Joan of Arc also known as the Maid of Orleans, she is a mystical and mythical character in French history, whose presence at the head of the diminished troops of the dauphin Carlos de Valois gave an unexpected turn to the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453). This dispute, which arose from the aspiration of the Lancaster dynasty to the throne of France, led the English to the conquest and occupation of a large part of the Gallic territory . After the liberation of Orleans in 1429 and the coronation of Charles VII in Reims, at the request of Joan of Arc, the French troops began an arduous counteroffensive that would give them victory in two decades.
| Facts about Joan of Arc | |
|---|---|
| Birth | Around 1412, France |
| Death | May 30, 1431 in Normandy, France |
| Nickname | The Maid of Orleans |
| Canonization | May 16, 1920 |
Scenario of the irruption of Joan of Arc
Various causes intersect in the war that served as the setting for the epic and the passion of Joan of Arc. On the one hand it is a prolonged English invasion of French territory; on the other, a struggle for succession to the crown of France between the Lancasters and the Valois, and at the same time a civil war between the Burgundians of the northwest and the Armagnacs of the south, whose respective dukedoms supported one or the other pretender to the throne. These were Henry VI of England, who in 1425 had also been crowned King of France in Paris, and the dauphin Charles of Valois, fifth son of Charles VI, who held the dynastic prerogatives of his house from a timid government in Bourgues, without money. no armies.
Joan of Arc bursts onto the scene at the most critical moment, when the English occupy all the territories north of the Loire. those of Guyenne and Gascony in the southwest . At the same time they harass the fragile frontier besieging Orléans and supporting the Burgundian advances to the south. The dauphin, despite the adherence of the peasants and rural nobles and the help in means and weapons that his mother-in-law, Violante de Aragón, sends him from time to time, finds himself in a desperate situation. Only a miracle can save the cause of France, and this extreme situation undoubtedly made it possible for the young woman from Lorraine (who in other political-military circumstances might not have gone beyond starring in an emotional anecdote) ended up embodying that miracle, leading armies, disconcerting the enemy and crowning his king.
Apeasantgirl
Domrémy was in 1412 a small rural village in Lorraine, near the Meuse, whose inhabitants were dedicated to raising cattle and sheep. One of these modest peasants was Jacques Dare (the nobilized D'Arc would be granted to them later), whose marriage to Isabel Romé had already given him three sons:Jacques, Pierre and Jean. Joan of Arc was born in Domrémy in 1412, it is said that the future heroine was a beautiful and happy girl, who used to meet her brothers and other boys from the town, such as Pierre Morel, Louis de Conté, Étienne Roze or Edmond Aubrey, who later They would accompany her on her quest. All of them were ardent supporters of the Dauphin and the Armagnacs, by then in clear retreat after the defeats of Cravant in 1423 and Verneuil the following year.
Around the age of thirteen, Juana fell into a period of meditation and isolation, during which she—as she would say later—she heard for the first time "voices from heaven," coming from the Archangel Michael or from certain saints she revered. . In the spring of 1428, the troops of the Duke of Burgundy attack Domrémy, and it is said that Joan of Arc led the younger men in an orderly retreat towards Neufchâteau, showing unusual command and leadership skills. Shortly after, the young woman assures her that her "voices" have told her that she must save France and appear before Carlos to be her paladin.
Road to court
She persuades her uncle Laxart de Burey to accompany her to Vancouleurs to meet Governor Robert de Baudricourt. He does not take her seriously, but Mr. Jean de Metz and Mr. Bertrand de Poulegny, seduced by the pious conviction of her young woman, decide to accompany her.
The two noblemen who have sworn allegiance to her and the brothers and friends of Joan of Arc form the small procession that, not without taking risks, escorts her to the court established in Chinon . Chancellor George de La Tremoulle and other courtiers advise Charles not to receive the young peasant girl, accusing her of being insane or perhaps a witch. The indecisive Dauphin buys time by accommodating visitors at Château de Coudray, while La Tremoulle sets a trap, disguising Charles as a halberdier and placing a substitute in his place. According to legend, the maiden immediately recognized the sovereign and knelt at her feet, begging her to allow her to save France.
The dauphin brings the matter before a council of scholars and doctors from the University of Poitiers. After questioning Juana at length, the council declares the honesty and sanctity of her plans and, since she has to lead armies, they authorize her to "dress in the dress of such an occupation." In the meantime, the Duke of Alençon, Charles's cousin and first peer of the kingdom, has returned after three years as a prisoner of the English. He immediately embraces Joan of Arc's cause, and this tips the scales in her favor. The Dauphin, in one of her frequent mood swings, appoints her General-in-Chief of the armies he has not yet assembled, with Alençon as lieutenant and aide-de-camp . Both sides receive the news with astonishment, which the people celebrate in the streets and squares.
Break the siege of Orleans
One of the first to agree to a seventeen-year-old peasant girl being put in command of the rugged Armagnac warriors was the hardened General La Hire, who immediately organized a recruiting camp at Blois. Behind him, other captains began to gather troops. Meanwhile, Joan of Arc establishes her headquarters in Tours, appointing Edmond Aubrey as standard bearer and Louis de Conté, the only one of her friends who could write, as secretary. she Tells the tradition that her "voices of her" reveal to her the existence of a hidden sword behind the altar of Saint Catherine in Fierbois. It is also assured that the weapon had belonged to Charlemagne and that the maiden only carried it as a symbol of authority, since she never used it in combat. .
The strategic key at that time was the site of Orleans, which the English and Burgundians had held for half a year. We cannot know if the decision to break that siege was made by Joan of Arc or by her staff, which included La Hire, De Boussac, Jean de Metz, Florent d'Tlliers and Ponthon de Saintrailles, in addition to the Duke of Alençon himself. The truth is that the maiden and part of her troops manage to cross the lines and enter the city, probably thanks to the bewilderment and superstitious fear that her presence imposed on the enemy. In charge of the defense is the Count of Dunois, called "the bastard of Orleans" (for being the natural son of Duke Louis I), who receives Juana effusively. The city is surrounded by forts or bastilles built by the English as bases for their siege. The maiden sends a message to the invading commander, Lord Talbot, intimidating him into surrendering in the name of God and France . Her response is an ominous threat to "burn her at the stake" if she does not immediately return "to her natural occupation of tending cows."
Joan of Arc does not hesitate. She wears her armor, she wields her banner, and together with Dunois she leads an exit, while the enraged town shouts for the first time: "Pass the Maid of Orleans! .». The Bastille of Saint Loup surrenders after three hours of fighting, and the next day the rest of the troops arrive with Alençon and La Hire . They attack the island of Saint Aignan and cross the Loire to take the fort of the Augustinians. It is said that, seeing Joan of Arc, some adversaries fled in terror and others fell to their knees at her feet. But many had to fight, because the fight was fierce. The last English bastion is the Toureíles, and in the assault the young woman is wounded by an arrow. Despite this, she begs Aubry to hold her and harangues her men during the final match. The besiegers beat a retreat, leaving many dead and wounded. In four days, a siege that had lasted seven months has been dismantled and Orleans clamorously receives "his" maid of hers.
Taking Reims and coronation of the king
The victorious young woman met in Tours with the dauphin, which knighted her and gave her the surnames of D'Arc du Lys, as this flower is the emblem of France . Joan of Arc is not for ceremonies. She insists that it is necessary to take advantage of the enemy's confusion to march towards Reims and crown the king in his cathedral. Several councilors oppose this risk, which means crossing Burgundian territory. Carlos, as always, hesitates and Juana assures her that she will clear the way for him. In the rapid and successful Loire campaign, the Armagnac forces surrendered the fortress of Jargeau, commanded by the Earl of Suffolk, and took the Meung and Baugency squares. Lord Talbot faces them at Patay, and must fall back in defeat. The way is open, and Joan escorts the dauphin to Reims, where she keeps the Sainte Ampolle with whose sacred oils, according to tradition, the kings of France have been anointed since Clovis. The king is crowned as Carlos VII on July 17, 1429, with great popular enthusiasm and military pomp .
Joan of Arc is captured
The maiden and her generals want to march on Paris, following in the wake of victories. La Tremoulle is opposed, as he is negotiating a truce. Carlos VII does not take sides. Impelled by the fervor of the people and the spirit of the troops, Joan of Arc advanced on her own towards the north and forced the retreat of the English, who successively abandoned Beauvais, Senlis, Creil, Chantilly, Remy, Choisy... until that on August 26 the armagnacs set up camp in Saint Denis, at the gates of Paris . But the king takes two weeks to get there, allowing Earl Bedford to reorganize his forces. The first attack on Saint Honoré's door is repulsed, and the maiden is seriously injured. Alençon takes command and prepares to attack again, but Carlos VII prevents him. He has finally reached a truce agreement, which forces him to withdraw to the Loire.
Barely recovered, Joan of Arc ignores such an agreement. She gathers soldiers, licentiates, and peasants to wage a personal campaign against the English and the Burgundians. The latter threaten the town of Compiegne and the maiden comes to her aid with 600 horsemen. She is knocked off her horse and she falls prisoner. It is May 24, 1430 .
Process and martyrdom
The Duke of Burgundy knew that the maiden was invaluable to his English allies, who were interested in proving that the Armagnac victories had been witchcraft. Through Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, he hands over Joan of Arc in exchange for 10,000 pounds of gold. In theory, the young woman does not pass into the hands of the English, but at the disposal of the ecclesiastical court of Rouen, which is to judge her for alleged heresy . But she is locked away in a fortress, guarded by English soldiers, when normal procedure would have involved her being confined under the care of nuns in the archbishop's prison.
Nor did Cauchon have the authority to reopen a case already tried in Poitiers, nor inquisitorial jurisdiction in Rouen. His only reason was his well-paid subservience to the English, who took it upon themselves to force the archbishop and the inquisitor to "delegate" to Cauchon the power to judge Joan of Arc. The bishop was actively engaged in convening fifty theologians and scholars from the University of Paris and personally prepared the verbal process which listed the charges and crimes committed by the accused against religion and the Church.
The public process began on February 20, 1430 in the chapel of the fortress itself. Cauchon presided over the tribunal, assisted by Vice-Inquisitor Jean Lemaitre. . Joan of Arc was taken with the manly breeches that she used under her armor and a hood that covered her shoulders and chest, illegally, she was deprived of the advice of a defender, despite which she began by responding with serene skill and wisely dodging the traps laid by his accuser. Faced with the temper and firm attitude of the maiden, several judges abandoned what they considered a farce, and one of them, Jean Lefevre, openly confronted Cauchon . But Juana's fate was cast beforehand. The Bishop of Beauvais assembled a new court of fifteen addicts and for two months the trial continued behind closed doors. The defendant was fainting and she fell ill. In one of her last sessions, when she is reproached for her banner presiding over the coronation of Charles VII, she gives her most famous response: «she had endured the work, therefore she deserved the honor» .
Death of Joan of Arc
Cauchon was rapidly losing prestige in the eyes of the people, the Church and the Burgundians themselves. There are those who propose bringing Joan of Arc before the pope or submitting her to the Basel Council. The English press and the bishop lays a crude trap for Juana related to her men's clothes and reads her a confession that, it is said, he hides for another much more serious one before the young woman signs. Relying on these and other fallacies, the court declares the maiden to be a repeat offender of heresy and sentences her to death at the stake, a sentence that is carried out on May 30, 1430 in the Old Market Square in Rouen . Years later, after the expulsion of the English, Charles VII — who had done nothing before to save his paladin — requested the rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, which the Church granted in 1456. The maiden was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920. Since then she is the patron saint of France.