Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. To earn a title like the Conqueror, one
Speaker 1: must well conquer, and not just a little either, maybe
Speaker 1: even when it's not appropriate. That's what William the First did,
Speaker 1: after all, enough to stave off his alternative title, William
Speaker 1: the Bastard, although there are many who would argue that
Speaker 1: he deserved that one much more. After a twenty year
Speaker 1: reign of conquering and not being much loved by his people,
Speaker 1: William the Career was keeping himself entertained by partaking in
Speaker 1: a little recreational rating against his French adversary, King Philip. However,
Speaker 1: if you put yourself in enough deadly situations, it's likely
Speaker 1: that death will soon win the day, and eventually it did.
Speaker 1: While the exact nature of William's ultimate demise isn't agreed upon,
Speaker 1: the general consensus is that he fell hard onto the
Speaker 1: wooden pommel of his saddle, which ruptured and internal organs
Speaker 1: so severely that he couldn't be saved, which admittedly sounds
Speaker 1: pretty painful. Immediately after, he was taken from the battlefield
Speaker 1: to a medical facility in ruin Que, the deathbed scene
Speaker 1: where he has seen to his last will and testament
Speaker 1: among many a quibbling relative and or attendant, eager for
Speaker 1: his crown, his sword, his armor, his everything. William did
Speaker 1: not leave anything up to chance in securing his legacy,
Speaker 1: though a mirror image of how protective he was of
Speaker 1: his kingdom during his reign. But in life at least
Speaker 1: he could see to it that his rules were followed,
Speaker 1: whereas in death, well not so much. In fact, in
Speaker 1: the end, everything more or less came undone. As soon
Speaker 1: as William passed away, his attendance collected his belongings, as in,
Speaker 1: they took all of his stuff for themselves and promptly
Speaker 1: vacated the premises, leaving the corpse of the conquering king
Speaker 1: naked on the floor. Not exactly what anyone would imagine
Speaker 1: themselves looking like moments after death, let alone a king
Speaker 1: who had earned himself such a fearsome nickname as the conqueror. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: after some time passed, a traveling night happened by the
Speaker 1: baffling situation and began the embalming process all by himself.
Speaker 1: By this point, though, the body had already begun to decompose,
Speaker 1: but the night pretended not to notice and proceeded anyway.
Speaker 1: After that came the seventy mile journey from Ruan to Khan.
Speaker 1: On the way, bacteria began to seep into Williams intestines
Speaker 1: and fill his body with the gas that all things considered,
Speaker 1: should never be allowed to reach the open air. Upon
Speaker 1: reaching Khan, monks came to meet the corpse of the king,
Speaker 1: but before they could proceed with the rights and eulogies,
Speaker 1: a fire broke out in town, and the body was
Speaker 1: again left unattended for far longer than any cadaver should be.
Speaker 1: He was essentially a quickly inflating gas bag. As everyone
Speaker 1: reconvened to forgive any wrongs William might have done against
Speaker 1: them a funeral right at the time, a rather loud
Speaker 1: man yelled out that the king had stolen land from
Speaker 1: his own family. A debate ensued, all while the body
Speaker 1: of the king progressed uncomfortably closer to something that no
Speaker 1: one wanted to look at. Eventually, though, a payment was
Speaker 1: agreed upon to get the man to go away his
Speaker 1: pockets bulging, but that wasn't the only thing that was
Speaker 1: expanding the King's body. Now hours passed the recommended burial
Speaker 1: time had begun to bloat. The funeral attendants hastily tried
Speaker 1: to lower the king into the stone sarcophagus, but unfortunately
Speaker 1: for them, he wouldn't fit no matter how hard they
Speaker 1: pushed or wriggled or folded, and apparently they pushed a
Speaker 1: bit too much. Picture, if you will, a large water
Speaker 1: balloon being forced into a small box, because that's essentially
Speaker 1: what we had here. Suddenly, his swollen ball burst, causing
Speaker 1: and I quote, an intolerable stench that assailed nostrils of
Speaker 1: the bystanders and the whole crowd. The bits and pieces
Speaker 1: were forced into the steaming grave. The funeral finished as
Speaker 1: quickly as possible, and everyone moved on, having seen Williams
Speaker 1: last and most probably disgusting conquest. Many of us dream
Speaker 1: of accomplishing something great within our lifetimes. They might be
Speaker 1: to climb the tallest mountain, or star in a movie,
Speaker 1: or even something as simple as starting our own business,
Speaker 1: but few get to do anything close to those feats.
Speaker 1: They live their lives, retire and hope they left some
Speaker 1: kind of lasting impression on a small piece of the world.
Speaker 1: And then there's Pelee Hould. Hohold was alive during a
Speaker 1: time when people were doing great, big things all the time.
Speaker 1: Time he lived during the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment,
Speaker 1: which gave women the right to vote. He was also
Speaker 1: there when Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. But Hould wasn't going
Speaker 1: to sit back and let others have all the glory.
Speaker 1: He wanted to go out and make a name for
Speaker 1: himself too, and to do that he would have to
Speaker 1: travel the world. It started with a contest. Hold was
Speaker 1: born and raised in Denmark and saw a story on
Speaker 1: the front page of his country's newspaper, Politic n The
Speaker 1: paper wanted to pay tribute to the one birthday of
Speaker 1: French author Jules Verne. Verne, who had written such popular
Speaker 1: tales as twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea and Journey
Speaker 1: to the Center of the Earth, had inspired numerous authors
Speaker 1: over the years, and this time he had inspired the
Speaker 1: paper to put on a competition. Borrowing from the plot
Speaker 1: of one of his other stories, Around the World in
Speaker 1: eighty Days. Politican picked one person out of hundreds to
Speaker 1: undertake a difficult challenge circumnavigate the globe in forty six days,
Speaker 1: just over half the time in Verne's novel. It seems
Speaker 1: they believe all of the advances of the modern world
Speaker 1: should make such an endeavor a piece of cake. Of
Speaker 1: the many potential contestants it was hooled they picked. The
Speaker 1: rules were quite simple too. He could use any method
Speaker 1: to travel the world except by plane. He kicked off
Speaker 1: his trip on March one of ninety eight by going
Speaker 1: to England, followed by a jump over to Scotland. From
Speaker 1: there he went to Canada, Japan, Korea, China, the Soviet Union,
Speaker 1: Poland and Germany. And he did all of it almost
Speaker 1: entirely by himself. But there were of course reporters from
Speaker 1: Politican who followed him on his journey, documenting it for
Speaker 1: the paper. But he managed the trip mostly on his own,
Speaker 1: at least so he thought. Hold didn't realize that Politican
Speaker 1: readers had been keeping track of him as well, and
Speaker 1: his story had exploded beyond the margins of that paper.
Speaker 1: His exploits were being read about by thousands of people
Speaker 1: in all the countries he was visiting. At the end
Speaker 1: of his forty four day journey. When he finally came
Speaker 1: back home to Denmark, there were twenty thousand people waiting
Speaker 1: to see him. He was a celebrity and his travels
Speaker 1: were all anyone could talk about, mainly because he wasn't
Speaker 1: just anyone. He was a fifteen year old boy scout.
Speaker 1: He'd been working in a car dealership before being chosen
Speaker 1: for the contest, which had only been open to teenage
Speaker 1: boys to begin with. Hold would later write about his
Speaker 1: eventful trip in a memoir he called a boy Scout
Speaker 1: around the world, and people were inspired by what he'd accomplished,
Speaker 1: perhaps none more than George Remy, also a boy Scott
Speaker 1: in his youth. Remy was a Belgian illustrator who drew
Speaker 1: cartoons and comic strips for his local papers. In ninety nine,
Speaker 1: he debuted a new character partly based on his brother Paul.
Speaker 1: Paul's rounded face and puffed up quiff hairstyle made him
Speaker 1: the perfect reference for the look of Remy's latest creation,
Speaker 1: a globe trotting reporter with a small dog for a
Speaker 1: best friend. Now Hold never had a dog with him,
Speaker 1: but outside of that, all of the similarities were uncanny.
Speaker 1: Hold had a youthful look, red hair, and freckles, just
Speaker 1: like Remy's character. He'd also documented his travels all over
Speaker 1: the world. Remy, under the pen name er J, combined
Speaker 1: these two real people into one fictional entity, a Belgian
Speaker 1: reporter who often found himself embroiled in some kind of
Speaker 1: international mystery along with his dog, Snowy pell. Hold certainly
Speaker 1: didn't realize it at the time, but his exploits had
Speaker 1: led to the creation of the popular literary character Tintin,
Speaker 1: one who would endure for the next ninety years. Now
Speaker 1: that's one long and curious journey. I hope you've enjoyed
Speaker 1: today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for
Speaker 1: free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show
Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created
Speaker 1: by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
Speaker 1: learn all about it over the world of Lore dot
Speaker 1: Come and until next time, stay curious. Yeah,