What do you know about Mohammed bin Salman? You know you'd never heard of him until 2015 but then, you hadn't exactly heard of any Saudi since King Fahd let the Air Force fly out of Riyadh.

So check it. MBS is the eldest son of the second wife of the twenty-fifth (of 36) sons of Abdulaziz ibn Saud. He is now the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, and will be the de jure ruler when his father, King Salman dies.

MBS is, as mentioned, the eldest son of the second wife of King Salman who was, at the time, the mayor of Riyadh. Salman had two sons who took up most of his time and were his obvious heirs - Fahd and Ahmed. They both bred race horses and spent money. One died of a heart attack after complaining of a toothache on July 25 2001. The other died of a heart attack on July 22 2002. Fahd was 45, Ahmed was 43.

King Salman is the ruler of Saudi Arabia because

- Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz al Saud died on October 22 2011 of an unspecified illness in NY in 2011 while undergoing medical treatment

- and Nayef bin Abdulaziz al Saud died June 16 2012 in Geneva while undergoing medical treatment.

King Salman's first wife has more kids, of course, but she died in 2011 (of a heart attack). one of them is an astronaut who keeps his head down. One of them went from assistant oil minister to oil minister. One of them is the governor of Medina. Not a single one of them popped up and wedded himself at the hip to the grieving governor of Riyadh at the tender age of sixteen.

And they're all royals, who grew up living like royals, rather than hanging out absorbing all things Saudi and dreaming of the day he could change shit.

Mohammed bin Salman is insanely wealthy as all Saudi royals are. But the wealth was never his thing - it was the patriotism that drove him early and often. Which likely gave any intelligence agency worth its salt a rare opportunity, as it's hard to corrupt wealthy royals who learn to be discrete with their sins as they live in a place where singing in public can get you flogged.

There were six heart attacks between MBS and the crown. Maybe they were all organic. Maybe the guy who tortured the crown prince in order to be next in line was just extraordinarily lucky.

or maybe we know about assassination attempts when it's more useful to know about it than not.