 |
[Footnote 1181: Letter from Gui and Andre de Laval, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 106 et seq.]
[Footnote 1182: N. Villiaume, Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc, p. 88.]
She told him that, three days before, she had sent a gold ring to Dame Jeanne de Laval.
"It was a small matter," she added graciously. "I should like to have sent her something of greater value, considering her reputation."[1183]
[Footnote 1183: Recommandation in French. The esteem in which she was held. Compare Froissart cited by La Curne, Glossary, ad v. "Six bourgeois de la ville de Calais et de plus grande recommandation." ("Six citizens of Calais and of the highest reputation.")]
That same day, at the hour of vespers, she set out from Selles for Romorantin with a numerous company of men-at-arms and train-bands, commanded by Marshal de Boussac. She was surrounded by mendicant friars and one of her brothers went with her. She wore white armour and a hood. Her horse was brought to her at the door of her house. It was a great black charger which resolutely refused to let her mount him. She had him led to the Cross by the roadside, opposite the church, and there she leapt into the saddle. Whereupon Lord Guy marvelled; for he saw that the charger was as still as if he had been bound. She turned her horse's head towards the church porch, and in her clear woman's voice cried: "Ye priests and churchmen, walk in processions and pray to God."
Then, gaining the highroad: "Go forward, go forward," she said.
In her hand she carried a little axe. Her page bore her standard furled.[1184]
[Footnote 1184: Letter from Gui and Andre de Laval, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 106, 107.]
The meeting-place was Orleans. On Thursday, the 9th of June, in the evening, Jeanne passed over the bridge she had crossed on the 8th of May. Saturday, the 11th, the army set out for Jargeau.[1185] It consisted of horse brought by the Duke of Alencon, the Count of Vendome, the Bastard, the Marshal de Boussac, Captain La Hire, Messire Florent d'Illiers, Messire Jamet du Tillay, Messire Thudal de Kermoisan of Brittany, as well as of contingents furnished by the communes, in all, perhaps eight thousand combatants, many of whom were armed with pikes, axes, cross-bows and leaden mallets.[1186] The young Duke of Alencon was placed in command. He was not remarkable for his intelligence.[1187] But he knew how to ride, and in those days that was the only knowledge indispensable to a general. Again the people of Orleans defrayed the cost of the expedition. For the payment of the fighting men they contributed three thousand livres, for their feeding, seven hogsheads of corn. At their own request, the King imposed on them a new taille of three thousand livres.[1188] At their own expense they despatched workmen of all trades,—masons, carpenters, smiths. They lent their artillery. They sent culverins, cannons, La Bergere, and the large mortar to which four horses were harnessed, with the gunners Megret and Jean Boilleve.[1189] They furnished ammunition, engines, arrows, ladders, pickaxes, spades, mattocks; and all were marked, for they were a methodical folk. Everything for the siege was sent to the Maid. For in this undertaking she was the one commander they recognised, not the Duke of Alencon, not even the Bastard their own lord's noble brother. For the inhabitants of Orleans, Jeanne was the leader of the siege; and to Jeanne, before the besieged town, they despatched two of their citizens,—Jean Leclerc and Francois Joachim.[1190] After the citizens of Orleans, the Sire de Rais contributed most to the expenses of the siege of Jargeau.[1191] This unfortunate noble spent thoughtlessly right and left, while rich burgesses made great profits by lending to him at a high rate of interest. The sorry state of his affairs was shortly to bring him to attempt their readjustment by vowing his soul to the devil.
[Footnote 1185: Trial, vol. iii, p. 94; vol. iv, p. 12.]
[Footnote 1186: Mistere du siege, line 15,761. Journal du siege, p. 95. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 299. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 81. Monstrelet, vol. iii, p. 338.]
[Footnote 1187: See ante, p. 211. A. Duveau, Le jugement du duc d'Alencon, in Bull. soc. archeol. du Vendomois (1874), vol. xiii, pp. 132 et seq.]
[Footnote 1188: Loiseleur, Compte des depenses faites par Charles VII pour secourir Orleans, p. 158.]
[Footnote 1189: Journal du siege, p. 97.]
[Footnote 1190: Taken from the Book of Accounts, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 262, 263. A. de Villaret, Campagnes de Jeanne d'Arc sur la Loire, pp. 77-80. Loiseleur, Compte des depenses, p. 149.]
[Footnote 1191: Trial, vol. v, p. 261.]
The town of Jargeau, which was shortly to be taken after a severe siege, had surrendered to the English without resistance on the 5th of October in the previous year.[1192] The bridge leading to the town from the Beauce bank was furnished with two castlets.[1193] The town itself, surrounded by walls and towers, was not strongly fortified; but its means of defence had been improved by the English. Warned that the army of the French King was coming to besiege it, the Earl of Suffolk and his two brothers threw themselves into the town, with five hundred knights, squires, and other fighting men, as well as two hundred picked bowmen.[1194] The Duke of Alencon with six hundred horse was at the head of the force, and with him, the Maid. The first night they slept in the woods.[1195] On the morrow, at daybreak, my Lord the Bastard, my Lord Florent d'Illiers, and several other captains joined them. They were in a great hurry to reach Jargeau. Suddenly they hear that Sir John Fastolf is at hand, coming from Paris with two thousand combatants, bringing supplies and artillery to Jargeau.[1196]
[Footnote 1192: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 258.]
[Footnote 1193: Berry, in the Trial, vol. iv, p. 45.]
[Footnote 1194: Journal du siege, p. 96. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 299. Chronique de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 295. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 82. Berry, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 44. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 325.]
[Footnote 1195: Trial, vol. iii, p. 94. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 150, 151.]
[Footnote 1196: Journal du siege, Chronique de la Pucelle, Berry, Jean Chartier, loc. cit. Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, p. 284. Falconbridge, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 452.]
This was the army which had been the cause of Jeanne's anxiety on the 4th of May, because her saints had not told her where Fastolf was. The captains held a council of war. Many thought the siege ought to be abandoned and that the army should go to meet Fastolf. Some actually went off at once. Jeanne exhorted the men-at-arms to continue their march on Jargeau. Where Sir John Fastolf's army was, she knew no more than the others; her reasons were not of this world.
"Be not afraid of any armed host whatsoever," she said, "and make no difficulty of attacking the English, for Messire leads you."
And again she said: "Were I not assured that Messire leads, I would rather be keeping sheep than running so great a danger."
She gained a better hearing from the Duke of Alencon than from any of the Orleans leaders.[1197] Those who had gone were recalled and the march on Jargeau was continued.[1198]
[Footnote 1197: Perceval de Cagny, p. 148, passim. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 300.]
[Footnote 1198: Trial, vol. iii, p. 95.]
The suburbs of the town appeared undefended; but, when the French King's men approached, they found the English posted in front of the outbuildings, wherefore they were compelled to retreat. When the Maid beheld this, she seized her standard and threw herself upon the enemy, calling on the fighting men to take courage. That night, the French King's men were able to encamp in the suburbs.[1199] They kept no watch, and yet from the Duke of Alencon's own avowal they would have been in great danger if the English had made a sally.[1200] The Maid's judgment was even more fully justified than she expected. Everything in her army depended upon the grace of God.
[Footnote 1199: The night of Friday, the 10th to 11th of June.]
[Footnote 1200: Trial, vol. iii, p. 95.]
The very next day, in the morning the besiegers brought their siege train and their mortars up to the walls. The Orleans cannon fired upon the town and did great damage. Three of La Bergere's volleys wrecked the greatest tower on the fortifications.[1201]
[Footnote 1201: Ibid. Journal du siege, p. 97.]
The train-bands reached Jargeau on Saturday, the 11th. Straightway, without staying to take counsel, they hastened to the trenches and began the assault. They were too zealous; consequently, they went badly to work, received no aid from the men-at-arms and were driven back in disorder.[1202]
[Footnote 1202: Perceval de Cagny, p. 150.]
On Saturday night, the Maid, who was accustomed to summon the enemy before fighting, approached the entrenchments, and cried out to the English: "Surrender the town to the King of Heaven and to King Charles, and depart, or it will be the worse for you."[1203]
[Footnote 1203: Ibid.]
To this summons the English paid no heed, albeit they had a great desire to come to some understanding. The Earl of Suffolk came to my Lord the Bastard, and told him that if he would refrain from the attack, the town should be surrendered to him. The English asked for a fortnight's respite, after which time, they would undertake to withdraw immediately, they and their horses, provided, doubtless, that by that time they had not been relieved.[1204] On both sides such conditional surrenders were common. The Sire de Baudricourt had signed one at Vaucouleurs just before Jeanne's arrival there.[1205] In this case it was mere trickery to ask the French to enter into such an agreement just when Sir John Fastolf was coming with artillery and supplies.[1206] It has been asserted that the Bastard was taken in this snare; but such a thing is incredible; he was far too wily for that. Nevertheless, on the morrow, which was Sunday and the 12th of the month, the Duke of Alencon and the nobles, who were holding a council concerning the measures for the capture of the town, were told that Captain La Hire was conferring with the Earl of Suffolk. They were highly displeased.[1207] Captain La Hire, who was not a general, could not treat in his own name, and had doubtless received powers from my Lord the Bastard. The latter commanded for the Duke, a prisoner in the hands of the English, while the Duke of Alencon commanded for the King; and hence the disagreement.
[Footnote 1204: Trial, vol. i, pp. 79, 95.]
[Footnote 1205: S. Luce, Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy, p. clxviii.]
[Footnote 1206: Journal du siege, Chronique de la Pucelle, J. Chartier, Monstrelet, loc. cit.]
[Footnote 1207: Trial, vol. iii, p. 95.]
The Maid, who was always ready to show mercy to prisoners when they surrendered and at the same time always ready to fight, said: "If they will, let them in their jackets of mail depart from Jargeau with their lives! If they will not, the town shall be stormed."[1208]
[Footnote 1208: Ibid., vol. i, pp. 79-80, 234.]
The Duke of Alencon, without even inquiring the terms of the capitulation, had Captain La Hire recalled.
He came, and straightway the ladders were brought. The heralds sounded the trumpets and cried: "To the assault."
The Maid unfurled her standard, and fully armed, wearing on her head one of those light helmets known as chapelines,[1209] she went down into the trenches with the King's men and the train-bands, well within reach of arrows and cannon-balls. She kept by the Duke of Alencon's side, saying: "Forward! fair duke, to the assault."
[Footnote 1209: Ibid., vol. iii, p. 97. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 150-151.]
The Duke, who was not so courageous as she, thought that she went rather hastily to work; and this he gave her to understand.
Then she encouraged him: "Fear not. God's time is the right time. When He wills it you must open the attack. Go forward, He will prepare the way."
And seeing him lack confidence, she reminded him of the promise she had recently made concerning him in the Abbey of Saint-Florent-les-Saumur. "Oh! Fair Duke, can you be afraid? Do you not remember that I promised your wife to bring you back safe and sound?"[1210]
[Footnote 1210: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 95-96.]
In the thick of the attack, she noticed on the wall one of those long thin mortars, which, from the manner of its charging, was called a breechloader. Seeing it hurl stones on the very spot where the King's fair cousin was standing, she realised the danger, but not for herself. "Move away," she said quickly. "That cannon will kill you."
The Duke had not moved more than a few yards, when a nobleman of Anjou, the Sire Du Lude, having taken the place he had quitted, was killed by a ball from that same cannon.[1211] The Duke of Alencon marvelled at her prophetic gift. Doubtless the Maid had been sent to save him, but she had not been sent to save the Sire Du Lude. The angels of the Lord are sent for the salvation of some, for the destruction of others. When the French King's men reached the wall, the Earl of Suffolk cried out for a parley with the Duke of Alencon. No heed was paid to him and the assault continued.[1212]
[Footnote 1211: Ibid., pp. 96, 97. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 301. Journal du siege, p. 97.]
[Footnote 1212: Trial, vol. iii, p. 97.]
The attack had lasted four hours,[1213] when Jeanne, standard in hand, climbed up a ladder leaning against the rampart. A stone fired from a cannon struck her helmet and knocked it with its escutcheon, bearing her arms, off her head. They thought she was crushed, but she rose quickly and cried to the fighting men: "Up, friends, up! Messire has doomed the English. They are ours at this moment. Be of good cheer."[1214]
[Footnote 1213: Journal du siege, p. 100.]
[Footnote 1214: Trial, vol. iii, p. 97. Journal du siege, p. 98. Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 301-302. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 150-151.]
The wall was scaled and the French King's men penetrated into the town. The English fled into La Beauce and the French rushed in pursuit of them. Guillaume Regnault, a squire of Auvergne, came up with the Earl of Suffolk on the bridge and took him prisoner.
"Are you a gentleman?" asked Suffolk.
"Yes."
"Are you a knight?"
"No."
The Earl of Suffolk dubbed him a knight and surrendered to him.[1215]
[Footnote 1215: Journal du siege, p. 99. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 302. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 82. Berry, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 65.]
Very soon the rumour ran that the Earl of Suffolk had surrendered on his knees to the Maid.[1216] It was even stated that he had asked to surrender to her as to the bravest lady in the world.[1217] But it is more likely that he would have surrendered to the lowest menial of the army rather than to a woman whom he held to be a witch possessed of the devil.
[Footnote 1216: Fragment of a letter concerning the wonders which happened in Poitou, in Trial, vol. v, p. 122.]
[Footnote 1217: Relation du greffier de La Rochelle, p. 340. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 70. Trial, vol. v, pp. 121-122.]
John Pole, Suffolk's brother, was likewise taken on the bridge. The Duke's third brother, Alexander Pole, was slain in the same place or drowned in the Loire.[1218]
[Footnote 1218: Trial, vol. iii, p. 72. Perceval de Cagny, p. 151. Journal du siege, p. 99. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 328. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 128, 129.]
The garrison surrendered at discretion. Now, as always, no great harm was done during the battle, but afterwards the conquerors made up for it. Five hundred English were massacred; the nobles alone were held to ransom. And over them, the French fell to quarrelling. The French nobles kept them all for themselves; the train-bands claimed their share, and, not getting it, began to destroy everything. What the nobles could save was carried off during the night, by water, to Orleans. The town was completely sacked; the old church, which had served the Godons as a magazine, was pillaged.[1219]
[Footnote 1219: Journal du siege, p. 99.]
Including killed and wounded, the French had not lost twenty men.[1220]
[Footnote 1220: Perceval de Cagny, p. 151. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 302. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, pp. 82, 83. Berry, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 65.]
Without disarming, the Maid and the knights returned to Orleans. To celebrate the taking of Jargeau, the magistrates organised a public procession. An eloquent sermon was preached by a Jacobin monk, Brother Robert Baignart.[1221]
[Footnote 1221: Accounts of the town of Orleans at the end of Le Journal du siege, ed. Charpentier and Cuissard, p. 229. Le R.P. Chapotin, La guerre de cent ans, Jeanne d'Arc et les Dominicains, Paris, 1889, 8vo, p. 82.]
The inhabitants of Orleans presented the Duke of Alencon with six casks of wine, the Maid with four, the Count of Vendome with two.[1222]
[Footnote 1222: A. de Villaret, Campagne des Anglais, proofs and illustrations, p. 51.]
As an acknowledgment of the good and acceptable services rendered by the holy maiden, the councillors of the captive Duke Charles of Orleans, gave her a green cloak and a robe of crimson Flemish cloth or fine Brussels purple. Jean Luillier, who furnished the stuff, asked eight crowns for two ells of fine Brussels at four crowns the ell; two crowns for the lining of the robe; two crowns for an ell of yellowish green cloth, making in all twelve golden crowns.[1223] Jean Luillier was a young woollen draper who adored the Maid and regarded her as an angel of God. He had a good heart; but fear of the English dazzled him, and where they were concerned caused him to see double.[1224] One of his kinsfolk was a member of the council elected in 1429. He himself was to be appointed magistrate a little later.[1225]
[Footnote 1223: Trial, vol. v, pp. 112-113.]
[Footnote 1224: Ibid., vol. iii, p. 23.]
[Footnote 1225: Ibid., vol. v, p. 306.]
Jean Bourgeois, tailor, asked one golden crown for the making of the robe and the cloak, as well as for furnishing white satin, taffeta, and other stuffs.[1226]
[Footnote 1226: Ibid., pp. 112, 114.]
The town had previously given the Maid half an ell of cloth of two shades of green worth thirty-five sous of Paris to make "nettles" for her gown.[1227] Nettles were the Duke of Orleans' device, green or purple or crimson his colours.[1228] This green was no longer the bright colour of earlier days, it had gradually been growing darker as the fortunes of the house declined. It had first been a vivid green, then a brownish shade, and, finally, the tint of the faded leaf with a suggestion of black in it which signified sorrow and mourning. The Maid's colour was feuillemort. She, like the officers of the duchy and the men of the train-bands, wore the Orleans livery; and thus they made of her a kind of herald-at-arms or heraldic angel.
[Footnote 1227: Accounts of the Fortress, in Trial, vol. v, p. 259.]
[Footnote 1228: Trial, vol. v, pp. 106, 259. Catalogue des Arch. de Joursanvault, vol. i, p. 129, nos. 603, 607, 619, 645, 772. Dambreville, Abrege de l'histoire des ordres de chevalerie, p. 167. P. Mantellier, Histoire du siege, p. 92.]
The cloak of yellowish green and the robe embroidered with nettles, she must have been glad to wear for love of Duke Charles, whom the English had treated with such sore despite. Having come to defend the heritage of the captive prince, she said that in Jesus' name, the good Duke of Orleans was on her mind and she was confident that she would deliver him.[1229] Her design was first to summon the English to give him up; then, if they refused, to cross the sea and with an army to seek him in England.[1230] In case such means failed her, she had thought of another course which she would adopt, with the permission of her saints. She would ask the King if he would let her take prisoners, believing that she could take enough to exchange for Duke Charles.[1231] Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret had promised her that thus his deliverance would take her less than three years and longer than one.[1232] Such were the pious dreams of a child lulled to sleep by the sound of her village bells! Deeming it just that she should labour and suffer to rescue her princes from trouble and weariness, she used to say, like a good servant: "I know that in matters of bodily ease God loves my King and the Duke of Orleans better than me; and I know it because it hath been revealed unto me."[1233]
[Footnote 1229: Trial, vol. i, p. 55, 258.]
[Footnote 1230: Ibid., p. 254.]
[Footnote 1231: Ibid., p. 133.]
[Footnote 1232: Ibid., pp. 133, 254.]
[Footnote 1233: Ibid., p. 258.]
Then, speaking of the captive duke she would say: "My Voices have revealed much to me concerning him. Duke Charles hath oftener been the subject of my revelations than any man living except my King."[1234]
[Footnote 1234: Ibid., p. 55.]
In reality, all that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret had done was to tell her of the well-known misfortunes of the Prince. Valentine of Milan's son and Isabelle Romee's daughter were separated by a gulf broader and deeper than the ocean which stretched between them. They dwelt at the antipodes of the world of souls, and all the saints of Paradise would have been unable to explain one to the other.
All the same Duke Charles was a good prince and a debonair; he was kind and he was pitiful. More than any other he possessed the gift of pleasing. He charmed by his grace, albeit but ill-looking and of weak constitution.[1235] His temperament was so out of harmony with his position that he may be said to have endured his life rather than to have lived it. His father assassinated by night in the Rue Barbette in Paris by order of Duke John; his mother a perennial fount of tears, dying of anger and of grief in a Franciscan nunnery; the two S's, standing for Soupirs (sighs) and Souci (care), the emblems and devices of her mourning, revealing her ingenious mind fancifully elegant even in despair; the Armagnacs, the Burgundians, the Cabochiens, cutting each other's throats around him; these were the sights he had witnessed when little more than a child. Then he had been wounded and taken prisoner at the Battle of Azincourt.
[Footnote 1235: Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. fr. 966, fol. 1.]
Now, for fourteen years, dragged from castle to castle, from one end to the other of the island of fogs; imprisoned within thick walls, closely guarded, receiving two or three of his countrymen at long intervals, but never permitted to converse with one except before witnesses, he felt old before his time, blighted by misfortune. "Fruit fallen in its greenness, I was put to ripen on prison straw. I am winter fruit,"[1236] he said of himself. In his captivity, he suffered without hope, knowing that on his death-bed Henry V had recommended his brother not to give him up at any price.[1237]
[Footnote 1236: Les poesies de Charles d'Orleans, ed. Guichard, 1842, in 12mo, p. 145.]
[Footnote 1237: A. Champollion-Figeac, Louis et Charles, ducs d'Orleans, leur influence sur les arts, la litterature et l'esprit de leur siecle, Paris, 1844, 1 vol. in 8vo, with an atlas, pp. 300-337.]
Kind to others, kind to himself, he took refuge in his own thoughts, which were as bright and clear as his life was dark and sad. In the gloom of the stern castles of Windsor and of Bolingbroke, in the Tower of London, side by side with his gaolers, he lived and moved in the world of phantasy of the Romance of the Rose. Venus, Cupid, Hope, Fair-Welcome, Pleasure, Pity, Danger, Sadness, Care, Melancholy, Sweet-Looks were around the desk, on which, in the deep embrasure of a window, beneath the sun's rays, he wrote his ballads, as delicate and fresh as an illumination on the page of a manuscript. For him it was the world of allegory that really existed. He wandered in the forest of Long Expectation; he embarked on the vessel Good Tidings. He was a poet; Beauty was his lady; and courteously did he sing of her. From his verses one would say that he was but the Captive of Lord Love.[1238]
[Footnote 1238: Les poesies de Charles d'Orleans, ed. A. Champollion-Figeac, Paris, 1842, 8vo. Pierre Champion, Le manuscrit autographe des poesies de Charles d'Orleans, Paris, 1907, 8vo.]
He was left in ignorance of the affairs of his duchy; and, if he ever concerned himself about it, it was when he collected the books of King Charles V which had been bought by the Duke of Bedford and resold to London merchants;[1239] or when he commanded that on the approach of the English to Blois, its fine tapestries and his father's library should be carried off to La Rochelle. After Beauty rich hangings and delicate miniatures were what he loved most in the world.[1240] The bright sunshine of France, the lovely month of May, dancing and ladies were what he longed for most. He was cured of prowess and of chivalry.
[Footnote 1239: L. Delisle, Recherches sur la librairie de Charles V (1907), vol. i, p. 140.]
[Footnote 1240: Le Roux de Lincy, La bibliotheque de Charles d'Orleans a son chateau de Blois, en 1427, Paris, 1843, 8vo, pp. 5-7. Comte de Laborde, Les ducs de Bourgogne, etudes sur les lettres, les arts et l'industrie pendant le XV'e siecle, Paris, 1852, vol. iii, pp. 235 et seq.—Inventaires et documents relatifs aux joyaux et tapisseries des princes d'Orleans-Valois, Paris, 1894, 8vo.]
Some have wished to believe that from his duchy news reached him of the Maid's coming. They have gone so far as to imagine that a faithful servant kept him informed of the happy incidents of May and June, 1429;[1241] but nothing is less certain. On the contrary, the probability is that the English refused to let him receive any message, and that he was totally ignorant of all that was going on in the two kingdoms.[1242]
[Footnote 1241: Chronique de la Pucelle, Introduction by Vallet de Viriville, pp. 8, 19 et seq.]
[Footnote 1242: With regard to the year 1433, this is well established (Poesies completes de Charles d'Orleans, ed. Charles d'Hericault, Paris, 1874, 2 vols. 8vo, introduction).]
Possibly he did not care for news of the war as much as one might expect. He hoped nothing from men-at-arms; and it was not to his fair cousins of France and to feats of prowess and battles that he looked for deliverance. He knew too much about them. It was in peace that he put his trust, both for himself and for his people. Since the fathers were dead, he thought that the sons might forgive and forget. He placed his hope in his cousin of Burgundy; and he was right, for the fortunes of the English were in the hands of Duke Philip. Charles brought himself, or at any rate he was to bring himself later, to recognise the suzerainty of the King of England. It is less important to consider the weakness of men than the force of circumstances. And the prisoner could never do enough to obtain peace: "joy's greatest treasure."[1243]
[Footnote 1243: Poesies de Charles d'Orleans, ed. A. Champollion-Figeac, pp. 175-176.]
No, despite her revelations, the picture Jeanne imagined of her fair Duke was not the true one. They were never to meet; but if they had met there would have been serious misunderstandings between them, and they would have remained incomprehensible one to the other. Jeanne's elemental, straight-forward way of thinking could never have accorded with the ideas of so great a noble and so courteous a poet. They could never have understood each other because she was simple, he subtle; because she was a prophetess while he was filled with courtly knowledge and lettered grace; because she believed, and he was as one not believing; because she was a daughter of the common folk and a saint ascribing all sovereignty to God, while for him law consisted in feudal uses and customs, alliances and treaties;[1244] because, in short, they held conflicting ideas concerning life and the world. The Maid's mission, her being sent by Messire to recover his duchy for him, would never have appealed to the good Duke; and Jeanne would never have understood his behaviour towards his English and Burgundian cousins. It was better they should never meet.
[Footnote 1244: For him every treaty of peace was a good treaty, even that of 1420, the Treaty of Troyes (Pierre Champion, Le manuscrit autographe des poesies de Charles d'Orleans, Paris, 1907, 8vo, p. 32).]
The capture of Jargeau had given the French control of the upper Loire. In order to free the city of Orleans from all danger, it was necessary to make sure of the banks of the lower river. There the English still held Meung and Beaugency. On Tuesday, the 14th of June, at the hour of vespers, the army took the field.[1245]
[Footnote 1245: Perceval de Cagny, p. 152: "Je veux demain, apres diner, aller voir ceux de Meung." ["To-morrow after dinner I will go to the people of Meung."] The turn of expression which this chronicle attributes to Jeanne is really that of the clerk who wrote it.]
They passed through La Sologne, and that same evening gained the Bridge of Meung, situated above the town and separated from its walls by a broad meadow. Like most bridges, it was defended by a castlet at each end; and the English had provided it with an earthen outwork, as they had done for Les Tourelles at Orleans.[1246] They defended it badly, however, and the French King's men forced their way in before nightfall. They left a garrison there, and went out to encamp in Beauce, almost under the walls. The young Duke of Alencon lodged in a church with a few men-at-arms; and, as was his wont, did not keep watch. He was surprised and ran great danger.[1247]
[Footnote 1246: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 71, 97, 110. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 305. Journal du siege, p. 101. Berry, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 44. Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 479. Eberhard Windecke, p. 176.]
[Footnote 1247: Trial, vol. iii, p. 97.]
The town garrison, which was a small one, was commanded by Lord Scales, and "the Child of Warwick." The next day, early in the morning, the King's men, passing within a cannon shot of the town of Meung, marched straight on Beaugency, which they reached in the morning.[1248]
[Footnote 1248: Ibid., pp. 97, 98.]
The ancient little town, built on the side of a hill and girt around with vineyards, gardens, and cornfields, sloped before them towards the green valley of the Ru. Straight in front of them rose its square tower of somewhat proud aspect, although it had oftentimes been taken. The suburbs were not fortified; but the French, when they entered them, were riddled by a shower of arrows of every kind, fired by archers concealed in dwellings and outhouses. On both sides there were killed and wounded. Finally, the English retreated into the castle and the bridge bastions.[1249]
[Footnote 1249: Journal du siege, p. 101. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 304. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 83.]
The Duke of Alencon stationed sentinels in front of the castle to watch the English. Just then, he saw coming towards him, two nobles of Brittany, the Lords of Rostrenen and of Kermoisan, who said to him: "The Constable asks the besiegers for entertainment."[1250]
[Footnote 1250: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 97, 98. Gruel, Chronique de Richemont, p. 70.]
Arthur of Brittany, Sire de Richemont, Constable of France, had spent the winter in Poitou waging war against the troops of the Sire de La Tremouille. Now in defiance of the King's prohibition the Constable came to join the King's men.[1251] He had crossed the Loire at Amboise and arrived before Beaugency with six hundred men-at-arms and four hundred archers.[1252] His coming caused the captains great embarrassment. Some esteemed him a man of strong will and great courage. But many were dependent upon the Sire de La Tremouille, as for example the poor squire, Jean d'Aulon. The Duke of Alencon wanted to retreat, alleging that the King had commanded him not to receive the Constable.
[Footnote 1251: E. Cosneau, Le connetable de Richemont, pp. 93 et seq.]
[Footnote 1252: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 315, 516. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 84. Journal du siege, pp. 101, 102. Perceval de Cagny, p. 153.]
"If the Constable comes, I shall retire," he said to Jeanne.
To the Breton nobles he replied, that if the Constable came into the camp, the Maid, and the besiegers would fight against him.[1253]
[Footnote 1253: Trial, vol. iii, p. 98. E. Cosneau, Le connetable de Richemont, p. 168.]
So decided was he that he mounted his horse to ride straight up to the Bretons. The Maid, out of respect for him and for the King, was preparing to follow him. But many of the captains restrained the Duke of Alencon[1254] deeming that now was not the time to break a lance with the Constable of France.
[Footnote 1254: Gruel, Chronique de Richemont, pp. 70 et seq.]
On the morrow a loud alarm was sounded in the camp. The heralds were crying: "To arms!" The English were said to be approaching in great numbers. The young Duke still wanted to retreat in order to avoid receiving the Constable. This time Jeanne dissuaded him: "We must stand together," she said.[1255]
[Footnote 1255: Trial, vol. iii, p. 98.]
He listened to this counsel and went forth to meet the Constable, followed by the Maid, my Lord the Bastard, and the Lords of Laval. Near the leper's hospital at Beaugency they encountered a fine company. As they approached, a thick-lipped little man, dark and frowning, alighted from his horse.[1256] It was Arthur of Brittany. The Maid embraced his knees as she was accustomed to do when holding converse with the great ones of heaven and earth. Thus did every baron when he met one nobler than himself.[1257]
[Footnote 1256: Gruel, Chronique de Richemont, p. 71. Cf. E. Cosneau, Le connetable de Richemont, pp. 169, 583. See a drawing in the Gaignieres collection reproduced by J. Lair, Essai sur la bataille de Formigny, 1903, 8vo.]
[Footnote 1257: Lors le saluerent et le vinrent accoller par les jambes. (Then they saluted him and embraced his knees.) J. de Bueil, Le Jouvencel, vol. i, p. 191.]
The Constable spoke to her as a good Catholic, a devout servant of God and the Church, saying: "Jeanne, I have heard that you wanted to fight against me. Whether you are sent by God I know not. If you are I do not fear you. For God knows that my heart is right. If you are sent by the devil I fear you still less."[1258]
[Footnote 1258: Gruel, Chronique de Richemont, pp. 71-72. I have here followed Gruel, who is not generally very trustworthy, but whose account in this particular seems probable, at least he is no mere hagiographer.]
He was entitled to speak thus, for he made a point of never acknowledging the devil's power over him. His love of God he showed by seeking out wizards and witches with a greater zeal than was displayed by bishops and inquisitors. In France, in Poitou, and in Brittany he had sent more to the stake than any other man living.[1259]
[Footnote 1259: Ibid., p. 228.]
The Duke of Alencon dared not either dismiss him or grant him a lodging for the night. It was the custom for new comers to keep the watch. The Constable with his company kept watch that night in front of the castle.[1260]
[Footnote 1260: Ibid., p. 72. E. Cosneau, Le connetable de Richemont, p. 170.]
Without more ado the young Duke of Alencon proceeded to the attack. Here, again, those who bore the brunt of the attack and provided for the siege were the citizens of Orleans. The magistrates of the town had sent by water from Meung to Beaugency the necessary siege train, ladders, pickaxes, mattocks, and those great pent-houses beneath which the besiegers protected themselves like tortoises under their shells. They had sent also cannons and mortars. The gay gunner, Master Jean de Montesclere, was there.[1261] All these supplies were addressed to the Maid. The magistrate, Jean Boilleve, brought bread and wine in a barge.[1262] Throughout Friday, the 7th, mortars and cannon hurled stones on the besieged. At the same time from the valley and from the river the attack was being made from barges. On the 17th of June, at midnight, Sir Richard Gethyn, Bailie of Evreux, who commanded the garrison, offered to capitulate. It was agreed that the English should surrender the castle and bridge, and depart on the morrow, taking with them horses and harness with each man his property to the value of not more than one silver mark. Further, they were required to swear that they would not take up arms again before the expiration of ten days. On these terms, the next day, at sunrise, to the number of five hundred, they crossed the drawbridge and retreated on Meung, where the castle, but not the bridge, remained in the hands of the English.[1263] The Constable wisely sent a few men to reinforce the garrison on the Meung Bridge.[1264] Sir Richard Gethyn and Captain Matthew Gough were detained as hostages.[1265]
[Footnote 1261: Journal du siege, p. 97. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 301.]
[Footnote 1262: A. de Villaret, Campagne des Anglais, pp. 87-88, and proofs and illustrations, pp. 153, 158.]
[Footnote 1263: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 305. Journal du siege, p. 102. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 84. Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, pp. 279, 282. Monstrelet, vol. iii, pp. 325 et seq.]
[Footnote 1264: Gruel, Chronique de Richemont, p. 72.]
[Footnote 1265: Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, p. 279.]
The Beaugency garrison had been in too great haste to surrender. Scarce had it gone when a man-at-arms of Captain La Hire's company came to the Duke of Alencon saying: "The English are marching upon us. We shall have them in front of us directly. They are over there, full one thousand fighting men."
Jeanne heard him speak but did not seize his meaning.
"What is that man-at-arms saying?" she asked.
And when she knew, turning to Arthur of Brittany, who was close by, she said: "Ah! Fair Constable, it was not my will that you should come, but since you are here, I bid you welcome."[1266]
[Footnote 1266: Trial, vol. iii, p. 98.]
The force the French had to face was Sir John Talbot and Sir John Fastolf with the whole English army.
CHAPTER XVI
THE BATTLE OF PATAY—OPINIONS OF ITALIAN AND GERMAN ECCLESIASTICS—THE GIEN ARMY
Having left Paris on the 9th of June, Sir John Fastolf was coming through La Beauce with five thousand fighting men. To the English at Jargeau he was bringing victuals and arrows in abundance. Learning by the way that the town had surrendered, he left his stores at Etampes and marched on to Janville, where Sir John Talbot joined him with forty lances and two hundred bowmen.[1267]
[Footnote 1267: Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, ed. Dupont, vol. i, p. 281. Berry, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 44. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 85. Journal du siege, pp. 102, 103. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 306. Gruel, Chronique de Richemont, p. 72. Falconbridge, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 452. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 71-73.]
There they heard that the French had taken the Meung bridge and laid siege to Beaugency. Sir John Talbot wished to march to the relief of the inhabitants of Beaugency and deliver them with the aid of God and Saint George. Sir John Fastolf counselled abandoning Sir Richard Gethyn and his garrison to their fate; for the moment he deemed it wiser not to fight. Finding his own men fearful and the French full of courage, he thought the best thing the English could do would be to establish themselves in the towns, castles, and strongholds remaining to them, there to await the reinforcements promised by the Regent.
"In comparison with the French we are but a handfull," he said. "If luck should turn against us, then we should be in a fair way to lose all those conquests won by our late King Henry after strenuous effort and long delay."[1268]
[Footnote 1268: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 331. Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, pp. 283 et seq.]
His advice was disregarded and the army marched on Beaugency. The force was not far from the town on Friday, the 17th of June, just when the garrison was issuing forth with horses, armour, and baggage to the amount of one silver mark's worth for each man.[1269]
[Footnote 1269: Chronique de la Pucelle, J. Chartier, Gruel, Morosini, Berry, Monstrelet, Wavrin, loc. cit. Lettre de Jacques de Bourbon, Comte de la Marche a Guill. de Champeaux, eveque de Laon, according to a Vienna MS. by Bougenot, in Bull. du Com. des travaux hist. et scientif. hist. et phil., 1892, pp. 56-65. (French translation by S. Luce, in La revue bleue, February 13, 1892, pp. 201-204.)]
Informed of the army's approach the French King's men went forth to meet it. The scouts had not far to ride before they descried the standards and pennons of England waving over the plain, about two and a half miles from Patay. Then the French ascended a hill whence they could observe the enemy. Captain La Hire and the young Sire de Termes said to the Maid: "The English are coming. They are in battle array and ready to fight."
As was her wont, she made answer: "Strike boldly and they will flee."
And she added that the battle would not be long.[1270]
[Footnote 1270: Trial, vol. iii, p. 120. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 328. The clerk who wrote down Thibault de Termes' evidence, being ill-informed, described these words as having been uttered at the Battle of Patay. At Patay, Jeanne and La Hire were not near each other.]
Believing that the French were offering them battle, the English took up their position. The archers planted their stakes in the ground, their points inclined towards the enemy. Thus they generally prepared to fight; they had not done otherwise at the Battle of the Herrings. The sun was already declining on the horizon.[1271]
[Footnote 1271: Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, p. 286.]
The Duke of Alencon had by no means decided to descend into the plain. In presence of the Constable, my Lord the Bastard and the captains, he consulted the holy Maid, who gave him an enigmatical answer: "See to it that you have good spurs."
Taking her to mean the Count of Clermont's spurs, the spurs of Rouvray, the Duke of Alencon exclaimed: "What do you say? Shall we turn our backs on them?"
"Nay," she replied.
On all occasions her Voices counselled unwavering confidence. "Nay. In God's name, go down against them; for they shall flee and shall not stay and shall be utterly discomfited; and you shall lose scarce any men; wherefore you will need your spurs to pursue them."[1272]
[Footnote 1272: Trial, vol. iii, p. 11. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 307. It is clear that this passage from Dunois' evidence and from La chronique de la Pucelle cannot refer to the battle of June 18th, as has been thought. "All the English divisions," says Dunois, "united into one army. We thought they were going to offer us battle." He is evidently referring to what happened on the 17th of June. The Duke of Alencon's evidence confuses everything. How could the Maid have said of the English: "God sends them against us," when they were fleeing?]
According to the opinions of doctors and masters it was well to listen to the Maid, but at the same time to follow the course marked out by human wisdom.
The commanders of the army, either because they judged the occasion unfavourable or because, after so many defeats, they feared a pitched battle, did not come down from their hill. The two heralds sent by two English knights to offer single combat received the answer: "For to-day you may go to bed, because it grows late. But to-morrow, if it be God's will, we will come to closer quarters."[1273]
[Footnote 1273: Those who would attribute this saying to the Maid have misunderstood Wavrin. Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, p. 287.]
The English, assured that they would not be attacked, marched off to pass the night at Meung.[1274]
[Footnote 1274: Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, p. 287. Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 326 et seq.]
On the morrow, Saturday, the 18th, Saint Hubert's day, the French went forth against them. They were not there. The Godons had decamped early in the morning and gone off, with cannon, ammunition, and victuals, towards Janville,[1275] where they intended to entrench themselves.
[Footnote 1275: Chronique de la Pucelle, Journal du siege, Gruel, J. Chartier, Berry, loc. cit.]
Straightway King Charles's army of twelve thousand men[1276] set out in pursuit of them. Along the Paris road they went, over the plain of Beauce, wooded, full of game, covered with thickets and brushwood, wild, but finely to the taste of English and French riders, who praised it highly.[1277]
[Footnote 1276: Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, p. 289. Fauche-Prunelle, Lettres tirees des archives de l'eveche de Grenoble, in Bull. acad. Delph., vol. ii, 1847, pp. 458 et seq. Letter from Charles VII to the town of Tours, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 262, 263.]
[Footnote 1277: Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, p. 289. The herald Berry, Le livre de la description des pays, ed. Hamy.]
Gazing over the infinite plain, where the earth seems to recede before one's glance, the Maid beheld the sky in front of her, that cloudy sky of plains, suggesting marvellous adventures on the mountains of the air, and she cried: "In God's name, if they were hanging from the clouds we should have them."[1278]
[Footnote 1278: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 98, 99. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 306. Chronique normande, ch. xlviii, ed. Vallet de Viriville. Monstrelet, vol. iii, pp. 325 et seq. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 72-73. Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, pp. 289-290. These words are said to have been uttered when the English had been discovered, but then they would have been meaningless.]
Now, as on the previous evening, she prophesied: "To-day our fair King shall win a victory greater than has been his for a long time. My Council has told me that they are all ours."
She foretold that there would be few, or none of the French slain.[1279]
[Footnote 1279: Trial, vol. iii, p. 99 (the Duke of Alencon's evidence).]
Captain Poton and Sire Arnault de Gugem went forth to reconnoitre. The most skilled men-of-war, and among them my Lord the Bastard and the Marshal de Boussac, mounted on the finest of war-steeds, formed the vanguard. Then under the leadership of Captain La Hire, who knew the country, came the horse of the Duke of Alencon, the Count of Vendome, the Constable of France, with archers and cross-bowmen. Last of all came the rear-guard, commanded by the lords of Graville, Laval, Rais, and Saint-Gilles.[1280]
[Footnote 1280: Ibid., p. 71 (evidence of Louis de Coutes). Letter from Jacques de Bourbon in La revue bleue, February 13, 1892, pp. 201-204. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 327. Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, p. 289.]
The Maid, ever zealous, desired to be in the vanguard; but she was kept back. She did not lead the men-at-arms, rather the men-at-arms led her. They regarded her, not as captain of war but as a bringer of good luck. Greatly saddened, she must needs take her place in the rear, in the company, doubtless, of the Sire de Rais, where she had originally been placed.[1281] The whole army pressed forward for fear the enemy should escape them.
[Footnote 1281: Trial, vol. iii, p. 71. Journal du siege, p. 140. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 307. Deux documents sur Jeanne d'Arc in La revue bleue, February 13, 1892.]
After they had ridden twelve or thirteen miles in overpowering heat, and passed Saint-Sigismond on the left and got beyond Saint-Peravy, Captain Poton's sixty to eighty scouts reached a spot where the ground, which had been level hitherto, descends, and where the road leads down into a hollow called La Retreve. They could not actually see the hollow, but beyond it the ground rose gently; and, dimly visible, scarcely two and a half miles away was the belfry of Lignerolles on the wooded plain known as Climat-du-Camp. A league straight in front of them was the little town of Patay.[1282]
[Footnote 1282: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 11, 71, 98. Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 306 et seq. Journal du siege, pp. 103 et seq. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 85. Le Comte de Vassal, La bataille de Patay, Orleans, 1890.]
It is two o'clock in the afternoon. Poton's and Gugem's horse chance to raise a stag, which darts out of a thicket and plunges down into the hollow of La Retreve. Suddenly a clamour of voices ascends from the hollow. It proceeds from the English soldiers loudly disputing over the game which has fallen into their hands. Thus informed of the enemy's presence, the French scouts halt and straightway despatch certain of their company to go and tell the army that they have surprised the Godons and that it is time to set to work.[1283]
[Footnote 1283: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 328.]
Now this is what had been happening among the English. They were retreating in good order on Janville, their vanguard commanded by a knight bearing a white standard.[1284] Then came the artillery and the victuals in waggons driven by merchants; then the main body of the army, commanded by Sir John Talbot and Sir John Fastolf. The rear-guard, which was likely to bear the brunt of the attack, consisted only of Englishmen from England.[1285] It followed at some distance from the rest. Its scouts, having seen the French without being seen by them, informed Sir John Talbot, who was then between the hamlet of Saint-Peravy and the town of Patay. On this information he called a halt and commanded the vanguard with waggons and cannon to take up its position on the edge of the Lignerolles wood. The position was excellent: backed by the forest, the combatants were secure against being attacked in the rear,[1286] while in front they were able to entrench themselves behind their waggons. The main body did not advance so far. It halted some little distance from Lignerolles, in the hollow of La Retreve. On this spot the road was lined with quickset hedges. Sir John Talbot with five hundred picked bowmen stationed himself there to await the French who must perforce pass that way. His design was to defend the road until the rear-guard had had time to join the main body, and then, keeping close to the hedges, he would fall back upon the army.
[Footnote 1284: Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, p. 291.]
[Footnote 1285: Ibid., pp. 291-292.]
[Footnote 1286: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 329.]
The archers, as was their wont, were making ready to plant in the ground those pointed stakes, the spikes of which they turned against the chests of the enemy's horses, when the French, led by Poton's scouts, came down upon them like a whirlwind, overthrew them, and cut them to pieces.[1287]
[Footnote 1287: Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, p. 292. Monstrelet, vol. iii, pp. 329, 350.]
At this moment, Sir John Fastolf, at the head of the main body, was preparing to join the vanguard. Feeling the French cavalry at his heels, he gave spur and at full gallop led his men on to Lignerolles. When those of the white standard saw him arriving thus in rout, they thought he had been defeated. They took fright, abandoned the edge of the wood, rushed into the thickets of Climat-du-Camp and in great disorder came out on the Paris road. With the main body of the army, Sir John Fastolf pushed on in the same direction. There was no battle. Marching over the bodies of Talbot's archers, the French threw themselves on the English, who were as dazed as a flock of sheep and fell before the foe without resistance. Thus the French slew two thousand of those common folk whom the Godons were accustomed to transport from their own land to be killed in France. When the main body of the French, commanded by La Hire, reached Lignerolles, they found only eight hundred foot whom they soon overthrew. Of the twelve to thirteen thousand French on the march, scarce fifteen hundred took part in the battle or rather in the massacre. Sir John Talbot, who had leapt on to his horse without staying to put on his spurs, was taken prisoner by the Captains La Hire and Poton.[1288] The Lords Scales, Hungerford and Falconbridge, Sir Thomas Guerard, Richard Spencer and Fitz Walter were taken and held to ransom. In all, there were between twelve and fifteen hundred prisoners.[1289]
[Footnote 1288: "In the neighbourhood of Lignerolles there have been found horse-shoes, a javelin-point, the iron pieces of carts, and bullets." P. Mantellier, Histoire du siege, Orleans, 1867, 12mo, p. 139.]
[Footnote 1289: Trial, vol. iii, p. 11. Gruel, Chronique de Richemont, pp. 73-74. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 154 et seq. Chronique normande, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 340. Eberhard Windecke, p. 180. Lefevre de Saint-Remy, vol. ii, pp. 144, 145. Falconbridge, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 452. Commentaires de Pie II, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 512. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 72-75. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 306. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 86. Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 330-333. Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, p. 293. Letter from J. de Bourbon in La revue bleue, February 13, 1892. Letter from Charles VII to Tours and the people of Dauphine, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 345, 346.]
Not more than two hundred men-at-arms pursued the fugitives to the gates of Janville. Except for the vanguard, which had been the first to take flight, the English army was entirely destroyed. On the French side, the Sire de Termes, who was present, states that there was only one killed; a man of his own company. Perceval de Boulainvilliers, Councillor and King's Chamberlain, says there were three.[1290]
[Footnote 1290: Trial, vol. iii, p. 120; vol. v, p. 120.]
The Maid arrived[1291] before the slaughter was ended.[1292] She saw a Frenchman, who was leading some prisoners, strike one of them such a blow on the head that he fell down as if dead. She dismounted and procured the Englishman a confessor. She held his head and comforted him as far as she could. Such was the part she played in the Battle of Patay.[1293] It was the part of a saintly maid.
[Footnote 1291: "Et habuit l'avant garde La Hire de quo ipsa Johanna fuit multum irata, quia ipsa multum affectabat habere onus de l'avant garde La Hire qui conducebat l'avant garde percussit super Anglicos," Trial, vol. iii, p. 71 (evidence of Louis de Coutes).]
[Footnote 1292: "Habebat magnam pietatem de tanta occisione," Trial, vol. iii, p. 71.]
[Footnote 1293: After an examination of the documents I have concluded that Louis de Coutes' narrative refers to Patay.]
The French spent the night in the town. Sir John Talbot, having been brought before the Duke of Alencon and the Constable, was thus addressed by the young Duke: "This morning you little thought what would happen to you."
Talbot replied: "It is the chance of war."[1294]
[Footnote 1294: Trial, vol. iii, p. 99.]
A few breathless Godons succeeded in reaching Janville.[1295] But the townsfolk, with whom on their departure they had deposited their money and their goods, shut the gates in their faces and swore loyalty to King Charles.
[Footnote 1295: Boucher de Molandon, Janville, son donjon, son chateau, ses souvenirs du XV'e siecle, Orleans, 1886, 8vo.]
The English commanders of the two small strongholds in La Beauce, Montpipeau and Saint Sigismond, set fire to them and fled.[1296]
[Footnote 1296: Journal du siege, p. 105; Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 307, 308.]
From Patay the victorious army marched to Orleans. The inhabitants were expecting the King. They had hung up tapestries ready for his entrance.[1297] But the King and his Chamberlain, fearing and not without reason, some aggressive movement on the part of the Constable, held themselves secure in the Chateau of Sully.[1298] Thence they started for Chateauneuf on the 22nd of June. That same day the Maid joined the King at Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire. He received her with his usual kindness and said: "I pity you because of the suffering you endure." And he urged her to rest.
[Footnote 1297: Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 307-308. Journal du siege, p. 105.]
[Footnote 1298: De Beaucourt, Histoire de Charles VII, vol. ii, p. 222 et seq.; E. Cosneau, Le connetable de Richemont, p. 172.]
At these words she wept. It has been said that her tears flowed because of the indifference and incredulity towards her that the King's urbanity implied.[1299] But we must beware of attributing to the tears of the enraptured and the illuminated a cause intelligible to human reason. To her Charles appeared clothed in an ineffable splendour like that of the holiest of kings. How, since she had shown him her angels, invisible to ordinary folk, could she for one moment have thought that he lacked faith in her?
[Footnote 1299: Trial, vol. iii, p. 116 (evidence of S. Charles). "Et audivit ipse loquens ex ore regis multa bona de ea ... rex habuit pietatem de ea et de poena quam portabat."]
"Have no doubt," she said to him, confidently, "you shall receive the whole of your kingdom and shortly shall be crowned."[1300]
[Footnote 1300: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 76, 116.]
True, Charles seemed in no great haste to employ his knights in the recovery of his kingdom. But his Council just then had no idea of getting rid of the Maid. On the contrary, they were determined to use her cleverly, so as to put heart into the French, to terrify the English, and to convince the world that God, Saint Michael, and Saint Catherine, were on the side of the Armagnacs. In announcing the victory of Patay to the good towns, the royal councillors said not one word of the Constable, neither did they mention my Lord the Bastard.[1301] They described as leaders of the army, the Maid, with the two Princes of the Blood Royal, the Duke of Alencon, and the Duke of Vendome. In such wise did they exalt her. And, indeed, she must have been worth as much and more than a great captain, since the Constable attempted to seize her. With this enterprise, he charged one of his men, Andrieu de Beaumont, who had formerly been employed to carry off the Sire de la Tremouille. But, as Andrieu de Beaumont had failed with the Chamberlain, so he failed with the Maid.[1302]
[Footnote 1301: Letter from Charles VII to the people of Dauphine, published by Fauche-Prunelle, in Bull. de l'Acad. Delphinale, vol. ii, p. 459; to the inhabitants of Tours (Archives de Tours, Registre des comptes XXIV), in Cabinet historique, I, C. p. 109; to those of Poitiers, Redet, in Les memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires de l'Ouest, vol. iii, p. 406; Relation du greffier de la Rochelle in Revue historique, vol. iv, p. 459.]
[Footnote 1302: Journal du siege, pp. 106, 108; Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 89; Gruel, Chronique de Richemont, p. 74; Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 344, 347; E. Cosneau, Le connetable de Richemont, pp. 181, 182.]
Probably she herself knew nothing of this plot. She besought the King to pardon the Constable,—a request which proves how great was her naivete. By royal command Richemont received back his lordship of Parthenay.[1303]
[Footnote 1303: 1431, 8th of May. A decree condemning Andre de Beaumont to suffer capital punishment as being guilty of high treason. (Arch. nat. J. 366.) For a complete copy of this document I am indebted to Monsieur Pierre Champion.]
Duke John of Brittany, who had married a sister of Charles of Valois, was not always pleased with his brother-in-law's counsellors. In 1420, considering him too Burgundian, they had devised for him a Bridge of Montereau.[1304] In reality, he was neither Armagnac nor Burgundian nor French nor English, but Breton. In 1423 he recognised the Treaty of Troyes; but two years later, when his brother, the Duke of Richemont, had gone over to the French King and received the Constable's sword from him, Duke John went to Charles of Valois, at Saumur, and did homage for his duchy.[1305] In short, he extricated himself cleverly from the most embarrassing situations and succeeded in remaining outside the quarrel of the two kings who were both eager to involve him in it. While France and England were cutting each other's throats, he was raising Brittany from its ruins.[1306]
[Footnote 1304: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 30; De Beaucourt, Histoire de Charles VII, vol. i, pp. 202 et seq.]
[Footnote 1305: Dom Morice, Histoire de Bretagne, vol. ii, col. 1135-6; De Beaucourt, loc. cit., vol. ii, chap. vii.]
[Footnote 1306: Bellier-Dumaine, L'administration du duche de Bretagne sous le regne de Jean V (1399-1442) in Les annales de Bretagne, vol. xiv-xvi (1898-99) passim, and 3rd part, Jean V and commerce, industry, agriculture, public education (vol. xvi, p. 246), and 4th part, chap. iii, Jean V and towns, rural parishes (vol. xvi, p. 495).]
The Maid filled him with curiosity and admiration. Shortly after the Battle of Patay, he sent to her, Hermine, his herald-at-arms, and Brother Yves Milbeau, his confessor, to congratulate her on her victory.[1307] The good Brother was told to question Jeanne.
[Footnote 1307: Eberhard Windecke, p. 179.]
He asked her whether it was God who had sent her to succour the King.
Jeanne replied that it was.
"If it be so," replied Brother Yves Milbeau, "my Lord the Duke of Brittany, our liege lord, is disposed to proffer his service to the King. He cannot come in person for he is sorely infirm. But he is to send his son with a large army."
The good Brother was speaking lightly and making a promise for his duke which would never be kept. The only truth in it was that many Breton nobles were coming in to take service with King Charles.
On hearing these words, the little Saint made a curious mistake. She thought that Brother Yves had meant that the Duke of Brittany was her liege lord as well as his, which would have been altogether senseless. Her loyalty revolted: "The Duke of Brittany is not my liege lord," she replied sharply. "The King is my liege lord."
As far as we can tell, the Duke of Brittany's caution had produced no favourable impression in France. He was censured for having set the King's war ban at nought and made a treaty with the English. Jeanne was of that opinion and to Brother Yves she said so plainly: "The Duke should not have tarried so long in sending his men to aid the King."[1308]
[Footnote 1308: Eberhard Windecke, pp. 178, 179.]
A few days later, the Sire de Rostrenen, who had accompanied the Constable to Beaugency and to Patay, came from Duke John to treat of the prospective marriage between his eldest son, Francois, and Bonne de Savoie, daughter of Duke Amedee. With him was Comment-Qu'il-Soit, herald of Richard of Brittany, Count of Etampes. The herald was commissioned to present the Maid with a dagger and horses.[1309]
[Footnote 1309: Trial, vol. v, p. 264. Eberhard Windecke, pp. 68-70, 179. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 90. Dom Lobineau, Histoire de Bretagne, vol. i, p. 587. Dom Morice, Histoire de Bretagne, vol. i, pp. 508, 580.]
At Rome, in 1428, there was a French clerk, a compiler of one of those histories of the world so common in those days and so much alike. His cosmography, like all of them, began with the creation and came down to the pontificate of Martin V who was then Pope. "Under this pontificate," wrote the author, "the realm of France, the flower and the lily of the world, opulent among the most opulent, before whom the whole universe bowed, was cast down by its invader, the tyrant Henry, who was not even the lawful lord of the realm of England." Then this churchman vows the Burgundians to eternal infamy and hurls upon them the most terrible maledictions. "May their eyes be torn out: may they perish by an evil death!" Such language indicates a good Armagnac and possibly a clerk despoiled of his goods and driven into exile by the enemies of his country. When he learns the coming of the Maid and the deliverance of Orleans, transported with joy and wonder, he re-opens his history and consigns to its pages arguments in favour of the marvellous Maid, whose deeds appear to him more divine than human, but concerning whom he knows but little. He compares her to Deborah, Judith, Esther, and Penthesilea. "In the books of the Gentiles it is written," he says, "that Penthesilea, and a thousand virgins with her, came to the succour of King Priam and fought so valiantly that they tore the Myrmidons in pieces and slew more than two thousand Greeks." According to him, both in courage and feats of prowess, the Maid far surpasses Penthesilea. Her deeds promptly refute those who maintain that she is sent by the Devil.[1310]
[Footnote 1310: L. Delisle, Un nouveau temoignage relatif a la mission de Jeanne d'Arc in Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Chartes, vol. xlvi, pp. 649, 668. Le P. Ayroles, La Pucelle devant l'Eglise de son temps, pp. 53, 60.]
In a moment the fame of the French King's prophetess had been spread abroad throughout Christendom. While in temporal affairs the people were rending each other, in spiritual matters obedience to one common head made Europe one spiritual republic with one language and one doctrine, governed by councils. The spirit of the Church was all-pervading. In Italy, in Germany, the talk was all of the Sibyl of France and her prowess which was so intimately associated with the Christian faith. In those days it was sometimes the custom of those who painted on the walls of monasteries to depict the Liberal Arts as three noble dames. Between her two sisters, Logic would be painted, seated on a lofty throne, wearing an antique turban, clothed in a sparkling robe, and bearing in one hand a scorpion, in the other a lizard, as a sign that her knowledge winds its way into the heart of the adversary's argument, and saves her from being herself entrapped. At her feet, looking up to her, would be Aristotle, disputing and reckoning up his arguments on his fingers.[1311] This austere lady formed all her disciples in the same mould. In those days nothing was more despicable than singularity. Originality of mind did not then exist. The clerks who treated of the Maid all followed the same method, advanced the same arguments, and based them on the same texts, sacred and profane. Conformity could go no further. Their minds were identical, but not their hearts; it is the mind that argues, but the heart that decides. These scholastics, dryer than their parchment, were men, notwithstanding; they were swayed by sentiment, by passion, by interests spiritual or temporal. While the Armagnac doctors were demonstrating that in the Maid's case reasons for belief were stronger than reasons for disbelief, the German or Italian masters, caring nought for the quarrel of the Dauphin of Viennois,[1312] remained in doubt, unmoved by either love or hatred.
[Footnote 1311: Cathedrale du Puy. E.F. Corpet, Portraits des arts liberaux d'apres les ecrivains du moyen age, in Annales archeologiques, 1857, vol. xvii, pp. 89, 103. Em. Male, Les Arts liberaux dans la statuaire du moyen age, in Revue archeologique, 1891.]
[Footnote 1312: Another name for Dauphine (W.S.).]
There was a doctor of theology, one Heinrich von Gorcum, a professor at Cologne. As early as the month of June, 1429, he drew up a memorial concerning the Maid. In Germany, minds were divided as to whether the nature of the damsel were human or whether she were not rather a celestial being clothed in woman's form; as to whether her deeds proceeded from a human origin or had a supernatural source; and, if the latter, whether that source were good or bad. Meister Heinrich von Gorcum wrote his treatise to present arguments from Holy Scripture on both sides, and he abstained from drawing any conclusion.[1313]
[Footnote 1313: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 411-421. Le P. Ayroles, La Pucelle devant l'Eglise de son temps, vol. i, pp. 61-68.]
In Italy, the same doubts and the same uncertainty prevailed concerning the deeds of the Maid. Those there were who maintained that they were mere inventions. At Milan, it was disputed whether any credence could be placed in tidings from France. To discover the truth about them, the notables of the city resolved to despatch a Franciscan friar, Brother Antonio de Rho, a good humanist and a zealous preacher of moral purity.
And Giovanni Corsini, Senator of the duchy of Arezzo, impelled by a like curiosity, consulted a learned clerk of Milan, one Cosmo Raimondi of Cremona. The following is the gist of the learned Ciceronian's reply:
"Most noble lord, they say that God's choice of a shepherdess for the restoration of a kingdom to a prince, is a new thing. And yet we know that the shepherd David was anointed king. It is told how the Maid, at the head of a small company, defied a great army. The victory may be explained by an advantageous position and an unexpected attack. But supposing we refrain from saying that the enemy was surprised and that his courage forsook him, matters which are none the less possible, supposing we admit that there was a miracle: what is there astonishing in that? Is it not still more wonderful that Samson should have slain so many Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass?
"The Maid is said to possess the power of revealing the future. Remember the Sibyls, notably the Erythraean and the Cumaean. They were heathens. Why should not a like power be granted to a Christian? This woman is a shepherdess. Jacob, when he kept Laban's flocks, conversed familiarly with God. To such examples and to such reasons, which incline me to give credence to the rumour, I add another reason derived from physical science. In treatises on astrology I have often read that by the favourable influence of the stars, certain men of lowly birth have become the equals of the highest princes and been regarded as men divine charged with a celestial mission. Guido da Forli, a clever astronomer, quotes a great number of such instances. Wherefore I should not deem myself to be incurring any reproach if I believed that through the influence of the stars, the Maid has undertaken what is reported of her."
At the conclusion of his arguments the clerk of Cremona says that, while not absolutely rejecting the reports concerning her, he does not consider them to be sufficiently proved.[1314]
[Footnote 1314: Le P. Ayroles, vol. iv, La vierge guerriere, pp. 240 et seq.]
Jeanne maintained her resolution to go to Reims and take the King to his anointing.[1315] She did not stay to consider whether it would be better to wage war in Champagne than in Normandy. She did not know enough of the configuration of the country to decide such a question, and it is not likely that her saints and angels knew more of geography than she did. She was in haste to take the King to Reims for his anointing, because she believed it impossible for him to be king until he had been anointed.[1316] The idea of leading him to be anointed with the holy oil had come to her in her native village, long before the siege of Orleans.[1317] This inspiration was wholly of the spirit, and had nothing to do with the state of affairs created by the deliverance of Orleans and the victory of Patay.
[Footnote 1315: "Sed dicta puella semper fuit opinionis quod opportebat ire Remis." Trial, vol. iii, p. 12 (evidence of Dunois).]
[Footnote 1316: Trial, vol. iii, p. 20. Journal du siege, pp. 93, 94.]
[Footnote 1317: See ante, pp. 53 et seq.]
The best course would have been to march straight on Paris after the 18th of June. The French were then only ninety miles from the great city, which at that juncture would not have thought of defending itself. Considering it as good as lost, the Regent shut himself up in the Fort of Vincennes.[1318] They had missed their opportunity. The French King's Councillors, Princes of the Blood, were deliberating, surprised by victory, not knowing what to do with it. Certain it is that not one of them thought of conquering, and that speedily, the whole inheritance of King Charles. The forces at their disposal, and the very conditions of the society in which they lived, rendered it impossible for them to conceive of such an undertaking. The lords of the Great Council were not like the poverty stricken monks, dreaming in their ruined cloisters[1319] of an age of peace and concord. The King's Councillors were no dreamers; they did not believe in the end of the war, neither did they desire it. But they intended to conduct it with the least possible risk and expenditure. There would always be folk enough to don the hauberk and go a-plundering they said to themselves; the taking and re-taking of towns must continue; sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof; to fight long one must fight gently; nine times out of ten more is gained by negotiations and treaties than by feats of prowess; truces must be concluded craftily and broken cautiously; some defeats must be expected, and some work must be left for the young. Such were the opinions of the good servants of King Charles.[1320]
[Footnote 1318: Falconbridge, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 451. Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, p. 239. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 291. De Barante, Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne, vol. iii, p. 323.]
[Footnote 1319: Le P. Denifle, La desolation des eglises, introduction.]
[Footnote 1320: Those of Louis XI were of a like mind: "One should fear risking a great battle if one be not constrained to it." Philippe de Comynes, ed. Mdlle. Dupont, vol. i, p. 146.]
Certain among them wished the war to be carried on in Normandy.[1321] The idea had occurred to them as early as the month of May, before the Loire campaign, and indeed there was much to be said for it. In Normandy they would cut the English tree at its root. It was quite possible that they might immediately recover a part of that province where the English had but few fighting men. In 1424 the Norman garrisons consisted of not more than four hundred lances and twelve hundred bowmen.[1322] Since then they had received but few reinforcements. The Regent was recruiting men everywhere and displaying marvellous activity, but he lacked money, and his soldiers were always deserting.[1323] In the conquered province, as soon as the Coues came out of their strongholds they found themselves in the enemy's territory. From the borders of Brittany, Maine, Perche as far as Ponthieu and Picardy, on the banks of the Mayenne, Orne, the Dive, the Touque, the Eure, the Seine, the partisans of the various factions held the country, watching the roads, robbing, ravaging, and murdering.[1324] Everywhere the French would have found these brave fellows ready to espouse their cause; the peasants and the village priests would likewise have wished them well. But the campaign would involve long sieges of towns, strongly defended, albeit held by but small garrisons. Now the men-at-arms dreaded the delays of sieges, and the royal treasury was not sufficient for such costly undertakings.[1325] Normandy was ruined, stripped of its crops, and robbed of its cattle. Were the captains and their men to go into this famine-stricken land? And why should the King reconquer so poor a province?
[Footnote 1321: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 12, 13. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 300. Perceval de Cagny, p. 170. Jean Chartier, Chronique, p. 87. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 63, note 2.]
[Footnote 1322: Wallon, Jeanne d'Arc, 1875, vol. i, p. 213.]
[Footnote 1323: Rymer, Foedera, 18 June, 1429. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 132-133; vol. iv, supplement, xvii. G. Lefevre-Pontalis, La panique anglaise en mai 1429, Paris, 1894, in 8vo.]
[Footnote 1324: G. Lefevre-Pontalis, La guerre des partisans dans la Haute Normandie (1424-1429), in the Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Chartes since 1893.]
[Footnote 1325: "The King had no great sums of money with which to pay his army." Perceval de Cagny, pp. 149, 157.]
And these freebooters, who were willing to stretch out a hand to the French, were not very attractive. It was well known that brigands they were, and brigands would remain, and that Normandy once reconquered, they would have to be got rid of, to the last man, without honour and without profit. In which case would it not be better to leave them to be dealt with by the Godons?
Other nobles clamoured for an expedition into Champagne.[1326] And in spite of all that has been said to the contrary, the Maid's visions had no influence whatever on this determination. The King's Councillors led Jeanne and were far from being led by her. Once before they had diverted her from the road to Reims by providing her with work on the Loire. Once again they might divert her into Normandy, without her even perceiving it, so ignorant was she of the roads and of the lie of the land. If there were certain who recommended a campaign in Champagne, it was not on the faith of saints and angels, but for purely human reasons. Is it possible to discover these reasons? There were doubtless certain lords and captains who considered the interest of the King and the kingdom, but every one found it so difficult not to confound it with his own interest, that the best way to discover who was responsible for the march on Reims is to find out who was to profit by it. It was certainly not the Duke of Alencon, who would have greatly preferred to take advantage of the Maid's help for the conquest of his own duchy.[1327] Neither was it my Lord the Bastard, nor the Sire de Gaucourt, nor the King himself, for they must have desired the securing of Berry and the Orleanais by the capture of La Charite held by the terrible Perrinet Gressart.[1328] On the other hand we may conclude that the Queen of Sicily would not be unfavourable to the march of the King, her son-in-law, in a north easterly direction. This Spanish lady was possessed by the Angevin mania. Reassured for the moment concerning the fate of her duchy of Anjou, she was pursuing eagerly, and to the great hurt of the realm of France, the establishment of her son Rene in the duchy of Bar and in the inheritance of Lorraine. She cannot have been displeased, therefore, when she saw the King keeping her an open road between Gien and Troyes and Chalons. But since the Constable's exile she had lost all influence over her son-in-law, and it is difficult to discover who could have watched her interests in the Council of May, 1429.[1329] Besides, without seeking further, it is obvious that there was one person, who above all others must have desired the anointing of the King, and who more than any was in a position to make his opinion prevail. That person was the man on whom devolved the duty of holding in his consecrated hands the Sacred Ampulla, my Lord Regnault de Chartres, Archbishop Duke of Reims, Chancellor of the Kingdom.[1330]
[Footnote 1326: Ibid.]
[Footnote 1327: Perceval de Cagny, p. 170.]
[Footnote 1328: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 310.]
[Footnote 1329: E. Cosneau, Le connetable de Richemont, pp. 179 et seq.]
[Footnote 1330: Even after the coronation Regnault de Chartres would not "suffer the Maid and the Duke of Alencon to be together nor that he should recover her." Perceval de Cagny, p. 171.]
He was a man of rare intelligence, skilled in business, a very clever diplomatist, greedy of wealth, caring less for empty honours than for solid advantage, avaricious, unscrupulous, one who at the age of about fifty had lost nothing of his consuming energy; he had recently displayed it by spending himself nobly in the defence of Orleans. Thus gifted, how could he fail to exercise a powerful control over the government?
Fifteen years had passed since his elevation to the archiepiscopal see of Reims; and of his enormous revenue he had not yet received one penny. Albeit the possessor of great wealth from other sources, he pleaded poverty. To the Pope he addressed heart-rending supplications.[1331] If the Maid had found favour in the eyes of the Poitiers doctors, Monseigneur Regnault had had something to do with it. Had it not been for him, the doctors at court would never have proposed her examination. And we shall not be making too bold a hypothesis if we conclude, that when the march on Reims was decided in the royal council, it was because the Archbishop, on grounds suggested by human reason, approved of what the Maid proposed by divine inspiration.[1332]
[Footnote 1331: Le P. Denifle, La desolation des eglises, introduction.]
[Footnote 1332: See ante, pp. 153-159.]
While the coronation campaign was attended with grave drawbacks and met with serious obstacles, it nevertheless brought great gain and a certain subtle advantage to the royal cause. Unfortunately it left free from attack the rest of France occupied by the English, and it gave the latter time to recover themselves and procure aid from over sea. We shall shortly see what good use they made of their opportunities.[1333] As to the advantages of the expedition, they were many and various. First, Jeanne truly expressed the sentiments of the poor priests and the common folk when she said that the Dauphin would reap great profit from his anointing.[1334] From the oil of the holy Ampulla the King would derive a splendour, a majesty which would impress the whole of France, yea, even the whole of Christendom. In those days royalty was alike spiritual and temporal; and multitudes of men believed with Jeanne that kings only became kings by being anointed with the holy oil. Thus it would not be wrong to say that Charles of Valois would receive greater power from one drop of oil than from ten thousand lances. On a consideration like this the King's Councillors must needs set great store. They had also to take into account the time and the place. Might not the ceremony be performed in some other town than Reims? Might not the so-called "mystery" take place in that city which had been delivered by the intercession of its blessed patrons, Saint-Aignan and Saint Euverte? Two kings descended from Hugh Capet, Robert the Wise and Louis the Fat, had been crowned at Orleans.[1335] But the memory of their royal coronation was lost in the mists of antiquity, while folk still retained the memory of a long procession of most Christian kings anointed in the town where the holy oil had been brought down to Clovis by the celestial dove.[1336] Besides, the lord Archbishop and Duke of Reims would never have suffered the King to receive his anointing save at his hand and in his cathedral.
[Footnote 1333: Morosini, vol. iv, supplement, xvii.]
[Footnote 1334: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 20, 300. Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 322, 323. Journal du siege, pp. 93, 114. "And although the King had not money wherewith to pay his army, all knights, squires, men-at-arms, and the commonalty refused not to serve the King in this journey in company with the Maid." Perceval de Cagny, p. 157.]
[Footnote 1335: Le Maire, Antiquites d'Orleans, ch. xxv, p. 100.]
[Footnote 1336: Pius II, Commentarii, in Trial, vol. iv, pp. 513-514. Pierre des Gros, Jardin des nobles in P. Paris, Manuscrits francais de la bibliotheque du roi, vol. ii, p. 149, and Trial, vol. iv, pp. 533, 534.]
Therefore it was necessary to go to Reims. It was necessary also to anticipate the English who had resolved to conduct thither their infant King that he might receive consecration according to the ancient ceremonial.[1337] But if the French had invaded Normandy they would have closed the young Henry's road to Paris and to Reims, a road which was already insecure for him; and it would be childish to maintain that the coronation could not have been postponed for a few weeks. If the conquest of Norman lands and Norman towns was renounced therefore, it was not merely for the sake of capturing the holy Ampulla. The Lord Archbishop of Reims had other objects at heart. He believed, for example, that, by pressing in between the Duke of Burgundy and his English allies, an excellent impression would be produced on the mind of that Prince and the edifying object-lesson presented to his consideration of Charles, son of Charles, King of France, riding at the head of a powerful army.
[Footnote 1337: William of Worcester [1415-1482, or Botoner, chronicler and traveller, secretary to Sir John Fastolf, disputed with John Paston concerning some land near Norwich, and frequently referred to in the Paston Letters. W.S.] in Trial, vol. iv, p. 475. In 1430 it was the intention of the English to take their King to Reims "for which cause all the subjects of the kingdom would be more inclined to him" (advice given by Philippe le Bon to Henry VI, as cited by H. de Lannoy, in P. Champion, G. de Flavy, p. 156). There was an English project for carrying off the holy Ampulla from Reims. Pius II, Commentarii in Trial, vol. iv, p. 513.]
To attain the city of the Blessed Saint Remi two hundred and fifty miles of hostile country must be traversed. But for some time the army would be in no danger of meeting the enemy on the road. The English and Burgundians were engaged in using every means both fair and foul for the raising of troops. For the moment the French need fear no foe. The rich country of Champagne, sparsely wooded, well cultivated, teemed with corn and wine, and abounded in fat cattle.[1338] Champagne had not been devastated like Normandy. There was a likelihood of obtaining food for the men-at-arms, especially if, as was hoped, the good towns supplied victuals. They were very wealthy; their barns overflowed with corn. While owing allegiance to King Henry, no bonds of affection united them to the English or to the Burgundians. They governed themselves. They were rich merchants, who only longed for peace and who did their best to bring it about. Just now they were beginning to suspect that the Armagnacs were growing the stronger party. These folk of Champagne had a clergy and a bourgeoisie who might be appealed to. It was not a question of storming their towns with artillery, mines, and trenches, but of getting round them with amnesties, concessions to the merchants and elaborate engagements to respect the privileges of the clergy. In this country there was no risk of rotting in hovels or burning in bastions. The townsfolk were expected to throw open their gates and partly from love, partly from fear, to give money to their lord the King.
[Footnote 1338: Voyages du heraut Berry, Bibl. Nat. ms. fr. 5873, fol. 7.]
The campaign was already arranged, and that very skilfully. Communications had been opened with Troyes and Chalons. By letters and messages from a few notables of Reims it was made known to King Charles that if he came they would open to him the gates of their town. He even received three or four citizens, who said to him, "Go forth in confidence to our city of Reims. It shall not be our fault if you do not enter therein."[1339]
[Footnote 1339: Jean Rogier in Trial, vol. iv, pp. 284-285.]
Such assurances emboldened the Royal Council; and the march into Champagne was resolved upon.
The army assembled at Gien; it increased daily. The nobles of Brittany and Poitou came in in great numbers, most of them mounted on sorry steeds[1340] and commanding but small companies of men. The poorest equipped themselves as archers, and in default of better service were ready to act as bowmen. Villeins and tradesmen came likewise.[1341] From the Loire to the Seine and from the Seine to the Somme the only cultivated land was round chateaux and fortresses. Most of the fields lay fallow. In many places fairs and markets had been suspended. Labourers were everywhere out of work. War, after having ruined all trades, was now the only trade. Says Eustache Deschamps, "All men will become squires. Scarce any artisans are left."[1342] At the place of meeting there assembled thirty thousand men, of whom many were on foot and many came from the villages, giving their services in return for food. There were likewise monks, valets, women and other camp-followers. And all this multitude was an hungered. The King went to Gien and summoned the Queen who was at Bourges.[1343]
[Footnote 1340: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 312. Jean Chartier, Chronique, pp. 93-94. Journal du siege, p. 108. Cagny, p. 157. Morosini, pp. 84-85. Loiseleur, Compte des depenses, pp. 90, 91.] |
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