08-06-2024 - On This Day in Insane History

On the 6th of August in the year 1317, the world witnessed an event most bizarre and strange. It was a sunny summer morn at the royal castle in a small German duchy when without warning, the Duke's prized pet goose broke free of its pen. In a panic, the fowl took flight directly through the open window of the Duke's chambers and began angrily flapping its wings. Papers and fabrics went flying as courtiers ducked for cover, yet most bizarre of all was the sight of the Duke himself running screaming from the room still clad only in his nightshirt!

It seems the errant goose had developed quite the taste for fine silks and satins, and proceeded to give chase to the partly dressed noble through the hallways and out into the courtyard. Subjects and servants alike leapt wildly from the goose's path as it herded its quarry about with aggressive honks and pecks. Nearly thirty minutes of chaos ensued ere two bakers arriving with the morning pastries managed to overwhelm the feathered assailant with a well-aimed throwing of their tray.

While no lasting harm was done that day, the Duke's dignity never fully recovered. For years after, minstrels and jesters added hilarious verses to the ballad of "The Goose and the Goose-Chasing Duke." It remains one of the strangest incidents from the annals of medieval German history.