When you’re a king you have money, or land, or animals, it depends a bit on kings, countries and times in fact. You have surely noticed, history is not the field in which I shine, I am much stronger in One. Be that as it may, some kings had passions like everyone else and took advantage of their status to obtain rather special collections, which we suggest you see right away.
1. Frederick William I – the collection of tall men
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Some like to collect books, others like tall men (there are not only two choices don’t worry). This is the case of this king of Prussia who was completely obsessed with tall men whom he picked up with or against their will to make an army of them. He bought slaves, paid new recruits who matched his standards, and even selected larger-than-average babies to add to his collection.
2. Peter I the Great – the collection of teeth
Look at him how cool and accomplished he looked, not because he was king but because he collected teeth. Not just teeth he found at the supermarket, but teeth he pulled straight out of the mouths of poor guys who hadn’t asked for anything. He also collected parts of human and animal bodies, which makes me say that he was a little curious about this little guy.
3. Qin Shi Huang – the Terracotta Army
Why not collect soldiers but made of stone, which required nearly 700,000 workers in total since we weren’t making just two statues but nearly 8,000. A beautiful collection as they say, enough to have fun although action-man-sized figures would have been sufficient.
4. Caligula and the shells
Caligula was pissed off, he is even ranked first in the most outrageous Roman emperors. But that didn’t prevent him from being full of surprises like this time when in the middle of a war he fell in love with shells on the beach. So he asked all his soldiers to start picking up the best ones, sorted them and had them transported to Rome. A super poetic guy after all.
5. Charles II – mummies (but for a special purpose)
At the time of Charles II there were not many cosmetic brands and Sephora stores, so we didn’t care about particular things on the body thinking that it had specific virtues. Which brings us to the mummies and good old Charles: he had gotten his hands on a number of mummies from ancient Egypt and was collecting the powder that fell from them to spread on his body, thinking that it would give him the greatness of the ancient pharaohs.
6. Mary de Teck – the ultra-elaborate dollhouse
So it was a gift from her cousin, but this queen consort of the United Kingdom had a rather large and elaborate doll’s house which had been designed by a real recognized architect of the time. Inside there were real little books to fill the library (donated by authors like Kipling and Conan Doyle), the lights turned on and above all there was a real plumbing system that allowed you to flush the toilet.
7. Henry III: a polar bear
Henry III was an animal lover, and in his time it was good to offer something a little original. So his friend Haakon IV, the king of Norway, gave him a polar bear to put away in his super secret tower with lots of animals. The bear was obviously not unhappy since he had the right to go swimming and fishing in the Thames, exactly the program of my last vacation.
8. Ludwig II – fairytale castles
King Ludwig II of Bavaria was passionate about castles with a particularly magical style, which have inspired Disney on several occasions. The problem is that he was a bit greedy the Ludwig, he had so many built that he spent almost enough money to bankrupt the country and literally emptied the state coffers for his little collection.
9. Elizabeth II – stamps and animals
Queen Elizabeth II has been queen for so long that she has to find something to do, in the sense that being queen is not much use in our time. So she collects animals like her corgis and swans but also a colony of bats at Balmoral Castle. Besides that, she has so many stamps in her collection that she actually has a royal philatelist who manages the brothel, so we’re not talking about a collection of 100 stamps.
10. Le Roi Farouk – all collections (but mostly porn images)
King Farouk of Egypt was known to collect a lot of stuff, really a lot of stuff. Cadillacs, walking sticks set with diamonds (about fifty), thousands of silk shirts, coins (one of the most important collections in the world), an immense quantity of Baroque furniture which earned him the nickname “Louis -Farouk” but also an absolutely considerable collection of soft pornographic images which he considered to be art.
