loincloth, a reporter asked him if he felt underdressed. Gandhi replied, “The King wears enough clothes for both of us.” – Source

15. There was a Polish King nicknamed “the Strong” because he could break horseshoes with his bare hands and loved fox tossing, a sport where you throw foxes with a sling, one event had 1235 foxes, hares, badgers, and wildcats. He had several mistresses and fathered as many as 382 children. – Source

16-20 Interesting Facts About Kings

16. King Leonidas was actually 60 years old when he fought king Xerxes. – Source

17. King Harald of Norway vowed to remain unmarried for life unless he could marry his true love, who was the daughter of a cloth merchant. She soon became the Queen of Norway. – Source

18. When the French King Jean II was prisoner of the English, he was allowed to return to France to raise money for his ransom, leaving his son as a replacement hostage. When his son escaped, he voluntarily returned to England, citing reasons of “good faith and honor”. – Source

19. Upon his second defeat to Alexander the Great, King Darius III of Persia offered Alexander 30,000 talents (780 tons of silver, worth around £500,000,000 today) as part of an unconditional surrender. Alexander refused and proceeded to conquer Persia and rule all the way up to the Himalayas. – Source

20. In the 19th century when Napoleon III invited the King Siam to a dinner, he gave himself Gold Cutlery, his troops Silver & the King of Siam Aluminum. This was no insult but an honor, aluminum was the most valuable metal on the planet at that time. Today, aluminum is $1,800 a ton and Gold is $50 million at ton. – Source

21-25 Interesting Facts About Kings

21. Maria Letizia Ramolino was known as the ‘Mother of Monarchs’. Her children were Napoléon (Emperor of France), Joseph (King of Spain), Jérôme (King of Westphalia), Louis (King of Holland), Caroline (Queen of Naples). – Source

22. Most English and French kings had relatively open affairs and that the offspring of these affairs (Royal Bastards) were often given wealth, land, and regal titles. – Source

23. The President of France is also the Co-Prince of Andorra. Therefore, Andorra is the only country in the world that has a democratically elected monarch. – Source

24. In 1492, the Catholic monarchs of Spain issued a decree banning all Jews from Spain. Sultan Bayezid (a Muslim) then sent the Ottoman navy to Spain to rescue the Jews from the Spanish persecution. – Source

25. Emperor of Japan, Akihito, is the only remaining monarch in the world reigning under the title of “Emperor”. – Source