King Henry I, The Monarch Who Died From A ‘Surfeit Of Lampreys’
Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesKing Henry I’s fondness for lampreys ultimately killed him.
King Henry I was no stranger to royal deaths. The youngest son of William the Conqueror, he certainly knew the explosive details of his father’s funeral. But Henry, too, would meet a strange fate. And it had to do with fish.
After outliving one brother and outmaneuvering another, Henry took the English throne in 1100. As king, he dedicated his time to revamping the royal justice system, building a grand abbey in Reading, and indulging his love of lampreys, a boneless fish historically favored by England’s royals.
There was just one problem. Every time that Henry ate lampreys, he felt sick.
Bettmann/Getty ImagesA lamprey held for display. The fish is allegedly a favorite among English royals.
According to medieval historian Marc Morris, doctors had warned Henry about eating lampreys before. But the king had waved away their worries. And after hunting in Normandy in 1135, he called for his favorite meal.
Medieval chronicler Henry of Huntingdon described the aftermath, writing, “[T]his meal brought on a most destructive humour, and violently stimulated similar symptoms, producing a deadly chill in his aged body, and a sudden and extreme convulsion. Against this, nature reacted by stirring up an acute fever to dissolve the inflammation with very heavy sweating.”
Soon afterward, King Henry I died. Doctors apparently ascribed his royal death to “a surfeit of lampreys.”
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