Hi my name is Kevin Hicks welcome to my YouTube Channel The History Squad. Now today's video
takes us across to medieval France, to the reign of Charles VI and to a real tragic,
unfortunate incident, it was called the Ball of the Burning Men, Bal des Ardents or if you wish
the Bal des Sauvages, the ball of the wild men. But before we go into this tragic incident let's
have a little look at the bit of the background of what was going on in medieval France at this time.
In 1380 tragedy strikes France when the King dies that’s Charles the fifth. Now his 12 year old son
becomes Charles VI but he's too young to actually reign as king, so four uncles step in and become
the Regents of France, however two of the uncles couldn't be bothered, they don't want anything
to do with the politics and one of the uncles, Louis of Anjou, is nothing more than a thief,
a liar because he makes off with the treasury of the crown. Now this leaves Philip of Burgundy as
the sole Regent of France, that's an incredible position to hold in France. Very very powerful.
Now just five years later, 1385, the young king marries his Queen but she's a foreigner,
Isabeau of Bavaria. She is not a popular figure when it comes to being the Queen of France,
the people themselves they don't like her so it was only two years after marrying Isabeau, 1387,
that Charles dismisses his uncles as Regents. But what he does next is very interesting because he
reinstates the Marmousets, these were his father's counselors and these guys are really good because
they want less taxation, peace with England and a strong central government. This actually leads
to a three-year truce with England and this is a great way politically isn't it to please
the people? Peace, less taxation, strong central government. So, all’s going well with our Charles
the sixth, King of France but it all falls apart with an attempted assassination upon the Constable
of France who happens to be the head of his advisors the Marmousets. The King believes there
is actually an attack upon his own person and they find out that it was orchestrated by John, the
Fourth Duke of Brittany, so the King in his rage decides he will have a campaign against Brittany,
he will organize a retaliatory attack. But on a hot August morning near Le Mans, the King is on
his horse and all of a sudden draws his sword and he screams “Forward against the traitors!” And he
charges into his own men and he attacks them. He kills four of them, even his own brother was
almost injured. The King is then grabbed by his Chamberlain who grabs him round the waist and
wrestles him to the floor. He's raging this King and then all of a sudden, he falls unconscious,
falls into a coma which lasts for four days. Two of his uncles, the Duke of Burgundy and
the Duke of Berry seize control as Regents of the Crown. They dismiss the Marmousets as counselors,
this means no low taxation, no central government and of course no peace with England. Can you
imagine the shock everybody must have been in? One minute they're going on campaign the next minute
their King has killed four of their own men, important people too, and he's in a coma? Well,
they managed to get him back to Le Mans and there was a physician, 92 years of age apparently,
but really well respected, Guilliaum de Harsigny, and he treats the King and by stages they get him
back to Paris, and when I say by stages they go from castle rest, castle rest, castle and then
eventually onto Paris. The poor King is going to be afflicted by these attacks for the rest
of his life. They believed at the time that it was divine retribution and punishment, others that the
King had been bewitched, but modern physicians they reckon it was paranoid schizophrenia and
the King himself will deteriorate. He at one stage believes apparently that he's made of
glass. I was reading how a Pope described how the King had iron rods sown into his clothes just in
case anybody banged into him, he wouldn't break. Others record that the king would run raging down
the corridors of his palace and at times he would not recognize Isabeau his wife and demanded that
this strange woman be removed from his company. They implored Guilliaume de Harsigny, this 92 year
old physician to stay with the court of France, they offered him riches but he wasn't interested,
he didn't want to be there but before he left he gave instructions on how to treat the King
and I've got it here some of his original words. He ordered the courtiers to shield Charles from
the duty of government and leadership, burden him with work as little as you can. Pleasure
and forgetfulness will be better for him than anything else so once Guilliaume de Harsigny had
left the court went to town with keeping the King calm, entertained. The ladies had
such extravagant fashions, their dresses were made wider, covered in jewels and they also
styled their hair like seashells, so whenever the king saw them he would wow, they would wow him.
This was so extravagant because they had to widen the doorways of their palace so that these ladies
could pass through and they had entertainments for the King, extravagant balls, but of course
you've got to go one better each time you have a form of amusements otherwise you're just repeating
yourself and this is what led to the ball of The Burning Men. So 28th of January 1393 a masquerade,
a masked ball was held in honor of the Queen's lady in waiting because she was getting married
for the third time. She'd had a bit of bad luck. Now this masquerade was organized to
be quite outlandish, there were going to be six men, they’re going to be dressed from head to toe
as the wild men of the woods, the savages of the woods. Now their costume was actually sewn onto
them and it was a linen base, soaked in pitch with little bits of flax and linen sown to them so they
actually looked like these hairy, ragged men, the wild men of the woods. Now the problem with this
was these costumes were highly flammable, so no naked flames were allowed anywhere near these six
men and they will dance around at this masquerade, abusing people, spitting at them being like the
savages. It was going to be one of those occasions where it was almost out of control but what other
people didn't realize is one of the masked men was actually the King and people, their job was to try
and guess who was behind the masks. So the stage is set, the men are dancing people are laughing,
the obscenities are being thrown, it's quite outlandish when a late comer to the ball,
the Duke of Orleans, the King's brother arrives and things take a turn for the worse. So the Duke
of Orleans, on the King's brother’s arrived at the ball, he's drunk, all his friends are drunk
and as they enter the ball what they see is these wild men of the woods dancing around and it is
said that the Duke of Orleans snatches from one of his servants a burning torch and holds it towards
the face of one of the dancers trying to identify who it was. A spark drops and ignites the dancer,
he is flailing around now, screaming in agony. People are backing off, in no time at all one,
two, three, four, five of the dancers are on fire. One of them runs and dives into a vat of wine to
extinguish the flames but four of them now are literally engulfed in flames. One of the witnesses
says their genitals burning, dropped from their bodies and their blood just burst out. But the
King was safe. He's actually rescued. One of the Queen's ladies in waiting, a mere 14 year old
girl recognized the King, she ran and threw her dress over the King to save him from the flames.
One of the men died at the scene, two of the dancers died a couple of days later
but the guy who organized the ball, he lived even longer and it’s said he cursed the other dancers
until his last breath. Sadly these episodes or these attacks of insanity become more and more
frequent with King Charles VI until come the end of the 1390s his role of as King of France
is reduced to nothing more than ceremonial. Now at the same time his wife apparently, Isabeau,
is having an affair with his brother the Duke of Orleans and then to make matters even worse,
a cousin the Duke of Burgundy has the Duke of Orleans assassinated.
This will lead to a civil war between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs which lasted
for several decades. Now the vacuum created by this and the lack of central power and the
general irresponsibility of the French Court earned them a reputation for lax morals and
decadence. Now this reputation will last for over 200 years it will come to a sudden and bloody end.
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