Assasinations and attitudes towards them

[Caius Marcius]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Kathryn" <kcawte at n...> wrote:
>  
> While this can never compare
> to the number of Kings/Queens/PM's that
> may have been killed in the UK's
> history, we have a short history and a
> great many attempts.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Actually I'm not entirely sure that's true. There really haven't 
been all
> that many Kings die unnatural deaths (and no Queens) and only one 
Prime
> Minister has ever been assasinated. Heck I'm a medieval historian 
(and that
> s the period that is probably most bloody) and I can still count on 
one hand
> the number of monarchs that I can remember who have been killed. 
Going back
> from the present day the first one I can think of is Charles I (and 
that was
> a judicial execution), Richard III, Princes in the Tower, Edward II 
(death
> arranged by his wife through judicial application of a red hot poker
> somewhere unpleasent), Harold ... Seriously going all the way back 
to 1066
> that's all that spring to mind - who have I missed, anyone? I think 
I'm
> missing one of the Henrys, am I?
> 

You may thinking of Henry VI, who was murdered in the Tower of London 
on May 21 1471 (some years after being deposed), by none other than 
the Duke of Gloucester, the future King Richard III. Shakespeare has 
Richard commit the crime himself; more likely, Richard "merely" 
supervised the execution.

There's also Richard II, though he too was no longer the King when he 
died under murky and mysterious circumstances while imprisoned at 
Yorkshire. Shakespeare has him murdered by Sir Piers of Exton acting 
under what he believed to be instructions of Henry Bolingbroke - (aka 
Henry IV, Richard's succcessor) - though the Shakespearean Henry 
publicly disassociates himself from the rank deed ("plausible 
deniability" is a venerable concept).  Most historians believe that 
Richard either went on a hunger strike or was starved to death by his 
captors. For years afterwards, there were rumors that he escaped, and 
secretly plotted to take back the throne.

   - CMC