Killing a King

William the Conqueror was a particularly evil bastard. One year Vikings wintered in the north of England, the residents had no choice in the matter, but when W found out he ordered the destruction of the entire area. Every house, farm, building was destroyed and every crop and farm animal was killed. For twenty years the place was called 'The Wasteland' The people either died by the sword then but many simply starved.
He had an interesting death. He was doing a bit of village burning in France, when his horse stood on an ember and reared. The saddle pommel, punched him in the gut and ruptured his peritoneum. It got infected and over many days of total agony, he died. His body was so distended that he couldn't fit in a coffin so they made a special big box for his enormous infected gut and the rest of him. During the service ( I think it was at Bayeux) his body exploded and the mourners and cathedral were covered in bits of Bill and pus. .

His death illustrated an important disadvantage to being a medieval king. When two comrades went into battle, they would often make a pact that if one was impaled by a spear or arrow, the other would pull it out. This gave a reasonably quick death from blood loss rather than the long agonising death from infection. Kings were at a serious disadvantage in battle if they were wounded. The Medieval universe had God at the top and kings just below him. God appointed Kings and determined when and how they would die. Pulling the arrow out was effectively killing your king and was just about the biggest sin you could commit. So they were condemned to die and die slowly.
King Henry II of France, was one who died horribly because of this belief. He was jousting and the jagged end of a broken lance pierced his head at the eyeball. It stayed there till he died, ten days later. This principle also influenced the death of another, the bisexual King Edward II. His killers placed a mattress on him and threw themselves on it, then a hot poker was shoved in his 'fundament' (rectum) till he died. His screams were legendary. But his body could be displayed markless, so none could be seen to have killed him.