Arguing With Mel Brooks

I was thinking about one of my favorite Mel Books quotes ever today. It’s the one from History of the World: Part I and is, of course, “It’s good to be the king.” However, then I started thinking about that. I’m afraid I might have to disagree with Mel.

Just think about these kings:

- Louis XVI of France: executed by means of the guillotine in 1793

- Charles I of England: beheaded in 1649 only to have his head later sewn back onto his body

- Harold Godwinson, or Harold II: killed by four knights and brutally dismembered (possibly shot in the eye with an arrow)

- Vercingetorix: paraded through the streets of Rome before being executed (probably by strangulation in prison)

- Servius Tullius: murdered by his daughter Tullia and his son-in-law Tarquinius Superbus (allegedly Tarquinius threw him down some steps and had men murder him before Tullia drove her chariot over her father’s body)

See? It isn’t always good to be the king. Sometimes it can be downright sucky.