"It was supposed to be just another masquerade. As daylight turned to dusk on 28 January 1393, servants rushed through the halls of the Hôtel Saint-Pol in Paris, making the final arrangements for what promised to be an evening of fun and revelry. Large spreads of food were set out on tables; musicians readied their instruments. And, in an adjoining room, six young noblemen were being sewn into costumes of linen and flax, to resemble the wild wood savages of fairy tale legend."
"They were to be the centerpiece of tonight's entertainment; their identities hidden by masks, they were to prance and howl before the throngs of delighted guests, who would laughingly try to guess at who they were. As the six dancers talked and joked with one another, speaking softly as the first of the guests began to file into the ballroom, no one could have known that the night would only end in flames and death and would worsen the fragile mental state of the king."
"The king, in fact, was one of those six young men, donning his flaxen costume. Charles VI of France had had a strenuous year - barely six months ago, he had been seized by a fit of psychosis in the forests of Le Mans, which led him to murder four of his own knights in a blind fury. After he had been subdued, he slipped into a coma which lasted four days,"
A January 28, 1393 masquerade at the Hôtel Saint-Pol featured six young noblemen sewn into linen and flax costumes to resemble wild wood savages. The masked performers were intended as the night's entertainment, prancing and howling before guests whose guessing games hid the dancers' identities. One performer was King Charles VI, who had suffered a recent psychotic episode in the forests of Le Mans, killing four knights and falling into a four-day coma amid rumors of poison. The king sought penance and retreat, regency rivals maneuvered for power, and the night's outcome of flames and death deepened the king's fragility.
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