The Historic Legacy of Stilt Fighting: From Philippe Le Bon to Napoleon and Beyond

2023-07-17 16:25:00

“And that is quite easy to understand, situates Bertrand Patris, stilt historian. Over the ages, when the Namur authorities receive a prestigious Alex Reed, they want to show what is most spectacular and original. stilt fight, you can’t see it anywhere else.” The guestbook of Mélans and Avresses opens with a page written in 1438. Philippe Le Bon is passing through Namur, the county of which he has just taken over. The Duke of Burgundy is one of the most powerful figures of the time. 27 years earlier, an edict prohibited jousting in the streets of Namur, but here the stilt walkers are back in favor. “In the municipal accounts, we find the trace of a payment to a carpenter, a man named Pirart de Sier, and to four of his apprentices. They made barriers for the fight for this lord described as very feared. The joust took place at the market. Today, it is the bottom of the rue de l’Ange”, situates Bertrand Patris.

We go up another notch with the visit of Charles V, November 23, 1515. Here once more, it is an accounting record that makes history. It is a payment to a certain Estiennes de Sorinnes for five sheep. Two will be offered to the Melans, two to the Neufville brigade and one for the “Pieds de Chaulx”. Three companies will therefore engage in combat. “They will also receive five barrels of ceutes, that’s the name we give to beer,” says the history buff. Meat and beer: the fundamentals are there.

And Charles V, who had become emperor in the meantime, wanted more: he would attend a second game in 1530.

A gold Louis and 50 ducats

The Sun King also appears in gold letters in the archives of the stilt walkers. Louis XIV knew Namur and its citadel very well, which his armies besieged in 1692. the whole court which is present and one can imagine the splendor and pageantry.” The jousters will therefore be part of the program and the spectacular fight appeals to the French. “And the Prince of Condé (cousin of Louis XIV) will thank the stilt walkers by releasing a Louis d’or to them. It’s not nothing”, smiles Bertrand Patris.

The same generosity shown by a great figure of this world, in 1717. Peter the Great, the “Tsar of all the Russias” pays a visit to Namur but the sovereign cultivates discretion. “He visits the West, looking for good ideas and inspiration to develop his country”, situates Bertrand Patris. The Tsar avoids the pomp but accepts two invitations: the battle of the stilt walkers and a nautical joust. And the sight delights him. His entourage will also say that we have not seen him in such a cheerful mood for ten years. He will offer fifty ducats to the jousters.

The stilt walkers will also fight in honor of Napoleon and Josephine on August 3, 1803 or Thermidor 15, Year XI. “We had to get organized, a little at the last minute, also knowing that fighting had been prohibited since 1755”, contextualizes the specialist. Two games will be fought and won by the “Red and White”. The Avresses will be congratulated by the one who will be crowned emperor the following year. Rather well stocked, the golden book of stilt walkers.

Drunk and “scandalous” in front of Leopold I

They are rare, those who refused a fight of the stilt walkers. This was the case of Joseph II, during the visit to Namur of this future emperor, in the middle of the 18th century. “He is a reformer, he wants to make a categorical cut with the past, he does not like traditions, details Bertrand Patris. At all times, there has always been a relationship of love but also of fear between the power in place and the stilt walkers. There is always the fear of popular excesses, excesses, an insurrection… The stilt walkers are also a counter-power.”

For decades, jousting will even be banned. And the group survived it somehow. In 1849, some even believed that the story of Les Mélans and Les Avresses had come to an end. “The group is moribund and summons jousters everywhere for a fight given in honor of Léopold I, visiting Namur with his family”, describes the historian of the stilt. We are running behind schedule, the speeches of the governor and the burgomaster are endless. And meanwhile, the stilt walkers are drinking. Much and much too much. “And when it’s time for the fight, on the Place Saint-Aubain, they are completely drunk, they stagger, cling to each other. In short, it’s pathetic and even scandalous”, describes Bertrand Patris. “To such an extent that, in the days that followed, the City confiscated the stilts and banned combat. There would be no more jousting in Namur for 80 years.” But stilt walkers are like the phoenix. The people of Namur are so attached to it that they will always end up forgiving them everything..

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