The Nuclear Weapons of King Henry II
Recent studies of an ancient manuscript suggest that King Henry II may have used alchemy to develop working nuclear weapons.
King Henry II reigned in England from 1154 to 1189, with a break in 1171 when Henry III gave the nation a monarchic "test drive" which resulted in wars with every other country in Europe, two burnings of London in unrelated incidents, and the city of Bumshambleshire changing its name to "York."
Henry II was himself constantly bickering with Louis VII owing to his firing and beheading of the latter's friend and Archbishop of Canterbury, Samuel Beckett, who had longed for a return to France but instead was trapped jumping from church to church across England, hoping each time that his next leap would be the leap home.
Louis VII had invested nearly eight bâtons (adjusted for inflation, 70 trillion dollars) in military weaponry to fight Henry II, resulting in an arms race of sorts in which France developed such weapons as the trebuchet, the couillard, and the chose qui jette des trucs.
Henry grew afraid and put more and more into development of conventional weaponry, but feared it would not be enough. So he invested in alchemy, and set the infamous scientist Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Oxford to work.
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Oxford, or "Phil" as he was known to the king, quickly developed something he called "The Glowing Heavy Orb." The orb was made of pure uranium, which in those days could only be mined from the northern Scottish penal colony mines of Rura Penthe.
Having bought up all the uranium across the isles, Phil smelted the metal into a single orb, which glowed with what we now know to be radiation, but was in his time believed to be a supernatural aura. Phil theorized that if the orb were to be split and recombined suddenly, it would invoke the fury of God. Modern science calls this the "modulated neutron initiator principle" but Phil called it "Ye Orbe Go Boome Principlee," as was the fashion at the time.
Henry II was initially concerned that it might be blasphemous, but was assured by Phil in the Proclamation of Lordly Bounty In The Matter Of Weaponry which read simply "No it's not."
Fortunately for France, Henry II finally met in person with Louis VII at the Second International Orgy Of Rheims and settled their differences in a drunken make-out session instead of battle. Upon his return to England, Henry ordered the weapon dismantled, with its components to be sent to the three corners of the Earth, which was at the time believed to be triangular in shape.
Henry II remained on good terms with Louis VII until his death in 1189, leaving a loving inscription to him on his tombstone reading "II+VII=LXIX." Phil, after his frustrations in alchemy, moved to Spain and changed his name to Felipe and invented the sport of “Soccer,” known as “Football” in the United States. Around the time of his departure, the orb went missing before it could be broken apart.
The original rules of Soccer included a previously unheard of condition in which the ball could not be handled directly, but had to be kicked away quickly. In early games, this was enforced by the fact the ball, which weighed 30 pounds, tended to burn the hands of all who held onto it. Additionally, though little remains of the original alchemical manuscript, one image does remain- That of the orb itself: