The Renaissance and Early Modern Eras boast a handful of strange and unusual practices, but they are also known for some of the strangest and weirdest deaths in history. From dying from bumps on the head to unique executions and sheer stubbornness, these eras have proven to have brought out the worst in humanity and some paid a bizarre price for it.
1. Jörg Jenatsch
In 1639, Jenatsch, a preacher turned politician, was out celebrating at the town’s carnival when a group asked to join his party. The group’s leader, apparently dressed as a bear, proceeded to hack Jenatsch to death with an axe. The man in the axe-wielding partygoer in a bear costume was never identified, and the legend states that the axe used was the same one Jenatsch had used to kill a rival.
2. Charles VIII of France
In 1498, the 27-year-old French king, Charles VIII went to fetch his wife, Queen Anne of Brittany, at her apartments in the royal castle of Amboise. The pair then rushed to a tennis match being played in the castle moats. On the way, King Charles VIII violently hit his head on the top of a short doorway. Sometime later, in the middle of the tennis match, the King suddenly collapsed and became comatose, dying nine hours later.
3. Pietro Aretino
Aretino was a famous and influential Italian satirist, playwright, and poet who, in 1556, reportedly died from suffocation brought on by laughter. There are two accounts of his death. The first posits that Aretino died from laughing too hard at an obscene jok,e which resulted in a stroke. Another account claims he fell off a chair after a burst of hysterical laughter which resulted in a fractured skull.
4. George Plantagenet
The first Duke of Clarence, George Plantagenet was King Edward IV of England’s brother. The two had a history of betrayal, but George’s multiple conspiracies resulted in his brother ordering his execution. After being jailed in the tower of London and put on trial for treason, George was executed in 1478 by being drowned in a barrel of Malmsey wine.
5. Victims of the 1518 dancing plague
In July 1518, Strasbourg, Alsace (now France), was struck by what was referred to as a “dancing mania” after hundreds of people began to dance non-stop for days on end. The dance mania started when a woman began joyfully dancing in the street and within six days, many more townspeople had joined her. When the dancing mania passed, numerous people died from heart attacks, strokes, or exhaustion.
6. Jean-Baptiste Lully
A French conductor and composer in the 1600s and during this time conductors were known to beat time by banging clubs of wood on the ground. Lully, in the throes of emotion, brought down his club with so much force that it went through his foot. The eccentric composer refused to have the leg amputated (so that he could continue to dance) and eventually died of gangrene in 1687 at the age of 55.
7. Marco Antonio Bragadin
The Venetian Captain-General of Famagusta was gruesomely killed after the Ottomans took over the city. In a slow and painful execution, Bragadin was dragged around walls with sacks of dirt and stones on his back, tied to a chair, and hoisted on a flagpole for sailors to taunt him and then was taken to the town’s square, where he was flayed alive. His skin was stuffed with straw and displayed along the streets of Famagusta.
8. Tycho Brahe
In 1601, the astronomer contracted a bladder and kidney infection that led to his death. First-hand reports indicate Brahe attended a banquet in Prague where he refused to relieve himself as he believed it to be rude. When he returned home, he was unable to urinate without extreme pain. He died 11 days later.
9. Arthur Aston
As a seasoned soldier, Aston fought many wars, eventually being knighted and appointed governor of Oxford. A fall from his horse saw him losing a leg and needing to wear a wooden prosthetic leg. In 1648, Aston was captured by Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers who were convinced that his wooden leg contained hidden treasure. When he repeatedly denied this, the soldiers beat him to death with his own false leg.
Sources
12 of the Most Unbelievably Strange Deaths of the Renaissance
List of unusual deaths in the Renaissance
List of unusual deaths in the early modern period
