Saint Joan of Arc (Jeanne la Pucelle)

<<to move Translation: she's a witch!

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The Mission

Territory controlled in 1429 by England, her Burgundian allies, and France (Wikipedia)

Joan was hyperfocused on her mission, which had two parts: relieve Orlėans, then crown the the Dauphin at Rheims. The importance of Orlėans is easy to understand, as it saved France militarily. But why the need for the coronation at Rheims? Sure, it was the traditional site of French coronations, and so held symbolic value. But, as the Dauphin and his advisors argued, it wasn't necessary and could wait.

Instead, let's try (try) to think like God, or a young lady inspired by God, for a moment and it becomes clearer:

The Dauphin was already King of France, Charles VII, having claimed the title at the death of his father in 1422, in what is called "ascension" to the throne. There would normally be as little delay as possible between an ascension and coronation, but the symbolism of the coronation was not necessary to hold the throne, and for the besieged House of Valois it wasn't very convenient to adhere to the tradition.

Nevertheless, as a religious ceremony affirming the divine rights of kings, the coronation was supremely important. Indeed, the coronation was called a "consecration." For Joan, he was not King until he was ceremonially and by the authority of the Church crowned. She told François Garivel, the King's Councillor-Genéral,

When I asked Jeanne why she called the King Dauphin, and not King, she replied that she should not call him King till he had been crowned and anointed at Rheims, to which city she meant to conduct him.

But Rheims was held by the Burgundians. To much bewilderment, Joan insisted, and following the victory at Orléans she led the French army to continued victories that allowed for the passage of the court to Rheims for the coronation. There, she and her banner were the true light of the entire ceremony. From the Trial of Condemnation:

“Did not they wave your standard round the head of your King when he was consecrated at Rheims?”

“No, not that I know of.”

“Why was it taken to the Church of Rheims for the consecration more than those of other captains?”

“It had shared the pain, it was only right it should share the honour.”

Again, the ceremony did not have to take place, and without Joan's insistence it would not have taken place, at least not then and there. With the victory at Orléans (which Joan made possible with her standard), the Dauphin and his court considered holding the coronation at Orléans instead of the rather inconvenient Burgundian-surrounded Rheims. Joan wouldn't have it differently, and we can understand why: had the French not asserted control of Rheims, the English may have attempted to crown Henry VI as King of France there, as opposed to at Paris, which they did in 1431 after Joan's death. Rheims was under pressure from the Burgundians before Joan's campaign, so the coronation of Charles VII at Rheims was not merely symbolic, it required a military victory that very importantly denied the English use of that same symbolism. The path between the victory at Orléans and the the coronation at Rheims wrapped around a mixture of French court indecision, Joan's insistence on getting on with saving France, not just Orléans, and the next moves by the English. Joan's strategy was simple:

Let us advance boldly in God’s Name

But a leader needs followers, which wasn't a simple matter of raising her standard. That standard won battles -- literally, as Joan testified at Rouen, “It had shared the pain.” Joan had prepared the Army to follow that standard, which is why she insisted on its fabrication for her. It was a series of confidences that aligned for the loyalty of the French army. We see in the testimony of Sieur de Gaucourt that after the investigation into Joan ordered by the Dauphin, as frustrating as it was for her, as she wanted to get moving right away instead, the inquiries had the effect of ramping up enthusiasm. Joan was not alone in wanting to get moving to "save France." Sieur de Gaucourt recalled,

After numerous interrogations, they ended by asking her what sign she could furnish, that her words might be believed? “The sign I have to shew,” she replied, “is to raise the siege of Orleans!”

Imagine to hear that from this young girl with her hair shorn, and dressed like a squire. There she is, annoyed and impatient, and there they are, expectant but unsure, defaulting to, essentially, "we don't find anything wrong in her," and she goes straight at it.

Whereas desperate men make desperate decisions, this wasn't desperation, it was faith. Joan convinced the Dauphin (but not everyone around him), and, more importantly, his army, that she would win. There was no apparent deadline on Orleans, as it was holding, and had been for months. Only Joan knew it was about to be lost.

Joan was so self-sure, so pious, so consistent, and so competent that people believed her. She told everyone she met flatly, such as she said in front of the Dauphin's squire:

I am come from the King of Heaven to raise the siege of Orleans and to conduct the King to Rheims for his crowning and anointing.

At the Trial of Rehabilitation, the Count du Dunois, known in Joan's time as "the Bastard of Orléans," stated,

I think that Jeanne was sent by God, and that her behaviour in war was a fact divine rather than human.

He says, "I think," not "I thought," so it was a reflection made years later. But at the time, the Bastard, who was in charge of the defense of Orléans. freely submitted to Joan's orders and leadership. Whatever he thought at the time, looking back, it only made sense to him that she was truly sent by God. Joan acted "boldly", as she testified, but entirely free of pretense. When John II, Duc d'Alençon, arrived to Chinon having gotten word of "a young girl who said she was sent by God," he first encountered her in conversation with his distant cousin, the Dauphin,

I found Jeanne talking with the King. Having approached them, she asked me who I was. “It is the Duke d’Alençon,” replied the King. “You are welcome,” she then said to me, “the more that come together of the blood of France the better it will be.”

The next day he saw her leading the Dauphin on a walk, carrying a lance:

Seeing her manage her lance so well I gave her a horse.

The Duke was convinced: Joan was authentic. Her prophesies had not yet been fulfilled, so he was acting on intuition and observation. After Orléans, of course, everyone believed, such as the until-then doubtful Bishop Gerson who upon Joan's victory at Orléans wrote his apologia for her. The Duke d’Alençon subsequently and personally experienced another of her miraculous interventions at the Battle of Jargeau, after Orléans:

Jeanne said to me: “Go back from this place, or that engine”—pointing out an engine of war in the city—“will kill you.” I retired, and shortly after that very engine did indeed kill the Sieur de Lude in that very place from which she told me to go away. On this account I had great fear, and wondered much at Jeanne’s words and how true they came.

To follow Joan was to believe in her, for, as Bishop Gerson wrote, the downside to a defeat with a woman would be a disaster -- as it was when Joan was captured and confidence in her faded.

Until then, to confront Joan in battle was to believe, as well, as we heard from the English general's letter to his King, attributing his loss at Orléans to the French to his troop's "lack of firm faith, and unlawful doubt that they had of a disciple and limb of the devil, called the Maid, who used false enchantments and sorcery." Indeed, we might attribute the ferocity of the Trial at Rouen and the rush to burn her to the shame of having been humiliated by a girl.

Above all else, it was Joan's piety that astounded and gave foundation to her proclamations. So many of the witnesses at her Trial of Rehabilitation recall her in prayer, including at Vaucouleurs, Chinon and during the campaigns. (She even made it once to a Mass on the way to Chinon, although she wanted to go more).

On completing their investigation of Joan, which lasted almost a month, the Dauphin's theologians and experts concluded, according to the Dauphin's squire, Gobert Thibault, they were convinced,

I heard the said Lord Confessor and other Doctors say that they believed Jeanne to be sent from God, and that they believed it was she of whom the prophecies spoke; because, seeing her actions, her simplicity, and conduct, they thought the King might be delivered through her; for they had neither found nor perceived aught but good in her, nor could they see anything contrary to the Catholic faith.

One of the Bishops who interviewed her, Gelu

Gelu >> here

Trust in Joan was the key. But she also exercised military genius.

Discipline

Jeanne stayed there two or three days; and from thence she went to Tours, and to Loches, where the King’s army was preparing to go to Jargeau; and from thence they went to attack that town.

In war time, she would not permit any of those in her company to steal anything; nor would she ever eat of food which she knew to be stolen. Once, a Scot told her that he had eaten of a stolen calf: she was very angry, and wanted to strike the Scot for so doing.

She would never permit women of ill-fame to follow the army; none of them dared to come into her presence; but, if any of them appeared, she made them depart unless the soldiers were willing to marry them.

> Just as the English used it to justify her execution, the problem Joan's male attire was palpable for the French theologians. << St. Paul!

imagine the

She demanded the same of her soldiers, and personally ran the prostitutes out of their camps.

M P C , Priest, Licentiate in Law, Canon of Saint-Aignan. I have seen Jeanne, at the Elevation of the Host, weeping many tears. I remember well that she induced the soldiers to confess their sins; and I indeed saw that, by her instigation and advice, La Hire and many of his company came to confession. Murray p. 250

Leadership

Horsemanship is a sign of leadership. Horses are sensitive to human emotions and temperment. Joan became renowned for her control of horses:

Jeanne appears to have been a good horse-woman; she rode “horses so ill tempered that no one would dare to ride them.” The Duke de Lorraine, on her first visit to him, and the Duke d’Alençon, after seeing her skill in riding a course, each gave her a horse; and we read also of a gift of a war-horse from the town of Orleans, and “many horses of value” sent from the Duke of Brittany. She had entered Orleans on a white horse, according to the Journal du Siège d’Orléans; but seems to have been in the habit of riding black chargers in war; and mention is also made by Châtelain of a “lyart” or grey. A story, repeated in a letter from Guy de Laval, relates that, on one occasion (June 6th, 1428), when her horse, “a fine black war-horse” was brought to the door, he was so restive that he would not stand still. “Take him to the Cross,” she said; and there he stood, “as though he were tied,” while she mounted.

Strategic and tactical genius

It was said that Jeanne was as expert as possible in the art of ordering an army in battle, and that even a captain bred and instructed in war could not have shown more skill; at this the captains marvelled exceedingly

>> artillery

, "won battles; Joan prepared the French to follow it.

rallied the French and routed the English.

the English retreated to Paris, although

> raising her standard

>>Loire Campaign (1429) - Wikipedia

On approaching Rheims, Joan her explained it to the King:

“This is a good people,” she said to us; “I have seen none elsewhere who rejoiced as much at the coming of so noble a King. How happy should I be if, when my days are done, I might be buried here!”

“Jeanne,” then said the Archbishop to her, “in what place do you hope to die?”

“Where it shall please God,” she answered; “for I am not certain of either the time or the place, any more than you are yourself. Would it might please God, my Creator, that I might retire now, abandon arms and return to serve my father and mother and to take care of their sheep with my sister and my brothers, who would be so happy to see me again!”

Still, Joan didn't fully realize that once the King of France was duly crowned, her work was done. It's a very sad period that follows, in which, hampered by hedging and outright delays from the Court and military heads, she demands movement, and now, but got next to nothing in reply. With only a core of supporters, a fantastic group who play an important role in the eventual defeat of the English, Joan fails to take Paris and is captured at a minor battle soon after. She spends the next year shuffled between castles and prisons, and is fed up to the English who use a French ecclesiastic court to try her for heresy in a rigged show trial.

But without that trial we know very little about her. Without the trial, Joan could not have convicted her tormentors so thoroughly as she did. Without her trial, Joan did not need to be redeemed by her nation that had abandoned her. Without that redemption we would not have heard from the witnesses to her holiness. Without that testimony, she's just an unusual girl who led an army. Without her martyrdom, there is no Saint Joan of Arc.

So what did Joan do?

>>here

Having saved France, Joan got stuck in unproductive campaigns in the Loire, unsuccessfully attacked Paris, and was captured by the Burgundians and executed by the English. Was that part of the plan?

Well, her greatest act was to liberate Orléans; her highest moment was the coronation of Charles VII at Rheims; her greatest accomplishment was the eventual victory of France over England to end the Hundred Years War; and her greatest moment was her martyrdom on the stake, repeating the word, "Jesus." Her greatest legacy is the Catholic Church, having given to France the chance to be, as she told the English in her letter to the King and the Duke of Bedord,,

so that the French may do the fairest deed that has ever yet been done for Christendom.

God's will be done

We all know from the Lord's Prayer,

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven

and Jesus' prayer at the Garden,

Not my will but yours be done

Joan's journey is not so much fulfillment of God's will as her acceptance of it. Every step, every decision was God's will not hers.

What's additionally remarkable is her insistence upon delivering messages of warning and pleas for surrender of the English. Twice << before the Battle of Orleans Joan spoke to the English across the field to implore them to surrender and go away. They ridiculed her (reverse Monty Python scene) and her own military counselors deplored it. But why?

God wants us -- requires us -- to choose him. As his instrument, Joan gave the English the opportunity to choose

Saving Catholicism

We will review here other ways in which Joan characterized her mission as for Catholicism and not just for France, but the larger point is that had Joan not saved France, it may very well have lost its Catholicism under English rule. Had the victor of the Hundred Years War been English and not French, then the King of France during the Protestant reformation would have been English, if not under Henry VIII, likely another. With or without Henry VIII's Anglian church, an English-ruled France would have integrated with the Low Countries and thereby spread its rule into Germany while keeping the rising Spanish power out. Come Martin Luther and the Thirty Years War, we see how tenuous was the hold of the Holy Roman Empire upon Germany and central Europe. By the time the Spanish King seized the Holy Roman Empire, had England ruled France, and had France fallen to Anglicanism, there may not have been much of a Holy Roman Empire left to seize, leaving it, to borrow from Voltaire, "neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire." Papal schisms in the Church leading up to Joan's day made it all inevitable.

Who knows, except that it would have been vastly different. But given the events of the 16th century, one can readily see Roman Catholicism as a victim of an English ruled France and northern Europe. Alternative histories are pure conjecture, as any number of contingencies may have changed the trajectory of an English-ruled France, including the War of Roses which brought Henry VIII's House of Tudor to power in England. Still, we have the plain fact that, as it happened, England separated itself from Rome and France did not, and by saving France from English rule, it was Joan of Arc who caused that possibility.

Victory at Orléans

A next character to introduce is the Archbishop of Rheims, Regnault of Chartres, and Chancellor of France. At best, he distrusted Joan, at worst he resented or even loathed her. He was not her friend. Regnault and the Court council had ordered the Bastard of Orlėans to lead Joan's army away from the city to take Chécy first. The idea was to present a diversion to the English at Orléans. Joan was furious.

Are you the Bastard of Orléans?

Yes, I am, and I rejoice your coming.

Are you the one who gave orders for me to come here, on this side of the river so that I could not go directly to Talbot [English commander] and the English?

The Bastard explained that the "wisest" men around him had advised the action.

In God's name, the counsel of Our Lord God is wiser and safer than yours. You thought that you could fool me, and instead you fool yourself; I bring you better help than ever came to you from any soldier to any city: It is the help of the King of Heaven. This help comes not for love of me but from God Himself, who at the prayer of St. Louis and of St. Charlemagne has had pity on the city of Orléans. He has not wanted the enemy to have both the body of the lord of Orléans and his city.

Joan there goes for it -- Saints Louis and Charlemagne? These are not just founders of France, these are the founders of Catholic France.

To the Bastard's surprise, and in support of an order from Joan to move supplies by the river, the winds changed, allowing for the operation. The army crossed the Loire and entered the besieged city, which was stirred up and hopeful, finally. But Joan was forced to wait as the French army gathered and prepared. During this time, she wanted out to an embankment and yelled at the English to go home. They replied with insults, including one from an English commander that she was a "cowherd" and would be burned at the stake.

Impatient, impetuous, and sure, Joan was frustrated at the delays. Finally, some skirmishes commenced, with Joan leading one that took an English embankment. It was a small victory, but the first by the French, and invigorating for them. Joan, for her part, was dismayed by the violence, and prayed ceaselessly for the souls of her fallen soldiers, especially those who she feared had not confessed before their deaths. On Ascension Thursday, she sent a third letter of warning to the English to go home, signed

Jesus-Maria Joan the Maid

Marvelous! Since the English had held her herald who brought the first two letters, she sent the last by arrow. They English shouted, "Here's news from the whore of the Armagnacs!", which greatly distressed her. Against various opinions, Joan ordered an assault, finally, and pushed the English back from a second fortification that they had moved to from a first which they abandoned. They were worried. The French commanders, though, exercised their usual defeatism, and begged Joan to just hold the city behind it's fortifications. Joan replied,

Get up tomorrow very early in the morning, earlier than you did today, and do the best you can; keep cose to me, for tomorrow I will have much to do, more than I have ever done before; and tomorrow blood will leave my body above my breast.

Joan led the assault, received an arrow in her upper chest, had it treated (without charms, as suggested, which she said would be sinful), and returned to the fight. An impasse followed, and even La Hire wanted to retire. Joan said, no, wait, and prayed in a nearby vineyard for about fifteen minutes. Then she grabbed her standard from her squire, and rushed towards the English embankment. The French army spontaneously erupted in a charge to follow her and took the English stronghold. Orléans was saved. Joan's biographer makes an interesting notation following the description of the battle that the people of Orléans, who had been traumatized and abused by men at arms throughout the Hundred Years War, especially the mercenaries of one side or the other of the Armagnac-Burgundian civil war, received the army in celebration and joy:

Under the command of the Maid, even warfare had briefly changed its face back to a world of honor

Visions not delusions

From the transcript of the Trial of Condemnation at Rouen in 1431, "Thursday, March 1st, in the same place, the Bishop and 58 Assessors present":

“Since last Tuesday, have you had any converse with Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret?”

“Yes, but I do not know at what time.”

“What day?”

“Yesterday and to-day; there is never a day that I do not hear them.”

“Do you always see them in the same dress?”

“I see them always under the same form, and their heads are richly crowned. I do not speak of the rest of their clothing: I know nothing of their dresses.”

“How do you know whether the object that appears to you is male or female?”

“I know well enough. I recognize them by their voices, as they revealed themselves to me; I know nothing but by the revelation and order of God.”

“What part of their heads do you see?”

“The face.”

“These saints who shew themselves to you, have they any hair?”

“It is well to know they have.”

“Is there anything between their crowns and their hair?”

“No.”

“Is their hair long and hanging down?”

“I know nothing about it. I do not know if they have arms or other members. They speak very well and in very good language; I hear them very well.”

“How do they speak if they have no members?”

“I refer me to God. The voice is beautiful, sweet, and low; it speaks in the French tongue.”

“Does not Saint Margaret speak English?”

“Why should she speak English, when she is not on the English side?”

Joan first met Saints Margaret and Catherine back at Domremy

Several events from her village life stand out. These pieces fall together for the launch of Joan's mission to save France (and/or Catholicism -- more on that later). They are seen by skeptics as to obvious to be true and so fabrications. But if you think about it, her trajectory is entirely contingent upon them, so rather than presenting evidence of fabrication, they are strong proofs:

1. Saint Michael is patron Saint and savior of France, and Saints Catherine and Margaret were actively venerated in the region;
2. Joan's visions started after a raid on her village by an English ally, the Burgundian Henri d'Orly (note that Joan's village of Domrémy was located within territory controlled by the English-allied Burgundians and outside of the control of the Dauphin, the French claimant on the throne);
3. A young man in the village claimed she was betrothed to him;
4. An old beech tree in a grove by the village was said to be occupied by fairies, which village children;
5. Local legends held that an armed virgin or a virgin carrying a banner would save France'

It would make absolutely no sense if Joan had come from a place or experience removed from any of the above. Rather than causing her visions, an assertion for which there is no evidence and that is based solely on rejection of divine inspiration, these contingencies affirmed and supported what the visions told her. The honest observer must accept the clear, incredibly well-documented historical facts of Joan's era, much of which was predicted in her visions. So those who deny her mission as divinely guided can only fall back on the idea that, heh, her visions were not real, but she thought they were, and that's what counts.

For example, as for legends of a virgin savior of France, Joan probably knew of them all. But one, in particular was both more recent and more directly about Joan -- and she understood it early on to be about her. She had not told her parents or the local priest about her visions, which had been going on for several years.

The timeline here is interesting. From the beginning, her voices told her she would go to "France." At some point, she was told specifically to go to Vaucouleurs and speak to Robert de Baudricourt, captain of the guards, who would take her to the Dauphin. By then, she was very clear on her mission, it's purpose and outcome. She told her uncle, whom she asked to introduce her to Baudricourt,

to ask him to lead her to the place where my dauphin was

because,

Was it not said that France would be ruined through a woman, and afterward restored by a virgin?

What "was said" was from old and recent legends and prophesies, the most recent about a woman who would don armor to save France. Joan knew of these and assumed it for herself. Again, academics will say that such prophesies are deliberately and usefully vague. Okay, a virgin savior - take your pick. But a woman putting on armor? That one was unique and directly fulfilled by Joan. Her uncle went with it, and introduced her to the Captain. Joan laid it on him in full. As attested by a witness, a knight, Bertrand de Poulengy,

She said that she had come to him, Robert, on behalf of her Lord, to ask him to send word to the dauphin that he should hold still and not make war on his enemies, because the Lord would give him help before mid-Lent; and Joan also said that the kingdom did not belong to the dauphin, but to her Lord; and that her Lord wanted the dauphin to be made king, and that he would hold the kingdom in trust, saying that despite the dauphin's enemies he would be made king, and that she would lead him to be consecrated. Robert asked her who was her Lord, and she answered, 'The King of Heaven.'"

Another witness, Jean de Metz, a squire at Vaucouleurs, and who testified that Joan said to him,

"I have come here to the King's chamber to speak to Messire Robert de Baudricourt, so that he will take me to the King or have me taken to him. And he hasn't troubled about me or my words. Nevertheless, before mid-Lent, I must go before the King even if I wear my feet off to the knees. For no kings or dukes or king of Scotland's daughter or anybody else in the world can recover the Kingdom of France; there is no aid but myself although I should rather drown myself before the eyes of my poor mother, for it isn't of my estate. But it is necessary that I come, and that I do this, for Our Lord wills that I do it."

Okay, a lot going on there. Let's break it down:

1. Joan clarified that she was following God ("her Lord") and God's will, not that of the Dauphin's or France;
2. The Dauphin should hold off any military action against the English until mid-Lent, which would be precisely when she would meet with him and organize her march on Orléans;
3. She predicted here the coming advances of the English ("despite the dauphin's enemies"), who with the Burgundians subsequently launched major offenses, culminating in the siege of Orléans starting that October;
4. She, Joan, herself would "lead" the Dauphin to his coronation.

Note that this occurred not only before the siege on Orléans, which she had already been told by her voices that she would liberate, but It was a month before the burning of Domrémy, which is often taken as a motive for Joan's subsequent actions.

Shortly after her return home, her village was attacked and all fled to another town, Neufchâteau. It's an unclear and meaningless episode that the Court at Rouen seized upon to discredit Joan. Either she alone or with the family had lodged at an inn that served travelers, including monks, pilgrims, traveling merchants and soldiers. The owner, Jean Waldaires, "la Rousse" (redhead), was a widow, and thus the suggestion at the Trial that la Rousse was either a prostitute or running a brothel, and thus Joan was there for that purpose. Joan testified to having helped with chores there, and we know when she was not tending the cattle the villagers had driven there for protection from the raids, or helping with the inn, she was at church in prayer. What does matter is that Joan's mind was not on anything but what her voices had been telling her. On her return to Domrémy, Joan told a friend,

There was a maid between Coussey and Vaucouleurs who within a year would have the king of France anointed.

It was at this time that the English moved on Orléans, which, along the Loire River, was the key to the rest of France. There was at the time and has been speculation that at this time the Dauphin considered, in face of the English assault, escaping to Scotland or Spain. Had Orléans fallen, this would have been a likely outcome. But it did not, so he did not.

She told her uncle Durand Laxart about it because she needed his help

Probably the first person she told about her own visions with any detail was her uncle, Durand Laxart (or Lassois), the husband of her mother's sister. Joan needed him, as he lived in the regional

Here's an example from a well documented history of the life of Joan as regards the idea that Joan was fulfilling a prophesy as silly:

Prophesies

earliest visions:

"It taught me to be good, to go regularly to church. It told me that I should come into France ... This voice told me, two or three times a week, that I must go away and that I must come to France... It told me that I should raise the siege laid to the city of Orléans. The voice told me also that I should go to Robert de Baudricourt at the town of Vaucouleurs, who was the [garrison] commander of the town, and he would provide people to go with me. And I replied that I was a poor girl who knew neither how to ride nor lead in war."

I was in my thirteenth year when I heard a voice from God to help me guide my behavior. And the first time I was very much afraid. And this voice came about the hour of noon, in the summer time, in my father's garden..."

Then she said that when she had to leave to see her king she was told by her voices: "Go boldly: [92] when thou art before the king he shall have a good sign to receive and believe in thee."(Trial, p 92)

A few days before she was taken prisoner, she told all those at a Mass in the Église de St. Jacques,

"My good friends, my dear little children, I am sold and betrayed. Soon I shall be given up to death. Pray to God for me, for I can no longer serve the King and the Kingdom of France."

Why the betrayal?

It confounds the honest reader the betrayals, denials, and injustices that Joan suffered. It's tempting to recognize the interests and intrigues she provoked as normal reactions to the challenges to authority she presented on all sides, and including her parents.

This essay is not concerned with the particulars of the Trial at Rouen, except for Joan's clear demonstration in it of her divine mission. What I find more interesting is Joan's own confoundment at her situation. She knew which side she was on and which side they were on.

From a typological point of view, the situation is clear: Joan is a "type" of Christ, betrayed by a follower, abandoned by the rest (mostly) ransomed by blood money, persecuted by local religious leaders using the authority of a foreign occupier, abandoned by her followers, tortured, suffered, and put to death by that foreign power.

The history depicts the typology explicitly. However, we can still ask, why'd she have to go through all this?

The Trial

The extent to which the English and Burgundians went to justify the execution of Joan, and the utter hatred of her that the court at Rouen exercised demonstrates by the opposing virtue how important and effective were Joan and her accomplishments.

Having been ransomed by the English from her captor, the Duke of Luxembourg, Joan was handed not to a military court but to an ecclesiastical court. For the English, it'd be an easy solution to put her death, as she had no noble protection that might complicate her execution.Still, it was a tricky situation: this woman had brought great defeats upon them and roused the sentiments of loyal French. For those French who did support the English, it was upon explicit economic, military and political motives, and from popular devotion. The Burgundian people hated their French rivals, the Armagnacs, far more than they championed the English King. The alliance was one of convenience and self-preservation. The Burgundian elites, nobility and ecclesiastic, however, were, if not enthusiastic for English rule, were steadfast in its support, as it not only gave them power over their Armagnac rivals but it empowered them individually in their political economies. An English-ruled France would have put them right at the top.

Given top-down support and the dangers of bottom-up resentment or even potential rebellion that Joan represented, to the English and the Burgundian elites, she simply had to die. Only it had to be justified, and no greater justification could be found in the 15th century than that of the Church.

To get there, it had to be carefully orchestrated with clear lines of authority.

When Joan was captured by Burgundian forces under the Count of Luxembourg, she was de facto held by a Burgundian ally but de jure held by an independent entity. This was an important distinction because it took from English and the Duke of Burgundy direct responsibility for her.

>> from Luxembourg to the English to the Court << see p. 10 justifed every stop

The Rouen court had placed itself in a corner from the beginning.

To explain away the improbability in Joan's actions and words, the ecclesiastical court at Rouen developed a theory of "malice inherent in feminine nature."

Christology of Saint Joan

• born in poverty, among shepherds
• distrust of the leaders
• triumphant entry to Orleans
• betrayal
• Charles VII washing his hands of her
• championed by her mother

The prophecies of Joan of Arc

Jean Dunois testified that not all of Joan's prophesies were fulfilled,

Although Jeanne sometimes spoke in jest of the affairs of war, and although, to encourage the soldiers, she may have foretold events which were not realized, nevertheless, when she spoke seriously of the war, and of her deeds and her mission, she only affirmed earnestly that she was sent to raise the siege of Orleans, and to succour the oppressed people of that town and the neighbouring places, and to conduct the King to Rheims that he might be consecrated (emphasis added)

Prophecies of the coming of Saint Joan

• Merlin
• St. Bede
• Marie d'Avignon

Joan's own testimony on those prophesies

Joan told her Uncle , Durand Laxart, and a woman with whom she stayed on her second visit with him to Vaucouleurs,

“Was it not said that France would be ruined through a woman and afterwards restored by a virgin?”.

>> see Prophecies | Joan of Arc | Jeanne-darc.info

Testimony of Jean Dunois

Jeanne had expressly predicted that, before long, the weather and the wind would change; and it happened as she had foretold. She had, in like manner, stated that the convoy would enter freely into the town.

Testimony of Brother Séguin de Séguin of four of Joan's prophesies

The Dominican friar participated in the inquiry into Joan ordered by the Dauphin after she presented herself to the Court at Chinon. The priest was a Professor of Theology and well-respected. He later testified that she made four prophesies

1. Orléans would be liberated from the English
2. the King would be crowned at Rheims (which
3. Paris would liberated from the English
4. the Duc d'Orléans (Duke of Orleans) would be freed from imprisonment in England

That last prophesy was significant because, while no more improbable than the others, it occurred ten years after her death and had the Duke not returned to France he would never have fathered Louis of Orléans who was crowned Louis XII, King of France, in 1498.

Joan insisted upon the coronation of Charles VII at Rheims, which seemed not ridiculous but dangerous, Rheims was in Burgundy, held by the English allies under the Duke of Burgundy. çéans, Joan insisted upon the necessity that the coronation be held in Rheims, which was where Philip II, creator of modern France, was crowned, and was the site of the baptism of Clovis.

From Fr. Séguin's testimony:

I saw Jeanne for the first time at Poitiers. The King’s Council was assembled in the house of the Lady La Macée, the Archbishop of Rheims, then Chancellor of France, being of their number. I was summoned, as also were [list of names] ... The Members of the Council told us that we were summoned, in the King’s name, to question Jeanne and to give our opinion upon her. We were sent to question her at the house of Maître Jean Rabateau, where she was lodging. We repaired thither and interrogated her. And then she foretold to us—to me and to all the others who were with me—these four things which should happen, and which did afterwards come to pass: first, that the English would be destroyed, the siege of Orleans raised, and the town delivered from the English; secondly, that the King would be crowned at Rheims; thirdly, that Paris would be restored to his dominion; and fourthly, that the Duke d’Orléans should be brought back from England. And I who speak, I have in truth seen these four things accomplished.

Seeing through duplicity or providential foresight?

After the coronation, the Duke of Burgundy made overtures to the newly crowned Charles VII, who preferred the adulation of villages along his march towards Paris to actually entering Paris. A temporary peace was agreed upon, and under hopes that the Duke of Burgundy would join the French against the English. The Duke had no such intention, but took advantage of the lull to reinforce his position with the English who reinforced Paris.

Under Joan's insistence, the Duke of Alençon organized an attack upon Paris on September 8, the Feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God. After an all-day assault that induced both panic and expectant enthusiasm within the city, as sundown fell and by the walls, Joan was struck in the thigh by a crossbow bolt. She called for a continued assault, but the nightfall and shock at her injury dissuaded her troops, who carried her out of a ditch back to the French camp. The next day the King ordered a halt to the attacks and on the 13th a retreat back to the Loire, which meant back to Orléans.

Before leaving St. Denis, where Charles VII had resided during this time, Joan presented a complete set of white armor and a seized sword to the altar at the church of St. Denis, a traditional act of thanks giving by a wounded soldier. After the King left St. Denis, the English took the armor and likely destroyed it.

From here, the usual story is the the King abandoned Joan, while allowing her limited, unsupported military campaigns, which is true. We know that the King and his court, which never really trusted Joan, was hoping for a settlement with the Duke of Burgundy. For her part, Joan "feared nothing but treason."

But there's a bit more to it. The King was not wrong to seek a settlement, and with lingering baggage from the Armagnac-Burgundy dispute, which included the assassination of the Duke of Burgundy's father in 1419 during a tense meeting with Charles himself. The assassination launched the civil war and opened the door for the English, who were already on the move in northern France, to sign the Treaty of Troyes with Charles's weak and insane father, Charles VI. But the history weighed upon the new King. On August 16, 14>> the new King's representatives appealed to the Duke of Burgundy, "the grand duke of the west," they implored, with "greater offers of reparation than the royal majesty actually possessed." King Charles VII thereby ceded authority over the war to his enemy.

Joan, meanwhile, had told the Duke of Burgundy off:

Jhesus † Mary

Great and formidable Prince, Duke of Burgundy, Jeanne the Virgin requests of you, in the name of the King of Heaven, my rightful and sovereign Lord, that the King of France and yourself should make a good firm lasting peace. Fully pardon each other willingly, as faithful Christians should do; and if it should please you to make war, then go against the Saracens. Prince of Burgundy, I pray, beg, and request as humbly as I can that you wage war no longer in the holy kingdom of France, and order your people who are in any towns and fortresses of the holy kingdom to withdraw promptly and without delay. And as for the noble King of France, he is ready to make peace with you, saving his honor; if you’re not opposed. And I tell you, in the name of the King of Heaven, my rightful and sovereign Lord, for your well-being and your honor and [which I affirm] upon your lives, that you will never win a battle against the loyal French, and that all those who have been waging war in the holy kingdom of France have been fighting against King Jesus, King of Heaven and of all the world, my rightful and sovereign Lord. And I beg and request of you with clasped hands to not fight any battles nor wage war against us – neither yourself, your troops nor subjects; and know beyond a doubt that despite whatever number [duplicated phrase] of soldiers you bring against us they will never win. And there will be tremendous heartbreak from the great clash and from

the blood that will be spilled of those who come against us. And it has been three weeks since I had written to you and sent proper letters via a herald [saying] that you should be at the anointing of the King, which this day, Sunday, the seventeenth day of this current month of July, is taking place in the city of Rheims – to which I have not received any reply. Nor have I ever heard any word from this herald since then.

I commend you to God and may He watch over you if it pleases Him, and I pray God that He shall establish a good peace.

Written in the aforementioned place of Rheims on the aforesaid seventeenth day of July.

Charles VII was not entirely deceived. But he was duplicitous with Joan. He feted her, brought her from castle to castle, but ignored her pleas to carry on the war. Her opportunity came when the need arose to put down Burgundian resistance within the Loire region itself, at a town called Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier. Sent by the Court, Joan took the fortified town (protected by a moat) on Nov 4, 1429, but only after insisting upon a second assault and standing at foot of the walls inspiring or, perhaps berating, her troops forward. Afterwards, Charles enobled here and her family, both men and women.

The Council ordered to to attack another town in the region, La Charité, also fortified, but denied her additional artillery or funds. So Joan was forced to raise her own army for the attack, which was unsuccessful, her first defeat after Paris. The defeat gave the royal Council further excuse to ignore her and to adhere to the supposed truce with the Duke of Burgundy. Joan's next action was to move north to defend areas that Burgundy had attacked, despite the truce. That Joan knew it was going on means the Court knew it, but the Court deliberately ignored it under the guise of the truce. Whether or not Joan acted with the royal Council's authority, over which historians have argued uselessly, doesn't matter: they knew, she knew, they all knew the Duke of Burgundy was in violation of the truce. That Joan acted on her own authority or the Kings doesn't matter. What matters is that she went to defend Compiègne, which was under Burgundian and English attack, and in doing so

>> the po;int here is that Joan carried on the battles bc she knew that Burdundy was a liar. Chas was hoping it'd work out, but Burg was fortifying his position w/ the English all along. Joan's attacks back in the north forced the situation, flushing Burgundy into revealing himself.

At Compiegne, she was captured, but, as always, standing fast while her army ran away, only this time there was no rallying the troops, as they had gone into the city and the gate was closed on her and surrounded her

>>here

What we will see is that after the English are finally defeated,

> Joan continues her fight until she is captured

>> voices tell her she will be imprisoned

> not long after her death, Burgundy signs a treaty w/ Charles VII

> Henry VI crowned in P:aris in Dec 1831, after Joan exceuted May 30

> Burgundy abandons the English and signs Treaty of Arras on 20 Sept 1435, ending the 100 years war

Why Joan only now?

Jeanne d'Arc was canonized in 1905. It's not unusual for such a long delay in beatification, but there are reasons for it with Saint Joan. So why so long for her?

Once her work was done, she was easily forgotten, beginning with the Siege of Orleans and the coronation of Charles VII, upon which the French court did its best to ignore her. Given the opportunity to ransom her upon her capture, the King refused and, well, washed his hands of her. Once they had consolidated rule over France, the kings had every reason -- well, aside from honesty -- not to attribute the legitimacy of their rule to a peasant girl.

>

A rather interesting document is found from a publication, "The Rationalist" from 1913, The Story of Joan of Arc: the Witch Saint," which seems to have been in response to Pius X's beatification of Joan (final step towards canonization). The author contends that "modern thought" has led to her vindication and not the Catholic Church, which is just using her shrine and stories of miracle cures before it as a "new income." The author says his essay will save Catholicism from itself.

French Revolution

> anticlerical

>

Historical sources

The history of Joan of Arc is comparatively well-documented, even for the 1400s, a period that yields plenty of artifacts and primary sources. The facts of her life a clear and incontestable. In her day, she was the subject of various documented inquiries, an extended court trial, and subsequent inquiries that document witnesses and assessed evidence. We even know much about her mystical experiences -- or whatever they were, as she told the record about them.

The Trials of Jeanne d'Arc

> see Trials - Overview | Joan of Arc | Jeanne-darc.info

Popular accounts of the life of Joan of Arc

"The Life of Joan of Arc" by Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel

• a children's book first published in 1895
• See entry here for more on Boutet de Monvel and his American sponsor for his Joan of Arch series of paintings

"Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc" by Mark Twain

• Twain's masterful historical-fiction biography of Saint Joan, published in 1896
• See entry here for more on Twain's work on St. Joan

Others

"Saint Joan" by George Bernard Shaw

Not much to say about this one. Shaw was early in adulthood an atheist and seems to have wanted into Deism and perhaps belief if not in Christ but in Jesus. The play is considered one of Shaw's greatest works, and it has been repeated on stage through the 2000s and in film. Shaw wrote it after Joan's canonization, thus the title. But he wasn't celebrating it. He tries to humanize Saint Joan, whom he said was romanticized while her accusers were villainized. For Shaw, Joan's tormenters were motivated by the facts and situations before them; you know, it's just a matter of perspective. I can only say that to frame Bishop Cauchon as honestly motivated is akin to Andrew Lloyd Weber's sympathetic portrayal of Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar. Both did wrong, knew it, and did it anyway. And, worse, Shaw portrays Joan as Weber does Jesus, as an anti-establishment pop star. For Shaw, Joan is a rebel against authority, like his female ubermensch in Man and Superman. Meh.

See also

Here for list of pages on this site related to Saint Joan of Arc

Painting series "Jeanne D'Arc" (1895) by Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel

In 1896, Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel illustrated a children's book of the life of Joan of Arc. Through the early 1900s, he expanded several of the images into full paintings, a collection of which are held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, called "La Vie de Jeanne d'Arc":

• 
  La Vision (Vision of the Archangel St. Michael)
• 
  Appeal to the Dauphin (The Dauphin had someone else sit on the throne and hid amidst the Court; Joan identified him immediately)
• 
  The Maid in Armor on Horseback (Now Commander of the French Armies, Joan marches the army to free Orleans from the English siege)
• 
  The Turmoil of Conflict (The Battle of Orleans, which is nearly lost after Joan is hit in the shoulder and neck by a bolt, but she returns to the field and leads the French to victory)
• 
  The Crowning at Rheims of the Dauphin (Joan's mission was to have the Dauphin properly crowned King by French custom and in the form of Charlemagne; the leadership thought it was unnecessary, but Joan understood that the people of France needed the ceremony at the traditional place for it at the Cathedral at Rheims)
• 
  The Trial of Joan of Arc (The King and his councilors betray Joan, leaving her to fight with a small army; she is captured by the French ally of the English. The French King refuses to pay a ransom for her, and she is tried in a French ecclesiastic court under English authority)

Here for more on Boutet de Monvel and his works.

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References