Famous Last Words
King Charles II
London, England
February 6, 1685
“You must pardon me, gentlemen, for being a most unconscionable time a-dying.”
Charles was known for his dalliances and John Wilmot, Duke of Rochester wrote of him “Restless he rolls from whore to whore/A merry monarch, scandalous and poor.”
As the king laid on his deathbed, dying from kidney dysfunction (his symptoms lead modern doctors to believe he suffered from uraemia), he told his brother to take care of his mistress saying “be well to Portsmouth, and let not poor Nelly starve.”
