The reign of King Charles VI of France (1368 – 1422) started off auspiciously. During the first few years after he was crowned, he was known as “Charles the Well-Loved”. However, that had more to do with the fact that he ascended the throne at age eleven and his kingdom was governed by regents. That all changed after he came of age and took personal charge of France at age twenty one. By the time he died over four decades later, he had earned the nickname by which he is best known to history: “Charles the Mad”.
Charles VI’s First Bout of Insanity
The first bout of insanity struck Charles VI in 1392, when the twenty-four-year-old old king set out on a military expedition to punish a vassal who had attempted to assassinate a royal friend. The king acted weird from the campaign’s start, and was in such a fever to get at the offender that his speech often became incoherent as he urged preparations sped up. Once on the road, the army’s slow progress drove him into a frenzy.
The king was already on edge when he set out. Unfortunately, the journey did nothing to relax him or ease his mind. En route, a crazy leper by the roadside started to yell at the king to halt and turn back because he had been betrayed. The madman was shooed away by the king’s retinue, but he did not stay away for long, and kept coming back to follow the king and ceaselessly shout his warnings.
The Aptly Named ‘Charles the Mad’
While that was going on, a drowsy page dropped a lance, which clanged off somebody’s helmet. The sudden noise made Charles snap. He drew his sword, charged at his retinue, and began to hack and stab them. By the time the king was restrained, he had killed at least four knights and men at arms. The following year, Charles got amnesia.
The French monarch forgot his own name and that he was king, and failed to recognize his wife. Between 1395 and 1396, he imagined that he was Saint George. He recognized his companions and officials, but for some reason, he was unable to recognize his wife and children. Then again, at least as far as his wife, he might have simply tired of her, and was crazy like a fox in pretending not to recognize her.
Another manifestation of the king’s insanity took the form of imagining that he was made of glass. Charles became extremely frightened of shattering if he fell or was jostled. In an attempt to avert the danger, he inserted iron rods in his clothes. At other times, the mad monarch would run wildly at top speed, on the streets or in the halls of his palace.
It got so bad, that to keep him inside his Parisian residence, its entrances were bricked up. The French monarch’s mental problems caused his court and retinue no end of problems, as they desperately sought to protect the mad king from himself – and protect themselves from the king. The unfortunate Charles continued to slip in and out of insanity until his death in 1422.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
Encyclopedia Britannica – Charles VI, King of France
Mad Monarchs – Charles VI of France
