Drunk on Power: The Duke Who May Have Literally Drowned in 126 Gallons of His Favorite Wine

On February 18, 1478, George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, was executed in the Tower of London, allegedly by drowning in a butt of Malmsey wine—which, if true, makes it perhaps history's most baroque method of capital punishment. George was the middle brother sandwiched between two kings: Edward IV and the future Richard III. Being a royal spare in the Wars of the Roses was rather like playing musical chairs with swords, and George proved spectacularly bad at the game. He'd already switched sides multiple times, first betraying Edward to join the Kingmaker Warwick, then betraying Warwick to rejoin Edward, all while nursing grievances that would make a modern family therapist weep. His final downfall came after he publicly accused his brother the king of being a bastard (never a career-enhancing move) and conducted his own private trial that resulted in the execution of an innocent woman he blamed for his wife's death. Edward IV, understandably fed up with his brother's treasonous tantrums, had him attainted by Parliament. Now, the wine-barrel drowning story comes from contemporary chroniclers and was later immortalized by Shakespeare, though historians remain divided on whether it actually happened or was merely period propaganda. The truth is we don't know exactly how George died—the execution was conducted privately, as befitting his royal blood. But the wine story stuck because it was simply too delicious not to: a nobleman literally drowning in his favorite vintage, a death as excessive and self-indulgent as his life. The barrel in question, a "butt," held 126 gallons. One hopes, for George's sake, that the story is apocryphal. This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.