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Segment 5: Orléans, Part I Anno Domini 1429 The first
stop on the route to Orléans was the town of Blois, where provisions
("wheat... oxen, sheep, cows, hogs, and other eatables") were being
prepared for transport into the besieged city. Food was the primary
concern at this point, since the level of incoming supplies had dwindled
to a trickle during March and April. It was apparently here that she had her first encounter with the army assigned to her. Technically she was given what is referred to as "titular command", a common arrangement in medieval armies in which one person (usually a noble, but also sometimes members of the clergy or religious visionaries) would serve as a figurehead for the army, presiding over a number of veteran commanders who generally provided the direct leadership. During the long series of conflicts known to us as the Hundred Years War, there were many such titular commanders, including a sizable number of aristocratic women who, like Queen Victoria of a later era, were placed as the symbolic leaders of their family's forces in the absence of any available male members to do the job. Jehanne was unique in many respects, and had the distinction of possessing an uncanny knack for command - which she apparently attributed to her "voices" - and she gradually took an increasingly direct role in decision making, overcoming the initial skepticism of her commanders; additionally, it was her victories which proved to be a decisive turning point in the conflict; but she was by no means the only woman (as is so often claimed) to be given titular command of an army during the Hundred Years War . Based on the later testimony of some of the men who served in her army, her primary focus was the spiritual life of the troops, which required a great deal of work. Every vice that normally attaches itself to such armies - drinking, gambling, swearing, prostitution, theft - could be found in the camp at Blois. She was especially enraged by the presence of the women euphemistically dubbed "camp followers" (i.e., prostitutes), and the soldiers' mistresses; she required that the latter either marry their lover or leave the camp, and required the former to either leave or face the consequences. Looting of civilian property was to be strictly forbidden. She told her commanders that they had to give up cursing (which was especially troubling for La Hire, a true connoisseur when it came to the use of expletives), and she required that all the troops go to mass and confession regularly rather than neglecting their religious obligations - sins such as the above, she told them, were the reason that God was allowing the English to win, echoing Henry V's similar comments after Aginçourt. Her commanders obeyed. The commanders with the army at Blois included Lord Gaucourt, the governor of Orléans and a long-term soldier who had been fighting for the Valois dynasty since 1396; Lord Louis de Culan, who held the title Admiral of France; Baron Gilles de Rais, a 25 year old Breton who would later be convicted of the worst series of crimes of that era; La Hire, a crippled mercenary from Gascony who, like his frequent companion Poton de Saintrailles [Sainct Trailles], had been known for his ruthless acts of pillage and his refusal to honor truces; Jean de la Brosse, Lord of Boussac, who held the rank of Marechal de France; and Ambroise de Loré. It was a rather motley collection, and vast quantities of ink have been shed in contrasting some of these personalities with Jehanne herself. It is one of the ironies of history that some of the worst elements among her contingent - even La Hire and Gilles de Rais - became her supporters and tried to obey her moral reforms; in fact Rais himself later said that he didn't revert to what he called "my former sins" until after her death, such was her moral influence while she was still alive. However, the notion that the two of them were close colleagues is nonsense: Rais belonged to the opposite faction within the French court, being a crony of her chief enemy, Georges de la Trémoille, and he was little more than one of many dozens of nobles who happened to be assigned to her army. La Hire, for his part, is believed to have supported her mostly because she was willing to aggressively fight the English, unlike the lethargic Royal court. There is said to have been an episode in which La Hire met with the Dauphin Charles to discuss a military campaign, only to find that Charles was more interested in discussing a party he was planning; La Hire, evidently disgusted, dryly commented: "I do believe that one could not lose one's kingdom more cheerfully" ("Je pense que l'on ne scauroit perdre son royaume plus gaiment"). Perhaps he felt that Jehanne would finally give the Royal army the boost that it needed. Completing this strange collection was Regnault de Chartres, Archbishop of Rheims, who had presided over the examinations at Poitiers and subsequently accompanied her to Blois. His true feelings about her are unknown, but at this stage at least he was in her camp. At this point, it might be a good idea to examine the eyewitness accounts of Jehanne herself as she was at this stage of her life. She was about 17 years old, with a personality which may best be described in terms of its many different facets: she was normally "sweet-natured" but had a famous temper which flared up "whenever she heard anyone blaspheming God's name" or similar offenses; the witnesses frequently remarked that she "sheds abundant tears" and on a regular basis, in counterpoint to her normally "cheerful face". They said that she still, as in childhood, preferred to be alone whenever possible, although her public presence was capable of stirring the masses and winning the loyalty of hardened soldiers. Perceval de Bouillainvilliers, a member of the Royal court who apparently met her around this time, said that she "speaks little, [and] demonstrates remarkable prudence in her speech"; adding in the same vein that she also ate sparingly, a view that was echoed by many other eyewitnesses. She also avoided alcohol in an age in which everyone else consumed wine as a staple item. Physically, she was "short" in stature (almost certainly under 5 feet, and possibly as small as 4'8"), with dark hair which may have already been cut in an approximation of the rounded style (most likely covering her ears and neck and shaped like a bowl) as part of the attempt, begun by de Metz and Poulegny, to make her blend in with the soldiery. This was only marginally successful: a number of her captains and soldiers later testified that she was "beautiful and shapely" (as Jean d'Aulon put it) even in her soldiers' clothing or armor, to the point that these men said that they found it "almost miraculous" that they didn't feel desire for her (a phenomenon which they attributed variously to her great purity, or to some divine force which suppressed their normal inclinations). Some of them additionally said that they "never had the will to sin" when in her company. Her own choice of company, when she wasn't able to be alone, seems to have consisted largely of two groups: Boullainvilliers said that she enjoyed being around the "armed and aristocratic men" who made up her circle of captains, and there are many references to her association with the group of clergy from the mendicant orders (Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites and Augustinians) who were part of her army's corps of chaplains along with her confessor, Jean Pasquerel. Friar Pasquerel provided this memory of the army as it assembled at Blois: "...we were at Blois for about two or three days, while waiting for the provisions which were being loaded into boats there; and it was there that she told me to have a banner made for assembling the priests, and to have depicted on it the image of our Lord crucified, which I did. And when this banner was done, Jehanne, two times each day, to wit, in the morning and in the evening, had me gather together all the priests. These, assembled, sang antiphons and hymns of the Blessed Mary, and Jehanne was with them; but did she did not wish to permit any soldiers to be among the priests unless they had confessed that day, and she advised all the soldiers to confess, and then come to this assembly..." Around April 25th the army moved out from Blois and proceeded to follow the River Loire "on the Sologne side" (i.e., to the south of the river). The idea was to move the host of about 4,000 men, with its 60 heavy wagons and 400+ cattle, without interference from the English, who held the north bank of the river with strongholds at Beaugency and Meung-sur-Loire (between Blois and Orléans) and a series of fortresses and trenches on three sides of the besieged city. Only the eastern gate, called the Burgundy (Bourgogne) Gate, was accessible. The army therefore planned to march along the river to the south of Orléans and then move on to Chécy, five miles upriver, where barges would be waiting to start ferrying the troops and supplies across. Pasquerel gave a vivid description of the scene as the army began its march: "And when Jehanne left Blois to go to Orléans, she had all the priests gathered together with this banner [i.e., the one Pasquerel had made, mentioned above], and the priests went ahead of the soldiers. They left by the side of the Sologne thus assembled, singing 'Veni Creator Spiritus' and many other antiphons, and slept that day in the fields, and also the next day." Jehanne herself was said to be dressed in full armor and carrying her banner, trailed by the group of priests in their dark robes and the mounted nobles in gilded armor and rich garments, all surmounted by embroidered or painted battle flags glowing in the sunlight. The pageantry of warfare had not yet been lost. We have a description of the first stretch of the march from Louis de Coutes, who testified that when they left Blois she rode at the head of the army in full plate and slept in this armor on the first night ("And Jehanne was greatly fatigued when she came to the town of Orléans, because she slept with her armor on the night that she left Blois"). Based on the testimony from other soldiers, she always slept either in full clothing or in full armor when camped with the army, as an added means of safeguarding her chastity. The army arrived at Chécy on the third day out from Blois. It was apparently at this point that Jehanne realized that the commanders had taken her past her destination, on the opposite side of the river. She was not pleased, and communicated her displeasure to Lord Dunois as soon as they met "at a point just across from the Church of St. Loup" [a church which the English had fortified near Orléans], where the heavy barges sent to ferry the army were having trouble moving against a contrary wind. Dunois, the famous commander who at this time called himself "le Batard d'Orléans" ("the Bastard [illegitimate son] of Orléans") due to his status as the extramarital offspring of the deceased Duke Louis of Orléans, himself testified to his first meeting with the saint, as follows: "... then Jehanne said the following words: 'Are you the Bastard of Orléans?' I replied, 'I am he, and I rejoice at your arrival.' And then she said to me, 'Was it you who decided that I should come here, to this side of the river, rather than going straight to where Talbot and the English are?' I replied that myself, and others wiser than I, had given this counsel, believing it to be better and safer. Then Jehanne replied in this style: 'In God's name, the counsel of God our Lord is safer and wiser than yours. You thought to deceive me, and you deceive yourselves more, because I bring you better aid than ever came to any soldier or city, because it is aid from the King of Heaven. Nevertheless it proceeds not from love of me, but from God Himself, who, at the request of Saint Louis and Saint Charlemagne, took pity on the city of Orléans, not wishing to allow the enemy to have both the body of the lord of Orléans and also his city.'" Dunois added that after she said these words, the wind "changed direction, and became favorable; as a result the sails were immediately raised, and I entered the boats along with Friar Nicolas de Géresme, now Grand Prior of France; we traveled past the Church of St. Loup, despite the English [i.e., the English garrison in the church]. From that time I had good hope in her, and greater than before..." Lord Gaucourt also said that the wind changed suddenly, adding that she had predicted that it would do so. The army as a whole was unable to cross, however, due to a shortage of boats; Dunois therefore endeavored to persuade her to come to Orléans without the troops, since the people of the city were hoping to see her: "...I begged that she would consent to cross the Loire, and enter the city of Orléans, where she was eagerly awaited by a great many people. At this she made difficulties, saying that she didn't want to send away her men-at-arms, who were well confessed, penitent and of good will; and she therefore refused to come. I went to the commanders who had the responsibility of leading the soldiers, and begged and required of them that, for the King's benefit, they should allow Jehanne to enter the city of Orléans while they themselves and their companies would return to Blois, where they would cross the Loire in order to come to Orléans, since another crossing point could not be found nearby." This was agreed to, and on Friday, April 29th, she entered the city which she said she had been sent to save. As Dunois tells it: "And then Jehanne came with me, carrying in her hand her standard, which was white, and upon which was the figure of Our Lord holding a lily flower in His hand; and La Hire crossed the river Loire with us, and we entered the town of Orléans together." According to the "Journal of the Siege of Orléans", they waited until darkness (around 8 pm) to bring her into the city itself, in order to avoid a mob scene. Despite this precaution the rumor had gone out that she was coming, and she was therefore greeted by a large group of citizens "making such joy as if they had seen God descend among them... they already felt themselves entirely comforted, and as if they were liberated ['deassiegez'], by the divine virtue that they were told was in this simple Maiden, whom they regarded most affectionately, equally men, women, as well as little children. And there was a most wondrous press to touch her, or the horse upon which she rode..." She was mounted on a white horse, with her banner in her hand, riding next to Dunois and followed by her brothers Jean and Pierre, La Hire, and a group of "nobles and valiant lords, squires, captains, and soldiers." Jean Lullier, the same merchant who would later be commissioned to provide the cloth for some of her garments, remembered that "... she was received with as much joy and welcome by all people of both sexes, small and great, as if she were an angel of God." She and her entire group were given lodging in the home of Jacques Boucher, treasurer for the Duke of Orléans, who lived in a prominent house near the Renard Gate with his wife and his 9-year old daughter Charlotte. Due to a lack of beds she was bunked with the child Charlotte, who later testified that "Jehanne often told my mother... that she should trust in God, and that God would help the city of Orléans and expel its enemies." At this time the city was cut off on three sides by a chain of bastilles (fortresses) which the English had built on the spot or modified from existing churches or other sturdy buildings; these included (moving clockwise from the east) St. Loup, St. Jean le Blanc, the fortress of the Augustins, the towers known as Les Tourelles, Le Champ de St. Privé, the fortress on the Ile de Charlemagne, St. Laurent, La Croix Boissé, Les Douze Pierres (which the English had nicknamed "London"), Le Pressoir Ars (nicknamed "Rouen"), and St. Pouair (known as "Paris"); the latter five, on the western side, were connected by trenches. To break the siege, these strongholds would need to be taken one by one. She was eager to begin, but the commanders wanted to wait until the army from Blois had reinforced the garrison at Orléans. On April 30th, the day after she arrived in the city, La Hire, Florent d'Illiers, and other captains led a small body of troops in a skirmish against the fortress of St. Pouair, driving the English inside but otherwise accomplishing little. Jehanne herself seems to have been concerned with ending the siege by negotiation if possible: Dunois testified that she had another message sent to Talbot telling him to leave; and although this second letter has not survived, the descriptions given by Dunois and Pierre Milet would make it seem to have been in much the same form as the previous message. The heralds who delivered this message, Ambleville and Guienne, met an unfriendly welcome: Ambleville was thrown in prison (in disregard of the rules of warfare by which heralds were supposed to be inviolate), and the English promised that they'd burn him at the stake for serving as a messenger for someone whom they were already deriding as a "sorceress". Guienne was sent back with a message telling Jehanne to go back to the farm, calling her a "vachère" (a girl who tends the cows) and a "ribaulde" (an indecent woman). The English commanders, being bilingual, were able to insult her in her own language. That evening she made another attempt, this time in person. There was a point along the city's defenses in which the French and English positions were separated by little more than a broken section of a bridge across the Loire (two arches of the bridge had been destroyed after Les Tourelles was taken the previous October); a small fortress on the island of La Belle Croix was at the French end of the chasm, and from this vantage point she could communicate with the English garrison inside Les Tourelles. She called out to Sir William Glasdale (the commander of the fortress) to "surrender in the name of God"; but the reply was much the same as before, with the garrison calling her a "vachère" again and threatening to burn her. Dunois later commented that Glasdale himself "had spoken of the Maiden most wrongfully and shamefully", presumably meaning something a bit stronger than "vachère". The location at La Belle Croix was near the favorite stomping grounds of a French soldier named Jean de Montesiler (better known as "Maitre Jean"), who was famous for his marksmanship with a weapon called a "culverin", a term which referred to several types of small cannons or early guns. Maitre Jean's culverin may have been of a new type, possibly already in use by the Hussite armies in Czechoslovakia, in which the gunpowder could be ignited by the use of a long Z-shaped lever attached to the stock rather than by the more cumbersome methods used in earlier guns. "The Journal of the Siege..." says that this gunner was so skilled at picking off English troops that the latter came to regard him with a pronounced dislike; and to add insult to injury, he had a standard routine: "...to mock them, he sometimes let himself fall to the ground, pretending to be dead or wounded, and had himself carried into the town; but he immediately returned to the assault and achieved such that the English knew him to be [still] alive to their great harm and displeasure." Maitre Jean would faithfully serve in her army for the duration of her campaigns, although it's unknown whether she ever personally met this famous "coulevrinier". The next day, May 1st, Dunois and d'Aulon set out for Blois in order to guide the rest of the army to Orléans. There is a strong suspicion that Dunois felt his personal presence was necessary to hold the army together, since Jean Chartier, the Royal chronicler of this period, indicates that a significant number of troops had deserted in her absence. Dunois was apparently unwilling to risk sending La Pucelle herself to lead the army along the English-occupied north bank of the Loire, since she was irreplaceable; so he sent himself instead. Since it was Sunday, fighting was suspended out of respect for the centuries-old rule known as "the truce of God", by which warfare was outlawed on certain holy days. During this lull in the action, the citizens of Orléans focused themselves on getting a glimpse of the woman whom they already viewed as their deliverer. The "Journal..." says that they "nearly broke down the door" of the Boucher home in an effort to see her, with the result that she eventually obliged the citizens by taking a tour through the streets on horseback, escorted by "many knights and esquires"; the escort was needed, for there was "such a great number of townspeople in the streets where she passed, that only with great difficulty could they pass..." Near evening, she continued her habit of trying to communicate with the English, choosing a different location (the Croix Morin) but meeting with the same results as on the previous evening. May 2nd was passed waiting for Dunois and company to return with the reinforcements. She used the time to look over the five English fortresses to the west/northwest of the city; the "Journal" implies that she inspected them at fairly close range, followed as always by a large group of citizens "taking great pleasure in being able to see her and be around her". The "Journal" concludes its description of the day's events by saying: "...And when she had seen and viewed at her pleasure the fortifications of the English, she returned to the church of St. Croix of Orléans within the city, where she heard vespers." On May 3 there was evidently a procession in the evening "...to implore Our Lord for the deliverance of the town of Orléans". This was also the day on which the army from Blois was spotted by the city's sentries, although it was still at a distance. As a final detail on an otherwise sparsely-documented day, we know that a man named Raoulet de Recourt bought her fish meat (from a shad) to eat, being reimbursed by the city government with a payment of 20 sous-Parisis; and Jean le Camus brought three friends to see her, apparently also during a meal. On May 4th
the long-awaited army finally arrived from Blois. Riding out from Orléans
with 500 troops "to aid them, if need be", she met Dunois and company as
they approached and rode with them into the city "without the slightest
opposition", according to d'Aulon. Jean Pasquerel, who was also with the
group, confirms this: "...we entered the city of Orléans without
interference, and brought in the food supplies, within the sight of the
English..." After she and d'Aulon had had dinner, Dunois arrived to announce that an English army under Sir John Fastolf had been spotted near Yinville [Janville] about 20 miles north of Orléans, and was approaching to reinforce and resupply the besiegers. Jean d'Aulon said that after hearing this bit of news she was "much overjoyed" ("toute resjoye"), although it's never been clear why an approaching enemy army should provoke such a happy reaction. While in this pleasant mood she made an equally strange quip, believed to be meant humorously, saying to Dunois: "... in God's name I command you to let me know as soon as you are aware of the arrival of Fastolf; because if he should pass without my knowledge, I promise you that I will have [your] head removed." Dunois replied that "she should have no fear, as he would make it known to her." Shortly thereafter, her group retired to their lodgings to get some much-needed rest at the Boucher home, with d'Aulon and Jehanne apparently in Charlotte's room along with the hostess (as was common practice in mixed company, in order to insure that nothing improper took place); Louis de Coutes was somewhere on a lower level of the house. Jean d'Aulon had just lain down when "suddenly the Maiden got up from her bed, and roused me while making a great noise. And then I asked her what she wanted; she replied, 'In God's name, my Counsel has told me that I should go against the English; but I don't know whether I should go against their fortresses or against Fastolf, who is to resupply them.'" In fact combat had been initiated near the fortress of St. Loup, although no one had bothered to keep her informed. The guilty party was apparently young Louis de Coutes the page boy, who evidently had been given the task of warning her if a battle was underway; in any event, her first move was to go downstairs to give him a good scolding. As Louis himself tells it in his testimony: "... I thought she had gone to sleep, but a little later she came down and said these words to me, 'Oh, you bloody boy ['sanglant garson' [i.e., 'garçon']], you didn't tell me that the blood of France was being spilled,' exhorting me to go find her horse; and meanwhile she had herself placed in her armor by the matron of the house and her daughter [note: Jean d'Aulon said that he was the one who performed this task; Pasquerel says that she was still waiting for someone to do it when he arrived], and when I came from preparing her horse I found her already in her armor; and I went to find her banner, which was upstairs, and this I handed to her through the window. After receiving the banner Jehanne quickly charged toward the Burgundy Gate; and then the hostess told me to go after her, which I did." All those years later, the testimony still takes on a breathless and confused quality, with d'Aulon and Jehanne frantically preparing themselves and Louis de Coutes running in circles while retrieving various needed items. At the Burgundy Gate and all along the road to St. Loup, the group encountered the flotsam of battle: wounded men being helped back to safety, "for whom she grieved greatly", according to Pasquerel. Jean d'Aulon gave a more thorough description: "When we arrived at the gate, we saw people carrying one of the citizens, who was very badly wounded; and then the Maiden asked those who were carrying him who this man was; they told her that he was a Frenchman. And then she said that she never saw the blood of Frenchmen without her hair rising on her head." They headed for St. Loup, where the French were apparently getting the worst of it. But, said Louis de Coutes, when the troops saw Jehanne approaching with her standard, "they began to shout, and the fortress of St. Loup was taken." Both Louis and Jean Pasquerel testified to the compassion she showed to the enemy: "Therefore [as a result of the death of English troops] Jehanne grieved much," remembered Pasquerel, "she said that they had died without confessing, and she wept greatly for them; and she confessed to me there." Louis de Coutes remembered that she saved a group of men from the general butchery that took place as the fortress was overrun: "And I heard it said that certain churchmen [among the English in St. Loup] put on ecclesiastic garb, and came to meet Jehanne; and she did not allow any harm to be done to them, and she had them brought with her to her lodging." This incident, curiously enough, implies that the English themselves didn't take their propaganda about her very seriously: they wouldn't try to appeal to her Catholic piety by dressing as Catholic priests if they truly believed that she held views contrary to the Catholic faith. Most of the other English defenders in St. Loup were killed in the fighting or during its aftermath: they are said to have lost their entire garrison, with a toll of some 140 dead and 40 captured. The capture
of St. Loup was the first ray of hope for the defenders at Orléans.
Pasquerel said that "she told me to publicly advise all the soldiers to
confess their sins and to give thanks to God for the victory achieved;
otherwise, she would not be with them, but would remove herself from their
society; she said also, on that same day, the eve of the Lord's Ascension,
that within five days the current siege laid to Orléans would be
lifted..." Segment
6: Orléans, Part II Anno Domini 1429 Thursday May 5th was the Feast of the Ascension, and the fighting was therefore suspended again. She used the opportunity to send her final warning to the English. As Friar Pasquerel tells it: "That day, the Feast of Our Lord's Ascension, Jehanne wrote to the English troops in the fortresses..."; "... she then took an arrow, and tied the letter to the arrow's tip with thread, and told an archer to shoot this arrow to the English, exclaiming, "Read, it is news!" And the arrow was received by the English along with the letter, and they read it. Having read it they began to loudly exclaim, "It's news from the whore of the Armagnacs!" At which words Jehanne began to sigh and weep abundant tears, calling the King of Heaven to her aid. And afterwards she was consoled, as she said, because she had news from her Lord..." Later that day a council was held to draw up plans for the next days' assault. The "Journal of the Siege..." includes a list of the captains present at the meeting; the generous number of these fellows highlights the problem the French had in trying to run armies "by committee". The list included: Lord Dunois, Lord Graville, the Baron of Coulences, Chancellor Cousinot, Lord Gaucourt, Lord Villars, Lord Saint-Severe, Gilles de Rais, Poton de Saintrailles, La Hire, Lord Corraze, Jamet de Tilloy, Thibault d'Armagnac (de Termes), a Scot named Sir Hugh Kennedy (called "Canède" by the French), Ambroise de Loré, and Lord Denis de Chailly; and for good measure, some of the wealthy burgesses of the city were also invited to add their expert input. One person who was not included among this collection was Jehanne herself, who was merely informed of the final decision. Jean Chartier says that she was not pleased by this, and claims that when they finally brought her in to announce their decision, she sensed that they had only told her a portion of the strategy which had been decided upon. The full plan was to launch two assaults: a feint against the fortress of St. Laurent designed to draw English troops away from the southern strongholds, followed by an assault against St. Jean-le-Blanc on the southern bank; the captains are said to have been reluctant to tell her about the ruse, fearing that she would spill the beans (although it's never been clear why they were concerned about this: given the large gaggle of people who already knew, an eventual 'leak' of the information was almost assured). In any event, she was not fooled by the deception and immediately confronted them, pacing up and down the room and saying "Tell me what you have really decided", adding, "I would be able to keep secret a greater thing than this." ("Je celeroie plus grant chose que ceste-cy"). If Dunois was surprised by this, he nevertheless did his diplomatic best to provide a smooth explanation, saying: "We cannot tell you everything at once. What the chancellor has told you has indeed been decided and appointed, but we have also decided that if those who are on the Sologne side of the river come to the assistance of those who are in the fortress, we shall cross the river to do whatever we can against them there." She was satisfied with this. The day of May 6th would see a resumption of the fighting, centered on two strongholds. A fortified monastery called 'le bastille des Augustins' controlled the southern approach to Les Tourelles, and was therefore a crucial objective; this bastille, in turn, was flanked by the fortified church of St. Jean-le-Blanc to the east on the bank of the Loire, near which the English had placed a large bombard nicknamed "Passe-volant" which had been lobbing hundred-pound stone balls against the city's walls and buildings. To assault the latter fortress the troops were brought to an island lying just offshore, from which access to the riverbank was gained by means of a pontoon bridge constructed using two boats. The attack commenced around 9 a.m. ("around the hour of Tierce", according to Louis de Coutes). As the French poured across the bridge, the English abandoned St. Jean-le-Blanc in favor of the fortress of the Augustins. At this point the French experienced one of their frequent moments of doubt: the commanders balked at launching an assault against the main objective, which the English were determined to defend; the troops were therefore in the process of recrossing the pontoon bridge when La Hire and Jehanne landed on the shore, each with a horse carried over on a boat, and rallied the soldiers for another effort. Riding side by side at the head of the rejuvenated troops, the two set a course for a body of English soldiers who had ventured out of their fortress; the accounts give the impression that the French cavalry simply ran down these troops and drove them back into the monastery. An assault was then launched against the palisade surrounding the fortress, of which Jean d'Aulon gave some vivid details: the entryway to the palisade was attacked by two soldiers (Alfonso de Partada of Spain, and another man whose name is not given), but their way was blocked by "a tall, strong, powerful Englishman" who was defeating all attempts to break through; d'Aulon therefore ordered Maitre Jean to take the man down with his culverin, which was done "such that he [Maitre Jean] threw him dead to the ground." The fortress was then stormed "from all sides" and overrun, with only a few English survivors making it to the safety of the nearby Tourelles. The troops
stayed camped outside of Les Tourelles that night. Pasquerel says that the
commanders, however, were thinking of pulling the soldiers back into the
city while waiting for reinforcements to arrive. One of them came to
Jehanne "after dinner", and announced the group's consensus, to which she
replied: "You have been in your council, and I in mine; and know that the
council of my Lord will be carried out and prevail, and this council
[i.e., their decision] will perish." Pasquerel adds that she then turned
to him and said: "Get up tomorrow early in the morning, and earlier than
you did today, and do the best that you can. Always stay near me, for
tomorrow I will have much to do and more than I ever had, and tomorrow
blood will leave my body above the breast." She had apparently made
periodic mention of the latter prediction for some time by that point,
since a Flemish diplomat named Lord Rotslaer wrote a letter on April 22nd
(two weeks earlier) mentioning that she had predicted an arrow.
May 7th was to be the climax of the siege. Les Tourelles, the most crucial
fortress in English hands, was assaulted from "the hour of dawn until the
eighth hour in the evening". The "Journal
of the Siege..." describes a chaotic scene as the French began to storm
the walls from multiple points, "with such valour and boldness that it
seemed... they believed themselves immortal". Some notion of the desperate
nature of the defense can perhaps be gauged by the description of English
troops sometimes using bare fists in addition to axes, maces, and other
such weapons to beat down the attackers as they reached the top. Cannons
(presumably culverins) are mentioned, adding the thunderous bass note of
gunpowder explosions to the screams of the wounded. Somewhere beneath the
fortifications was a small personage holding her banner and encouraging on
the soldiers; Louis de Coutes says that she "always stayed with the
soldiers in the assault, exhorting them to have good heart, and not fall
back, for they would have the fortress soon." It was this proximity to the
fighting which allowed her prediction to come to pass: just as she was
helping to raise a scaling ladder against the redoubt, at some point
"after the morning meal", an English archer found his mark. Dunois says
that the arrow "penetrated her flesh between the neck and shoulder, to a
depth of half a foot", so that the arrow came out her back, according to
Pasquerel. She was flung backwards by the impact; Pasquerel, who was near
her at the time (as she had asked him to be the previous night), says that
"when she felt herself wounded, she was afraid and wept..." Pasquerel adds that after she said these words the bridge collapsed, sending Glasdale and his companions into the river, where they sank under the weight of their armor. He adds that "Jehanne, moved to pity, began to weep for the soul of Glasdale and of the others who drowned there in large numbers." The author of the "Journal of the Siege..." was rather sorry, too, noting that Glasdale and the other lords would have brought in hefty ransoms if they had been captured. Dunois said that all of the remaining English troops were killed. One of the most crucial days of the war was over. As the French troops returned to Orléans, church bells broke out in victory peals and the clergy and citizens sang "Te Deum Laudamus". The Burgundian chronicler Enguerrand de Monstrelet claims that the French "did not lose more than one hundred men of all ranks" in the assault on Les Tourelles, although his figure of "six to eight thousand" for English losses is obviously not credible. That night, in the first bit of peace and quiet that day, Jehanne had her wound dressed and ate "four or five pieces of bread" as her sole meal before going to sleep. The next
day, Sunday May 8th, the English commanders decided to pull all forces out
of their siege lines and abandon the effort. As they formed the troops in
line of battle for one last challenge to the French, Jehanne put on a
jasseren (a light suit of mail, since she was no longer able to take plate
armor in her current condition) and rode out with the captains to observe
the situation. Segment 7: "...et Dieu donnera victoire": The Loire Valley Campaign "...We piously believe [the Maiden] to be the angel of the armies of the Lord..." - Jacques Gelu, Archbishop of Embrun, in his treatise to Charles VII, May 1429 Anno Domini 142 The victory was summarized by Jean d'Aulon as follows: "...through the help of Our Lord and the Maiden, the city was delivered from the hands of [its] enemies." The lifting of the siege of Orléans was important for the same reason that Gettysburg was a decisive battle: while neither took place near the end of their respective wars, both were turning points in which the losing side hit its high water mark and ultimately began to recede. The French commanders felt that the victory had been due entirely to her intervention. Lord Dunois later testified that after she had sent her message to Lord Talbot on April 30, "...I attest that from that hour the English, who with two hundred men could previously rout eight hundred or a thousand of the King's troops, after that point four or five hundred soldiers could fight against practically the entire strength of England..." The Duke of Alençon, who later toured the fortifications previously held by the English, gave the opinion that it would have required a miracle to take these positions, particularly Les Tourelles and Les Augustins: "...I believe [them] to have been captured through a miracle rather than by arms, particularly the fortress of the Tournelles [Tourelles] at the end of the bridge, and the fortress of the Augustinians, in which, if I were [there] with a mere handful of soldiers, I would have gladly dared to wait out any armed force for six or seven days..." These events created quite a stir as the news gradually spread throughout Europe as fast as horse and rider could carry the message. The Dauphin Charles, in his headquarters at Chinon, received the glad tidings on May 9th and 10th while dictating a letter to be sent to his loyal cities; he had to make two addendums to this letter as a succession of messengers arrived with updates from Orléans. Duke Jean V of Brittany, in his capital of Nantes, reacted to the news by sending his confessor, Friar Yves Milbeau, and a herald, to congratulate her on her victory and to ask if she was acting by God's orders. To this she replied "yes", prompting the Friar to say that the Duke would therefore ally himself with her faction and send his son with an army. The
Archbishop of Embrun, Jacques Gelu, overcame his original skepticism and
caution when he announced that "We piously believe [the Maiden] to be the
angel of the armies of the Lord" ["angelum Domini exercituum"], and
advised Charles to follow her counsel in the matter of the conduct of the
war. The reaction of the opposing faction was, predictably, somewhat less jolly. Previously, the English had felt confident that their long string of victories had provided indisputable proof that God supported their cause. Then came the unexpected and unusual defeat at Orléans at a time when ultimate victory was within sight. English morale was not improved. The Duke of Bedford, alarmed by the reports coming in from the Loire, immediately issued a call-to-arms in those areas of Northern France which were under his control, raising "from four to five thousand" men according to Monstrelet. The Duke of Burgundy responded to the news by plotting to add his own armies to the forces arrayed against her. Burgundy was now in a position to take a more active role in France, since the war against his "dear cousin Lady Jacqueline" (as he put it) had ended ten months earlier when Jacqueline of Hainault finally surrendered at Gouda and agreed to sign the Treaty of Delft on July 3, 1428, making Burgundy the legal heir to her territories. The Duke, despite his chronic disagreements with the English, was not yet ready to abandon their cause: he would soon send troops to Bedford's aid. Her stay in Orléans was brief. On May 9th, only a day after the English withdrawal, she and Lord Dunois were apparently at Clery, ten miles south of Orléans: the chapel there has a record of their visit. On the 11th they were at Loches to meet with Charles. A detailed description was provided by a German chronicler, Eberhardt von Windecken, the treasurer for Emperor Sigismund: "... Then the young girl bowed her head before the King as much as she could, and the king immediately had her raise it again; and one would have thought that he would have kissed her from the joy that he experienced." Dunois provided a description of their subsequent audience with the king in his chamber: "...while the King was in his private room ('retriact'), in which were Lord Christophe Harcourt, the Bishop of Castres [Gerard Machet], the King's confessor, and the Lord of Treves [Robert le Maçon], previously Chancellor of France; the Maiden, before she entered the room, knocked on the door, and as soon as she entered she went down on her knees and embraced the King's legs, saying words such as these or something similar: 'Noble Dauphin, do not take so many and such lengthy deliberations, but come as quickly as possible to Rheims, to take a worthy crown.' Then Lord Christophe Harcourt, speaking with her, asked her if her Counsel had said this to her; she replied: yes, that she was being much prompted on this subject. Then, Christophe said to Jehanne: 'Are you not willing to say, in the presence of the King, the manner of your Counsel when it speaks to you?' To which she replied, blushing: 'I understand,' she said, 'well enough what it is you wish to know, and I will freely tell you.' At which the King said to Jehanne: 'Jehanne, would it please you to state that which he requested, in the presence of those who are here?' And she answered the King yes, and said words such as these or similar: that when she was displeased sometimes because people wouldn't readily believe that what she said was from God, she would withdraw apart and pray to God, complaining to Him that people wouldn't readily believe what she told them; then, her prayer to God completed, she would hear a voice saying to her: 'Fille De, va, va, va; je serai a ton aide, va" ["Daughter of God, go, go, go; I will be at your aid, go."], and when she heard this voice, she felt great joy, and desired to always be in that state; and, what is more striking, in reciting these words she exulted in an extraordinary manner, raising her eyes to heaven." "The Journal of the Siege of Orléans" says that the above exchange convinced Charles to adopt her plan. Preparations were therefore made for securing the Loire Valley before moving the army north. The English had pulled their troops back to the remaining strongholds along the Loire. Suffolk was at Jargeau, which was unsuccessfully assaulted by Lord Saint-Sévère and other French commanders while the aforementioned reunion with Charles was taking place. To make a more concerted effort, the Duke of Alençon ordered the other commanders to bring troops "to a village near Remorantin". On May 23rd she left Loches for Selles-en-Berry, near Remorantin. It was around this time, (on June 2nd) that Charles granted her armorial bearings, and she apparently met the future Louis XI, at that time a little boy of seven years, who later said that he remembered meeting the famous Maiden all his life. On June 6th she met the grandsons of Lord Bertrand du Guesclin, who was revered by the French for his victories over the English several decades earlier; his grandsons, Guy and André de Laval, had arrived that day with a small company of troops. Guy wrote a letter on the 8th describing this experience to his mother and grandmother, Anne de Laval, widow of du Guesclin; the letter mentions how Jehanne had sent a small ring to Madame Laval in honor of her late husband, and describes how she came to see the Laval brothers dressed in her armor. "And the aforesaid Maiden very cordially welcomed my brother and myself", says the letter's author, adding that "it seemed a thing completely divine". He goes on to say that she left on June 6th, "armored all en blanc, except her head, a little axe in her hand on a great black courser [i.e., war-horse], which put up a great fuss at the door to her lodging and wouldn't allow her to mount; and then she said 'Lead him to the cross', which was in front of the church nearby, on the road. And then she mounted without him budging, as if he were tied. Then she turned toward the door of the church, which was right nearby, and said in a womanly-enough voice: 'You, priests and men of the church, form procession and make prayers to God.' And then she turned back to the road before her, saying "Forward, forward'..." The letter, which is rather lengthy gives us a rare glimpse of the excitement felt by some of the soldiers who volunteered to serve in her army. The Laval brothers even went so far as to ask their mother to mortgage or sell their lands in order to raise funds for the expedition - a drastic step for nobles who generally found it unthinkable to sell their ancestral estates. The feeling seems to have been that this was the big push, and now was the time for "all good men to come to the aid of the party". As mentioned
above, she left Selles on June 6th and went to Remorantin, where the army
was massing. The first target was Jargeau, ten miles to the southeast of Orléans on the south bank of the Loire. Lord Suffolk had several hundred men with him to defend the town, and as usual, the French captains bickered over the wisdom of launching an attack against a position which some of the troops felt was impregnable. The Duke of Alençon says that the issue was settled when Jehanne spoke up and "...said that they had nothing to fear; that they shouldn't fear any number [of troops], nor make difficulties about attacking the English, because God was overseeing their work...[adding that] if she were not secure in the knowledge that God was overseeing this work, she would have preferred to watch over the sheep rather than expose herself to such perils." This won everyone over. The outskirts of Jargeau were reached on June 11th, "about two hours after dinner" (around 2 pm), according to Perceval de Cagny, chronicler for the Duke of Alençon. The common troops immediately launched an assault on their own, apparently thinking that their ardor would be sufficient to carry the day; they were retreating with equal ardor when the Maiden showed up: "Seeing this [i.e., the retreat], Jehanne, taking up her banner, went in to the battle, telling the troops to have courage". She got the troops turned around, and encouraged them on to a new assault which forced the English to retire to their fortifications. That night, Cagny says, she told the English to "Surrender the place to the King of Heaven and the noble King Charles, and go away, or else he will destroy you" ["Rendez la place au Roy du ciel and au gentilz roy Charles, et vous en alez, ou autrement il vous mescherra."] To provide an added inducement the artillery was put in place and begin bombarding the walls; "The Journal..." says that a large cannon from Orléans called "La Bergère" ("The Shepherdess", presumably named in honor of Jehanne herself) succeeded in bringing down Jargeau's "largest tower" with only three shots. This cannon, which required a team of 36 horses to lug it overland and was so heavy that soldiers had to strengthen bridges over which it would cross, was apparently a large bombarde of the "mortar" variety (i.e., a chubby bombarde shaped like a large bucket or megaphone with a barrel almost as wide as its length) perhaps built along the lines of the famous "Pumhart von Steyr", but undoubtedly smaller. The shelling may have unnerved the English: Lord Suffolk tried to arrange a two-week truce, and was apparently negotiating independently with La Hire, much to the displeasure of the other captains. La Hire was reeled in by Alençon and told to cease his efforts; Jehanne would later say that the lords in her army refused to grant Suffolk's request, and instead told him to pull out immediately or face an assault. The assault against the outer bulwark guarding the bridge leading into the town apparently came around the ninth hour on the 12th of June; Alençon says he thought the timing was premature (perhaps preferring to maintain the cannonade for a little longer first), but she encouraged him forward, reminding him that she had promised his wife that he would be brought back safely. He adds that she saved his life during an event which is also described by two other sources: she pointed out a weapon (a veuglaire it seems) on the fortifications and told the Duke that he would be killed by it unless he moved from his current position; he had scarcely moved a few yards when the veuglaire fired and hit a certain Seigneur de Lude from the Anjou region, decapitating him with the force of the impact. She herself was hit with a large stone evidently fired by a similar weapon: the stone tore through her banner and broke apart on her helmet, knocking her to the ground but otherwise doing no damage. She immediately got back up and shouted to the soldiers: "Friends, friends, up! Up! Our Lord has condemned the English. ["Amys, amys, sus! Sus! Nostre Sire a condempne les Angloys"] This moment they are ours; have courage." The French surged up and over the bulwark and then pursued the English across the bridge into the town itself. The Earl of Suffolk surrendered to a soldier named Guillaume Regnault (after first knighting him, as it would be disgraceful for the Earl to surrender to anyone below equestrian rank). His brother John de la Pole was also captured; his other brother Alexander was killed. Estimates of English casualties ranged from 300 - 1100+ dead and 40 - 300+ captured. On the 13th she was back in Orléans. The entry in the city's financial accounts for the following day records a commission to make "[cloth] nettles for the Maiden's robes",referring to two items of clothing which are described in detail in a later letter (dated September 30) sent by Duke Charles of Orléans. Nettle leaves were a symbol of the Orléans family which were often placed on items of clothing worn by their retainers or anyone whom they wished to honor; and we know from the above letter that this clothing was also done in the livery colors of the family (vermilion and "vert perdu", a very dark green). News of the liberation of Orléans may have reached the Duke, then being held as a "guest" of Sir Thomas Comberworth in the Royal manor of Bolingbroke. While battles were being fought for his lands, the captive Charles' only battlefield was his cherished chessboard, upon which he must have played many hundreds of matches against his guards. The rest of his time was largely spent writing page after page of poetry, mostly melancholy love ballads believed to have been addressed to the wife which he would never see again. The news of Jehanne's campaigns must have been the first good tidings he had heard in years, and he repaid her in the traditional fashion - in this case, a robe made with "fine Brussels scarlet cloth" covered with cloth nettle leaves in two shades of green and lined with silk and white satin; and a knee-length tunic or surcoat ("huque") made with dark green cloth and likewise covered with nettle leaves. The order also gives us the amount of cloth used for both garments, thereby allowing us to estimate the saint's maximum possible height. It begins: "Charles, Duke of Orléans and of Valois, Count of Blois and of Beaumont and Lord of Coucy; to Our esteemed and loyal friends the men of Our accounts, greetings and affection", and then eventually goes on to say that the clothing was granted in recognition of the "good and agreeable services which the aforesaid Maiden has done for Us in the encounter with the English, ancient enemies of my lord the King and of Ourselves. It can only be assumed that she must have treasured this gift from the "sweet Duke" whom she would never meet. She didn't stay in Orléans long, however: on the night of the 14th she told the Duke of Alençon to have the troops ready to move out by the next day "after dinner" (i.e., early afternoon) in order to "go see those of Meung". The army moved southwest along the Loire. Rather than launch a full assault against Meung-sur-Loire the decision was made to merely take the town's fortified bridge and garrison it with troops, thereby preventing any unpleasant surprises as the army continued on its route to Beaugency. The bridge was taken speedily enough so that the effort barely held up the army's progress to the main target, which was reached on the following day. Beaugency was at the southern limit of the English positions which had been clustered around Orléans. The town was dominated by a 12th century tower whose sturdy block form still looks imposing today even in its partially ruined state; the English had placed about 500 soldiers in this tower to hold the town, supplemented by a smaller garrison positioned on the bridge. Upon sighting the French army the English withdrew into these fortified positions, leaving only a small number of men concealed in some of the houses in the town's outlying area. These troops emerged to ambush the French as they moved in, and a sharp skirmish ensued in which "many were killed or wounded on both sides". After driving off these attackers, the French proceeded to bombard the tower with artillery. The accounts for the city of Orléans mention that a man named Robin le Boçant was sent by Jehanne to fetch more gunpowder for the cannons. Meanwhile, two new armies were approaching: Sir John Fastolf was working his way south with a few thousand men to reinforce the English at Beaugency; and Count Arthur de Richemont was moving east to aid the French with his "400 lances and 800 archers" plus their auxiliaries. Both of these posed a dilemma for the French commanders, since Richemont was at that time under the anathema of the French Royal court due to the influence of Richemont's political enemy, Georges de la Trémoille. Arthur de Richemont exemplified the situation of many nobles who found themselves caught between the various factions in France at that time: a Breton nobleman by birth, he had been given the County of Richmond in England by his elder brother, Duke Jean V de Brittany, who sought to maintain autonomy for his duchy in the far northwest corner of France and therefore routinely lurched back and forth between both sides; his mother was the widow of King Henry IV of England, and yet, possibly due to his friendship with Louis de Valois (elder brother of the Dauphin Charles) Arthur had fought against the English at Aginçourt, during which he was wounded and captured (and was thereby able to see his mother again, although he was said to have been unable to recognize her). His subsequent marriage to Margaret of Burgundy in 1423 was intended to tie him down to the Anglo-Burgundian group, but when the Duke of Bedford refused to give him field command of an army he joined the Dauphinist faction and was appointed Connétable (commander of Royal forces). The political machinations of Georges de la Trémoille (who was himself a former Burgundian supporter with a very checkered background) placed Richemont adrift once more. He was now marching toward Beaugency after being informed of the recent string of victories in the Loire valley, apparently with the intent of rejoining the Royal army whether he was welcome or not. The chroniclers are divided on the latter issue: it seems that Jehanne, the Duke of Alençon, and several others were opposed to his arrival (in fact the Duke says that he was planning to leave if Richemont showed up), while perhaps some of the mercenary captains of the La Hire variety wanted to welcome him; in all likelihood, the latter group would probably view the opposition of the Royal court as an endorsement rather than otherwise. Richemont's official chronicler, Guillaume Gruel, claims that it was primarily the Maiden who opposed him, prompting some of the captains to allegedly retort that they "esteemed he and his company better than all the maidens in the Kingdom of France"; although Gruel is known to have had a weakness for fudging the truth in order to exalt his patron. Whatever the facts may be, the commanders at Beaugency had to weigh the issue against the military realities of the situation: although Alençon was able to negotiate a surrender of the English garrison on June 17th, allowing them to leave on the condition that they would not retake the field for a period of ten days, the French still had to deal with the army which was fast approaching from the north. Richemont was ultimately allowed to join the group, on assurances that he would remain loyal, possibly because his troops were needed to fight Fastolf. Gruel claims that Jehanne approached him warmly and prostrated herself before him to embrace his legs (a gesture which she normally reserved for the King); Alençon quotes her as making the more restrained statement: "Ah, fair Connétable, you did not come on my behalf ["de par moy"]; but as you have come, you will be welcome." With the retreat of Beaugency's garrison, the only remaining English troops to contend with were those at Meung, reinforced by the army under Sir John Fastolf. On the 17th the rival armies came into view of each other, the French placing themselves on a small hill and the English arranged behind their usual protective screen of pikes to impede any cavalry charge sent against them. Heralds were sent to offer a challenge to the French, who were said to have sent back the reply: "Go to your lodgings for now, as it is a bit late; but tomorrow, at the pleasure of God and Our Lady, we will look at you more closely". On the following day the two armies faced each other again; when the jittery French asked Jehanne what they should do, she replied: "En nom Dieu, il les fault combatre. silz estoient pendus aux nues nous les arons" ("In God's name, we must fight them. If they were hanging in the skies we would [still] have them", adding that they would need good spurs to chase after the enemy. She was correct: the English decided to fall back to the northwards, riding toward the town of Patay, with the French in pursuit. The vanguard was entrusted to La Hire (much to the saint's disgruntlement, according to Louis de Coutes, who noted that she "greatly wanted to have the burden of the vanguard"). The lead elements of the French army stopped for a rest at St-Sigismond around noon, then continued along the road towards Lignorolles with 60 - 80 cavalry serving as advance scouts. Near St-Peravy-la-Colombe the scouts frightened a stag in the nearby woods, and the animal ran headlong into soldiers of the English rearguard who were concealed in the hedges along the road. The English archers, evidently seized with the excitement of a potential stag hunt, sent up a loud shout and thereby unwittingly revealed their position to the French scouts following close behind. After venturing closer to confirm that the uproar was caused by English troops, the scouts went pounding back to report the news to La Hire. Always eager for battle, La Hire wasted little time in bringing up his cavalry. The English, meanwhile, were aware that their rearguard had been spotted and decided to pull the troops back to the crossroads at Lignorolles just south of Patay. Lord Talbot placed himself with 500 of his best archers in the area between two hedges, calculating that the narrow passage could be held long enough for the rest of the army to pull itself together. He miscalculated. The French charged with such reckless fury that one chronicler says they were unable to hold formation. Normally, English archers would have flung back such a charge with several volleys of arrows fired from behind a protective line of pikes, but on this occasion the defenses hadn't been set up yet and the speed of the charge gave little time to remedy the situation. The cavalry slammed into the English line and swirled around both flanks with the power of an avalanche. The archers broke and ran. In an era in which feudal warfare had been slowly transformed, first by the longbow and crossbow and then by the increased use of gunpowder weapons, the battle of Patay was a rare moment in which the shock tactics of heavy cavalry were once again effective and the mounted armored aristocrat again reigned supreme, if only for a day. One can only imagine the feelings of the French nobles - a number of whom had lost fathers, grandfathers, or great-grandfathers in far less successful charges against English bowmen over the last 90 years: for one giddy moment it was the 13th century again, and the French were the flower of armed chivalry once more. The archers, caught in a maelstrom of horsemen, were cut down by the hundreds as they tried to get away. Fastolf pushed his men onward in an attempt to join up with the English vanguard, with the result that the troops of the vanguard, seeing the former in such a hurry, thought that a rout was underway. In the process they started a real one: as the vanguard abandoned the field, Fastolf, realizing the battle was now hopeless, also took flight. The French cavalry tore into the disorganized elements of the army as it fled north. The English are believed to have lost about two thousand men, compared to only three casualties on the French side- the reverse of so many previous battles during the long series of wars between the two kingdoms. This defeat dealt another blow to English morale. Monstrelet notes that Duke John of Bedford was "very much disturbed" when he heard the news, and some among his group "wept in the council". It was the beginning of the march toward Rheims for the coronation of the man who would be known to posterity as Charles VII. -THE END-
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