There are several versions of the death of Henry II, Duke of Champagne, and king of Jerusalem (1166-1197). All of them, as Dorkafork explains, are pretty ridiculous:
During the Third Crusade, Henry II of Champagne, king of Jerusalem, perished due to defenestration. The story involves a first floor window and a dwarf. The version I read was that he tripped over his dwarf servant and fell out the window. Though this story has the most flair, I suspect it's the least likely. Other stories say the dwarf was just trying to pull him back up, and did not have mass on his side. In any case, by all accounts his dwarf servant fell out of the window as well, I guess there's no need to gild the lily. Some stories suggest that Henry would not have died if the dwarf had not landed on top of him.
So, chalk up another eminent victim to the scourge of defenestration.
Hence the practice of dwarf-tossing.
Posted by: CraigC | August 26, 2007 at 10:36 AM