-
21. Noble Fantasies (Binche, 1549, and Rouen, 1550)
- University of Texas Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
198 21 Noble Fantasies (Binche, 1549, and Rouen, 1550) Philip’s journey through Lutheran Germany was comparatively sedate. There were no triumphal arches until he reached Brussels in April;1 and, apart from an occasional salvo of artillery and a joust on the Danube in Ulm, very little in the way of noise. Catholic Belgium was rowdier. In Namur, in late March, the prince saw a battle between two teams of fifty men apiece on stilts. The stilts were six feet high, and the men “seemed like giants.” The battle seems to have been competitive rather than dramatic, for one side dressed in the colors of Burgundy, which was then part of the empire, and the other wore an imperial eagle. The stiltwalkers fought individually, then three against three, and finally in a general mêlée in which all took part, skillfully tripping one another so that “there were many falls and wounds.” Philip gave the winning side fifty gold coins. Such stilt battles are a traditional part of the Namur folk calendar, first recorded in 1411, staged for Charles V in 1515 and Napoleon in 1813, falling into disuse in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and successfully revived in 1951.2 Philip was in Brussels on the Sunday after Ascension Day for the annual procession that included, in 1549, squadrons of soldiers, triumphal floats representing the lives of Christ and the Virgin Mary, and a series of “games and inventions.” Among these were “a devil in the form of a wild bull, spraying fireworks from his horns, between which rode another devil”; a young man in a bear suit making music by pulling the tails of live cats with such precision that the animals howled in tune; “a graceful dance of [youths dressed as] monkeys, bears, wolves, deers, and other wild animals”; a giant and giantess dancing to a hurdy-gurdy; several boys, “naked as Indians ,” riding giant skirted hobby horses and camels; and “a terrible serpent hurling fire and fireworks from its mouth in all directions.”3 In Tournai, in early August, if we are to believe a handwritten note that never made it into the official accounts, Philip watched a real execution staged as a dramatization of the story of Judith and Holofernes.4 The most memorable political pageantry was the carefully scripted series of performances that entertained Philip during his visit to his aunt, Mary of Hungary, at Binche.5 The royal party, which by then included Charles V, arrived at Mary’s brand-new, sumptuous Renaissance palace late on 22 August. Over the next several days, visitors and townsfolk were entertained by a preliminary series of jousts and an elaborate outdoor fantasy role-playing game for knights, the Liberation of the Castle of Gloom.6 Then, on the evening of 28 August, a second fantasy, involving mock battles between Europeans and dark-skinned “savages,” began. After dinner, four swordsmen entered the great hall of the palace. The several eyewitness accounts and a surviving colored drawing of the event (Fig. 23) are not easy to reconcile in every detail, but it would seem that the men wore long brocaded gowns, in the old Venetian style, lightweight helmets covered with large multicolored plumes, and masks with long white beards. Each escorted a lady of the court, who wore an ankle-length brocaded cloak of a kind “no longer used.” They were followed by two more women, at least one of whom, if the drawing is to be believed, was played by a cross-dressed bearded man, and two more men whom an eyewitness describes as also wearing “old men’s masks.” All twelve danced “a German dance” so well that “it was beautiful to see.”7 As the four couples danced “chastely,” four more swordsmen arrived, also wearing tall feathered headpieces, but dressed “in the pastoral style” in shorter capes, and sporting trimmer, darker beards. They were preceded by two drummers. When the women began to dance with these new, younger arrivals, their original partners resorted to swordplay, jealously attacking the younger men “with many fierce sword blows.” Social decorum was fast disintegrating. As urban age fought rural youth for the hands of courtly women, “wild men” from beyond the pale of civilization intervened. Eight “savages” entered the hall, dressed in skintight bodysuits, marked with pale green and blue scales and yellow kneebands, and short, tattered green capes “in the rustic style.” They wore feathers that were “trifling” compared to those of...