00:01Alexander the Great
00:02So, you conquer the entire known world by the time you're 32.
00:07You're undefeated in battle, and everyone basically thinks you're a literal god.
00:12How do you go out?
00:14In a blaze of glory on the battlefield?
00:17Assassinated by a jealous rival?
00:19Nah, man.
00:20You go out in a sweaty, delirious, agonizing fever dream in a palace in Babylon.
00:27That's the exit Alexander the Great.
00:30The story starts in late May, 323 BCE.
00:35Alexander attends a banquet, drinks a massive bowl of unmixed wine,
00:40like the ancient equivalent of chugging Everclear.
00:42And soon after, he's hit with this searing abdominal pain and a raging fever.
00:47For the next two weeks, this guy who stared down armies just deteriorates.
00:53We're talking chills, sweats, crippling exhaustion.
00:58But he's still trying to run the empire from his bed, the absolute madman.
01:03But it gets worse.
01:04He gradually loses the ability to speak.
01:07His soldiers, these grizzled veterans who had followed him to the ends of the earth,
01:11were so worried they demanded to see him.
01:14So they file past his bed, one by one, and all Alexander can do is greet them with his eyes.
01:21Can you imagine that?
01:23The most powerful man in the world, rendered completely silent, just watching his army say goodbye.
01:29He finally becomes unresponsive and is declared dead.
01:34But here's where it gets really weird.
01:36According to the accounts, his body doesn't decompose.
01:40For days.
01:42No signs of rot.
01:43Nothing.
01:44This, of course, just fuels the rumors that he was a god, or that he wasn't actually dead and was
01:50just paralyzed.
01:51Modern theories range from typhoid fever and malaria to acute pancreatitis from the heavy drinking.
01:58Some even whisper of poison, a slow-acting toxin slipped into his wine.
02:03The man who conquered the world was ultimately conquered by something inside his own body,
02:08leaving his empire to be torn apart by his generals.
02:13Genghis Khan
02:14Alright, so if Alexander's death was a slow, public spectacle,
02:19Genghis Khan's was the complete opposite.
02:21This is the guy who built the largest, contiguous land empire in history,
02:25a disciplined war machine that stretched from China to Europe.
02:30His death?
02:31A state secret.
02:32A ghost story.
02:34It's August 12, 27.
02:36Genghis is in his mid-60s, still personally leading a campaign against the Western Xia in northwestern China.
02:44They had defied him, and Genghis Khan did not do defiance.
02:48His goal was total annihilation.
02:52But during the campaign, he suddenly falls ill.
02:55Chinese and Persian chronicles say he developed a raging fever and was dead within about eight days.
03:01Just like that.
03:02The cause is a total mystery.
03:05Traditional stories are all over the place.
03:08Some say he was killed in battle.
03:10Others whisper he was mortally wounded by a captured Xia princess
03:13who used a hidden device to, uh, castrate him in his sleep before taking her own life.
03:20A more likely theory is that he died from complications from an earlier fall from his horse,
03:25or maybe an infectious disease like typhus or even the bubonic plague.
03:30The man who unleashed biological warfare on his enemies may have been taken out by a single invisible microbe.
03:37But here's the most insane part.
03:40His death was kept completely secret.
03:43His inner circle didn't want the army to lose morale or the enemy to get wind of it.
03:48So they pretend he's still alive while they finish the campaign.
03:52They crush the Western Xia, slaughtering its population and burning its cities to the ground,
03:57all while their leader's corpse is hidden in a tent.
04:01After the war is won, they transport his body back to Mongolia for a secret burial.
04:07The location is still unknown.
04:09The funeral procession supposedly killed anyone and anything they encountered to conceal the route.
04:15They literally erased his grave from history.
04:19The man who redrew the map of the world doesn't even have a marker.
04:25Julius Caesar.
04:26Okay, this one is the OG political assassination, the one all the others are compared to.
04:33Julius Caesar.
04:35The man who conquered Gaul, crossed the Rubicon, and basically dismantled the Roman Republic to make himself dictator for life.
04:43The date is the Ides of March.
04:45March 15th, 44 BCE.
04:48The whole city of Rome is buzzing with bad vibes.
04:51Soothsayers had warned Caesar about this day.
04:54His own wife, Calpurnia, had a nightmare that his statue was bleeding and begged him not to go to the
04:59Senate.
05:00But he goes anyway, probably feeling invincible like he always did.
05:04He arrives at the Curia of Pompeii, the Senate's meeting place.
05:08A group of senators, his supposed allies, surround him.
05:11They pretend they're presenting a petition.
05:13Then, one of them, Casca, strikes the first blow.
05:17It's the signal.
05:19Suddenly, it's a feeding frenzy.
05:21Daggers flash.
05:22These guys, about 60 of them, just go to town on him.
05:26Caesar tries to fight back at first, but he's overwhelmed.
05:28He staggers, bleeding, and collapses at the base of a statue of his old rival Pompeii.
05:36The irony is just, chef's kiss.
05:39An autopsy later revealed he had been stabbed 23 times.
05:4423!
05:45But here's the kicker.
05:47Only one of those wounds was actually fatal.
05:50A deep one to the chest.
05:52Most of the senators were just wildly stabbing, probably hitting each other in the chaos.
05:56It was a messy, savage, and deeply personal execution.
06:01His last words are famously recorded as,
06:04Et tu, Brute?
06:05You too, Brutus?
06:07As he saw his protege among the killers.
06:10Though in reality, he probably just died in shocked silence.
06:13The liberators thought they'd save the Republic,
06:15but all they did was light the fuse for a civil war
06:18that would burn it to the ground and give rise to the Roman Empire.
06:22Good job, guys.
06:24Leonidas I of Sparta.
06:27We all know the story.
06:28The 300 Spartans at the narrow pass of Thermopylae,
06:31holding off the entire Persian army.
06:34At the center of it all is their king, Leonidas.
06:37Unlike the others on this list,
06:39his death wasn't about intrigue or disease.
06:41It was about turning his own body into the final line of defense.
06:46For two days, Leonidas and his small force of Greeks
06:49used the terrain to perfection,
06:51neutralizing the Persians' massive numbers.
06:54They held the pass.
06:56But then, betrayal.
06:58A local Greek named Ephialtes shows the Persian king, Xerxes,
07:03a mountain path to outflank them.
07:05Leonidas finds out he's surrounded.
07:07It's over.
07:08He dismisses the rest of the Greek allies,
07:10telling them to get out while they can.
07:12But he stays.
07:14He and his 300 Spartans,
07:16plus a few other loyal Greeks,
07:18are going to see this thing through to the end.
07:20In the final, climactic battle,
07:23Leonidas fights at the very front.
07:25Accounts say he was killed relatively early in the fighting,
07:28falling in a hail of arrows and spears.
07:31But his death wasn't the end of the fight.
07:33It was the reason for the rest of it.
07:36The remaining Spartans,
07:37seeing their king fall,
07:39go absolutely berserk.
07:40They fight their way to his body
07:42and drag it back to a small hill.
07:45For the next hour,
07:46the battle rages over Leonidas' corpse.
07:49His men, exhausted and wounded,
07:51form a circle around him,
07:53fighting with swords, hands, and teeth,
07:55until they are finally cut down by a storm of arrows.
07:59Even in death,
08:01the Persians weren't done with him.
08:02A furious Xerxes,
08:04enraged by his losses,
08:06ordered Leonidas' head to be cut off
08:08and his body to be crucified.
08:10It was meant to be the ultimate disgrace,
08:12but it completely backfired.
08:15It just cemented his legend.
08:17Leonidas didn't die in a palace.
08:19He died on the front line,
08:21and his dead body became the last piece of ground
08:24his men would surrender.
08:25His corpse was the final fortress.
08:29Richard I, the Lionheart, of England
08:33Richard the Lionheart,
08:35the legendary Crusader king,
08:38the Bane of Saladin,
08:39the guy with a reputation
08:41for being an absolute terror on the battlefield.
08:44So how does a guy like that check out?
08:46A duel with a Saracen emir?
08:48A heroic last stand in the Holy Land?
08:51Not even close.
08:53He died because of a petty squabble over treasure,
08:56taken down by a boy with a crossbow
08:58and a frying pan.
08:59I'm not kidding.
09:01It's March 1199.
09:03Richard is besieging a minor castle,
09:06Chalut Chabrol, in France.
09:08The reason?
09:09A rumor that a local peasant
09:11had found a trove of Roman gold.
09:14Richard, always short on cash,
09:16wanted his cut.
09:17One evening, he's walking the perimeter
09:19of the castle, no armor on,
09:21when a defender on the walls
09:23takes a pot shot at him.
09:24The defender, a boy named Pierre Bazille,
09:27was apparently using a frying pan
09:29as a makeshift shield.
09:30He fires a bolt,
09:32and it hits Richard in the left shoulder,
09:34near his neck.
09:35At first, Richard just shrugs it off.
09:37But the wound was serious.
09:39Back in his tent,
09:40a surgeon makes a complete mess
09:42of removing the arrowhead.
09:44The wound quickly becomes infected.
09:46For the next 12 days,
09:48the Lionheart,
09:49the great warrior,
09:50lies in his tent
09:51as gangrene sets in.
09:53The wound turns black,
09:55it stinks,
09:56and he slowly,
09:57painfully,
09:58rots from the inside out.
10:00He finally dies on April 6th,
10:02with his mother,
10:03Eleanor of Aquitaine,
10:04by his side.
10:06But here's the twist.
10:07Before he died,
10:09Richard ordered the boy
10:10who shot him
10:10to be brought in.
10:12In a final act of chivalry,
10:14he forgave him,
10:15gave him a bag of silver,
10:16and ordered him set free.
10:18A truly noble gesture.
10:20Except,
10:21as soon as Richard was dead,
10:23his men ignored the order.
10:24They flayed the boy alive
10:26and then hanged him.
10:28So,
10:28the great Lionheart dies,
10:30not in a blaze of glory,
10:31but from a festering wound
10:33inflicted by a kid
10:34during a shakedown
10:35over some rumored treasure.
10:37History, man.
10:38It's merciless.
10:41Shaka Zulu.
10:42Shaka Zulu.
10:43The man who revolutionized
10:46warfare in southern Africa,
10:47who turned the Zulu clan
10:49into a fearsome,
10:50expansionist empire
10:51with his short,
10:52stabbing spear,
10:53the Ikla,
10:54and his brutal,
10:55bullhorn formation.
10:57This was a man
10:58who lived and breathed
11:00violence and conquest.
11:02The years leading up
11:04to his death were dark.
11:05After his mother,
11:06Nandi,
11:07died,
11:08Shaka plunged
11:09into a period of extreme,
11:10grief-fueled tyranny.
11:12He ordered mass killings
11:14of anyone deemed
11:15not mournful enough,
11:16forbade the planting
11:17of crops,
11:18and even ordered
11:19that no milk be consumed.
11:21He basically alienated
11:23everyone around him.
11:24His two half-brothers,
11:26Dingane and Mushlingana,
11:28saw their chance.
11:30Along with a trusted advisor
11:32named Ubofa,
11:33they plotted
11:34to take him out.
11:35On September 22, 1828,
11:38they made their move.
11:40They approached Shaka
11:41in his royal crawl
11:42at Quaducuza.
11:44It wasn't a battle,
11:45it was an execution.
11:47They found him
11:48with only a small retinue,
11:50not his full bodyguard.
11:52Mbofa struck the first blow,
11:54and then his brothers
11:55moved in,
11:56stabbing him repeatedly.
11:58And here's the savage detail.
12:00They used the very weapon
12:02he had perfected,
12:03the Ikla.
12:04They killed the master
12:05with his own tool.
12:08As he lay bleeding
12:09on the ground,
12:10surrounded by the men
12:11who were supposed
12:11to be his family,
12:13Shaka is said
12:14to have uttered
12:14a chilling prophecy.
12:16He told them
12:17they would never rule,
12:18and that the real power
12:20in the land
12:20would go to
12:21the swallows,
12:22the white settlers
12:24who were beginning
12:24to arrive.
12:25He was right.
12:27His brother's reign
12:28was plagued by conflict,
12:30and the Zulu kingdom
12:31would eventually fall
12:32to the British.
