The passing and funeral of Queen Elizabeth has of course been much in the news lately.
The precise cause of her death may or may not be released to the public, as it's not required by British law to do so. But many sources are already saying that "natural causes" is the likely one.
However, the queen's passing got me to wondering about
the mortality of past British sovereigns, and, just out of curiosity, to find out how many have died of cancer over the centuries. Or if that number could even be determined from the existing historical record.
Obviously any such older record of the deaths of kings and queens "from cancer" would need to be treated with skepticism, as cancer diagnoses from past centuries would be dubious at best.
But interestingly, there is a Wikipedia article which discusses how each British king or queen died, which may help in answering this question:
"List of monarchs of the British Isles by cause of death"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_monarchs_of_the_british_isles_by_cause_of_deathIt lists categories of death for these rulers as
Natural causes (61) (including several supposedly from a form of cancer)
Killed in battle (15)
Murdered, assassinated, executed or euthanized (17)
Accidental death (3)
Other (2)
Unknown (9)
From the category of "natural causes" there are five mentions of some form of cancer as sole or primary cause of death:
Name....................Reigned..............Cause of death
Kenneth I..............843-858.............tumor
Mary I.................. 1553-1558.........possibly ovarian cancer
Philip....................1554-1558.........cancer
George IV.............1820-1830.........cancer (among other ailments)
George VI.............1936-1952........lung cancer (contributing cause) (smoker)
Further OT, but also of interest, deaths possibly with a urinary origin:
Oliver Cromwell..1653-1658........Struck by a sudden bout of malarial fever, followed directly by an attack of urinary/kidney symptoms.
Charles II....1660-1685....Died suddenly of uremia
As one might expect, there is no citation of prostate cancer as a cause of any king's death, understandable since PCa wasn't even recognized as a separate cancer until 1853. There may have been some, but they could never have been diagnosed.
So call this an OT "curiosity thread." One revealing that royalty, just like the rest of us, is subject to the natural forces of cancer.
And while they may have special access to the best medical care available in their times, they were ultimately as much subject to a fate involving cancer as anyone.