Of the death of Henry, king of England.
A.D. 1135.
Whilst king Henry was in Normandy, he one day returned from hunting, and stopped at St. Denys, in the wood of Lions, to eat some lampreys, a fish which he was very fond of, though they always disagreed with him, and the physicians had often cautioned him against eating them, but he would not listen to their advice. This food mortally chilled the old man's blood, and caused a sudden and violent illness, against which nature struggled, and brought on an acute fever, in the effort to resist the worst effects of the disease. Unable to overcome the malady, this great king died on the first day of December, after he had reigned thirtyfive years and three months.
[...]
The corpse of the king lay a long time above ground at Rouen, where his entrails, brain, and eyes are buried ; the rest of his body, cut with knives and seasoned with salt to destroy the offensive smell, which was great, and annoyed all who came near it, was wrapped in a bull's skin; and the physician who was engaged for a large sum of money to open his head with a hatchet, and extract the brain after it was already too much corrupted, notwithstanding that the head was wrapped up in several napkins, was poisoned by the noisome smell, and thus the money which he received was fatal to him ; he was the last of king Henry's victims, for he had killed many before.
Source:
Wendover, Roger of: Flowers of history: The history of England from the descent of the saxons to A.D. 1235. vol.1 (1236, republished edition of 1849), p. 482 - 483 (read online)
Further Reading:
The Anarchy, the English civil war that was spawned by Henry's culinary misadventure (resulting in even more deaths)
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