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They wanted him dead before the newspapers went to print.
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Feb 24, 2022
Ever since it was announced by the Buckingham Palace that Queen Elizabeth II was diagnosed with Covid earlier this week, the monarch has been the subject of several death hoaxes as supporter await news about her health.
The false rumors around the Queen’s illness has also sparked a renewed interest in the deaths of her predecessors and what happens when a monarch dies.
While protocol has likely changed in the modern age, some of the Queen's relatives were not treated so kindly at the end of their lives when it came to maintaining Royal traditions.
One such situation occured when the Queen's grandfather King George V was reportedly killed by a lethal injection while suffering from a chronic lung issue that had appeared nearly a decade before his untimely demise.
How did Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather, King George V, actually die?
On January 20, 1936, just before midnight, King George V had passed away at Sandringham, in Norfolk, England — a royal mansion that had been commonly used by monarchs as a residence during the winter months.'
Many people believed that he had simply passed from his declining health after it was revealed that he had a chronic lung problem in 1928, but the real cause of his death wouldn’t be revealed until 1986 when his physician’s diary was made public.
Doctors reportedly gave King George cocaine and morphine to kill him quickly.
Lord Bertrand Dawson has written in his journal about that fateful night at Sandringham when he decided that he would speed up the King’s demise through euthanasia.
“I therefore decided to determine the end and injected (myself) morphia gr. 3/4 and shortly afterwards cocaine gr. 1 into the [king’s] distended jugular vein,” he wrote.
These injections are what sped up the King’s condition and ultimately resulted in his death.
According to Dawson’s journal, he intended to both grant the king a painless death and to guarantee that his passing would be announced in the morning papers rather than the “less appropriate evening journals.”
The journal also included the king’s final words — “God damn you!” which were reserved for his nurse, Catherine Black, who administered his sedative that same night.
Biographer, Francis Watson, was the first to discover the notes and write about them in his biography of the physician in 1950 but failed to include Dawson’s role in King George’s death.
“Perhaps I should have included it in the book at the time,” wrote Watson. “Lady Dawson did not want it in the book and I quite readily agreed. I didn’t think it appropriate.”
After a few decades, he felt bad about the omission and included the story in an article in a journal called History Today, and now the truth of his death is public knowledge.
Fake news alleging that Queen Elizabeth died has people concerned about her fate.
On Tuesday, February 22nd, Hollywood Unlocked’s Jason Lee “revealed” that the Queen had passed away from her bout with Covid according to his “sources.”
Quickly, this news was fact-checked by every news station and media outlet in the world for its dangerous assertions only to be met with doubling down from HU’s end.
They made another post, revealing a 10-day plan called "London Bridge," that would help ease the introduction to the Queen's death for the country and the world.
After the false information spread all over the internet, Lee tweeted “we don't post lies and I always stand by my sources," adding that he was waiting for the palace's "official confirmation."
It’s likely impossible that a gossip site from the United States would have sources close enough to the royal family to be able to reveal that kind of sensitive information before the Buckingham Palace, but Lee certainly seems to be sticking to his story.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.