Jeanne d'Arc - The Iron Maiden

We reveal how an 18 year-old peasant girl helped shape the destiny of France.

WORDS: ROGER MOSS

The name Jeanne d’Arc is today known the world over for the courage and conviction which enabled her to come to the aid of France during a time of crisis, when all seemed lost. Probably less wellknown, however, is how her heroic actions during her tragically short life would also prove to be pivotal in bringing together an often bitterly divided nation.

Throughout history the assortment of territories which today make up the great nation of France were anything but united under one banner. The process of finally establishing a unified France could be said to have begun with the Hundred Years War, triggered by the death of Charles IV, the last of a dynasty of Capetian monarchs, in 1328. At the heart of the conflict were the vast disputed territories of the Duchy of Aquitaine, then ruled by King Edward III Plantagenet of England, whose claim to the French throne was based on his lineage from William the Conqueror and territories acquired from strategic marriages. Not surprisingly, this situation represented an intolerable threat to the Capetians’ successors, the French House of Valois, and could not be allowed to continue.

The ensuing series of bloody battles (not least at Agincourt in 1415) initially favoured the English forces but an unexpected turning point came during the Siege of Orléans, which began on 12 October, 1428. For both sides the outcome would be hugely significant, since the Ducs d’Orléans headed a political faction known as les Armagnacs who rejected the Treaty of Troyes (by which King Henry V of England and his heirs would inherit the French throne upon the death of King Charles VI of France) and instead supported France’s uncrowned monarch, Dauphin Charles VII.

As one of the most northerly strongholds loyal to the French Monarchy, the city was of strategic and symbolic significance to both sides; if Orléans fell, it was believed that the English would succeed in conquering all of France. However, just as the defenders’ spirits were at their lowest ebb after an agonising six months of siege, the hand of salvation was about to make an appearance, in the shape of Divine intervention.

Far away in the small village of Domrémy (88) a young peasant shepherdess named Jeanne (see factfile) had become accustomed to occasionally hearing voices from Saint Michel, Sainte Catherine and Sainte Marguerite. While their personal messages seemed of little consequence, in early 1429 a more urgent voice instructed her to go to the Dauphin and help him reconquer his kingdom. After overcoming initial resistance, she was granted an audience which took place at the Royal Court in Chinon in late February 1429, when the 17 year-old confided that she had come to raise the siege of Orléans and would accompany him to his Coronation in the Cathedral of Reims.

Their meeting impressed Charles, although both he and his advisors sought more assurance, and sent Jeanne to be examined by a council of theologians in Poitiers. They found her to be of good character and a good Catholic and, while unable to pronounce on the source of Jeanne’s voices, agreed that sending her to Orléans might help the cause and would determine whether her inspiration was indeed Divine. Jeanne was then sent to Tours for physical examination overseen by Charles’ mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon, to confirm her virginity. Reassured by the results of these tests, Charles commissioned armour for her, although she designed her own banner and carried a sword brought from beneath the church altar of Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois, south of Tours.

Before setting off for Orléans, Jeanne dictated a letter to the Duke of Bedford declaring that she was sent by God to drive the English from French soil, a warning which was clearly not taken seriously. Having set off at the head of a substantial body of troops, she and her relief party entered Orléans with little resistance from the enemy, who had already taken several of the city’s fortifications. Just eight days later, however, the demoralised Armagnac forces had been revitalised, the occupying English forces had been routed and their siege abandoned.

Having convinced Charles VII that the moment would soon be at hand to fulfil his rightful destiny, Jeanne’s attention turned to liberating the string of English-held towns which lay between the Dauphin and his Coronation in Reims. Following a series of spectacular military successes, Jeanne accompanied Charles when he entered Reims and was at his side during the Coronation ceremony on 17 July, 1429.

Read the full article in the February 23 issue...