Joan of Arc

by Regine Pernoud

  It was thus that Joan won over to her cause not only the two squires who led the escort, but a whole group of inhabitants of Vaucouleurs, beginning with the Le Royer couple with whom she lodged.

  Catherine Le Royer of Vaucouleurs: “At the time when Joan sought to leave the town she had been in my house for a period of three weeks. And it was then that she sent to have speech with the lord Robert de Baudricourt that he take her to that place where the Dauphin was. But the lord Robert would not. And when Joan saw that Robert would not take her, she said—I heard her—that she must go to the place where the Dauphin was: ‘Have you not heard it said that it has been prophesied that France shall be lost by a woman and restored by a virgin from the Lorraine marches?’ I remembered having heard that and I was stupefied. Joan ardently desired this and the time lagged for her as for a woman pregnant of a child until (the time) when she would be taken to the Dauphin. And after that I believed in her words and with me many others, so much so that Jacques Alain and Durand Laxart were willing to take her and did take her as far as Saint-Nicholas, but thereafter came back to Vaucouleurs, for Joan said that it was not thus that it suited her to go away. When they came back, certain inhabitants of the town caused a tunic to be made for her, hose, leggings, spurs, a sword and other such things, and bought her a horse, and Jean de Metz, Bertrand de Poulengy, Colet de Vienne with three others, took her to the place where the Dauphin was. I saw them mount their horses to set off.”

  Henri Le Royer, her husband: “Joan said that she must make her way to the noble Dauphin, for her Lord, the King of Heaven, wished her to go there and that the King of Heaven was thus her sponser; that though she be obliged to make her way there on her knees, go she would. Joan came into my house. She was dressed in a woman’s garment, red. Later she was dressed in a vest, hose and other clothes proper to a man, and rode on a horse to the place where the Dauphin was. I saw them set out all together. When she sought to go, she was asked how she would do it, when there were so many men-at-arms everywhere. She answered that she feared not men-at-arms for her way was open, and if there were men-at-arms on her road, she had God, her Lord, who would clear the way for her to go to the lord Dauphin, and that she had been born to do this.” (R.94–96)

  At the time of the rehabilitation, several witnesses remembered Joan as they had seen her at Vaucouleurs twenty-seven years before.

  Jean le Fumeux, parish priest of Ugny, canon of Vaucouleurs, thirty-eight years of age or thereabouts: “Joan came to Vaucouleurs and said that she wanted to go to the Dauphin. Me, I was young at that time and I was churchwarden of the chapel Notre-Dame of Vaucouleurs. I often saw Joan the Maid come to that church very piously. She heard mass in the morning and remained long at prayer. I have seen her beneath the vault of that church on her knees before the Holy Virgin, sometimes with bowed head, sometimes with her head raised. I believe her to have been a good and holy girl.” (R.86)

  Geoffrey Dufay, knight, of de Baudricourt’s suite, fifty years of age or thereabouts: “I often heard the Maid talked of. She was saying that she wanted to go to France. I saw that Jean de Metz, Bertrand de Poulengy, and Julien, who was a squire, took the Maid to the King. I did not see her at that time, but it was they who told me that she was to go with them.”

  Albert d’Ourches, another of Baudricourt’s people sixty years of age or therabouts: “I saw Joan at Vaucouleurs when she wanted to be taken to the King. I heard the Maid several times say that she wanted to go to the King and that she only wished she could be taken to him for the great advantage of the Dauphin. This Maid, as it seems to me, was full of goodness in her conduct (remplie de bonnes meurs). I should have liked to have so well-behaved a daughter. I saw her later in the company of soldiers. I saw the Maid confess to Brother Richard before Senlis and receive the Body of Christ, with the Dukes of Clermont and Alençon, during two days. And I believe that she was a perfectly good Christian—I said above, she demanded to be taken to the King. This Maid spoke very well. She was taken there by Bertrand de Poulengy, Jean de Metz and their servants.” (R.96–97)

  Noble as well as simple must have been talking about her in Vaucouleurs at that time. The fame of the young peasant girl who wanted to go to the King’s aid, and whose mission was in fact heralded in a prophecy which was going the rounds in that part of the country and here and there all over the kingdom, will have come to the ears of the Duke Charles of Lorraine who must have wanted to see her for himself. The old duke was sick, and it was as a thaumaturge from whom a miracle might be hoped that he sent for her, rather than as the instrument of a victory and a coronation which he did not much care about.

  JOAN: The Duke of Lorraine required that I be taken to him. I went and I told him that I wanted to go to France, and the duke questioned me about the restoration of his health and I told him that of that I knew nothing; I said little to him about my journey, but I said to the duke that he (should) give me his son and some men to take me into France and that I would pray to God for his health; I went to him by means of a safe-conduct and I returned afterwards to the town of Vaucouleurs. (C.49)

  Another witness, Marguerite de Touroulde, widow of the King’s counsellor Regnier de Bouligny, with whom Joan stayed in Bourges for some time on her return from the coronation and in whom she had confided, had a few words to say about the above encounter: “I have heard Joan say that the Duke of Lorraine, who was sick, wanted to see her. And Joan had been to speak with him and had told him that he was behaving badly and that never would he recover his health if he did not mend his ways, and she exhorted him to take back his good spouse.” (R.120)

  In fact Charles of Lorraine had for some time been neglecting his “good spouse” Marguerite of Bavaria for a girl named Alison Dumay by whom he had had five bastards: the son Joan mentioned was in reality his son-in-law, René of Anjou, husband of Charles’s daughter Isabelle and future heir to Lorraine, of which he was to take possession when the duke died on January 25, 1431.

  It was on her return from Nancy (Nancy is about fifty kilometres from Vaucouleurs, say a day on horseback) that Joan found the atmosphere somewhat changed in her favour and Baudricourt himself, perhaps prompted by Jean de Metz, whom Joan, as we have seen, had succeeded in winning over by the ardour of her pleading, disposed to help her. But he was to take one preliminary precaution: he was to have Joan exorcised.

  Catherine Le Royer: “I saw Robert de Baudricourt, then captain of the town of Vaucouleurs, and Messire Jean Fournier, come into my house. I heard it from Joan that the latter, a priest, had brought a stole and that he had conjured her before the captain, saying that if there was any bad thing in her that she go hence from them, and that if there was a good thing then let her approach them. And Joan approached this priest and went down on her knees; and she said that this priest had not done well, since he had heard her confession.” (R.94)

  Then came her departure.

  Joan, on leaving the city of Vaucouleurs: “I was in man’s clothes, holding in my hand a sword which Robert de Baudricourt had given me and without other arms, with a knight, an esquire and four servants. I came to the town of Saint Urbain and there I spent the night in the abbey.

  “Robert de Baudricourt caused those who escorted me to swear that they would lead me truly and surely, and Robert said to me, ‘Go’ as I set off, ‘Go and let what is to be come to pass.’ On the way I passed the town of Auxerre and there I heard mass in the great church. Often, at that time, I had my voices.” (C.49–50)

  Astonishing, surely, this undertaking on which Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy were embarking. Later, they gave some account, notably to Marguerite la Touroulde, of the somewhat contradictory feelings which animated them on the subject of Joan.

  Marguerite la Touroulde: “Afterwards I heard those who took her to the King speak of it and heard them say that, to begin with, they thought her presumptuous and their intention was to put her to the proof. But when they had set out to take her, they were ready to do whatever Joan pleased and were as eager
to present her to the King as herself, and that they could not have resisted Joan’s will. They said that in the beginning they wanted to require her to lie with them carnally. But when the moment came to speak to her of this they were so much ashamed that they dared not speak of it to her nor say a word of it.” (R.119)

  And they themselves summoned to bear witness at the trial of rehabilitation, swore to the astonishing influence which the girl had gained over them in the course of a ride which, at all events for her companions, constituted in itself an almost decisive ordeal: the ordeal of daily life and the ordeal of chastity.

  Bertrand de Poulengy: “Upon leaving the town, on the first day, we were afraid because of the Burgundian and English soldiers who were masters of the roads, and we made our way during the night. Joan the Maid said to me, as to Jean de Metz and those who travelled with us, that it would be a good thing to hear mass, but because of the wars in the countryside we could not, for we had to pass unperceived. Every night she lay down with Jean de Metz and me, keeping upon her her surcoat and hose, tied and tight. I was young then and yet I had neither desire nor carnal movement to touch woman, and I should not have dared to ask such a thing of Joan, because of the abundance of goodness which I saw in her. We were eleven days on the road going to the King, then Dauphin. But on the way we had many anxieties. But Joan repeatedly told us not to be afraid, and that once we came to the town of Chinon the noble Dauphin would give us good countenance. She never swore, and I myself was much stimulated by her voices, for it seemed to me that she was sent by God, and I never saw in her any evil, but always was she so virtuous a girl that she seemed a saint. And thus all together, without great difficulties, we made our way to the place of Chinon where the King, then Dauphin, lay.” (R.99)

  Jean de Novellompont or de Metz: “Leaving the town of Vaucouleurs, for fear of the English and the Burgundians who were everywhere across our road to the King, we sometimes moved at night. And we kept on the road for a period of eleven days, riding towards the town of Chinon; and making my way beside her, I asked her if she would do what she said, and the Maid always told us to have no fear and that she had a mandate to do this thing, for her brothers in Paradise told her what she had to do; that for four or five years already her brothers in Paradise and her Lord, to wit God, had been telling her that she must go to the war to recover the Kingdom of France. On our way, Bertrand and I, we lay down with her, and the Maid lay beside me, keeping on her doublet and hose; and I, I feared (respected) her so that I would never have dared make advances to her, and I say upon oath that neither did I have for her desire nor carnal motion. . . . On her way she would have liked to hear mass, for she often said to us, ‘If we could hear mass, we should do well.’ But, to my knowledge, we only heard mass twice upon our way. I had great confidence in the Maid’s sayings, and I was fired by her sayings and with love for her, divine as I believe. I believe that she was sent by God; never did she swear, she liked to hear mass and she crossed herself with the sign of the Cross. And thus we took her to the King, to the place of Chinon, as secretly as we could.”

  COMMENTARY

  In the matter of Joan’s residence at Vaucouleurs and of her departure from it, a question of dates arises. Traditionally, the date of departure was placed between February 20 and 25, 1429, and the arrival at Chinon on March 6. The learned Pierre Boissonade had corrected these dates and his conclusions are now accepted by the majority of historians. (See his article: Une etape capitale de la mission de Jeanne d’Arc, Revue des Questions Historiques, 3rd Series, Vol. XVII, 1930, pp. 12–67.) He bases his argument principally on the Journal du greffier de La Rochelle (published by Quicherat in the Revue Historique, Vol. IV, 1877, pp. 327–344). This clerk wrote up his journal in September 1429 on the basis of notes taken from day to day. He was in a position to be well-informed for La Rochelle was at that time the only port which the King of France disposed of; the town was, therefore, in continual touch with the other towns which had remained loyal to Charles VII, the more so in that La Rochelle was the port of disembarkation for the Scottish troops which arrived from time to time to reinforce those serving with the King. His account is very exact; and this is what he wrote: “The 23rd February there came to the King our lord who was at Chinon a maid aged sixteen or seventeen years.”

  The evidence given by Jean de Metz indicates, as we have seen, that the date of their departure was “about Bures Sunday”, that is to say the first Sunday in Lent, which in 1429 fell on February 12th. The two dates agree very well since, also according to his evidence, the journey lasted eleven days. Moreover Joan herself had declared, “Before it be mid-Lent, I must be with the King.” Mid-Lent that year (Shrove Thursday) fell on March 1st.

  Other evidence, including that of the Journal of the Siege of Orleans, points to February as the month.

  It may, therefore, be taken that Joan and her escort left Vaucouleurs on the 12th to arrive at Chinon on the 23rd. In that case it was on the evening of February 23rd that Joan was received by the King himself in the great hall of the chateau of Chinon.

  Thus set forth, the chronology of events leaves room for the Poitiers interrogatories which, according to witnesses, lasted six weeks, which would mean that Joan was in that town from March 1st to April 10th or thereabouts. From Poitiers Joan returned to Chinon where she spent only a short time. She resided at Tours where her equipment was got ready for her between April the 12th and 21st, and thence, on April 22, she went to Blois, the royal army’s GHQ.

  Diverse questions of varying importance have been raised touching the events described in this chapter.

  Surprise has been expressed at the fact that Joan was “sufficiently well-informed” to speak of the project of a marriage between the Dauphin and King of Scotland’s daughter.

  In point of fact this project was in no sense a state secret. The year before, in April 1428, Charles VII had sent an embassy to James I of Scotland, an embassy which included among others the famous poet Alain Chartier, to ask the hand of Margaret of Scotland for his son, the young Dauphin Louis: this had been promised him, and the promise became part of the treaty of alliance made at that time between France and Scotland. This treaty did, in any case, no more than renew the numerous treaties of alliance concluded between France and traditionally friendly Scotland, expressions of a policy going back more than a century and which the French hastened to reaffirm upon the renewal of hostilities with England. Scottish battalions had always fought shoulder to shoulder with the armies of the “King of Bourges”. At the time of the first offensive operation undertaken by Charles VII as King (in 1423, against Cravant), the commanding officer was a Scot, John Stuart; the King’s gratitude was expressed by a licence to quarter the arms of France with his own.

  There can be no doubt that the marriage project was at once communicated to the King’s good towns, for Charles was punctual in informing them of all diplomatic and military events: Joan, like everybody else, was au courant.

  Then there has been an attempt—once again it is the old business of getting the bastardy theory accepted—to inflate the part played by the two gentlemen who agreed to escort Joan, Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy. They are supposed to have known Joan before her arrival in Vaucouleurs, to have instructed her in her mission, taught her the part she was expected to play, etc. etc. On what are these suppositions founded? Solely on Bertrand de Poulengy’s declaration, reported above: “I was often in their house” (Joan’s parents’ house). (More precisely, pluries, i.e., “several times”.) The reader can judge for himself the disingenuousness of such an interpretation. At no time did Bertrand say that he had ever been there before he met Joan in Vaucouleurs; and there is nothing extraordinary in the fact that after his astonishing eleven-day ride with Joan he should, upon returning to his own town, have called several times on her parents.

  As for Jean de Metz or de Novellompont, it emerges quite clearly from his deposition that, on the day when he addressed himself to Joan in a tone of irony, that was th
e first time he had ever seen her.

  Finally, Colet de Vienne, another member of the escort, has been cast in the role of messenger sent especially by the King to fetch Joan, the moment being come to reveal to the world that he had a bastard sister from whom he expected marvels. (Why, one wonders?)