History's Most Insane Rulers, Part 2: Charles VI -- The King Who Thought He Was Made of Glass

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2020

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

King Charles VI of France (1368-1422) suffered from a particular disorder called "The Glass Delusion." He believed himself to be made of glass and could shatter at any moment. Advisors were told to tiptoe toward him and not wear shoes. He refused bathing for extended periods so as not to fracture.

Fate was unkind to Charles VI. He began well; the king was known in his early reign as le Bien-Aimé (the well-beloved) for his generous and affable character. He cared for the welfare of France's commoners and even allowed non-aristocrats among his counselors. But France experienced the worst decades in its history during his reign. During his forty years as king, the Hundred Years War raged on, and France continually lost battles and land holdings to England; his subjects killed in massive numbers through war, disease, and civil disorder. Forced to cede power to the English, and even to members of his family, Charles managed to survive multiple assassination attempts, but many of his advisors were not so fortunate. France's decades of decline culminated in its disastrous defeat to the English at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 and the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, which named an English king as the rightful successor to the French throne. Suffering through all this hardship, his sanity finally cracked and broke. No longer called le Bien-Aimé, after his death Charles was referred to le Fol (the mad).

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of North America podcast is a sweeping historical saga of the United States,
0:09.4	Canada, and Mexico from their deep origins to our present epoch.
0:14.2	Join me, Mark Vinet, on this exciting, fascinating epic journey through time, focusing on the compelling,
0:20.8	wonderful, and tragic stories of North America's inhabitants, heroes, villains, leaders,
0:27.1	environment, and geography.
0:29.5	I invite you to come along for the ride.
0:32.1	Scott here with a very short announcement before this episode begins.
0:35.7	This episode is part of a series I'm doing about history's most insane rulers, because
0:40.0	I have a book that just came out as available now, called History's Nine Most Insane
0:44.5	Rulers, looking at the lives and reigns of people like Emperor Caligula, Ivan the Terrible,
0:50.0	Kim Jong-il, and some other lesser-known people, like Charles VI, who thought he was made
0:54.1	of glass.
0:55.1	Ottoman Sultan Ebrahim I, who shot arrows at his court subjects, and ordered his advisors
0:59.1	to find the Thaddest Woman in the Empire to join his harem, and former President of Turkmenistan,
1:03.8	Akbar Turkmen Bashi, who had an 80-foot tall golden statue made of himself that always
1:07.8	rotated to face his son.
1:09.2	The book looks at what it would be like to be under the rule of somebody like this, who
1:13.7	had almost unlimited power, whether power makes somebody go insane, and if these stories
1:18.2	have any warnings for us today.
1:20.6	So in each of these episodes, I go over a little of what's in the book, but you can go into
1:24.0	way more detail if you check it out.
1:26.0	You can find it anywhere where books are sold, Amazon, or elsewhere, or if you go to the
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