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+----------------- Bizarre Royal Deaths -------------------+  

Charles VIII of France was noted for his manners. On entering a tennis court at the Chateau d'Amboise, he bowed to his wife and allowed her to proceed first, but, as he raised his head from his gesture, he crashed it against a low wooden beam, fracturing his skull and killing him.  

Mithridates VI of Pontus in Asia Minor took small doses of poison throughout his life to develop a resistance should anyone try to poison him. He built up such a strong immunity that when he tried to take his own life to escape the approaching Romans, the poison he took had no effect. Instead he ordered a slave to kill him with a sword.  

Queen Eleanor, dutiful wife of Edward I of England, was so distressed to see her husband lying gravely ill after poison had set into a battle wound that she personally sucked all the poison from the wound. Her brave deed saved the King's life but killed her.  

King John of England died in an East Anglian abbey after a sumptuous banquet. The townsfolk of Lynn had just been awarded a handsome contract to supply the royal garrisons and, to repay the King, they rounded off the banquet with his favorite dessert, peaches in cider. He consumed such a great amount that he suffered violent stomach pains and died a few days later.  

Margaret, 'Maid of Norway,' was nominally declared Queen of Scotland in 1286 but it was not until 1290 that the Queen sailed from Norway to claim her new kingdom. Alas, on the journey across the North Sea, she suffered terrible seasickness and died in the Orkneys before ever setting foot on the Scottish mainland.