List of unusual deaths in the early modern period

!scope="col"|Image

!scope="col"|Date of death

!scope="col"|Details

|File:Somer Francis Bacon.jpg

|{{dts|9 April 1626}}

|John Aubrey reported in Brief Lives that the English philosopher and statesman died of pneumonia after stuffing a chicken carcass with snow to learn whether it could preserve meat.{{Cite web|last=Paoletti|first=Gabe|editor-last=Kuroski|editor-first=John|date=2019-07-31|orig-date=Originally published 13 November 2017|title=The Strange Deaths Of 16 Historic And Famous Figures|url=https://allthatsinteresting.com/strange-deaths|access-date=2024-08-08|website=All That's Interesting|quote=Many of history's most important figures have suffered strange deaths that do not seem to befit their noble legacy.}}{{cite magazine|magazine=Mental Floss|last=Wallace|first=Lorna|date=2023-03-13|access-date=2024-09-01|title=13 Authors Whose Deaths Were Stranger Than Fiction|url=https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/strange-author-deaths}}

|File:Georg_Jenatsch.jpg

|{{dts|24 January 1639}}

|The Swiss political leader was assassinated by a person dressed in a bear costume wielding an axe. Legend states that the axe was the same one that Jenatsch had once used to kill a rival.{{cite news|date=2017-02-16|title=The world's most unusual assassinations|access-date=2024-10-19|work=BBC News|department=World|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-38995424}}{{Cite news|last=Ritchie|first=Gayle|date=2020-11-26|title=Assassins' Deeds: Booby-trapped statue in Mearns cottage killed Scottish king|url=https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/past-times/1763026/assassins-deeds-booby-trapped-statue-in-mearns-cottage-killed-scottish-king/|access-date=2024-10-19|newspaper=The Courier|quote=John's book details a host of weird assassination methods. Another strange one is the story of a Swiss leader Jörg Jenatsch...}}

| File:A cigarette card of Sir Arthur Aston.jpg

|{{dts|September 1649}}

|During the Siege of Drogheda, the Cavalier commander from Reading, England, was beaten to death by Oliver Cromwell's army with his own wooden leg because they suspected gold coins were concealed inside.{{Cite book|last=Gardiner|first=Samuel Rawson|author-link=Samuel Rawson Gardiner|url=http://archive.org/details/historycommonwe13gardgoog|title=History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649–1660|year=1894|location=London; New York|publisher=Longsmans, Green, and Co.|volume=1|via=Internet Archive}}{{failed verification|date=October 2024}}{{cite news|last=Fort|first=Hugh|title=The bizarre tale of loathsome Reading soldier beaten to death with his own wooden leg|department=Reading|url=https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/berkshire-history/bizarre-tale-loathsome-reading-soldier-18658585|website=BerkshireLive|date=2020-07-26|access-date=2024-10-17|quote=...In a cruel ending, he was beaten to death with his own wooden leg.}}

|File:ThomasUrquhart.png

|{{dts|1660}}

|The Scottish aristocrat, polymath, and first translator of François Rabelais's writings into English is said to have died laughing upon hearing that Charles II had taken the throne.{{unreliable source?|date=October 2024}}{{Cite book|last=Irving|first=David|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofscotish00irvi|title=The History of Scottish Poetry|publisher=Edmonston & Douglas|year=1861|editor-last=Caryle|editor-first=John Aitken|location=Edinburgh|pages=539|quote=Sir Thomas Urquhart, another poet, is said to have expired in a paroxysm of laughter, on hearing of the restoration of Charles the Second; a statement which is rendered sufficiently probable by the record of similar cases, and by the eccentric character of the individual.|via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite book|last=Stock|first=Elliot|author-link=Elliot Stock|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=txvhAAAAMAAJ|title=The Bookworm: An Illustrated Treasury of Old-time Literature|publisher=A.C. Armstrong & Son|year=1891|volume=4|location=New York|pages=152|quote=There is a curious tradition that Sir Thomas Urquhart died of an inordinate fit of laughter on hearing of the restoration of Charles II.|via=Google Books}}

|File:FrançoisVatel.png

|{{dts|24 April 1671}}

|The majordomo of Prince Louis II de Bourbon-Condè was responsible for a banquet for 2,000 people hosted in honour of King Louis XIV at the Château de Chantilly, where he died. According to a letter by Madame de Sévigné, Vatel was so distraught about the lateness of the seafood delivery and about other mishaps, that he committed suicide with his sword, and his body was discovered when someone came to tell him of the arrival of the fish.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-dix-septieme-siecle-2002-4-page-631.htm|title=Aux origines du suicide de Vatel : les difficultés de l'approvisionnement en marée au temps de Louis XIV|trans-title=At the origins of Vatel's suicide: the difficulties of tidal supply at the time of Louis XIV|year=2002|doi=10.3917/dss.024.0631|last=Abad|first=Reynald|journal=Dix-Septième Siècle|volume=217|issue=4|pages=631–641|language=fr|quote=Alors que le côté spectaculaire du geste de Vatel le transformait, à partir du XIXe siècle, en une sorte de fait d'arme de l'histoire culinaire de la France, son côté disproportionné en faisait parallèlement un objet d'étonnement et même de mystère.|trans-quote=While the spectacular side of Vatel's gesture transformed it, from the 19th century onwards, into a sort of feat of arms in the culinary history of France, its disproportionate side at the same time made it an object of astonishment and even mystery.}}{{Cite web|title=10 Historical Deaths Weirder Than the Movies|url=https://historycollection.com/10-historical-deaths-weirder-than-the-movies/|first=Khalid|last=Elhassan|date=2018-07-04|access-date=2024-09-06|website=History Collection}}

|File:Pierre Mignard - Portrait de Jean-Baptiste Poquelin dit Molière (1622-1673) - Google Art Project (cropped).jpg

|{{dts|17 February 1673}}

|The French playwright suffered a pulmonary hemorrhage caused by tuberculosis while playing the part of a hypochondriac in his own play Le malade imaginaire. He disguised his convulsion as part of his performance and finished out the show, which ends with his character dead in a chair. After the show, he was carried in the chair to his house, where he died.{{unreliable source?|date=October 2024}}{{Cite news|last=Evans|first=Mary|date=2001-01-18|title=Mysterious Molière|url=https://www.economist.com/culture/2001/01/18/mysterious-moliere|url-access=registration|access-date=2024-10-07|newspaper=The Economist|quote=Among the considerable number of men dedicated to the task of keeping Louis XIV entertained, several met bizarre ends... Nothing, however, quite equals the death of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, the self-styled sieur de Molière...}}{{cite book|last=Walsh|first=Kieran|chapter=38: The Characters (in Silhouette) from Molière's Play Le malade imaginaire|title=Medical Education: A History in 100 Images|year=2016|publisher=CRC Press|location=Boca Raton, Florida|isbn=978-1-4987-5197-1|pages=83–84|via=Google Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pO0bDAAAQBAJ|quote=Ironically Molière collapsed on stage while playing the hypochondriac in Le malade imaginaire.}}

|File:Paul Mignard - Jean-Baptiste Lully.jpg

|{{dts|22 March 1687}}

|The French composer died of a gangrenous abscess after accidentally piercing his foot with a staff while he was vigorously conducting a Te Deum. It was customary at that time to conduct by banging a staff on the floor. He refused to have his leg amputated so he could still dance.{{Cite news|last=Schonberg|first=Harold C.|author-link=Harold C. Schonberg|date=1970-09-13|title=Then There Was Lully, Put a Baton in His Foot|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/then-there-was-lully-put-a-baton-in-his-foot.html|access-date=2024-10-07|newspaper=The New York Times|pages=23|quote=Oddball deaths? Perhaps the only really freakish one concerning a composer involved Jean‐Baptiste Lully, the favorite of the Sun King.}}{{Cite journal|last=Lekkas|first=Demetrios E.|date=Spring 2019|title=The true "punching bag" behind Molière's The Middle-Class Nobleman|url=https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/episteme/article/view/20569/17893|journal=Epistēmēs Metron Logos|issue=2|pages=11–39|doi=10.12681/eml.20569|quote=...I do wonder whether this is in reference to the ultimately fatal bâton / baston, that is the long conducting stick of the orchestra director, which, in the dominant current version regarding historical fact, would ultimately, years later, turn out to be responsible for Lully's death, in a notorious tragic freak accident...|via=EJournals|doi-access=free}}

|File:King_William_III_of_England,_(1650-1702).jpg

|{{dts|8 March 1702}}

|The king of England was riding his horse when it stumbled on a molehill. William fell and broke his collarbone, then contracted pneumonia and died several days later. After he died, Jacobites were said to have toasted in the mole's honour, calling it "the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat".{{Cite web|last=Hand|first=Bill|date=2018-06-03|title=A look at William of Orange, one of state's earliest kings|url=https://www.newbernsj.com/opinion/a-look-at-william-of-orange-one-of-states-earliest-kings/article_0eea19f5-a930-5af4-8ba6-68b3d81c9624.html|access-date=2024-10-08|website=New Bern Sun Journal|quote=His death was a little unusual: his horse threw him when it stumbled in a mole's burrow and the king broke his collarbone.}}{{cite web|title=The five most bizarre deaths of English monarchs|date=2021-08-05|work=Portals to the Past|access-date=2024-08-27|url=https://www.portalstothepast.co.uk/the-five-most-bizarre-deaths-of-english-monarchs/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812123132/https://www.portalstothepast.co.uk/the-five-most-bizarre-deaths-of-english-monarchs/|archive-date=2021-08-12}}

|File:Hannah Twynnoy's gravestone.jpg

|{{dts|23 October 1703}}

|The 33-year-old barmaid at the White Lion Inn was mauled to death by a tiger in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. She was the first person to be killed by a tiger in British history.{{cite news|last=Beckford|first=Martin|title=BBC reveals Britain's most unusual epitaphs|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=2007-09-24|access-date=2024-10-05|quote=Almost as strange as Mrs Johnston's gravestone is the story of Hannah Twynnoy, whom [sic] historians believe was probably the first person in Britain to be killed by a tiger.|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1563985/BBC-reveals-Britains-most-unusual-epitaphs.html}}{{cite web|url=https://the-line-up.com/9-strange-graves|last=Thompson|first=Matthew|title=9 Strange Graves from Around the World|website=The Lineup|date=2014-12-03|access-date=2024-10-05|department=Bizarre|quote=Hannah Twynnoy holds the bizarre title of England's first tiger fatality.}}{{Cite web|title=Hannah Twynnoy|quote=Three centuries have passed since the shocking death of a young woman in Malmesbury, yet Hannah Twynnoy is remembered here in Malmesbury each day.|url=https://www.athelstanmuseum.org.uk/malmesbury-history/people/hannah-twynnoy/|access-date=2024-10-19|website=Athelstan Museum Malmesbury}}

|File:Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales by Philip Mercier.jpg

|{{dts|31 March 1751}}

|The son of George II of Great Britain and father of George III died of a pulmonary embolism, but was commonly claimed to have been killed by being struck by a cricket ball.{{cite book|last=Marvin|first=Frederic Rowland|title=The Last Words (Real and Traditional) of Distinguished Men and Women|location=Troy, New York|publisher=C. A. Brewster & Co.|year=1900|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1TUzAQAAMAAJ|access-date=2024-11-20|via=Google Books|quote=To some of the most distinguished of our race death has come in the strangest possible way, and so grotesquely as to subtract greatly from the dignity of the sorrow it must certainly have occasioned.}}{{Rp|105}}{{Cite web|last=Castelow|first=Ellen|date=2014-12-27|title=Frederick Prince of Wales|url=https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Frederick-Prince-of-Wales/|access-date=2024-10-19|website=Historic UK|quote=But the strangest death must be that of Frederick, Prince of Wales who died, some sources claim, after being hit with a cricket-ball.}}

|File:Richmann Georg Wilhelm.jpg

|{{dts|6 August 1753}}

|The Russian physicist was killed when a globe of ball lightning which he created in his laboratory struck him in the forehead.{{cite book|last=Schiffer|first=Michael Brian|author-link=Michael Brian Schiffer|chapter=An Electrical World|title=Draw the Lightning Down: Benjamin Franklin and Electrical Technology in the Age of Enlightenment|location=Oakland, California|publisher=University of California Press|orig-year=Originally published 2003|edition=online|via=California Scholarship Online|date=2012-03-22|pages=161–183|chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520238022.003.0008|access-date=2024-09-05|doi=10.1525/california/9780520238022.003.0008|isbn=978-0-520-23802-2|quote=Sokolow was destined to become the only witness to that day's bizarre events.}}{{Cite web|last=Gupton|first=Nancy|date=2017-06-12|title=Benjamin Franklin and the Kite Experiment|url=https://fi.edu/en/science-and-education/benjamin-franklin/kite-key-experiment|access-date=2024-10-08|website=The Franklin Institute|quote=...Baltic physicist Georg Wilhelm Richmann attempted a similar trial but was killed when he was struck by ball lightning (a rare weather phenomenon).}}

| File:Henry Hall Plaque.jpg

|{{dts|8 December 1755}}

|The 94-year-old British lighthouse keeper died several days after fighting a fire at Rudyerd's Tower, during which molten lead from the roof fell down his throat. His autopsy revealed that "the diaphragmatic upper mouth of the stomach greatly inflamed and ulcerated, and the tuncia in the lower part of the stomach burnt; and from the great cavity of it took out a great piece of lead ... which weighed exactly seven ounces, five drachms and eighteen grains". The piece of lead is currently in the collection of the National Museum of Scotland.{{cite journal|year=1854|title=Barbarous experiments at Plymouth|journal=The Zoist|publisher=H. Baillière|page=248|volume=11|via=Google Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DulXAAAAMAAJ&q=henry+hall+lighthouse+dr+spry&pg=PA248|quote=The reality of this assertion seemed, however, then incredible to Dr. Spry, who could scarcely suppose it possible that any human being could exist after receiving melted lead into the stomach...}}{{Cite book|last=Adams|first=W. H. Davenport|author-link=William Henry Davenport Adams|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GMXfAAAAMAAJ|title=Lighthouses and Lightships|publisher=T. Nelson and Sons|year=1870|location=London |pages=117 |isbn=978-1-342-54487-2 |quote=Of the other two light-keepers, one, named Henry Hall, met his death in an extraordinary manner.|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|date=2001-07-11|title=12-day fight for life after accident during 1755 blaze|url=https://www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news/7208054.12-day-fight-for-life-after-accident-during-1755-blaze/|access-date=2024-10-08|website=Somerset County Gazette|quote=The story of Henry Hall became even more bizarre.}}

|File:Stanisław Leszczyński, King of Poland, Duke of Lorraine.jpg

|{{dts|23 February 1766}}

|The duke of Lorraine and former king of Poland died from wounds after his silk attire had caught fire from a spark while he was sitting near the fireplace in his Château de Lunéville.{{Cite web|title=The Saxon Era – The Wettin Poland|url=https://zpe.gov.pl/a/the-saxon-era---the-wettin-poland/D1FXcQVoB|access-date=2025-02-05|website=zpe.gov.pl|quote=Leszczyński died on 23 February 1766 due to the complications that followed an unfortunate accident.}}{{Cite web|last=Pęska|first=Zuzanna|date=2024-05-06|title=Dwa razy był królem Polski. Zginął od iskry z kominka|trans-title=He was king of Poland twice, he wanted to partition it. He died from a spark from the fireplace.|url=https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/dwa-razy-byl-krolem-polski-zginal-od-iskry-z-kominka/8s3gw30?|access-date=2025-02-05|website=Onet Wiadomości|language=pl|quote=W chwili śmierci miał 88 lat, jednak poprzedzające ją wydarzenia były wyjątkowo dramatyczne.|trans-quote=He was 88 years old at the time of his death, but the events preceding it were exceptionally dramatic.}}

|

|{{dts|20 June 1774}}

|The English carpenter and wheelwright was the first human known to have died in an accident with a submarine. Day submerged himself in Plymouth Sound in a wooden diving chamber attached to a sloop named the Maria and never resurfaced.{{cite book|last=McCartney|first=Innes|author-link=Innes McCartney|title=Lost Patrols: Submarine Wrecks of the English Channel|chapter=No 1/29, Maria – World's First Submarine Death|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j6ooZdh1rlkC&pg=PA48|location=Penzance, Cornwall|publisher=Periscope Publishing Ltd.|year=2003|isbn=1-904381-04-9|pages=48–49|access-date=2024-10-24|via=Google Books|quote=Until the wreck is located, the story remains a curious anecdote in the annals of submarine losses.}}{{cite news|date=2020-06-06|last=Abel|first=Stuart|title=The strange tale of the world's first submarine death in Plymouth Sound|newspaper=The Herald|location=Plymouth|department=Plymouth Sound|access-date=2024-10-24|url=https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/history/strange-tale-worlds-first-submarine-4198507}}

|File:Battle_of_Prague_pub_byGraupner_Boston_19thc.png

|{{dts|2 September 1791}}

|While in London, the 61-year-old Czech violinist visited a prostitute named Susannah Hill and requested his neck be tied with a noose around a door knob. He died after the sexual intercourse of erotic asphyxiation.{{Cite web|last=Bell|first=Rachael|date=2006-01-26|title=Internet Assisted Suicide: The Story of Sharon Lopatka|url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/classics/sharon_lopatka/6.html|website=Crime Library|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060126234027/http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/classics/sharon_lopatka/6.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2006-01-26|access-date=2024-08-29|quote=Knud R. Joergensen wrote in 1995 about the 1791 case of composer Franz Kotzwara who enlisted the help of a London prostitute, Susannah Hill, to assist him with his bizarre wish... It was the first documented case of death by sexual strangulation.}}{{Cite book|last=Rayborn|first=Tim|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jdyLDAAAQBAJ|title=Beethoven's Skull: Dark, Strange, and Fascinating Tales from the World of Classical Music and Beyond|publisher=Skyhorse|year=2016|isbn=978-1-5107-1272-0|location=New York|pages=103|quote=More notable is the manner of his death, which was quite shocking for the time and hints at some very dark fetishes indeed.|via=Google Books}}

|

|{{dts|20 March 1793}}

|The 59-year-old North Carolina lawyer and former colonel was sleeping on a porch in Anson County while wearing a red cap. Spencer's bobbling head drew the attention of a turkey, which viewed Spencer as another turkey and fatally wounded him with its talons.{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/spencer-samuel|title=Spencer, Samuel|encyclopedia=NCpedia|first1=J. Isaac|last1=Copeland|first2=Jerry C.|last2=Cashion|date=January 2023|orig-year=Originally published 1994|access-date=2024-08-10|quote=Spencer's death came as the result of an unusual accident.}}{{Cite news|last=Kennard|first=David|date=2024-03-16|title=This Week In History|quote=Spencer had a most unusual death, by turkey.|url=https://www.robesonian.com/news/299528/this-week-in-history-28|access-date=2024-08-10|newspaper=The Robesonian}}{{refn|group="note"|This source incorrectly gives Spencer's age at death as 60.}}