1-276-127 - Art Media/Heritage Images

'Ball of the Burning Men', 1393. (c1470). In 1393, Isabeau de Baviere organised a celebration of the marriage of one of her ladies-in-waiting. Her husband Charles VI and others dressed up as wild men in costumes of cloth soaked in resinous wax or pitch covered with hemp so that they appeared shaggy and hairy from head to foot. Despite a ban on torches in the room, the king's brother, Louis of Valois, approached with a lighted torch and one of the dancers caught fire, causing panic. The Duchesse de Berry hid the king under her dress and saved his life. Four of the others died. This incident became known as the Bal des Ardents (the 'Ball of the Burning Men'). Illustration from Jean Froissart's Chronicles, in the collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.