[Sca-cooks] Flaming Nobles was Re: Flaming Subtleties

[Robert Downie]

Here is another version of the tale (maybe it's a different one, it 
doesn't mention anything about being chained together):

A Mummery of Wild Men 1394 condensed from Charlemagne's Tablecloth  p35

 At a feast to celebrate a wedding between one of the King's knights and 
one of the Queen's gentlewomen, the King asked Hugonon de Guisay, one of 
his squires, to 'make some pastime'.  He staged a mummery of wild men 
for the King and some of his friends to enact.  Wild men (or wodewoses / 
woodhouses) were a popular diversion. Completely disguised by hairy 
coverings, the wild men would arrive, dance or gambol with the company, 
and often leave without anyone knowing who they were or where they came 
from.  Six costumes were made out of linen covered with pitch embedded 
with flax to look like hair.  The King and five knights secretly dressed 
up in these costumes.  All went according to plan, the ladies being 
suitably intrigued, particularly the uchess of Berry who drew the 
disguised King away from his companions and insisted he should not 
escape until she found out who he was.Unfortunately, the Duke of 
Orleans, who had arrived late and not heard the instruction to keep the 
torchbearers out of the way, grabbed one of the torches to get a better 
look and accidentally set the pitch alight.  One Knight, Nantoullet, 
remembered there was a butchery nearby where they rinsed pans; he rushed 
out and threw himself into the water, saving his life.  The King was 
saved by his flirtatious Duchess, who threw the train of her gown over 
him to protect him from the fire and then discovered who she had saved.  
The other four, including Hugenon de Guisay, died from their burns.

There is also another illumination (by an annonymous painter from 
Bruges, c. 1470 in the Chronicles of Froissart) in the same book

Faerisa