While most wills are left in order to make certain that our financial affairs are taken care of after our death, some people have used them to make political points, or just for a bit of a laugh. This is a list of 10 of the strangest last wishes of people famous, and not so famous.

10
Virgil
Died: 10 BC

Last Wish: Burn the Aeneid

Virgil is the great Roman poet most renowned for his Aeneid - once the national poem of Rome. Prior to his death he had completed only 12 books (as opposed to the 24 of the epic poems of Homer). Because it was incomplete, he left instructions that it be destroyed by fire after his death. When his friends found out, they managed to finally convince him to remove the request from his will. He consented and the poem was published to great acclaim. I think we can all safely say that we owe Virgil’s friends a great debt.

9
William Shakespeare
Died: 1616

Last Wish: That his wife receive his “second best bed”.

This last request of Shakespeare has caused much speculation about his relationship with his wife Anne Hathaway. Not only was it an unusual request, it was tacked on to the document as if it were an afterthought. Leaving a bed to someone was not itself an unusual thing at the time - as a good quality bed with no fleas or vermin was a highly prized - and very expensive - thing. Adding further to the debate was the epitaph that Shakespeare left on his grave: “Blest be the man that spares these stones, / And cursed by he that moves my bones.” While some say Shakespeare meant it to frighten grave robbers, the wording was taken so seriously that when his wife died 7 years later, they would not allow her body to be placed with his.

8
Charles Dickens
Died: 1870

Last Wish: That mourners “who attend my funeral wear no scarf, cloak, black bow, long hatband, or other such revolting absurdity.”

In addition to the above, Dickens also wrote that he was not to have a public funeral and the place and time of his funeral were not to be made public. He also requested an inexpensive and simple funeral with only three plain “mourning coaches”. His requests were ignored - on a grand scale! He was honored with a huge funeral cortege, with all members present in full funeral regalia. His funeral was a national event. The man who was used to getting what he wanted in life, did not get what he wanted in death.

7
George Bernard Shaw
Died: 1950

Last Wish: He ordered no religious service and that his tombstone not “take the form of a cross or any other instrument of torture or symbol of blood sacrifice.”

Shaw was hard on religion and his will included a section that gave his support to “Darwin’s millennial saga of creation” over the Bibles “six day synopsis”. Shaw had always been fascinated with the idea of a reformed English spelling. He created a 40 letter phonetic alphabet to make spelling much simpler. As part of his will he left a sizeable portion of his estate to promote the new alphabet - this was overruled by a court as it was “impossible” and the money was distributed to 3 organizations: The British Museum, The National Gallery of Ireland, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

6
Benjamin Franklin
Died: 1790

Last Wish: That in a democracy, his daughter not engage in “the expensive, vain and useless pastime of wearing jewels.”

Benjamin Franklin was one of the most admired men in the Western world in the late 18th century. The reason for his odd request was that as former ambassador to France, Franklin was given a portrait of King Louis XVI in a frame studded with 408 diamonds. He left this picture and frame to his daughter Sarah with the above proviso to prevent her from removing the diamonds from the frame to make jewelry.

5
John B Kelly
Died: 1960

Last Wish: That the clothing bills of his daughter, Princess Grace, not bankrupt the principality of Monaco.

Kelly was a multimillionaire contractor who was a triple Olympic Gold Medal winner. His actress daughter (Grace Kelly) married into the royal family of Monaco. His will was his last laugh at the good-humored expense of his family. Some of the various amusing sections are:

[To my son John,] all my personal belongings, such as trophies, rings, jewelry, watches, clothing and athletic equipment, except the ties, shirts, sweaters and socks, as it seems unnecessary to give him something of which he has already taken possession.

He left nothing to his son in law, Prince Rainier of Monaco, stating:

I don’t want to give the impression that I am against sons-in-law. If they are the right type, they will provide for themselves and their families, and what I am able to give my daughters will help pay the dress shop bills, which, if they continue as they started out, under the able tutelage of their mother, will be quite considerable.

4
Harry Houdini
Died: 1926

Last Wish: That his wife hold an annual seance so he could reveal himself to her.

Houdini in his later life became very interested in spiritualism and seances because of the great loss he felt upon the death of his mother. After a number of years trying to communicate with her through spiritualists, he gave up - deciding the whole thing was bunkum. In order to prove it, Houdini left his wife a secret note with 10 randomly selected words that he would communicate to her after his death. For 10 years his wife held a seance on Halloween; Houdini never turned up.

3
Napoleon Bonaparte
Died: 1821

Last Wish: That his head be shaved and the hair divided up amongst his friends.

In a strange twist to the tale, a recent analysis of some of the hair that was kept by his friends, it was discovered that it contained large amounts of arsenic. His symptoms prior to death (vomiting dried blood) is consistent with arsenic poisoning. There is some speculation that the walls of his room contained arsenic (not uncommon at the time) and that it was his environment that killed him, but others believe that he was being slowly poisoned by the English. In fact, due to his stomach cancer, his doctor was also prescribing him another type of poison which contributed to his final demise.

2
William Hearst

Last Wish: That anyone who could prove “that he or she is a child of mine [receive] the sum of one dollar. I hereby declare that any such asserted claim […] would be utterly false.”

Hearst was an American newspaper magnate and leading newspaper publisher. The son of self-made millionaire George Hearst, he became aware that his father received a northern California newspaper, The San Francisco Examiner, as payment of a gambling debt. He asked his father to give him the paper to run and he eventually built for himself a multi-million dollar empire. Hearst was the grandfather of Patty Hearst - the heiress who suffered from Stockholm Syndrome.

1
John Bowman
Died: 1891

Last Wish: For dinner to be prepared every night after his death in case he came back to life.

Bowman’s wife and two daughters had died before him and he became convinced that when he died, his entire family would be reincarnated together. Driven by this odd belief, he set up a trust worth $50,000 to pay servants to keep up the housework in his 21 room mansion. He also requested that a daily meal be prepared in case the family returned hungry. The will was honored until the trust ran out of funds in 1950.

Bonus
T M Zink
Died: 1930

Last Wish: That a womanless library be created.

Zink left some $50,000 in trust for 75 yeas, at the end of which time he hoped the fund would have swelled to $3 million, enough to found the Zink Womanless Library. The words No Women Admitted were to mark each entrance. No books, works of art, or decorations by women were to be permitted in or about the premises. “My intense hatred of women,” he explained in the will, “is not of recent origin or development nor based upon any personal differences I ever had with them but is the result of my experiences with women, observations of them, and study of all literatures and philosophical works.” His family successfully challenged the will. Zink was a lawyer from Iowa.

   虽然我们的遗嘱大部分是为了确保在我们死后我们的财产分配问题，但是仍然有些人用他们来表明政治观点，或者只是为了一个笑话。这里是10个名人或者非名人的最奇怪的遗嘱的列表。

10
维吉尔（Virgil)
死于公元前10年（Died: 10 BC）

遗愿:烧毁埃涅伊德（Virgil 作的叙事诗）

维吉尔因为埃涅伊德这首诗成为了罗马最著名的诗人--这首诗曾经是罗马的民族诗歌。在他死前，他只完成了12本书（都是关于反对河马的24史诗）。由于他认为这些书是不完整的，所以他命令在他死后烧毁这些书。当他的朋友们发现的时候，他们最终成功的说服了他把这个要求从遗嘱中删除了。维吉尔同意后，这个诗集被顺利出版并赢得了强烈的反响。我想我们i确实欠维吉尔的朋友一个很大的人情。

9
威廉 莎士比亚（William Shakespeare）

Shakespearepa 449X600-1

遗愿：把他家中第2好的床留给她的妻子。

莎士比亚的遗愿让人对他和他妻子安妮海参崴的关系引起了很大的猜想。不仅仅是因为这是个不寻常的要求，而且这个要求被加入到了遗嘱文件上好像是再三思量的结果。在那个时候，留下一张床给别人这件事本身是很正常的，因为一张没有跳蚤或者虫子的高质量的床是非常值钱，非常贵的一样东西。使争论更加激化的是在莎士比亚的墓志铭：保佑那些不会动这些骨头的人，诅咒那些会动我的骨头的人。当时有人说莎士比亚是想吓走那些盗墓贼，这个措词十分严谨，直到7年后她妻子死了，人们竟然发觉墓碑上的墓志铭不允许她妻子的骨灰和他的放在一起。

8
查尔斯 狄更斯（Charles Dickens）
死于1870年

遗愿：来参加我葬礼的哀悼者不能穿着围巾，斗篷，黑领结，长缎带，或者其他这类让人厌恶的东西。

除了上述要求，狄更斯还要求他不想要一个公开的葬礼，他葬礼的时间和地点不允许对外公开。他同时要求只要三辆普通的悼念马车队的节俭丧礼。他的要求完全被无视了，他的葬礼变得十分盛大。他被尊重的放在一个巨大无比的葬礼队伍中，所有随行的人都身着丧服。他的葬礼成为了一个国家的盛事。狄更斯--当他活着的时候总能得到他想要的，但是在他死后不能得到他想要的。

7
乔治 伯纳德 肖(George Bernard Shaw)
死于1950年

遗愿：他不要任何宗教礼仪，他的墓碑不能是十字架形状或者任何其他代表牺祭奠或者折磨的样子。

肖对宗教十分厌恶，他的遗愿包括他给与达尔文的千年创世传奇的支持而不是圣经里的六日创世说。肖对改革新的英文拼写的想法非常着迷。他创造了1个含有40个音标发音的字母表来使拼写更为简单。他遗嘱中写到他相当大部分的遗产是用来促进新字母表的发展，但是这被法院以不可能而驳回。然后钱被分给了3个机构组织：大不列颠博物馆，爱尔兰国家艺廊和皇家戏剧学院。

6
本杰明 富兰克林（Benjamin Franklin）
死于1790年

遗愿：在民主主义统治下，他的女儿不得佩戴昂贵的，虚荣的，无用的消遣时间的珠宝。

本杰明 富兰克林是18世纪后期西方国家最尊崇的人之一。而他这奇怪的要求是由于作为前任的驻法大使，富兰克林曾经被赏赐了衣服镶满了408颗钻石的路易十六世的肖像。他把这幅画和以上条款留给了她的女儿萨拉是为了防止她从那个上面拿宝石来做成珠宝，

5
约翰 B 克利（John B Kelly）
死于1960年

遗愿：他女儿格蕾丝公主做衣服的花费不能使得摩纳哥公国破产。

克利是一个拥有三个奥运金牌的千万富翁。他的演员女儿（格蕾丝 克利）嫁给了摩纳哥的皇室。他的遗愿是他最终的笑声能是由于家庭的和谐愉快。有些不同的有趣的部分：

给我儿子约翰我所有的死人产物比如奖章，戒指，珠宝，手表，衣服和运动器械除了领带，T恤，外套和袜子，因为这些给他这些他已经有了的东西似乎没有必要。

他没有给他的女婿摩纳哥的Rainier王子留任何东西，因为：

我想给人的印象是我不重视我的女婿。如果他们是健全的人，他们将会能够养活自己和家人，我所能给予我女儿的能够支付他们做衣服用的钱，如果她们像以前一样在她们母亲的监督下，已经将是很多的一笔开支了。

4
哈利 霍迪尼（Harry Houdini）
死于1926年

遗愿：要求他妻子每年举办一次悼念会使得他能出现在她面前。

霍迪尼晚年时期开始由于他母亲的死使他感到非常痛苦，然后开始痴迷上了唯心论和降神会。在尝试和母亲用精神交流一些年后，他放弃了--认为这整件事是骗人的。为了证明这个，霍迪尼留下了一张只有十个随意选择的单词的纸条，他将会用这些单词在他死后和他妻子交流。10年了他的妻子一直在万圣节前夕举办了降神会，但是霍迪尼从未出现过。

3
拿破仑 波拿巴（Napoleon Bonaparte)
死于1821年

遗愿：他死后头被割下来，然后把头发分给他的朋友。

十分曲折的一个故事，最近一个分析表明他朋友所保留的头发中里面含有大量的砒霜。他死前的症状（大吐干血）是和砒霜中毒一致的。有些人猜想他房间的墙壁可能含有砒霜（在那个时候很平常），他是死于环境原因的，但是其他人相信他是被英国人慢性下毒害死的。事实上，由于他有胃癌，他的主治医生也给他开了另一种导致他丧命的毒药。
2
威廉 赫斯特（William Hearst）

遗愿：任何能证明是我孩子的人将会得到一美元。据此我声明任何这类的断言都是完全的欺骗人的。

赫斯特是美国报纸巨头也是主要的报纸出版商。他是白手起家的百万富翁乔治赫斯特的儿子，他意识到他父亲接受加利福尼亚北部的一份叫旧金山主考官的报纸的印刷来清偿赌债。他要求他父亲把这份报纸让他经营，最终他为他自己赚的了数百万美元。赫斯特是派帝 赫斯特的祖父--派帝是患有斯德哥尔摩综合症（Stockholm Syndrome）的继承人。

1
约翰 伯尔曼（John Bowman）
死于1891年

遗愿：在他死后每晚都要为他准备晚饭以防他复活。

伯尔曼的妻子和2个女儿在他之前就已经死了，他坚信当他死时，他所有的家人将会一起重生。受到这样奇怪念头的驱使，他用了5万美元来请能信赖的仆人来维持他的21间大房子。他同时要求每天要准备一顿饭以免全家人回来的时候饿肚子。这个遗嘱一直都被履行着直到1950年信托的资金全都用完。

额外补充

T M Zink
死于1930年
Library Of The National Palace Of Mafra

遗愿：建立一个没有女人的图书馆

Zink 将5万美元留给信托保留75年，他希望最终这笔资金能膨胀到3百万美元足够建立Zink没有女的图书馆。在每个入口都会有禁止女人入内的通知。就像前提一样，任何女人所写的书籍，艺术品或者装饰都不允许进入图书馆。他在遗嘱中解释说他对女性强烈的憎恨不似乎最近才有或者发展成这样的也不是基于我所相处过的任何个人差异而是我和女人的经历，对她们的观察，对文学作品和哲学著作的研究，导致了这个结果。他的家人成功的实现了他的遗嘱，Zink曾是来自爱荷华州的一名律师。