Charles VI - The French King Who Was Made of Glass | History Documentary

Charles VI - The French King Who Was Made of Glass | History Documentary. King Charles VI of France was born in 1368 in the middle of the longest conflict in European history – the Hundred Years War. His reign was dominated by bouts of mental illness and at one point he believed he was made of glass and he took to wearing iron reinforced clothing and refused to let anyone touch him. His doctors diagnosed a “strange and hitherto unheard of disease” and they tried all sorts of cures including drilling a hole into his skull. In the power vacuum created by his illness, his uncles and later his brother tried to exploit his weakness and seize power for themselves. It was even rumoured that his wife was a visitor to his brother’s bedchamber! In this video, I’ll be exploring the fascinating world of 14th Century France, the world of “The Last Duel” and of the Shakespeare history plays and of a much-maligned monarch who signed away his kingdom to the English. Books: Froissart, J. tr. Joliffe J (2001) Chronicles. Penguin. Green, V. (2016). The madness of kings. The History Press. Tuchman, B. W. (2011). A distant mirror: The calamitous 14th century. Random House. Academic References: Alger, S. (2001). The Politics of madness: government in the reigns of Charles VI and Henry VI (Doctoral dissertation, University of Tasmania). Ashrafian, H. (2016). Charles VI of France and Henry VI of England: Familial Sarcoidosis in the Hundred Years War. Sarcoidosis, vasculitis, and diffuse lung diseases: 33(4), 416-417. Bark, N. (2002). Did schizophrenia change the course of English history? The mental illness of Henry VI. Medical hypotheses, 59(4), 416-421. Bona, J. R., Fackler, S. M., Fendley, M. J., & Nemeroff, C. B. (1998). Neurosarcoidosis as a cause of refractory psychosis: a complicated case report. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155(8), 1106-1108. Bourgeois, M. L., Haustgen, T. (2003, July). La folie (maniaco-dépressive) de Charles VI (1368–1422). In Annales Médico-psychologiques, revue psychiatrique (Vol. 161, No. 5, ). Elsevier Masson. González-Darder, J. M. (2019). Cranial Trepanation during the Middle Ages. In Trepanation, Trephining and Craniotomy (pp. 95-107). Springer, Cham. Pfau, A. N. (2008). Madness in the realm: Narratives of mental illness in late medieval France. University of Michigan. Speak, G. (1990). An odd kind of melancholy: reflections on the glass delusion in Europe (1440-1680. History of psychiatry, 1(2), 191-206. Wester, J. P., Statius van Eps, R., Stouthamer, A., Girbes, A. R. (2000). Critical illness onychomadesis. Intensive care medicine, 26(11), 1698-1700. Copyright Disclaimer The primary purpose of this video is educational. I have tried to use material in the public domain or with Creative Commons Non-attribution licences wherever possible. Where attribution is required, I have listed this below. I believe that any copyright material used falls under the remit of Fair Use, but if any content owners would like to dispute this, I will not hesitate to immediately remove that content. It is not my intention to infringe on content ownership in any way. If you happen to find your art or images in the video, please let me know and I will be glad to credit you. Images Wikimedia Commons British Library Public Domain or used on Fair Use basis for education purpose Music Fleurdelis, Grodno (Creative Commons) Studio des frühen Musik – Public Domain via Wikimedia commons Animuccia: Introit - Resurrexi et Adhuc Tecum Sum: The Tudor Consort: Creative Commons 3.0 Via Wikimedia commons Video produced by Professor Graeme Yorston and Tom Yorston.