Medieval Europe was a violent place where ruthless kings ruled with iron fists. Among the many tools of power, 10 daring assassinations stood out as shocking, brutal, and sometimes ingeniously clever ways to remove a tyrant or political rival.

10 Daring Assassinations That Shocked Medieval Europe

10 Duke Conan II Of Brittany

In 1065, William of Normandy was preparing to invade England. To secure his borders, he proposed alliances with the surrounding lords. However, Duke Conan II of Brittany hated the Normans because he believed they had poisoned his father. Conan refused to ally with William and strongly implied that he would attack Normandy as soon as the army left for England.

This turned out to be a bit of a mistake since William quickly had Conan poisoned as well. According to Orderic Vitalis, William had to be clever about it since the Breton would obviously have been careful to avoid the same fate as his father. So instead of targeting Conan’s food, William’s assassin smeared poison on Conan’s riding gloves. While out riding, Conan wiped his mouth with the back of one glove and soon suffered a fit and died.

9 Kenneth II Of Scotland

Kenneth II was assassinated in AD 995. The death is primarily notable for the absolutely insane story of the booby trap that did it. According to John of Fordun, the princes Constantine and Gryme persuaded a noblewoman named Finnguala to do the deed. Since Kenneth had killed her son, she was happy to oblige.

Finnguala rigged up her house with multiple crossbows hidden behind tapestries. The crossbows were connected by strings to a statue in the middle of the room. Finnguala then invited the king to inspect the statue. As soon as he touched it, the crossbows went off, firing a dozen arrows through him at once.

We can say for sure that Kenneth was killed in AD 995 and that Constantine and Gryme were blamed. However, most historians are skeptical of a crazy crossbow statue as the murder weapon.

8 Louis, Duke Of Orleans

Charles VI of France was insane. (Among other things, he believed that he was made of glass and might shatter at any moment.) This prompted his nobles to struggle among themselves for power.

The immediate winner was the king’s brother, Louis of Orleans, who seduced the queen and effectively became regent. Louis was opposed by John the Fearless of Burgundy, who even tried to kidnap the king’s son. In response, Louis may have tried to rape John’s wife.

Things came to a head on November 23, 1407. Louis was leaving the queen’s house in Paris when he was attacked by a gang of eight hooded men. An eyewitness said that they struck Louis repeatedly “as if they were beating a mattress” until his brains were all over the road. John didn’t even try to deny ordering the murder, insisting that it was “for the good of the realm.”

7 John The Fearless

The murder of Louis of Orleans sparked a civil war between his Armagnac supporters and John the Fearless of Burgundy. This was the last thing France needed because it was the middle of the Hundred Years War and the English were invading.

In 1419, the two sides agreed to meet to resolve their differences in a special enclosure in the middle of the Montereau Bridge. However, as soon as John the Fearless arrived, three old friends of Louis of Orleans pulled out swords and killed him in revenge.

Although the Armagnacs insisted that the murder was not premeditated, John’s son Philip allied with the English, changing the tide of the war. It was later joked that the English entered France through the hole in John’s skull.

6 Peter The Inquisitor

In the 13th century, the Catholic Church was campaigning against the Cathars, a heretical sect that believed in two gods, one good and one evil. The Albigensian Crusade had devastated the Cathar stronghold in southern France, while the Inquisition was established to hunt them throughout Europe.

One of the best inquisitors was Peter of Verona, who was known for his humble lifestyle and was unusually successful at persuading Cathars to rejoin Catholicism. As a result, the Cathar underground in Milan gathered funds and hired a pair of hit men. The killers tracked Peter to a lonely spot on the road, where they jumped him and put an axe through his head.

Peter was immediately declared a saint, and Pope Innocent IV released a bull allowing Inquisitors to use torture for the first time. Interestingly, one of the hit men, Carino of Balsamo, later repented and is now considered something of a holy man.

5 Philip De Montfort

Philip de Montfort had an interesting family history. His father and uncle were leaders of the Albigensian Crusade, while his cousin Simon was the lover of Queen Isabella of England. The couple eventually overthrew and murdered Isabella’s husband, Edward II.

Philip was Crusader Lord of Tyre. His talented leadership alarmed the Egyptian Sultan Baibars, who asked the notorious Hashishin (“Assassins”) to take care of the problem.

A Syrian Assassin was sent to Tyre, where he successfully disguised himself as a Christian and prayed daily at Philip’s church. Once the Assassin was a familiar face, he wandered up behind Philip while he was kneeling at prayer and stabbed him in the back. Baibars attacked the Crusader states a few months later.

4 Godfred Of Denmark

Godfred was king of Denmark around AD 800 when the famous Frankish Emperor Charlemagne dominated Europe. Charlemagne had conquered the pagan Saxons and forcibly converted them to Christianity, which was quite alarming to the pagan Godfred. In anticipation of a confrontation, he greatly expanded the Danevirke, a mighty series of earthen fortifications in southern Denmark.

When the Baltic city of Reric allied with Charlemagne, Godfred attacked and destroyed it. In 810, his fleets ravaged Frisia and Godfred began to talk of reconquering Saxony. According to Frankish chroniclers, Godfred boasted that he would stable his horses in Charlemagne’s palace. Furious, the emperor began building a fleet of his own.

It seemed that everything was set for a huge war between the Franks and Vikings until Godfred was suddenly stabbed to death by one of his own warriors. Many historians have suggested that the murder was ordered by Charlemagne, who presumably found assassins cheaper than fleets.

3 Godfred Of Frisia

Murdering Danes named Godfred seemed to run in the family because Charlemagne’s grandson Charles the Fat did the same thing. Charles had named a Viking called Godfred as the Duke of Frisia. In return, Godfred agreed to stop raiding Frankish lands and to keep other Vikings from doing the same.

Unfortunately, Godfred got greedy. Frisia was poor land, so Godfred demanded that Charles give him some rich, wine‑producing areas along the Rhine. This attempt at extortion seriously annoyed the Franks. They invited Godfred to discuss the issue on an island in the Rhine. To Godfred’s surprise, the previously meek Franks showed up armed to the teeth and hacked him to death.

2 Harthacnut

It’s often forgotten now, but the Norman invasion of William the Conqueror was actually the second time that England had been conquered in 50 years. Cnut (aka Canute) of Denmark made himself king of England in 1018. After his death, the throne eventually passed to his son Harthacnut.

Edward the Confessor was the son of the overthrown Anglo‑Saxon king of England. Thanks to some complicated family politics, he was also Harthacnut’s half‑brother. (They shared a mother.) If Harthacnut died, Edward was in line for the throne. As luck would have it, Harthacnut did die after suffering a mysterious fit at a banquet at age 25.

So what’s suspicious about that? Well, after Edward took the throne, the rebellious Earl Godwin of Wessex also died after suffering a mysterious fit while eating dinner with the king. Meanwhile, Edward’s half‑brother dropped dead days after returning to England from exile in Kiev. Which starts to seem a little suspicious, really.

1 Pedro The Cruel

Pedro the Cruel was not a nice guy. As king of Castile, he was accused of numerous crimes. This included the murder of his brother Fadrique, who was dining with Pedro when a guard walked up behind Fadrique and hit him with a mace. When Pedro noticed that Fadrique was still moving, Pedro gave a knife to a page to finish the job while Pedro continued eating.

Fadrique’s twin, Enrique, soon rose in revolt and besieged Pedro in his castle. Enrique was supported by the famous French knight Bertrand du Guesclin. Bertrand had a reputation as a bit of a weasel, so Pedro offered him a bribe to help him escape. Since Bertrand was actually a huge weasel, he accepted and then informed Enrique, who agreed to match the bribe if Bertrand handed Pedro over.

On March 23, 1369, Bertrand helped Pedro sneak out of the castle and led him to a tent. To Pedro’s surprise, Enrique was waiting for him. The Spanish princes immediately started throwing insults, calling each other “son of a whore” and “son of a Jew.” Then they started wrestling. Pedro was winning until someone pulled him off and sat on him while Enrique stabbed him in the stomach.

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.