History is full of weird deaths, but the story that King Henry I died by drinking and eating a "surfeit of lampreys" is probably the most famous culinary disaster in royal history. It sounds ridiculous. Imagine a powerful monarch, the son of William the Conqueror, being taken down by a plate of jawless, blood-sucking fish.
He was in Lyons-la-Forêt, Normandy. It was 1135. Against his physician's explicit advice, the king went hard on a dish of lampreys. He got sick. He died. But was it actually the fish, or was something more sinister—or perhaps more biological—at play? Honestly, when you look at the medical reality of the 12th century, the "surfeit" story is kinda just the tip of the iceberg.
What actually happened in Normandy?
Henry was seventy years old. That’s ancient for the 1100s. He had just spent a day hunting, which is physically exhausting even if you aren't a senior citizen. According to the chronicler Henry of Huntingdon, the king ignored his doctors because he just loved the taste of these eel-like creatures too much.
Lampreys are weird. They aren't technically eels, but they look like them. They have these terrifying circular mouths filled with teeth that they use to latch onto other fish. In the Middle Ages, they were a high-status delicacy. Rich people loved them because they were meaty but could be eaten on fast days when "meat" was forbidden by the Church.
He ate. He cramped up. Then the fever started.
It wasn't instant. It took about a week for the king to actually pass away. This suggests it wasn't a simple choking incident or an immediate allergic reaction. It was likely acute food poisoning, possibly listeria or salmonella, which thrived in the poorly preserved food of the era. If you've ever had a bad oyster, you know the vibe, but without modern IV drips, King Henry I stood no chance.
📖 Related: Finding the Right Words: Quotes About Sons That Actually Mean Something
The "Surfeit" Myth and Medieval Medicine
We use the word "surfeit" today and it sounds like he just ate too much. Like a Thanksgiving coma. But in medieval medical theory, a surfeit was a specific imbalance of the humors. Physicians believed the body was governed by four fluids: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. Lampreys were considered "cold" and "moist."
Eating too many cold, moist things would, in their eyes, extinguish the natural "heat" of the body.
So, when the chroniclers say King Henry died by drinking and feasting on these creatures, they aren't just saying he was a glutton. They are making a medical argument that he disrupted his internal equilibrium. It’s sort of like how your grandma tells you not to go outside with wet hair or you'll catch a cold. It’s not scientifically accurate, but it was the "expert" consensus of the time.
Why this death changed everything
The stakes couldn't have been higher. Henry had a bit of a succession crisis. His only legitimate son, William Adelin, had died years earlier in the White Ship disaster (another "drinking" related tragedy, as the crew and passengers were famously wasted when the ship hit a rock).
Henry wanted his daughter, Matilda, to take the throne. The barons weren't having it.
👉 See also: Williams Sonoma Deer Park IL: What Most People Get Wrong About This Kitchen Icon
As soon as Henry took his last breath—likely while suffering from agonizing bowel issues—the kingdom spiraled. His nephew, Stephen of Blois, rushed to England and grabbed the crown. This triggered "The Anarchy," a nineteen-year civil war where, as one chronicler put it, "Christ and his saints slept."
It’s wild to think that a plate of bad seafood basically destroyed the peace of England for two decades. If Henry had just listened to his doctor and had a piece of toast instead, the entire map of European history might look different today.
Was it actually poison?
Whenever a king dies suddenly after a meal, people whisper about poison. It’s a classic trope. However, most modern historians, including C. Warren Hollister, who wrote the definitive biography of Henry I, don't put much stock in the assassination theory.
Why?
Because food poisoning was just that common.
✨ Don't miss: Finding the most affordable way to live when everything feels too expensive
In an era without refrigeration, eating bottom-feeding fish that had been transported or stored in questionable conditions was a gamble. Plus, Henry was old. His immune system was likely shot. A younger man might have spent three days in the bathroom and come out fine. For a seventy-year-old in a drafty castle in the winter, a gastrointestinal infection was a death sentence.
Lessons from a royal disaster
We can actually learn a lot from how King Henry died by drinking and eating his way into a grave. It highlights the massive gap between medieval understanding and modern biology.
- Risk Management: Even the most powerful man in the world couldn't bypass the basic rules of hygiene and biology.
- Succession Planning: Henry’s death proves that your "exit strategy" is only as good as your health. He spent years trying to secure Matilda’s right to rule, but a single week of illness rendered all that political maneuvering moot.
- The Power of Narrative: The "surfeit of lampreys" stuck because it served as a moral lesson. Chroniclers loved a story about a great man brought low by a small vice. It made for a better sermon than "The King died of a common bacterial infection."
How to explore this history further
If you're interested in the intersection of royal history and the weird ways people used to die, you don't have to just read dry textbooks.
- Visit the ruins of Reading Abbey. This is where Henry I was actually buried. He wanted to be laid to rest in the Great Abbey he founded. It was mostly destroyed during the Reformation, but the ruins are still there in Berkshire, England.
- Read "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. While it's historical fiction, it captures the absolute chaos of "The Anarchy" that followed Henry's death perfectly. It gives you a sense of why that plate of lampreys was so catastrophic for the average person living in 1135.
- Research the White Ship Disaster. To understand why Henry was so stressed and perhaps why he was overeating in Normandy, you have to understand the loss of his son. It’s the prequel to the lamprey story and it’s arguably more tragic.
Henry's death serves as a stark reminder that history isn't just made of grand battles and treaties; sometimes, it's shaped by a single, stubborn choice at the dinner table. If you're ever offered a plate of prehistoric-looking fish while you're feeling a bit under the weather, maybe take a pass. Your kingdom might depend on it.