The Bal des Ardents

The Bal des Ardents, also called the Ball of the Burning Men, was a masquerade ball hosted on January 28, 1393, by King Charles VI of France and his wife, Queen Isabeau, in which four noblemen were burned to death.

The ball was requested and arranged by Queen Isabeau to celebrate the third marriage of her lady-in-waiting, Catherine de Fastaverin. Six young men, including Charles VI, performed a dance in costume as wood savages, mythical creatures that appear in medieval legends and literature. The costumes, which were sewn onto the men, were made of linen soaked in resin to which flax was attached "so that they appeared shaggy and hairy from head to foot". Masks made of the same materials covered the dancers' faces and hid their identities from the audience, most of whom were unaware that King Charles was among the dancers. Strict orders forbade the lighting of hall torches and prohibited anyone from entering the hall with a torch during the performance to minimise the risk of the highly flammable costumes catching fire. However, Charles's brother Louis I, Duke of Orléans, arrived late and drunk; he entered the hall carrying a lit torch. Accounts vary, but Orléans may have held his torch above a dancer's mask to determine his identity when a spark fell, setting fire to the dancer's leg. The fire spread quickly, engulfing the dancers. Queen Isabeau, knowing that her husband was one of the dancers, fainted when the men caught fire. Charles, however, was standing at a distance from the other dancers, near his 15-year-old aunt, the Duchess of Berry, who swiftly threw her heavy skirts over him to protect him from the sparks.

The scene soon descended into chaos; the dancers shrieked in pain as they burned in their costumes, and the audience, many of them also sustaining burns, screamed as they tried to rescue the burning men. Only two dancers survived: the King, thanks to the quick reactions of the Duchess of Berry, and the Sieur de Nantouillet, who jumped into an open vat of wine and remained there until the flames were extinguished.

The citizens of Paris, angered by the event and at the danger posed to their monarch, blamed Charles's advisors. Greatly concerned at the popular outcry and worried about revolt, Charles's advisors persuaded the court to do penance at Notre Dame Cathedral, preceded by an apologetic royal progress through the city in which the King rode on horseback with his advisors walking in humility. The Duke of Orléans, who was blamed for the tragedy, donated funds in atonement for a chapel to be built at the Celestine monastery. The Bal des Ardents added to the impression of a court steeped in extravagance, with a king in delicate health and unable to rule.

A depiction of the Bal des Ardents as shown in a 15th-century miniature from Froissart's Chronicles.

Sources:

The Life and Afterlife of Isabeau of Bavaria, Tracy Adams,

Olivier de Clisson and Political Society in France under Charles V and Charles VI, John Bell Henneman

The Valois: Kings of France 1328–1589, Robert Knecht