10 oddities of monarchs that their subjects never knew about

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the era of great monarchies, royal families were an example of dignity and good manners for their subjects. But in reality, the realities were very different from the ideal image that was created by the masses. Sometimes the monarchs were run by very strange, not to say disgusting, sins that did not at all correspond to their status.

1. "Dressing Groom"

Henry VIIIIn addition to his many reforms, the English king Henry VIII introduced an interesting position at the court - "toilet groom". The boy, who was chosen among the sons of the most trusted nobles, got a job directly under the king. He went everywhere for the monarch with a portable toilet and, when Henry wanted to relieve himself, he helped the king to expose, and then wiped the monarch's ass. It was actually a highly respected job, as the dressing groom had unprecedented access to the king. A similar position existed for almost 400 years.

2. Public self-satisfaction

Christian VIIIn the 18th century, King Christian VII of Denmark was very fond of satisfying himself … with his hand. He spent so much time on it that the Danish government organized repeated meetings at which they discussed how to get rid of this habit of the king. The doctors who watched the king were convinced that chronic masturbation was the cause of all of Christian's problems. Christian VII was also mentally ill and suffered from porphyria (in fact, it was mental illness that was probably the cause of his problems with rampant masturbation). His personal physician Struensee wrote an entire book about Christian's "masturbatory madness." When Struensee could not get the king to pull on his pants and take over the government, he himself made most of the decisions in place of Christian VII.

3. Love after death

Juana I MadJuana I, mother of King Charles V of Spain, spent the best years of her life married to a man known as Philip the Fair. Apparently, Philip earned his nickname for a reason, as Juana refused to allow him to be buried when he died. Instead, Juan kept her husband's corpse in their bedroom. For 12 months, while Philip's body was slowly decomposing, Juana continued to act like he was alive. Whenever someone asked her about Philip, Juana insisted that her husband was asleep and would wake up soon. She slept with a dead body at night and forced the servants to treat the corpse with royal honors.

4. The pubic hair wig of mistresses

Charles IIIn 1651, King Charles II had a new hobby. Every time he slept with a woman, he pulled some of her pubic hair. Then he joined these hairs together, gradually creating a wig from them, which eventually turned into a huge thick mane. When the wig was large enough to completely cover a man's head, Charles II donated it to a Scottish drinking club called Beggar's Benison. The club members liked the wig so much that they started wearing it during their ceremonies.

5. Husband's heart

Maria Eleanor of BrandenburgQueen Maria Eleanor did not love her husband, King Gustav Adolphus, because of his power or his money. She won the heart of Gustav Adolf. When the king died, she tore his heart out of his chest so that she could sleep with him. Maria Eleanor kept her dead husband's heart in a golden box, which she placed by her bed every night. For several nights, she even forced her daughter to sleep with her in bed so that she could be closer to her father's heart. This led to the fact that the daughter was left with psychological trauma for life.

6. Owner of the world's largest collection of porn

FaroukLegend has it that King Farouk of Egypt owned the largest collection of pornography in the world. He boasted that he had "warehouses filled with strawberries" all over the world, from Rome and Monaco to Cairo. Writer and former pimp Scott Bowers claims he convinced Farouk to send several boxes of porn to famed sexologist Kinsey. Bowers said the boxes almost exclusively contained images of Arab men with little boys. When Farouk's empire fell, his porn collection was ransacked.

7. Deadly gluttony

Adolf FredrikKing Adolf Fredrik of Sweden used to eat a dessert called semla, which is a sweet roll with cream. And once he ate so much of this dessert that he died. In 1771, the Swedish king ate a hearty meal of lobster, caviar and other delicacies. After lunch, he asked for some semla and ate them … as many as 14 pieces. Unsurprisingly, his stomach ached and the king passed away soon after. The English king Henry I also went down in history, who died from eating too much eels.

8. Strange hygiene

Jacob IAccording to Sir Anthony Weldon's notes, King James I was not the most hygienic person. Legend has it that the king never bathed, and if Weldon is to be believed, James I had "a tongue too big for his mouth." Whenever the king drank, liquid dripped onto one side of the king's chin. Moreover, Jacob never washed his hands, but only lightly rubbed his fingertips with the edge of a damp cloth. This was apparently the only type of hygiene the king ever practiced.

9. Royal oddities

Charles VIThe French king Charles VI was mentally ill. He regularly had seizures, during which he rushed wildly around the house. On other days, it seemed to the king that he was made of glass and could not move a single muscle. And once, for five long months, he never bathed or changed his clothes. For almost half a year, the king simply tried to avoid contact with people until he had a moment of enlightenment.

10. Throne-toilet

Louis XIVOf all the people in history, King Louis XIV of France was probably the most smelly. He used his throne as a toilet, even during court sessions. It is not hard to imagine what kind of smell was in the room. Moreover, he proceeded not only from the throne - the king bathed only three times in his entire life. He tried to disguise the stench by filling his rooms with flowers and dousing himself with perfume.

It would seem that who should be crystal clear are psychoanalysts. But oddities and phobias in Sigmund Freud it was more than enough.