Music for a Mad King

In 1392, the King of France, Charles VI (1368–1422), is declared mad. In the midst of the Hundred Years’ War, just as the conflict between France and England enters an unexpected period of respite, the king’s repeated absences leave the field open to princes driven by a thirst for power and wealth.

It is this epic story that Into the Winds brings to the stage, drawing on the rare surviving musical sources from this tumultuous early fifteenth century, a time in which composers were at work whose influence profoundly shaped their era.