Episode 15: How the Tables Have Turned

Posted byJosh ZuckerPosted inUncategorized
In 1393, Queen Isabeau threw a party to celebrate the marriage of one of her ladies in waiting featuring a dance of the wild men, where young nobles dressed up in costumes made of flax and pitch. During this dance Louis of Orleans accidentally set fire to the Wild Men. All but two died, one of the survivors was King Charles VI who was saved when the Duchess of Berry threw her skirt over him to protect him from the flames.

In 1392 while travelling to Brittany, King Charles VI fell into delusion. In the aftermath of this episode, Philip the Bold took the opportunity to once again seize power in France. The Duke of Burgundy had been shut out of the inner circle for the past four years, but with the King no longer able to truly rule, Philip asserted his own right by force of personality political savvy.

Time Period Covered: 1392 – 1396

Notable People: Philip the Bold, Louis Duke of Orleans, King Charles VI, Queen Isabeau of Bavaria, John Duke of Berry, Waleran of Luxembourg Count of Saint-Pol, Olivier de Clisson, John of Montfort Duke of Brittany, John of Gaunt, King Richard II of England

Notable Events/Developments:  Madness of Charles VI, Fall of the Marmousets, Bal Des Ardents, Truce of Leulinghem, Death of Pope Clement VII

Benedict XIII is consecrated as Pope in 1394. Benedict was elected as the successor to Clement VII as head of the Avignon Papacy. Many opposed Benedict’s election as they saw it as needlessly extending the Schism.
King Charles VI is shown here sick in bed and being attended by a physician. After his first episode of madness in 1392, the King would spend the rest of his life alternating between sanity and delusion. The King could no longer reliably rule his realm, but as he was not totally incapacitated, it was not deemed necessary for a regency to be established. While Charles was mad, the great Princes of court took every opportunity to profit from the Kingdom.

Sources

The Hundred Years War: Divided Houses by Jonathan Sumption

Philip the Bold by Richard Vaughan

The Promised Lands by Wim Blockmans and Walter Prevenier

The Valois: Kings of France 1328-1589 by Robert Knecht

Wise and Foolish Kings by Anne Denieul-Cormier

Chronicles by Jean Froissart

Magnanimous Dukes and Rising States by Robert Stein

The Golden Age of Burgundy by Joseph Calmette

The Burgundians by Bart Van Loo

Medieval Flanders by David Nicholas

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