John Damian de Falcuis, the False Friar of Tongland

Illustration showing John Damian de Falcuis’ 1507 leap from the ramparts of Stirling Castle in Scotland. This was one of humanity’s earliest attempts at flight.

Pictured above is John Damian, an Italian alchemist best known for an attempt at human flight in 1507. At the time, Damian had been employed by King James IV as an alchemist, and his job was to create gold from more common materials. Of course, he failed to do this after repeated attempts and at great cost to the king. After some time, word got around that Damian was a fraud, and he was in danger of losing his position on the kings’ court. In an attempt to prove his critics wrong, he declared he would fly to France with a pair of wings he built.

He originally planned to build his wings out of eagle feathers, but ended up using chicken feathers obtained from royal poulterers. Once the wings were constructed, he chose the walls of Stirling Castle as his takeoff point. With a small crowd of onlookers, the king included, he leapt, and promptly fell to the ground, landing in a pile of dung. The dung broke his fall enough that he survived, albeit with a broken leg. Needless to say, he relinquished his position on the king’s court shortly thereafter.

A drawing by Alexander Carse from the early nineteenth century showing John Damian de Falcuis’ 1507 attempt at flight. The flight was satirized by William Dunbar in his early sixteenth century poem The Fenyeit Freir of Tungland, from which Carse takes his inspiration.

We have two accounts of Damian’s attempt at flight. The first, described above, is from the Scottish writer John Lesley, as part of a history of Scotland he wrote a few decades after the event. A second account was written by the Scottish poet William Dunbar. Dunbar was a strong critic of Damian, and he wrote a poem satirizing the failed flight attempt. The poem refers to Damian as The False Friar of Tongland, and Dunbar credits the fall to a flock of birds who attacked Damian as he stood atop the castle wall, causing him to fall. Pictured above is a drawing by Alexander Carse that shows the flock attacking him.

Regardless of which story is true, John Damian has been woven into the local history surrounding Stirling Castle. With the leap, he also joined a group of early aviation pioneers who made attempts at human flight with similar leaps. This group of jumpers are a testament to the human need for verticality, and their legacy laid the foundation for the subsequent history of aviation.

Read more about other ideas for flying machines here.