King Tutankhamen is probably the most famous Egyptian Pharaoh of all time. “King Tut” was briefly the 1970s-equivalent of a viral meme thanks to the pristine state of his elaborate burial chamber and the comic stylings of comedian Steve Martin. Which is ironic, because as History Collection explains, Tutankhamen was a minor monarch in the history of Egypt. In fact, the treasure filling his tomb were probably looted from existing tombs.

When King Tutankhamen’s tomb was discovered in 1922, however, its lavish nature and pristine condition made him instantly famous and historically important. History explains that the tomb remained sealed for more than 3,000 years and offered historians and archaeologists an incredible glimpse of life in ancient Egypt.

King Tut’s body was mummified according to Egyptian religious requirements, and a golden portrait mask was placed over his head. His body was installed inside a series of nested sarcophagi. The mask, however, was almost certainly repurposed from another burial site, and so the face depicted on it probably isn’t Tutankhamen’s at all. After the discovery of the tomb, King Tut became famous, and his body remains on display in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt inside a glass case. After enjoying ultimate privacy for 3,000 years, King Tut is now the most visible corpse in the world.

Louis XIV earned his nickname, the Sun King. He ruled for an astounding 72 years, and during his lifetime he dominated France and Europe in a way few others have. He turned a small hunting lodge at Versailles into the seat of his government, shifting power away from Paris and the French nobility focusing it on himself personally, once famously stating “L’etat est moi” (I am the state).

But even Louis couldn’t live forever, and in 1715 he succumbed to gangrene. And then things got really weird.

Art Daily explains that royal tradition required that Louis be cut open, with his heart, entrails, and corpse embalmed separately and then placed in lead caskets. The coffin was then put on display so the court could pay its respects, then the three parts of Louis were installed at different locations so people would have options when it came to paying homage to the king. 

Hyperallergic reports that Louis’s body wound up at Saint-Denis without any sort of marker, which is surprising considering the pomp and luxury the king enjoyed in life. His entrails wound up at Notre-Dame de Paris, where they remain in an unmarked barrel. And his heart is buried at the Église Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis on Rue Saint-Antoine in Paris.

In the Middle Ages, kings were routinely expected to lead their armies into battle. In 1066, King Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, got a workout. Britannica explains that in September of 1066, Harold led his army north to fight off Norwegian invaders. He’d no sooner claimed victory there when he received word that William of Normandy had landed at Hastings. Harold had to gather up his exhausted army and marched south, where it’s safe to say the Battle of Hastings did not go his way, as it ended with William claiming the title of King William I.

As bad as the battle went for Harold’s army, it went worse for Harold on a personal level. There are conflicting accounts of his death, including the famous Bayeux Tapestry. It’s widely accepted that he was shot in the eye by an arrow, but it’s noteworthy that this method of death was the “proper fate of perjurers” in the Middle Ages. Some sources report that Norman knights hacked Harold II to death with their swords. According to History Extra, Harold’s body was so mauled by violence that his lover, Edith Swannesha, had to be brought in to identify it based on “certain marks” on his private areas. No one knows what happened to the king’s body after that.

Britannica reports that Charles I believed that as king he’d been chosen by God to rule England, and thus he answered to no earthly authority. Over the course of his 24-year reign, Charles managed to anger just about every aspect of his own kingdom, leading to a Civil War and his eventual execution. England was temporarily transformed into a commonwealth instead of a kingdom as a result. Considering he’d been tried, convicted, and beheaded for tyranny, it’s kind of surprising that the government made any sort of funeral arrangements for Charles I at all. But the population of England were upset and uneasy about the execution of a reigning king, so the powers that be thought it smart to give Charles an official burial at Windsor Castle.

Instead of putting any thought or money into it, however, they simply took Charles’s head and body, put them in a coffin, and stuck the coffin in the same small room as Henry VIII and Jane Seymour. Henry had been put there until the elaborate tomb he’d planned was built — except none of his children bothered to build that tomb, so he just stayed at Windsor. The BBC reports that after Charles I was shoved in there with Henry, the room was largely forgotten. It was rediscovered by chance in 1813, and in 1837 King William IV finally had a marker placed above it.

Haile Selassie ascended the throne of Ethiopia in 1930, becoming it’s 225th emperor. He ruled for decades, and the BBC reports that he was regarded as divine by followers of the Rastafarian religion. That didn’t stop economic and political problems from sparking a coup that saw him removed from office in 1974.

Biography explains that a year after the coup, when Selassie was 83 years old, he passed away. Initial reports that he’d died of natural causes were immediately rejected, and there is evidence the elderly king was actually strangled or smothered to death. For years, the location of his earthly remains were a mystery. Then, as reported by the Associated Press, in 1992 another revolution ousted the government of President Mengistu Haile Mariam. The new government ordered that Selassie’s body be located and exhumed. His body was eventually discovered — buried under a toilet at his former palace. The new government claimed that Mengistu had placed the body under his own office in order to prevent the old emperor from rising from the dead.

The body was transported to Ba’ata Mariam Geda Church in Addis Ababa. The BBC reports that Selassie was finally buried properly in Trinity Cathedral in 2000. The government didn’t allow a state funeral, however.