Curated playlist
Royal reburials
- NapoleonNapoleon crowned himself emperor with a replica of Charlemagne's crown. The pope had just anointed him.
- Richard III of EnglandRichard III's skeleton was found under a car park in Leicester. The king had been buried there in 1485.
- George VIGeorge VI, known to his family as Bertie, wrote an anguished line in his diary about the day before his brother gave up the crown. He had gone to London to tell his mother, Queen Mary, what had happened. His entry read: "When I told her…
- Nicholas IINicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, carried a large dragon tattooed on his right forearm. The artist was Hori Chiyo, and the tattoo was a souvenir of the young heir's visit to Japan. That same journey nearly ended in disaster. At…
- Charles V, Holy Roman EmperorCharles V was born during a ball in Ghent in 1500. He ruled more of the world than any Christian monarch before.
- Stefan DušanStefan Dušan died suddenly in 1355 while preparing a crusade against the Ottoman Turks.
- Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)Alexandra Feodorovna, the last empress of Russia, was judged by her own court as a woman who "holds herself as if she'd swallowed a yardstick." She was born a German princess and became the consort of Tsar Nicholas II. On the 17th of July…
- Prince Philip, Duke of EdinburghPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was born on a dining room table. The date was the 10th of June 1921, and the place was Mon Repos, a villa on the Greek island of Corfu. Before he turned two, he was carried out of Greece in a fruit box. He…
- Frederick William I of PrussiaPrussia's Soldier King sold a West African colony to the Dutch in 1717, preferring to fund his army.
- Napoleon IIINapoleon III escaped a life sentence by walking out of prison dressed as a laborer.
- Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and GothaPrince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha never wore a crown, yet the clerk of the Privy Council, Charles Greville, once wrote of him: "He is King to all intents and purposes." Albert was the husband of Queen Victoria, and Greville's line…
- Marie de' MediciMarie de' Medici scaled a forty-meter prison wall on a rope ladder in 1619. Her own son had jailed her.
- Louis XVIOn the morning of his execution, Louis XVI asked, "Any news of La Pérouse?"
- Carol II of RomaniaCarol II of Romania fled in 1940 as gunmen fired on his train. It carried 30 truckloads of his fortune.
- Marie AntoinetteMarie Antoinette stepped on her executioner's shoe and apologized. Minutes later she was beheaded.
- Richard II of EnglandRichard II of England was born in the Archbishop's Palace of Bordeaux on the 6th of January 1367. Contemporary sources claimed that three kings were present at the birth: "the King of Castile, the King of Navarre and the King of Portugal".…
- Napoleon IINapoleon II was Emperor of the French for only two days. He was three years old and never ruled.
- Alfonso XIIIAlfonso XIII was carried on a silver tray to Spain's prime minister, already a king.
- Louis Philippe IBefore he became king of France, Louis Philippe I lived above a Boston oyster house.