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Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full

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Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,

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Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

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Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet

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Speaker 1: of Curiosities. To earn a title like the Conqueror, one

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Speaker 1: must well conquer, and not just a little either, maybe

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Speaker 1: even when it's not appropriate. That's what William the First did,

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Speaker 1: after all, enough to stave off his alternative title, William

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Speaker 1: the Bastard, although there are many who would argue that

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Speaker 1: he deserved that one much more. After a twenty year

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Speaker 1: reign of conquering and not being much loved by his people,

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Speaker 1: William the Career was keeping himself entertained by partaking in

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Speaker 1: a little recreational rating against his French adversary, King Philip. However,

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Speaker 1: if you put yourself in enough deadly situations, it's likely

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Speaker 1: that death will soon win the day, and eventually it did.

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Speaker 1: While the exact nature of William's ultimate demise isn't agreed upon,

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Speaker 1: the general consensus is that he fell hard onto the

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Speaker 1: wooden pommel of his saddle, which ruptured and internal organs

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Speaker 1: so severely that he couldn't be saved, which admittedly sounds

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Speaker 1: pretty painful. Immediately after, he was taken from the battlefield

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Speaker 1: to a medical facility in ruin Que, the deathbed scene

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Speaker 1: where he has seen to his last will and testament

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Speaker 1: among many a quibbling relative and or attendant, eager for

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Speaker 1: his crown, his sword, his armor, his everything. William did

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Speaker 1: not leave anything up to chance in securing his legacy,

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Speaker 1: though a mirror image of how protective he was of

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Speaker 1: his kingdom during his reign. But in life at least

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Speaker 1: he could see to it that his rules were followed,

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Speaker 1: whereas in death, well not so much. In fact, in

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Speaker 1: the end, everything more or less came undone. As soon

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Speaker 1: as William passed away, his attendance collected his belongings, as in,

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Speaker 1: they took all of his stuff for themselves and promptly

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Speaker 1: vacated the premises, leaving the corpse of the conquering king

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Speaker 1: naked on the floor. Not exactly what anyone would imagine

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Speaker 1: themselves looking like moments after death, let alone a king

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Speaker 1: who had earned himself such a fearsome nickname as the conqueror. Fortunately,

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Speaker 1: after some time passed, a traveling night happened by the

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Speaker 1: baffling situation and began the embalming process all by himself.

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Speaker 1: By this point, though, the body had already begun to decompose,

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Speaker 1: but the night pretended not to notice and proceeded anyway.

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Speaker 1: After that came the seventy mile journey from Ruan to Khan.

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Speaker 1: On the way, bacteria began to seep into Williams intestines

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Speaker 1: and fill his body with the gas that all things considered,

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Speaker 1: should never be allowed to reach the open air. Upon

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Speaker 1: reaching Khan, monks came to meet the corpse of the king,

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Speaker 1: but before they could proceed with the rights and eulogies,

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Speaker 1: a fire broke out in town, and the body was

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Speaker 1: again left unattended for far longer than any cadaver should be.

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Speaker 1: He was essentially a quickly inflating gas bag. As everyone

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Speaker 1: reconvened to forgive any wrongs William might have done against

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Speaker 1: them a funeral right at the time, a rather loud

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Speaker 1: man yelled out that the king had stolen land from

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Speaker 1: his own family. A debate ensued, all while the body

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Speaker 1: of the king progressed uncomfortably closer to something that no

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Speaker 1: one wanted to look at. Eventually, though, a payment was

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Speaker 1: agreed upon to get the man to go away his

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Speaker 1: pockets bulging, but that wasn't the only thing that was

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Speaker 1: expanding the King's body. Now hours passed the recommended burial

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Speaker 1: time had begun to bloat. The funeral attendants hastily tried

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Speaker 1: to lower the king into the stone sarcophagus, but unfortunately

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Speaker 1: for them, he wouldn't fit no matter how hard they

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Speaker 1: pushed or wriggled or folded, and apparently they pushed a

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Speaker 1: bit too much. Picture, if you will, a large water

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Speaker 1: balloon being forced into a small box, because that's essentially

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Speaker 1: what we had here. Suddenly, his swollen ball burst, causing

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Speaker 1: and I quote, an intolerable stench that assailed nostrils of

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Speaker 1: the bystanders and the whole crowd. The bits and pieces

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Speaker 1: were forced into the steaming grave. The funeral finished as

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Speaker 1: quickly as possible, and everyone moved on, having seen Williams

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Speaker 1: last and most probably disgusting conquest. Many of us dream

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Speaker 1: of accomplishing something great within our lifetimes. They might be

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Speaker 1: to climb the tallest mountain, or star in a movie,

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Speaker 1: or even something as simple as starting our own business,

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Speaker 1: but few get to do anything close to those feats.

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Speaker 1: They live their lives, retire and hope they left some

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Speaker 1: kind of lasting impression on a small piece of the world.

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Speaker 1: And then there's Pelee Hould. Hohold was alive during a

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Speaker 1: time when people were doing great, big things all the time.

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Speaker 1: Time he lived during the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment,

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Speaker 1: which gave women the right to vote. He was also

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Speaker 1: there when Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. But Hould wasn't going

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Speaker 1: to sit back and let others have all the glory.

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Speaker 1: He wanted to go out and make a name for

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Speaker 1: himself too, and to do that he would have to

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Speaker 1: travel the world. It started with a contest. Hold was

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Speaker 1: born and raised in Denmark and saw a story on

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Speaker 1: the front page of his country's newspaper, Politic n The

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Speaker 1: paper wanted to pay tribute to the one birthday of

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Speaker 1: French author Jules Verne. Verne, who had written such popular

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Speaker 1: tales as twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea and Journey

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Speaker 1: to the Center of the Earth, had inspired numerous authors

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Speaker 1: over the years, and this time he had inspired the

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Speaker 1: paper to put on a competition. Borrowing from the plot

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Speaker 1: of one of his other stories, Around the World in

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Speaker 1: eighty Days. Politican picked one person out of hundreds to

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Speaker 1: undertake a difficult challenge circumnavigate the globe in forty six days,

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Speaker 1: just over half the time in Verne's novel. It seems

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Speaker 1: they believe all of the advances of the modern world

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Speaker 1: should make such an endeavor a piece of cake. Of

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Speaker 1: the many potential contestants it was hooled they picked. The

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Speaker 1: rules were quite simple too. He could use any method

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Speaker 1: to travel the world except by plane. He kicked off

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Speaker 1: his trip on March one of ninety eight by going

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Speaker 1: to England, followed by a jump over to Scotland. From

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Speaker 1: there he went to Canada, Japan, Korea, China, the Soviet Union,

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Speaker 1: Poland and Germany. And he did all of it almost

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Speaker 1: entirely by himself. But there were of course reporters from

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Speaker 1: Politican who followed him on his journey, documenting it for

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Speaker 1: the paper. But he managed the trip mostly on his own,

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Speaker 1: at least so he thought. Hold didn't realize that Politican

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Speaker 1: readers had been keeping track of him as well, and

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Speaker 1: his story had exploded beyond the margins of that paper.

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Speaker 1: His exploits were being read about by thousands of people

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Speaker 1: in all the countries he was visiting. At the end

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Speaker 1: of his forty four day journey. When he finally came

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Speaker 1: back home to Denmark, there were twenty thousand people waiting

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Speaker 1: to see him. He was a celebrity and his travels

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Speaker 1: were all anyone could talk about, mainly because he wasn't

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Speaker 1: just anyone. He was a fifteen year old boy scout.

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Speaker 1: He'd been working in a car dealership before being chosen

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Speaker 1: for the contest, which had only been open to teenage

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Speaker 1: boys to begin with. Hold would later write about his

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Speaker 1: eventful trip in a memoir he called a boy Scout

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Speaker 1: around the world, and people were inspired by what he'd accomplished,

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Speaker 1: perhaps none more than George Remy, also a boy Scott

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Speaker 1: in his youth. Remy was a Belgian illustrator who drew

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Speaker 1: cartoons and comic strips for his local papers. In ninety nine,

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Speaker 1: he debuted a new character partly based on his brother Paul.

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Speaker 1: Paul's rounded face and puffed up quiff hairstyle made him

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Speaker 1: the perfect reference for the look of Remy's latest creation,

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Speaker 1: a globe trotting reporter with a small dog for a

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Speaker 1: best friend. Now Hold never had a dog with him,

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Speaker 1: but outside of that, all of the similarities were uncanny.

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Speaker 1: Hold had a youthful look, red hair, and freckles, just

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Speaker 1: like Remy's character. He'd also documented his travels all over

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Speaker 1: the world. Remy, under the pen name er J, combined

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Speaker 1: these two real people into one fictional entity, a Belgian

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Speaker 1: reporter who often found himself embroiled in some kind of

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Speaker 1: international mystery along with his dog, Snowy pell. Hold certainly

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Speaker 1: didn't realize it at the time, but his exploits had

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Speaker 1: led to the creation of the popular literary character Tintin,

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Speaker 1: one who would endure for the next ninety years. Now

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Speaker 1: that's one long and curious journey. I hope you've enjoyed

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Speaker 1: today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for

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Speaker 1: free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show

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Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created

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Speaker 1: by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.

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Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is

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Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can

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Speaker 1: learn all about it over the world of Lore dot

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Speaker 1: Come and until next time, stay curious. Yeah,