At the end of the fourteenth century, symptoms of mental disorder in King Charles VI caused a nationwide crisis in the kingdom of France. This tragic event gave rise to much speculation and disputation among  a worried populace. Due to their different opinions of the event, a gap grew between the ordinary people and elites . Furthermore, the king’s mental illness threatened the French political order because public opinion became skeptical of king’s ability to carry out properly his royal power. Thus the entire question “Can an incompetent king rule?” resulted in arguments about the proper functioning of kingship and the formulation of the “Inutile Regis” theory in the late Middle Ages.