19. Catherine the Great of Russia, although not dying from having intercourse with a horse as commonly believed, instead died on the toilet after becoming enraged at the King of Sweden
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, was the longest-serving female ruler of Russia. Overthrowing her husband, Peter III, in a coup d’état in 1762, Catherine would reign as Empress of Russia until her death in 1796. Widely considered as leading her country into a Golden Age, Catherine’s tenure oversaw a period of marked improvement across Russia and the elevation of her nation from a weakened state into a position once again as a great power of Europe. Supporting the scientific and political progressions of the Enlightenment, Catherine presided over an expansion of the arts, marginal but important steps towards female empowerment, and and the enlargement of the state.
Plagued in legacy by numerous outlandish and untrue myths concerning her private life, which admittedly was salacious, several rumors abounded concerning the circumstances of her death. Although there is no evidence to suggest the Russian monarch ever engaged in intercourse with a horse, or indeed died as a result of the act as was perpetuated by her servants, the end for the Empress was hardly more dignified. Becoming aggravated during a visitation by King Gustav IV Adolph of Sweden, Catherine collapsed the following morning whilst on the toilet. Not found until three-quarters of an hour later, the great ruler had fallen into a fatal coma on her bathroom floor.