Interesting Facts

Archaeologists in the UK are searching for the bones of the last Plantagenet king of England, Richard III. (So, where are they looking? In a grand cathedral, or the grounds of a palace? No, they're searching beneath a city centre parking lot in Leicester. The car park is said to have been built over a Franciscan friary known as Greyfriars, which housed the monarch's remains after he died at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.)

Lèse majesté (usually written Lese Majeste because no one can find the right symbols on their keyboard) is the crime of violating majesty, an offense against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state. (The 2007 Constitution of Thailand, and all seventeen versions since 1932, contain the clause, "The King shall be enthroned in a position of ) revered worship and shall not be violated. No person shall expose the King to any sort of accusation or action." Thai Criminal Code elaborates in Article 112: "Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to fifteen years." 15 years! Missing from the Code, however, is a definition of what actions constitute "defamation" or "insult". From 1990 to 2005, the Thai court system only saw four or five lèse majesté cases a year. From January 2006 to May 2011, however, more than 400 cases came to trial, an estima...

Insulting the Thai Royal Family is an offence in Thailand that is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. (Anyone can make an accusation of insulting the monarchy and the police are duty-bound to investigate and the Thai justice ministry has recruited volunteers to patrol cyberspace. Thank goodness I can insult her right royal Majesty, our illustrious leader David Cameron, and anyone else it pleases me to lampoon. I guess they don't feel they are so insignificant or powerless that they they need such protection.)

Prince Charles is now the longest-serving heir apparent in British history. (The previous record belonged to his great-great-grandfather, King Edward VII, who had to wait 59 years, two months and 13 days. Charles has now been waiting 59 years, two months and 14 days. I bet it only seems like yesterday. Just another example of the abuse royals have to suffer - waiting for your mum to die.)

Being a monarch up to 1800 was more risky business than being a soldier engaged in a contemporary war. (According to "Killing Kings", a paper that will appear on the website of the British Journal of Criminology on Monday 31 January, a statistical study of the demise of 1,513 monarchs in 45 European monarchies over the period 600 to 1800 revealed that almost a quarter (22 per cent) of all royal deaths were bloody - accidents, battle deaths and killings - and that 15 per cent of all deaths were outright murder. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.) Thanks to Alex

The price of every DVD disc sold includes a small royalty to Philips, the company that developed the format. (I wonder what their shares are worth?)