When it comes to medieval Europe, bloodshed was practically a sport, and the phrase “top 10 shocking” fits the brutal roster of assassinations that turned the tide of history. From a Viking heir slain on a river island to a king taken down in a castle latrine, each murder left a lasting imprint on the continent.
10 William Longsword
William Longsword, the son of the audacious Viking chieftain Rollo, inherited the newly‑Christianized Duchy of Normandy and pushed its borders northward with relentless vigor. While France was mired in internal chaos, no central power could curb his ambitions—except, perhaps, his troublesome neighbor, the Count of Flanders.
As Norman forces surged north, Arnulf the Rich, Count of Flanders, expanded his own domain southward, leading to a clash in 939 over Montreuil that erupted into a brief, ferocious conflict.
Realising he could not defeat Longsword on the battlefield, Arnulf opted for a more covert approach: he summoned his rival to a rendezvous on a Seine island in 942. William, unaware of the trap, set foot on the isle only to be ambushed by three of Arnulf’s hidden men who hacked him to death.
William’s ten‑year‑old son succeeded him, only to be kidnapped by the French king and spend his life attempting to keep Normandy intact. Arnulf retained his new lands, and the rapid Viking expansion in France effectively ended.
9 Childeric II
Childeric II hailed from the famed Merovingian dynasty that ruled the Franks. By his era, the Frankish realm had fractured into three kingdoms, and the Merovingian monarchs wielded little real authority. Determined to reverse this trend, Childeric set his sights on unifying the region.
Initially king of Austrasia, the northernmost Frankish kingdom, Childeric proved capable and, by 673, had displaced his cousins to claim the thrones of Neustria and Burgundy, effectively consolidating all three realms under his rule.
Nevertheless, the three kingdoms had diverged, and the nobles of Neustria and Burgundy resented being ruled by an Austrasian. Childeric attempted to accommodate local customs, yet Burgundian chroniclers still complained that they were governed by “foolish and nearly pagan people.”
The final insult came when Childeric ordered a Neustrian named Bodilo to be beaten for a transgression. Enraged, Bodilo rallied other disgruntled Neustrians and lay in wait. During a hunting excursion, Childeric was ambushed in the forest and slaughtered alongside his pregnant wife.
8 Berdi, Qulpa, and Nurus
In 1357, the mighty Jani Beg, Khan of the Golden Horde, fell gravely ill. He promptly summoned his son Berdi, having him crowned as the new khan. Berdi, seizing the moment, murdered his ailing father to preempt any possible recovery and to cement his claim.
The Golden Horde had dominated Eastern Europe since the original Mongol invasions of the previous century, and Russian princes traveled to Berdi’s court to reaffirm their allegiance to Genghis’s descendants. Yet the Russians were about to receive an unexpected reprieve.
After assuming power, Berdi executed twelve of his brothers. The thirteenth, Qulpa, earned his brother’s trust and schemed to eliminate him. In 1359 Qulpa succeeded in assassinating Berdi and seized the throne, only to be poisoned on the orders of Nurus Beg—either another brother or an impostor posing as one.
Nurus’s reign was short‑lived; he was killed within months, and at least twenty claimants declared themselves khan. The Golden Horde fractured into civil war, allowing the Russian principalities to shake off Mongol domination permanently.
7 Constable Charles
When King Charles IV of France died childless in 1328, the throne passed to the English and Navarrese dynasties. However, the French barred both, insisting that only a male heir could inherit, prompting England to launch the Hundred Years’ War while Navarre bided its time.
The conflict intensified when Charles the Bad ascended the Navarrese throne. He loathed his cousin, King John II of France (nicknamed “the Good”), especially after John confiscated lands and granted them to Charles de la Cerda, the French Constable.
In 1354, a covert group of Navarrese mercenaries surrounded the tavern where the Constable was sleeping. Charles’s brother Phillip led four troopers into the bedroom, roused the Constable with insults, and then stabbed him more than eighty times.
John’s fury sparked a military response, but Charles negotiated an alliance with England. Unable to confront both England and Navarre, John was forced into a treaty with Charles, weakening France just as the English prepared their invasion.
6 Robert Clermont and Jean De Conflans
Serving as a royal advisor to King John II of France was perilous business. Two years after the murder of Charles de la Cerda, John suffered defeat and capture at the hands of the Black Prince at Poitiers. The teenage Dauphin Charles then assumed leadership.
The new Dauphin imposed hefty taxes to replenish the shattered army, inflaming the French populace, who resented funding a nobility that had just lost a major battle. Parisian townsfolk rallied under Etienne Marcel, a wealthy merchant demanding the dismissal of the Dauphin’s ministers in exchange for tax relief.
When the Dauphin refused, Marcel dispatched agents to free Charles the Bad from prison. The rebels stormed Paris, and Marcel himself led a mob into the royal chambers, where they murdered the Dauphin’s advisors Robert Clermont and Jean de Conflans while the king watched helplessly.
Fearing for his life, the Dauphin fled Paris, raising an army to combat the insurgents. Meanwhile, the English entrenched their gains, and France descended further into chaos.
5 Etienne Marcel
As Etienne Marcel seized control of Paris, his faction grew increasingly radical. In 1357, his assembly passed the Great Ordinance, a reform aimed at curbing noble privilege by subjecting the aristocracy to parliamentary oversight.
In 1358, a massive peasant uprising known as the Jacquerie erupted north of Paris. Marcel chose to back the rebels, hoping to forge a common cause between the countryside and the capital. This stance provoked a split with Charles the Bad, who led knights to crush the Jacquerie, while Marcel retreated into Paris.
Meanwhile, the Dauphin raised an army to march on Paris. Nervous, Marcel renewed his alliance with Charles the Bad, a move unpopular with Parisians, who resented the Navarrese and English mercenaries raiding the city. Marcel’s associate Jean Maillart secretly corresponded with the Dauphin.
In June, Maillart and his men turned on Marcel, hacking him to death with an axe. This brutal act marked the end of what could be considered France’s first revolution.
4 Thomas of Woodstock
By 1386, the Hundred Years’ War was going poorly for England, and public opinion blamed King Richard II, an aloof autocrat who relied heavily on his cronies to govern.
A faction of nobles known as the Lords Appellant formed a commission and announced their intention to wrest control from the ineffective Richard. Led by Thomas of Woodstock, the Duke of Gloucester, they defeated Richard’s forces at Radcot Bridge and seized the king.
While many of Richard’s favorites were executed or exiled, Richard bided his time, rebuilding his power base. In 1397, he lured the Duke of Norfolk away from the other Lords Appellant. Thomas of Woodstock was ambushed, banished to Calais, and soon after assassinated—accounts differ between strangulation and smothering with a feather mattress to avoid marks on the body.
The murder outraged the English populace, and Richard was eventually overthrown and starved to death, a turn of events with profound consequences for English history.
3 Isma’il and His Sons
The Nasrid dynasty, the last great Muslim ruling house in Spain, governed Granada from 1248 until its fall to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1491. Their reign was plagued by internal strife and dynastic intrigue, which hampered any sustained effort to reclaim territory from Christian forces.
Isma’il I, a dynamic and energetic leader, achieved a crushing victory over the Castilians at Vega de Granada in 1319, during which the two Castilian regents were slain—one allegedly skinned and stuffed. This triumph allowed Isma’il to press forward, conquering Baza and Martos.
Tragically, Isma’il was assassinated by his cousin over a petty personal dispute. His young son Muhammad succeeded him, only to be murdered by the Banu Abi’l‑Ula clan when he showed interest in governing.
Muhammad’s brother Yusuf then seized power, eliminating the Banu Abi’l‑Ula. Yet Yusuf met a grim end, stabbed in the back by a madman while praying in Granada’s Great Mosque.
This pattern of fratricidal violence persisted through generations, preventing the Nasrids from ever achieving lasting stability.
2 Stephen of Hungary
In the medieval world, physicians often doubled as assassins, earning widespread suspicion as medicine mingled with superstition. One striking example involves King Baldwin III of Jerusalem, who reportedly died after consuming pills prescribed by a Syrian doctor—whether murder, malpractice, or simple failure remains debated.
Stephen IV of Hungary, who briefly usurped the throne from his young nephew, fell victim to a similarly grisly medical murder. After being defeated in battle, Stephen fled to the Byzantine Empire, pursued by agents of his nephew.
Like many of his era, Stephen believed in bloodletting as a therapeutic practice. However, his attendant, bribed by his rivals, smeared the bandage covering Stephen’s wound with poison. The toxin spread throughout his body, ultimately killing him.
1 Godfrey the Hunchback
Godfrey the Hunchback rose to become Duke of Lower Lorraine in 1069. Though physically deformed, he quickly earned a reputation as a capable ruler, with contemporary chroniclers describing him as “weak in body but excelling in spirit.”
His marriage to Matilda of Tuscany, a powerful Italian magnate, could have elevated his status further, but the couple detested each other. After three years of marriage, Matilda refused even to see him. Cut off from his wife’s court, Godfrey returned to his own lands, where he met his end in a castle latrine.
Accounts differ, but all agree an assassin lay in wait within the latrine pit and struck Godfrey as he relieved himself at night. Some stories claim the killer was concealed inside the pit and impaled him with a spear, while others describe a straightforward ambush.
Chronicles attribute the murder to enemies in Holland and Flanders, not to Matilda. Nonetheless, Godfrey’s death cleared the way for Matilda to become Pope Gregory VII’s most staunch supporter in his confrontation with the Holy Roman Emperor, a pivotal political crisis of the era.