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These Deadly Jokes Were Not Too Funny for their Victims in the End

Khalid Elhassan November 30, 2022 29 min

A Jester Who Felled a King With a Joke

Martin I of Aragon. Real Cartuja de Valldemosa

King Martin I of Aragon, also known as Martin the Humane (1356 – 1410), ruled Aragon, Valencia, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. He ascended the throne in 1396, after his older brother John I died without male issue – although the deceased had daughters. Martin’s reign was troubled from the outset, rife with unrest from turbulent nobles. He also had to overcome challenges to his claimed right to ascend the throne, particularly from the family and partisans of his nieces, his late brother’s daughters.

Martin beat back invasions by his nieces’ supporters, but they kept up their claims, and so did their sons. Martin reportedly died in 1410 shortly after he consumed an entire goose. Something about the fowl was foul and did not agree with him, and gave the king indigestion. So His Highness retired to his chamber and summoned his court jester, who took his time to get there. When he finally showed up, Martin asked him where he had been, and the jester replied with a joke that, as seen below, took the audience down.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.