The Royal Death Of King Alexander of Greece, Who Died After Being Bitten By A Monkey
Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesAlexander of Greece in 1916, roughly four years before his royal death by monkey bite.
One of the most bizarre royal deaths on this list must belong to Alexander of Greece who, in 1920, died after being bitten by a Barbary macaque monkey.
By the time of his death at the age of 27, Alexander had been king for just three years. According to Royal Central, he took the throne after his father and elder brother were forced into exile during World War I.
But Alexander wouldn’t have long to reign. On Oct. 2, 1920, the young monarch went for a stroll around Athens with his dog, Fritz, near the Tatoi Estate. Then, the king suddenly crossed paths with a monkey that belonged to a servant.
LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP via Getty ImagesAlexander was walking on the grounds of the Tatoi estate, now abandoned, when he was fatally bitten by a monkey.
When Fritz and the monkey started to scuffle, Alexander put himself between the two animals and suffered from a number of monkey bites.
Though Alexander initially dismissed the wounds as nothing, they soon became infected and, before long, the young king suffered from sepsis. As The New York Times reported, his heartbeat became weak and his breathing labored, until his doctors concluded that his “condition was hopeless.”
On Oct. 25, 1920, King Alexander of Greece died. But his early demise wasn’t just a tragedy for his family. Alexander’s death set off a chain of events that culminated with several devastating military losses for Greece, leading Winston Churchill to quip, “It is perhaps no exaggeration to remark that a quarter of a million persons died of this monkey’s bite.”
