thus, for many thousand years in the middle east and europe it was the next-in-command, i.e. the king's substitute, who often was subject to execution or fake executions - probably in many scary cases.

This is all lower case. Can you fix that?
Thus, for many thousand years in the Middle East and Europe it was the next-in-command, i.e. the king's substitute, who often was subject to execution or fake executions - probably in many scary cases.