The Bal des Ardents was a court entertainment that became a fatal fire and a turning point in the account of Charles VI’s declining mental health. A prank intended to lift the king’s spirits instead killed four young nobles and, according to the book, worsened the king’s dementia.

A Revel Meant to Cheer the King

The event took place within a year of Charles VI’s first public display of madness, after he had been carried away from a military expedition. The king’s friends sought to distract him from his melancholia with an elaborate performance: Charles and five young nobles entered a crowded ballroom chained together and disguised as wild men in linen costumes covered with pitch and flax.

The masquerade depended on a striking transformation of the participants into a collective spectacle. Their costumes and chains made the six men appear as a group, while the disguise was intended as a prank to raise the king’s spirits. The gathering’s festive purpose, however, left little margin for safety around the highly flammable materials.

The Fire and the King’s Escape

An excited guest brought a candle too close while trying to identify the disguised figures. The costumes caught fire. Four of the young nobles died; one escaped by plunging into a nearby tub of water.

Charles also survived, but by circumstance rather than by the plan of the revel. He had stepped away to show himself to the ladies when the costumes ignited. The Duchess of Berry acted quickly, throwing her skirts around the king to keep the flames from reaching him. The account distinguishes his narrow escape from the deaths of his companions without describing the scene in graphic detail.

Aftermath and Significance

Known as the Bal des Ardents, the evening shattered what remained of Charles’s nerves and appeared to worsen his dementia. Its consequence therefore extended beyond the immediate deaths: the attempted diversion of a vulnerable king became another event associated with his deteriorating ability to govern himself.

The episode turns on a sharp reversal. A court spectacle designed to restore the king’s spirits instead became a public disaster, and the disguise that bound the performers together also exposed them to a shared danger. Charles survived because he had moved away from the group; his companions’ deaths and the intervention that saved him made the revel a grim episode in the story of his reign.