Joan of Arc

by Regine Pernoud

  Jean Pasquerel: “Joan returned to the charge, crying and saying: ‘Classidas, Classidas, yield thee, yield thee to the King of Heaven; thou hast called me “whore”, me; I take great pity on thy soul and thy people’s!’ Then Classidas, armed (as he was) from head to foot, fell into the river of Loire and was drowned. And Joan, moved by pity, began to weep much for the soul of Classidas and the others who were there drowned in great numbers. And that day all the English who were beyond the bridge were taken or killed.” (R.182)

  Jean d’Aulon: “The same day I had heard the Maid say, ‘In God’s name, we shall this day enter the town by the bridge.’ And that done, withdrew the Maid and her men into the town of Orleans where I had her cared for, for she had been wounded by an arrow in the charge.

  “They (the army and people of Orleans) made great rejoicing and praised Our Lord for this great victory which He had given them; and right was it that they should do so, for it is said that this assault, which lasted from morning until sunset, was so greatly fought in both attack and defence, that it was one of the grandest feats of arms that there had been for a long time before. . . . And the clergy and people of Orleans sang devoutly Te deum laudamus and caused all the bells of the city to be pealed, most humbly thanking Our Lord for that glorious divine consolation. And made great joy on all sides, giving marvellous praises to their valiant defenders, and above all others to Joan the Maid. She remained that night, and the lords, captains and men-at-arms with her, in the field, both to guard the Tourelles thus valiantly captured, as to watch lest the English, over by Saint-Laurent, came out, trying to succour or avenge their companions. But they had not the heart for it.” (J.S.O.163)

  The Bastard of Orleans: “Thus the bastion was taken, and I came in again, as also the Maid, with the other French, into the city of Orleans, in which we were received with great transports of joy and piety. And Joan was taken to her lodgings that her wound might be dressed. When the dressing had been done by the surgeon, she took her meal, eating four or five toasts washed down with wine mixed with much water, and took no other nourishment or drink during all that day.” (R.133)

  Sunday, May 8th: “The following morning, Sunday and eighth day of May, this same year 1429, the English demolished their bastion . . . and raising their siege ranged themselves in battle. . . . Whereupon the Maid . . . and many other valiant men of war and citizens went out of Orleans in great strength and placed and ranged themselves before them in ordered battle. And at some points were very near to each other for the space of an hour without touching each other. Which thing the French submitted to with a very ill grace, obeying the will of the Maid, who commanded and forbade that for love and honour of the holy Sunday, they begin not the battle nor make assault on the English; but if the English attacked them let them defend themselves strongly and boldly and let them have no fear, and they would be the masters. The hour being passed, the English set off and marched away, well ordered in their ranks, into Meung-sur-Loire, and raised and utterly abandoned the siege which they had maintained before Orleans since the twelfth day of October 1428 until that day. Nonetheless, they went not away nor got safely off with their baggage, for some from the city garrison pursued them and struck at the tail of their army in diverse assaults, so that they won from them great bombards, and canon, bows, arbalests (cross-bows) and other artillery . . . Meanwhile, entered to great rejoicing the Maid into the City of Orleans, and the other lords and men of war, in (the midst of) the very great exultation of all the clergy and people who all together gave humble thanks to Our Lord and well-deserved praises for the very great succours and victories which He had given them and against the English, ancient enemies of this kingdom. . . . That same day and on the morrow also, made very grand and solemn procession the Churchmen, lords, captains, men-at-arms and burgesses being and residing in Orleans, and visited the churches in great devoutness. And in all truth, although the burgesses had not been willing at first and before the siege began that any men of war enter their city, fearing lest they come to pillage them or be too hard masters, nonetheless did they afterwards allow in as many as would come, once they knew (realised) that they came only for their defence and bore themselves so valiantly in the face of their enemies; and they were with them very united for the defence of the city, and shared them out among themselves in their mansions (hotels) and fed them with all good things which God gave them, as familiarly as if they had been their own sons.” (J.S.O.164–167)

  As for Joan herself, she was not really given a chance during the Trial of Condemnation to recall memories of Orleans. Quite obviously, her judge was anxious to avoid any mention of it. Her exploit had been altogether too resounding. She did, however, manage to tell, in a single phrase, what her conduct had been in the course of that exploit: “I was the first to place a scaling ladder on the bastion of the bridge.” (C.79)

  Year fourteen hundred and twenty-nine

  Came out again the sun.

  Good times anew came with its shine

  As long they had not done.

  Long time did many who were apine

  Live through: I was one,

  But no more at aught now do I pine

  When I see my want is won.*

  L’an mil quatre cent vingt et neuf

  Reprit a luire le soleil

  Il ramène le bon temps neuf

  Que l’on n’avait vu du droit œil

  De longtemps, dont plusieurs en deuil

  En vécurent: je suis de ceux

  Mais plus de rien je ne me deuil

  Quand ores vois ce que je veux.

  These lines are probably the last which were written by the poetess Christine de Pisan, in 1429. She had withdrawn into a nunnery eleven years before—at the time of the English entry into Paris—and had written nothing since. If, in her old age, she now took up her pen again, it was to celebrate the incredible event which was changing the course of history and restoring confidence to the people of France.

  Qui vit donc chose advenir

  Plus hors de toute opinion

  Que France, de qui mention

  On faisait qu’à terre est tombée,

  Soit par divine mission

  De mal en si grand bien mué,

  Et par tel miracle vraiment

  Que, si chose n’était notoire

  Et évident quoi et comment,

  Il n’est homme qui le pût croire!

  Chose est bien digne de mémoire

  Que Dieu, par une vierge tendre

  Ait ainsi voulu [chose voire (vraie)]

  Sur France si grand grâce étendre. (Q. v, 3 and s.)

  It is a fact that the extraordinary nature of the event had been fully realised. Even as late as the Trial of Rehabilitation the ordinary people of Orleans could hardly contain their enthusiasm as the victory was recalled. In a manuscript which was discovered in Quicherat’s time, in the Vatican library (Fonds de la reine de Suède No. 891), are to be found some details on the establishment of the famous feast and procession of May 8th which was to be celebrated every year thereafter in Orleans, and was not even dropped during the Terror; these details seem to have been given by an eye-witness of the raising of the siege who must have written down what he remembered in about 1460:

  “My lord bishop of Orleans, with all the clergy and also by order of my lord of Dunois, brother of my lord the Duke of Orleans and with his counsel, and also the burgesses, labourers (churls) and inhabitants of Orleans, ordered to be formed a procession on May 8th and that each bear in it a torch and that they were to go as far as the Augustins and everywhere there had been fighting and that they should make station and propitious service, and prayers. And the twelve procurators of the town would each bear a candle in his hands, on which would be the town’s arms. . . . Thus should we be very devout in this procession especially such as are of Orleans, since they of Bourges-en-Berry (also) make a solemnity of it—but they take the Sunday after Ascension. And also several other towns make a solemnity of it, for if Orleans had f
allen into the hands of the English, the rest of the kingdom would have been much harmed. . . . Everyone is required to go to the procession and to carry a burning torch in hand. The return is about the town by way of the church of Our Lady of Saint-Paul and there is given great praise to Our Lady and thence to Sainte-Croix, and there is the sermon and the Mass thereafter and also the vigils at Saint-Aignan: and on the morrow Mass is said for the dead.” (Q.v, 296–298)

  The Orleans account books several times make mention of the expenses incurred by the town for this procession from as early as 1435:

  “To Jacquet Lepretre, servant of the town of Orleans, for the purchase of twenty-three pounds of new wax, bought to remake the town’s torches and put with twenty-six pounds of old wax left from the said torches, for the solemnity of the procession of the Tourelles, held on the eighth day of May 1435, at a price of two sous ten deniers the pound . . . 62 sous four deniers. . . .

  “To Jean Moynet, candle-maker, for the fashioning of the torches and candles and for the sticks* and for a torch (flambeau) given on the morrow of the said procession at a mass sung for the dead in the the church Monseigneur Saint-Aignan . . . 26 sous.” (Q.v, 308)

  As for the prince whom Joan called the Dauphin, we know very precisely how he received the news of the event, by means of a circular letter which he was engaged in dictating to the “good towns” of the kingdom and of which the text was, fortunately for us, preserved by at least one of the recipient cities, to wit Narbonne. Other towns, like La Rochelle, only have a note of its receipt in their registers. It was dictated in three parts, between the evening of May 9th and dawn on the 10th when the messenger bringing the news of victory reached Chinon:

  “From the King, dear and well-beloved, we believe that you have been informed of the continual diligence by us exercised to bring all succour possible to the town of Orleans long besieged by the English, ancient enemies of our kingdom, and the endeavours into which we have entered on diverse times, having always good hope in Our Lord that at length he would extend to it His mercy and would not permit that so notable a city and so loyal a people perish or fall into subjection to the said enemies. And for as much as we know that greater joy and consolation you, as loyal subjects, could not have than to hear announced good news, we make known to you that, by our Lord’s grace from which all proceeds, we have again caused to be revictualled in strength the town of Orleans twice in a single week, well and greatly, in the sight and knowledge of the enemies, without their being able to resist.

  “And since then, to wit, last Wednesday, our people sent with the victuals, together with the men of the town, have assailed one of the enemy’s strongest bastions, that of Saint-Loup, the which, God aiding, they have taken and won by great assault which lasted four or five hours, and all the English having been killed who were inside it without any being dead of our people but two men only, although the English who were in the other bastions had come out in battle, seeming to offer combat, nevertheless when they saw our people come to meet them, they turned about hastily without daring to wait for them. . . . Since these letters written, there has come to us a herald about one hour after midnight, who has reported to us on his life that last Friday our aforesaid people crossed the river by boat at Orleans and besieged, on the Sologne side, the bastion at the end of the bridge and the same day won the fort of the Augustins. And on the Saturday likewise assailed the rest of the said bastion which was the boulevard of the bridge, where there were at least six hundred English fighting men under two banners and the standard of Chandos. And finally, by great prowess and valiance in arms, yet still by means of Our Lord’s grace, won all the said bastion and of it were all the English therein killed or taken. For that more than ever before must praise and thank our Creator, that in His divine clemency He has not forgotten us. And cannot sufficiently honour the virtuous acts and things marvellous which this herald who was present has reported to us and likewise the Maid who was always present in person at the doing of all these things. . . .

  “And since then again, before the completion of these letters, have arrived with us two gentlemen who were at this work, who certify and confirm all, more amply than the herald, and from thence have brought us letters from the hand of the sire de Gaucourt. After that our men had last Saturday taken and demolished the bastion of the bridge end, on the morrow at dawn, the English who were in it, decamped and fled so hastily that they left their bombards, canons and artilleries, and the best part of their provisions and baggage.

  “Given at Chinon, the tenth day of May. Signed: Charles.” (Q. v, 101–104)

  Note here—as we shall have occasion to note again—that Charles VII showed himself very discreet touching the matter of Joan’s exploits. Among the people of his suite, however, were some who were more enthusiastic; among other evidence there is the famous letter of Alain Chartier, the poet, written to a foreign prince whom it has proved impossible to identify, at the end of July 1429, a copy of which is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale.

  Chartier gives a swift résumé of what was known of the Maid’s origins, and tells how she came to the King’s court, and gives an account of the events which followed, up to the deliverance of Orleans. He concludes:

  “Here is she who seems not to issue from any place on earth, but rather sent by Heaven to sustain with head and shoulders a France fallen to the ground. O astonishing virgin! worthy of all fame, of all praise, worthy of all the divine honours! Thou art the honour of the reign, thou art the light of the lily, thou art the splendour, the glory, not only of Gaul but of all Christians. Let Troy celebrate her Hector, let Greece pride herself upon Alexander, Africa upon Hannibal, Italy upon Caesar and all the Roman generals. France, though she count many of these, may well content herself with this Maid only. She (France) can pride herself and compare herself with these other nations for the honour of the ladies, and can even, if she so wish, set herself above them.” (Latin text in Q. v, 131–136)

  Whereas Alain Chartier, full of enthusiasm though he was, kept strictly to the facts in his account of the essential event, that is the raising of the siege of Orleans in the extraordinary circumstances we have described, we cannot say as much for another personage, Perceval de Boulainvilliers, King’s Councillor and Seneschal of Berry. One of his letters has survived, addressed to the Duke of Milan, Philippe Maria Visconti, with whom he was in touch, having married the governor of Asti’s daughter. This letter implies in its author a taste for the anecdotal which drives him to seek the marvellous where it is not to be found. One can sense, as one reads it, that already there must have been old wives’ tales about Joan in circulation. It was natural enough: there is hardly a hero in history whom legend has not seized upon even in his lifetime. Boulainvilliers tells of her birth in Domremy, and it is he who gives us an exact date, which may be the true one, saying that she was born on the night of Epiphany, January 6th, adding that that night the cocks crowed at an unusual time, “Like heralds of a new joy” . . . which caused the people of the town to wake and wonder. A little later we have Joan, put in charge of the ewes, never losing a single one. When she played in the meadows with the other little girls her feet did not touch the ground, and she ran with such swiftness that one of her playmates cried, “Joan, I can see you flying above the ground” etc. etc. The writer then has a great deal to say about her apparitions, then gives an account of the succeeding episodes: Vaucouleurs, Chinon, Orleans—his letter being dated June 21st. Of more value to us are the details which Boulainvilliers gives on Joan’s physical appearance; for despite the exaggerated tone of the whole letter, these may be more or less true since he did probably see Joan. “This Maid,” he says, “has a certain elegance. She has a virile bearing, speaks little, shows an admirable prudence in all her words. She has a pretty, woman’s voice, eats little, drinks very little wine; she enjoys riding a horse and takes pleasure in fine arms, greatly likes the company of noble fighting men, detests numerous assemblies and meetings, readily sheds copious tears, has a
cheerful face; she bears the weight and burden of armour incredibly well, to such a point that she has remained fully armed during six days and nights.” (Latin text in Q. v, 114–121)

  The terms of this letter were to be recapitulated in a poem written some time later by a poet of Asti named Antonio.

  It is, on the other hand, surprising that Charles, Duke of Orleans, himself a poet, whose town Joan had saved for him, never makes the slightest allusion to her in his poetry. But warfare, and in general the fortunes and misfortunes of the kingdom, do not in any case receive much attention from him. Reading his works, it is difficult to believe that they were composed by a man who was a prisoner-of-war for twenty-five years. His gratitude was expressed in the traditional way, that is by having made for Joan a “livery” bearing his arms. By an assignation bearing the date September 30, 1429, he approves and undertakes the cost of making this suit of clothes, the work having been put in hand in June by his treasurer at Orleans, Jacques Boucher:

  “To the people of our accounts (exchequer) . . . we authorise (mander) you that the sum of thirteen golden crowns . . . which by our beloved and loyal treasurer general, Jacques Boucher, was paid and delivered in the month of June last to Jean Luillier, merchant, and Jean Bourgeois, tailor, residing at Orleans, for a robe and cloak which the men of our council had made and delivered to Joan the Maid in our town of Orleans, having consideration to the good and agreeable services which the Maid did for us at the encounter with the English, ancient enemies of my lord the king and of ourselves (this sum to be allowed in the accounts of our treasurer and deducted from his revenue). That is to say, to the said Jean Luillier, for two ells of fine Brussels vermillion cloth of which the said robe was made, eight crowns of gold; . . . and for one ell of deep green for the making of the huque, two crowns of gold; and to the said Jean Bourgeois for the making of the robe and huque, and for white satin, cendal (a silk material) and other stuffs, for the whole, one crown of gold.” (Q. v, 113)