Politics & Poison, Part II

“Et tu, Brute”

What one person will do to gain power has no bounds.   For Julius Caesar it was an attack by Senators and his friend, Marcus Brutus.  In the decade before Christ was born Caesar Augustus was the Emperor of Rome.  It was Augustus that gave birth to the Roman Empire.    Caesar Augustus died in 14 AD and was succeeded by his stepson (and former son-in-law) Caesar Tiberius.   It is thought that Augustus was poisoned by his wife, Livia.  Livia them put her son on the throne and ruled Rome through him. 

Napoleon Bonaparte is a famous French military and political leader.  He rose to power during the later stages of the French revolution.  He went on to be Emperor of France from 1804 to 1815.  Napoleon led the French to war on many fronts.  It was his invasion of Russia that started his downfall.  The other European nations built a force to oppose him.   In 1813 he was defeated at Leipzip and retreated into France.  In 1814 France was invaded and Napoleon forced to abdicate his throne.  He was exiled to the island of Elba.  But he came back.  He escaped from Elba, rallied the French and reclaimed the throne.  But then the Battle of Waterloo; Napoleon was defeated once again and this time exiled to the island of St. Helena.  It was there that Napoleon died in 1821.  It has long been thought that Napoleon was poisoned and killed with arsenic.  What better way to keep the Emperor from returning? 

 Where is politics without love?  King James IV of Scotland had a mistress, Margaret Drummond.  There is thought that King James was secretly married to her.  They did have one child together.  But at the time there were people in both England and Scotland who felt that James should marry the daughter of King Henry IIV, Margaret Tudor, thereby uniting Scotland and England.   Poor Margaret Drummond stood in the way, and she was poisoned.  With her death King James married Margaret Tudor in 1502 and 100 years later Scotland and England were truly united.

Be it a mother’s love for her son or a King’s love for his land; love, politics and poison make interesting bedfellows.