I have to say that the headline of this link Royal Family: The young English king who just wouldn’t stop eating and died | Royal | News | Express.co.uk had me frowning. Did we have a young English king who ate himself to death? Good Lord, thought I, don’t tell me that’s what happened to the elder of the two boys in the Tower? But no, if that had been the case I’m certain the intrepid Ms Langley would have unearthed the document to prove/disprove it! 😊
Ah, but then comes the magic word “lampreys”. Henry I! Um, except that he was 66/67 when he turned up his toes. Hardly a slip of lad. So I guess the Daily Mail just threw in “young” for the hell of it.
I also have to say that the thought of eating lampreys makes me turn a delicate shade of green. It looks like a grey worm, and I loathe worms. Nasty, slimy, slippery things…. Even though they (lampreys, that is, not worms) reportedly taste like beef. Frogs are supposed to taste like chicken, but there is no way on this earth—in this galaxy—that I am going to have a nibble to find out.
Well, the lampreys may not have been the culprits, of course, his death might simply have been coincidental with his apparently gargantuan last meal. It’s one of those stories that become so entrenched that we’ll never know if they’re true or not. Like Alfred and the cakes, Robert the Bruce and the spider and so on. Where did fact become fiction? If at all.
Anyway, for those of you with a stronger stomach than mine, try the link above.
PS: As for Ms Langley and Henry I, she is already hot on his trail, hoping to find his last resting place on the site of Reading Abbey. If she does, who knows, maybe his DNA will prove he stuffed himself silly with lampreys!
murreyandblue 