3-039-677 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Bed of the King of Navarre Set on Fire; Chroniques (Book Three), about 1480-1483. Charles II of Navarre's physician ordered him to be wrapped from head to foot in a linen cloth impregnated with brandy. After sewing the king into the cloth, instead of cutting the thread with scissors, the female attendant used a candle which immediately set fire to the whole cloth, and the king was burned alive. Additional Info:The popularity of Jean Froissart's narrative derived in part from the author's taste for dramatic stories, exemplified by the death of the king of Navarre, shown in this miniature. Froissart recounted that the king, while awaiting his young mistress, called for his bed to be warmed. His servant proceeded in the usual way, but there was a disastrous mishap: the bed caught fire and the king died of his burns several days later. Froissart remained ambiguous about whether the fire was intentionally set, attributing the death to "God or the devils." The artist communicated the possibility of conspiracy by presenting courtiers in the room, whispering among themselves while the king burns in his bed. As vivid orange and yellow flames rise around the king's pillows, the figure in tights stands in an elegant dancelike pose that seems utterly inappropriate to the disaster.