Saint Joan of Arc

by Vita Sackville-West

  fn11 Procès, Vol. IV, p. 467: Journal d’un bourgeois de Paris.

  fn12 Rev Dominic Devas, O.F.M, Sainte Colette.

  fn13 Procès, Vol. V, pp. 150–3.

  fn14 Procès, Vol. IV, p. 474: Le bourgeois de Paris, an unreliable authority.

  fn15 Procès, Vol. V, p. 270.

  fn16 Andrew Lang, The Maid of France, p. 198, quoting Jules Doissel, Note sur une maison de Jeanne d’Arc, Mem. de la Société Arch. et Hist. de l’Orléans, Vol. XV, pp. 494–500. I have not personally had access to this work, but, having tested Mr Lang and found him accurate and reliable in other particulars, I venture to give this reference without verifying it myself.

  fn17 Michelet, Jeanne d’Arc, pp. 221–2.

  fn18 Procès, Vol. V, pp. 156–9. I say ‘originator’ rather than ‘author’ because for several reasons the letter as it exists in its present form could never have been dictated, although it might have been suggested, by Jeanne. There is only one phrase in it which I can believe to have proceeded straight from Jeanne; only one phrase which has her true accent, authoritative, Elizabethan: Ich werde Ihnen sagen, was Ihr zu thun habt. The rest of it is all a rather hysterically rendered diatribe, for which Jeanne may have provided the material but certainly not the style.

  There is some disagreement as to the exact date of this letter. Quicherat gives it as March 3rd; Andrew Lang as March 23rd, quoting Th. de Sickel, Bibliothèque de l’école des Chartres, third series, Vol. II, p. 81.

  fn19 Procès, Vol. V, p. 160.

  fn20 Procès, Vol. V, pp. 161–2.

  fn21 Procès, Vol. I, p. 115: Respond que en la sepmaine de Pasques derrenéirement passéé, elle estant sur les fossés de Melun, luy fut dit parses voix, c’est assavoir Saincte Katherine et Saincte Marguerite, qu’elle seroit prinse avant qu’il fust la saint Jéhan, et que ainsi falloit qui fust fait, et qu’elle ne s’esbahist, et print tout en gré, et que Dieu lui aideroit.

  fn22 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 115–16.

  fn23 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 158 and 264.

  fn24 Procès, Vol. I, p. 77.

  fn25 Procès, Vol. IV, p. 93: Jean Chartier.

  fn26 Procès, Vol. I, p. 105.

  fn27 Procès, Vol. IV, pp. 397 and 399: Monstrelet. If I interpret Monstrelet rightly, this bridge was intended to give him a passage to Coudun, where we find him after his victory at Choisy. There was, of course, already a bridge at Choisy across the Aisne.

  fn28 Procès, Vol. IV, pp. 49–50: La Chronique du hérault Berri.

  fn29 Procès, Vol. V, pp. 168–9. More fortunate than Jeanne, the Berger was spared the misery of long imprisonment and the farce of a protracted trial, but was tied up in a sack and thrown into a river by the English without more ado.

  fn30 Procès, Vol. IV, pp. 49–50: La Chronique du hèrault Berri.

  fn31 Procès, Vol. IV, p. 32: Perceval de Cagny.

  fn32 Procès, Vol. IV, pp. 32–3: Perceval de Cagny.

  fn33 Andrew Lang, The Maid of France, p. 211.

  fn34 Procès, Vol. IV, p. 400: Monstrelet.

  fn35 Pierre Champion, Guillaume. de Flavy, p. 46.

  fn36 Procès, Vol. IV, pp. 33–4: Perceval de Cagny.

  fn37 Procès, Vol. IV, p. 401: Monstrelet.

  fn38 It has often been suggested that the closing of the gates was an act of treachery on the part of de Flavy. M Quicherat discards this theory, for reasons which need not be gone into here, but which are sufficiently convincing (Aperçus nouveaux sur Jeanne d’Arc).

  fn39 Procès, Vol. IV, p. 34: Perceval de Cagny.

  fn40 The Bastard of Wendonne, Vendonne, Vendomme, or Wendomme, in Artois, has frequently and erroneously been represented as a scion of the royal house of Vendôme. He was, in fact, an ordinary soldier in the service of Jean de Luxembourg.

  14. Compiegne to Rouen

  fn1 Procès, Vol. IV, p. 402: Monstrelet. It must be remembered that Monstrelet was a Burgundian, which makes his admission all the more remarkable.

  fn2 Procès, Vol. IV, p. 402: Monstrelet.

  fn3 Procès, Vol. IV, p. 402: Monstrelet.

  fn4 Procès, Vol. V, pp. 166–7: Letter of the Duke of Burgundy, Count of Flanders, Artois, and Namur.

  fn5 Procès, Vol. V, p. 358.

  fn6 Andrew Lang, The Maid of France, note on p. 133, quoting Bibl. Cotton Cleopatra, F. iv, p. 52v, and Jeanne d’Arc et les archives anglaises, pp. 20–1, by the Abbè Henri Debout. So definitely in the service of the King of England was he, that he appears in the English archives as John Lussingburgh, the recipient of five hundred livres d’ or.

  fn7 Procès, Vol. I, p. 14.

  fn8 Procès, Vol. I, p. 13. The Bastard of Wendomme got two or three hundred pounds as well. The poor archer is never mentioned again; presumably he got nothing.

  fn9 Procès, Vol. I, p. 231.

  fn10 Thomas Basin, Histoire des règnes de Charles VII et de Louis IX, Vol. I, p. 312: Car si l’un de ces chiens de cour en voulait à quelque honnele homme, il y avail un moyen sur d’allirer sur Jui la colère du roi: c’elail de dire qu’il avail mal parlè de la belle Agnes, chose tenue pour crime capital.

  fn11 Procès, Vol. I, p. 163. She had tried to escape from Beaulieu, which was no doubt the reason they decided to remove her.

  fn12 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 95–6 and 320.

  fn13 Procès, Vol. I, p. 231.

  fn14 Procès, Vol. IV, p. 35: Perceval de Cagny.

  fn15 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 109-IO, 160–1, 169 and 266.

  fn16 J. Quicherat, Aperçus nouveaux sur Jeanne d’Arc, p. 57. It will of course instantly occur to the reader that the height of the tower grew rapidly in popular legend, but in correction of that apparently plausible argument I must point out (I) that the actual height is never mentioned in contemporary documents, but is based by modern calculation on the analogy of towers of similar mediaeval castles; (2) that the only contemporary reference to the height is found in the words turris altræ, which is phrasing it soberly and without the suggestion of any popular or legendary exaggeration; (3) that if, as I suppose, Jeanne was allowed to walk freely and alone on the roof of the tower, the height must have been such as to preclude all fear of her jumping down. I argue that the tower was high, and tliat she was allowed there alone, for, had the tower been low enough to admit the danger of her attempting a jump, she would have been accompanied and closely watched. The almost certain presence of a parapet, or at any rate battlements, would have given a vigilant guard plenty of time to prevent her from carrying out her intention.

  fn17 Procès, Vol. I, p. 110.

  fn18 Procès, Vol. I, p. 152.

  fn19 Chronique dite des Cordeliers.

  fn20 Post-mortem, by C. MacLaurin, p. 45.

  fn21 Aperçus nouveaux sur l’histoire de Jeanne d’Arc, p. 58. J. Quicherat.

  fn22 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 12 and 13.

  fn23 Procès, Vol. I, p. 9.

  fn24 Procès, Vol. I, p.14.

  fn25 Procès, Vol. V, pp. 194–5. These expenses were not incurred wholly in the pursuit of Jeanne. They represent Cauchon’s bill from the beginning of May 1430 to the end of September 1430.

  fn26 Procès, Vol. V, p. 179. Details of the levy are given.

  fn27 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 95–6.

  fn28 Procès, Vol. V, pp. 358–9: Chronicle of Jean de la Chapelle.

  fn29 Procès, Vol. V, pp. 360–1-2: Histoire généalogique des comtes de Maieur d’Abbeville, par Jacques Samson (père Ignace de Jesus Maria).

  fn30 Procès, Vol. V, p. 362.

  fn31 Procès, Vol. V, p. 361.

  fn32 Procès, Vol. III, p. 121: Deposition of Aimond de Macy.

  fn33 Procès, Vol. V, p. 363.

  fn34 Pierre Champion, Procès de condamnation, Vol. III, p. xxvi.

  fn35 Procès, Vol. II, p. 3o6: Depositions of Pierre Cusquel; Procès, Vol. III, p.48: Jean Tiphaine; Procès, Vol. II, p. 318: Nicolas Taque!; Procès, Vol. III, p. 161: Boisguillaume; Procès, Vol. II, p. 302: Isambard de la Pierre; Procès, Vol. III, p. 154: Massieu; and many others. It seems doubtful whether the
beam was really a beam, i.e. part of the structure of the prison, or merely a heavy piece of wood.

  fn36 Procès, Vol. III, p. 154: Deposition of Jean Massieu.

  fn37 Vallet de Viriville, Procès de condamnation de Jeanne d’Arc, p. 279: Deposition of Guillattme Manchon. To do Warwick justice, he appears to have reprimanded them severely, and to have replaced the two chief offenders by two others. The names of the soldiers have been recorded, doubtless incorrectly in some cases, as John Baroust or Berwoit, Nicholas Bertin, Julian Flosquet or Floquet, William Mouton and William Talbot. John Gray was their leader.

  fn38 Procès, Vol. II, p. 322: Deposition of Pierre Boucher.

  fn39 Procès, Vol. II, p. 306; and Procès, Vol. III, pp. 179–82: Depositions of Pierre Cusquel.

  fn40 Procès, Vol. III, p. 161: Deposition of Boisguillaume: Habebat custodes Ang ficos de quibus conquerebatur multotiens, dicens quod eam multum opprimebant et male tractabant.

  fn41 Procès, Vol. I, p. 47.

  fn42 Procès, Vol. III, p. 200: Deposition of Pierre Daron.

  fn43 Procès, Vol. III, p. 122: Deposition of Aimond de Macy.

  fn44 Procès, Vol. III, p. 178 and others: Deposition of Jean Lemaire: Fama erat in Rothomago, etc.

  fn45 Procès, Vol. II, p. 306: Deposition of Pierre Cusqud: Populos dicebat, etc.

  fn46 Procès, Vol. III, p. 63: Deposition of Jean Monnet: Fuit laæsa in inferioribus de equitando.

  fn47 Procès, Vol. III, p. 89: Deposition of Jean Marcel: Eam accepit dulciter per mammam. Quæ fuit pro hoc indignata, et tradidit dicto Johannotino unam alapam.

  fn48 Procès, Vol. II, p. 16: Deposition of Jean Massieu.

  fn49 Procès, Vol. II, p. 11: Deposition of Guillaume Manchon.

  fn50 E.g. by P. Champion, Procès de condamnation de Jeanne d’Arc, Vol. II, p. 332, note 22.

  15. The Trial (1)

  fn1 There were only two judges: Cauchon and Lemaistre. The others, although sometimes referred to as judges, were in reality only there in the capacity of advisers or assessors. Lemaistre had tried to get out of taking part in the trial; it was unfortunate for him that his superior, Jean Graverent, the chief inquisitor, was engaged on another trial at Coutances.

  fn2 Boisguillaume was the clerk for the trial, Taquel the clerk for the Inquisition and Manchon the clerk for the Bishop of Beauvais.

  fn3 Procès, Vol. V, pp. 205–7. It would not be fair to represent Erard as the only one to be reimbursed by the English Treasury for his services during the trial. Amongst others, Beaupère, Jacques de Touraine, Midi, and de Courcelles were paid twenty sols tournais a day each; Beaupère got a further benefice of thirty livres tournais for the special clothes he had brought and three horses (Procès, Vol. V, p. 199). Lemaistre, that reluctant man, received twenty salus d’or (Procès, Vol. V, p. 202).

  fn4 Procès, Vol. I, p. 19: Letter of Henry VI, dated 3rd January, 1430: Toutesvoies c’est nostre entencion de ravoir et reprendre pardevers nous icelle Jehanne, se ainsi estoit qu’elle ne fust convaincue ou actainte des cas dessudiz.

  fn5 The complete list is given in Appendix F, here.

  fn6 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 200–1. She was offered a counsel after the trial had lasted for over a month, but was told she must choose him from amongst the assessors present, and not unnaturally refused the offer.

  fn7 Procès, Vol. I, p. 65.

  fn8 It is, of course, possible that the incidents when he did lose his temper were omitted from the procès-verbal. According to some of the later evidence, it seems not only possible but probable, e.g. see deposition of Frère Isambard de la Pierre, infra, p. 279.

  fn9 Procès, Vol. I, p. 445: Non poterat fieri quod iretur quæsitum dominum nostrum Papam ita remote.

  fn10 Procès, Vol. II, pp. 4–5: Deposition of Isambard de la Pierre.

  fn11 Procès, Vol. II, p. 350: Deposition of Isambard de la Pierre.

  fn12 Procès, Vol. III, p. 201: Deposition of Pierre Daron (corroborated by deposition of Jean Marcel, Procès, Vol. III, p. 89).

  fn13 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 154–5: Vous dictes que vous estes mon juge, je ne scay se vous l’estes; mais advisez bien que ne jugés mal, que vous vous mectriés en grant danger; et vous en advertis, afin que se nostre Seigneur vous en chastie, que je fais mon debvoir de le vous dire.

  fn14 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 43–4.

  fn15 Procès, Vol. I, p. 45.

  fn16 According to the Bishop of Demetriades, this system of interrogation was deliberate, the examiners dodging from one subject to another in order to see if she would contradict herself.

  fn17 Procès, Vol. I, p. 63.

  fn18 Procès, Vol. I, p. 93.

  fn19 Procès, Vol. I, p. 73: Ego vidi eos oculis meis corporalibus, æque bene sicut ego video vos.

  fn20 These extracts are not consecutive, i.e. they do not all relate to the same day of the interrogation. For convenience, I have cast them into the form of question and answer, without, however, altering anything of the sense and preserving as much as possible of the actual words used in the original. The following specimen will show how the original reads:

  Item interrogata depost quam horam audiverat vocem quæ veniebat ad eam: respondit: Ego audivi heri et hodie.

  Item interrogata qua hora, hesterno die, ipsam vocem audiverat: respondit quod ter in illo die ipsam audiverat, semel de mane, semel in vesperis, et tertia vice cum pulsaretur pro Ave Maria de sero; et multotiens audit eam pluries quam dicat.

  Interrogata quid heri de mane faciebat, cum ilia vox venit ad eam: respondit quod ipsa dormiebat, et vox excitavit eam.

  Intarogata si vox excitavit eam tangendo ejus brachia: respondit quod per vocem fuit excitata sine tactu.

  fn21 I invite the attention of psychologists to this statement. It implies that Jeanne heard the voice, although confusedly, before she was properly awake. It implies, also, that she made some attempt to answer, for why should her examiners have suggested that it had said ‘certain things to her, before she prayed to it,’ if her guards had not reported that she was talking in her sleep? (This, of course, is pure conjecture, but with a good basis of probability.) Was she dreaming? The whole incident is suggestive.

  fn22 Procès, Vol. I, p. 173.

  fn23 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 177–8.

  fn24 Procès, Vol. I, p. 178.

  fn25 Procès, Vol. I, p. 74.

  fn26 Corinthians xi.

  fn27 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 94–5.

  fn28 We do not know which one it was. Cauchon, Lemaistre, La Fontaine, Nicolas Midi, and Isambard de la Pierre and two others were present on this occasion. The small number is due to the fact that the interrogation was taking place in Jeanne’s prison.

  fn29 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 164–5.

  fn30 Procès, Vol. I, p. 162.

  fn31 The Rev Herbert Thurston, S.J., in an article on Mr Shaw’s St Joan, in Studies, September 1924.

  fn32 The non-observance of this article is regarded as constituting the first principle of schism.

  fn33 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 204–5. It is rather suspicious that the French minute ends thus: Et croist fermement qu’elle n’ait point défailly en nostre foy chrestienne, et n’y vouldroit défaillir, et requiert … There is nothing about et req11iert in the official Latin version, which suggests strongly that Jeanne went on to ask for something which the clerks were forbidden to record. What was it she asked for? It is worth noticing that on another occasion (Procès, Vol. I, p. 185) the French minute runs: Elle requiert qu’elle soit menée devant lui (the Pope), but on this occasion the request was allowed to appear also in the Latin.

  fn34 Procès, Vol. I, p. 317.

  fn35 Procès, Vol. I, p. 175.

  fn36 Procès, Vol. I, p. 393: Je ne vous en diray autre chose: et se je veoye le feu, si diroyeje tout ce que je vous dy, et n’en feroye autre chose. See also Procès, Vol. I, p. 441.

  fn37 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 324–5–6 (abridged).

  fn38 This accords well with her statement that the salle was lit by torches. See supra, Chapter 7, here.

 
fn39 Jeanne, here, makes a curious and uncharacteristic mistake: she states that the Duke of Alençon was among those who saw the angel. Now, the Duke of Alençon had not yet arrived at Chinon when her first interview with Charles VII took place. Either her memory, usually surprisingly accurate, was here at fault; or else we can find in this apparent error of memory an additional proof that she had made up the whole story.

  fn40 See Appendix G, here. It may here be noted also that Jeanne had most probably heard stories of angels, crowns, and kings. E.g. at the entry of Richard II into London in 1377, they erected a sham castle in the market of Cheapside, from which an angel descended to offer the King a golden crown. See Lingard’s History of England, Vol. II, p. 274.

  16. The Trial (2)

  fn1 Procès, Vol. III, p. 50: Deposition of Guillaume de la Chambre: Scit ipse loquens, prout percipere potuit secundum artem medicinæ, quod erat incorrupta et virgo, quia eam vidit quasi nudam, cum visitaret eam de quadem infirmitate; et eam palpavit in renibus, et erat multum stricta, quantum percipere potuit ex aspectu.

  fn2 The Chronicles of England with the Fruit of Times.

  fn3 In French in the original. The incident is not recorded in the procès-verbal.

  fn4 Procès, Vol. III, pp. 48–9: Deposition of Jean Tiphaine.

  fn5 Procès, Vol. III, p. 51: Deposition of Guillaume de la Chambre.

  fn6 Procès, Vol. III, p. 51: Deposition of Guillaume de la Chambre.

  fn7 Procès, Vol. I, p. 139.

  fn8 Procès, Vol. I, p. 154.

  fn9 Procès, Vol. I, p. 191.

  fn10 Procès, vol. I, pp. 192–3.

  fn11 Procès, Vol. I, p. 201.

  fn12 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 375–80.

  fn13 Procès, Vol. I, p. 385. Jeanne’s comment is given in French, in the Latin text.

  fn14 Procès, Vol. I, p. 390.

  fn15 Procès, Vol. I, pp. 393–7.

  fn16 Now known as the Tour Jeanne d’Arc.

  fn17 Procès, Vol. I, p. 400.

  fn18 Procès, Vol. I, p. 403.