10. Queen Elizabeth & Robert Dudley’s Wife

Queen Elizabeth I (1553-1603) never married during her reign. However whether she was actually the “Virgin Queen” has long been in debate. From the moment she ascended the throne in 1558, rumours spread of the Queen’s “secret” lovers. The most prominent was Robert Dudley. Although in 1560, Dudley’s wife turned up dead at the bottom of a staircase with her neck broken. Questions remain to this day, was the Queen a virgin or was she a murderer.

9. William II of England’s Death

In the year 1911, William II of England died during a hunt in England’s New Forest. He was killed by an arrow that went through his lung. Though the circumstances around this and what led up to this, are mysterious.

Chroniclers later revealed the name of the killer to be a nobleman named Walter Tirel. What makes this whole situation incredibly suspicious is that the king’s body was simply abandoned by the nobles. His body was in fact later discovered by an arrow maker called Eli Parratt.

William’s younger brother, Henry, who was on the hunt with William, hurried straight back to London. He was crowned within days. William’s body was taken to Winchester Cathedral by only a few of his countrymen, including Eli who discovered the body.

What actually happened that day, we will never know…

8. Henry VII Creates the Church Of England

King Henry VIII desperately wanted a divorce from his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon. As she couldn’t produce a Royal male heir. The Pope strictly forbid the divorce. However Henry’s advisors Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell orchestrated the case to split from the Catholic Church so that Henry could get his divorce.

So in 1534 Henry created the Church of England and appointed himself as its leader, as well as as Cramner as Archbishop of Canterbury. Where they adopted lessons of the continental reformation, dissolved England’s monasteries, and took control of the Church’s vast property holdings.

Now free to do as he pleased, with a divorce granted by the New Church of England, Henry divorced. Subsequently throughout his life he married five more times. By the way, he had two of those wives, Catherine Howard and Anne Boleyn, beheaded.

7. Queen Elizabeth’s Cousins Hidden Away Due To Disabilities

Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon were Queen Elizabeth’s first cousins. When they were 22 and 15 they were stashed away at the Royal Earlswood Institution for Mental Defects. This was due to being born with mental defects. In an effort to keep the girls’ existence secret from the world, their family reported the girls as being dead in 1961.

Due to the Royal Family at the time having little to no understanding of how to manage mental disabilities, these girls were separated from the Royal Family as a means to avoid public attention and to maintain that the Royal Family’s Bloodline was ‘pure’. It is reported that the Royal Family never even visited them in hospital and that when Nerissa passed away in 1986, the hospital staff were the only ones who attended the funeral.

6. Princess Diana Threw Herself Down The Stairs While Pregnant

Princess Diana struggled to fit in with the aristocracy, and her mental health requirements were not addressed. These failures were later acknowledged by the royal family, although in the past they have openly blamed her for everything that has occurred to her.

In one situation, Princess Diana is said to have thrown herself down the stairs while being four months pregnant with Prince William. Throughout her pregnancy she had morning sickness and in fact struggled with an eating disorder. When seeking support from her husband Prince Charles he ignored her and told her that he was going to go riding. So Princess Diana threw herself down the stairs in despair. Unfortunately, Prince Charles didn’t seem bothered at all.

5. Mary Queen of Scots Plot of Assassination

Following a rebellion that caused Mary, Queen of Scots to abandon her throne, she fled to England in 1568, where Queen Elizabeth I imprisoned her because she saw her as a threat to the English monarchy.

She had reason to be concerned because there were several plans to remove Queen Elizabeth, a protestant, from her throne, and replace her with Mary, a Roman Catholic. When a spy for Queen Elizabeth intercepted a letter from Mary ordering an assassination, Elizabeth had her beheaded.

4. Queen Victoria’s Two Controversial Relationships

In the 2017 film Victoria & Abdul, it depicts how Queen Victoria developed a close bond with an Indian servant named Abdul Karim. Karim, a servant, was later elevated into her inner circle. Though it is not known, the two are considered to have been platonic. But after Victoria passed away in 1901, the Royal Family deported Abdul back to India and the Royal Family made an effort to obliterate his existence from history.

However, that wasn’t her first romance that caused a stir in the community. After her husband’s passing, she confided in a Scottish servant named John Brown. Whether or whether that was a love relationship is debatable; some people think they were secretly wedded. We will never know

3. Charles I Execution

Charles I succeeded his father James I in 1625 as King of England and Scotland. During Charles’ reign, his rule frustrated Parliament and resulted in the English Civil War, eventually leading to his execution in 1649.

During his reign he dissolved Parliament three times, once for 11 years. And only brought back Parliament to raise funds when he himself ran out of money due to the expensive foreign wars England was fighting abroad. He lost support over his mishandling of public welfare issues affecting thousands of people and he personally believed in the ‘divine’ right of kings, meaning he thought he was above the law.

After his defeat by Parliament in the Civil Wars, Charles I was imprisoned. The King refused to cooperate. He did not enter a plea or recognise the legitimacy of the court so he was executed. After Charles’ beheading, the executioner slammed the head to the ground and bruised it, soldiers dipped their swords in the blood and swore at his body, and then his hair and blood “were sold by parcels.”

2. Duke of Cumberland’s Midnight Madness

The Duke of Cumberland was the least popular of King George III’s sons, and his reputation was horrendous due to the rumour that he had raped more than one noblewoman and made his sister, Princess Sophia, pregnant.

His reputation was sealed in 1810 when during a night, he woke up screaming for his servants, proclaiming he had been attacked and hit on the head. Cumberland claimed to those around him that it is suspicious that one of the servants, Joseph Sellis, had not responded to the Duke’s call. A search party was sent out.

They found Sellis door locked from the inside. When they gained entry they found him nearly fully decapitated, caused by a razor across the neck. Cumberland claimed suicide, and the investigation team agreed.

However, people at the time believed Sellis had fought off Cumberland trying to rape him and this story followed him for the rest of his days. And their were rumours and fear towards Queen Victoria’s ascension to the throne that she may potentially be murdered by Cumberland as he was first in line to the throne as her uncle.

Fortunately she had a son pushing Cumberland back on the line of succession. No longer first he left to Germany never to return. And oddly enough, as the years went by, there another inquest, as another one of Cumberland’s servants had miraculously also committed suicide, by again, locking himself inside his room, and slitting his own throat. Nothing was ever proven against the Duke, but it just must have simply been coincidence. Or maybe not.

1. Prince Andrew & Jeffrey Epstein

In 2019 Federal prosecutors filed charges against Jeffrey Epstein, on one count of trafficking in minors for sex and one count of conspiring to traffic in minors for sex. Epstein was later discovered dead in his Manhattan jail cell . Suicide was identified as the cause of death. Epstein’s prominent social circle has nevertheless remained in the news even after his passing. Notably, Epstein’s associates included both political figures from both parties and members of the royal family. Prince Andrew, the son of Queen Elizabeth, reportedly once had strong contacts to Epstein.

There are very few details known about the friendship between Epstein and Prince Andrew, but in 2021 sexual abuse charges were thrown at Prince Andrew in a lawsuit involving the Epstein trafficked victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre. In 2022 Prince Andrew settled out of court giving Virginia millions.