The
Bal des Ardents (
Ball of the Burning Men) or
Bal des Sauvages was a
masquerade ball held on 28 January 1393 in
Paris at which
Charles VI of France performed in a dance with five members of the French
nobility. Four of the dancers were killed in a fire caused by a torch brought in by a spectator, Charles' brother
Louis, Duke of Orléans. King Charles and the remaining dancer, the noble knight Ogier de Nantouillet, survived. The ball was one of a number of events intended to entertain the young king, who the previous summer had suffered an attack of insanity. The event undermined confidence in Charles' capacity to rule; Parisians considered it proof of courtly decadence and threatened to rebel against the more powerful members of the nobility. The public's outrage forced the king and his brother Orléans, whom a contemporary chronicler accused of attempted
regicide and sorcery, into offering penance for the event.