Joan of Arc is the most astonishing figure in the whole of medieval history. What makes her story so especially compelling is that she is the most thoroughly documented figure in European history until the modern era. Her two trials, one of condemnation and one of rehabilitation, the latter in which 115 eye witnesses gave direct testimony to the events of her life and military career, are an enduring and unimpeachable record of a story so fabulous, it’s still hard to believe. Perhaps most astounding, the affirmations of her Captains indicate that Joan was in actual command of the French army, responsible for the strategic, grand tactical and tactical decisions which reversed the course of the Hundred Years War.
Joan’s military career began when she arrived at the fortified town of Vaucouleurs in February 1429. She was there to convince the garrison commander, Robert de Baudricourt, to give her a military escort to Charles Valois, or the Dauphin, as Joan referred to him. Baudricourt, of course, refused to see her. But since the town was small he could not avoid her forever. Eventually, she cornered him in the marketplace and demanded to be taken seriously. Baudricourt laughed her off. He told her that he had seen her before, a year ago, when she had approached him with the same fool’s mission. Undeterred, she continued to eloquently present her case. A crowd gathered, there not being that much to do in a provincial town, even nowadays. Joan then made a lengthily speech, something she was wont to do, being a highly intelligent and articulate girl. The gist of it was that she was the only one in the world who could save France. The commander shrugged her off and made to continue on his way when the extraordinary intervened. Her speech had swayed a knight, Jean de Metz. He knelt before Joan, and in a token of fealty, placed his hands in hers and vowed to serve her faithfully. This act, the greatest moment in the history of chivalry, made de Metz, Joan’s liegeman. He was in her service, and, according to the rules of chivalry, there was nothing Robert de Baudricourt could do about it. The garrison commander, fairly isolated and short of men, was further exasperated when another knight, Bertrand de Poulengy, stepped forward and also placed himself in Joan’s service. Baudricourt gave in to the inevitable. He assigned the king’s messenger to accompany them along with an archer to ride point. They, the knights and their two squires, safely escorted Joan through 300 miles of enemy territory to the Dauphin’s residence at Chinon. 1.
The Kingdom of France was then in disarray and on the verge of defeat. It wasn’t even altogether clear just who was king. The French claimant, Charles Valois, his holdings reduced to a few, rather poor, provinces south of the River Loire, was unable to be sanctified at Rheims for the sacred site was in Norman/English territory. In addition, Charles was further discredited when his father had disowned and disinherited him. Fairly destitute, Charles and his Court could only idly wait, as their last great bastion on the Loire, Orleans, was about to fall to a Norman/English siege. When Orleans fell, there would be no barriers remaining to the complete conquest of France by the Norman/English claimants. Charles and his entourage literally kept their bags packed, ready for immediate flight to Spain.
It is important to note that the Hundred Years War was not a national conflict between England and France in the modern sense. In the 15th century, the current notion of the nation state did not exist. The entities we refer to as England and France were nominally under the suzerainty of a king but, especially in the case of France, were in reality a loose knit union of principalities ruled by princes often more powerful than the king. The Hundred Years War was a French dynastic struggle in which English soldiery formed the infantry core of the armies assembled by the Norman French rulers of England who were also claimants to the throne of France.
No doubt Charles Valois and his entourage thought they would play farm girl from Bar/Lorraine for a fool, but Joan was too smart for all of them. Driven by a passion that comes from direct revelation, Joan convinced Charles that she might help him. In a series of speeches to his Court and in private conversation, she told him that that his father had no right to disinherit him; that kingship was a matter solely for God and his angels to dispose, by the miracle of birth alone. 2.
Charles sent her to Poitiers to be examined by Catholic clerics to protect himself from charges that she might be in league with dark forces, a situation which weighed heavily upon the medieval mind. After three weeks of interrogations they found her pious and recommended that she be entrusted with any mission Charles might have for her. Enlightened in Joan’s presence, the Dauphin had her rigged up in armor, assigned her two pages plus two heralds which automatically made her a Captain, the highest rank then known. She was to join the French army with the commission to resupply and relieve the bastion at Orleans from Norman/English investment. Accompanied by her two original knights, she linked up with French army Captains Gilles de Laval (Bluebeard), Jean de la Brosse, La Hire and Ambrose de Lore’. These experienced officers, with the exception of Lore’, all had a long history of losing struggles with the Norman/English. It is interesting to note that they only became successful after serving with Joan.
Her head spinning with success and divinely intoxicated with her mission, Joan met up with her army at the town of Blois, where it was encamped. She didn’t make herself right popular with the men when she ordered the camp followers away with the point of her sword. Cooler heads prevailed and Joan acquiesced to a policy whereby the prostitutes would be allowed to follow the army as long as they stayed out of Joan’s sight. Acceding to the will of her Captains, she followed unwittingly along as they led the army to Orleans by a route designed to avoid contact with the Norman/English. This placed the army on the southern bank of the River Loire and meant that the army could not directly enter Orleans, but would rather have to be transported into the city on boats along with the supplies. Rightly, Joan balked at her Captains’ plan, for she reasoned that she would not allow her army to be divided and destroyed piecemeal. For the first time, she realized that she might know more about how to conduct military operations than they did.
Joan was ready to return to Blois with the entire army and march it back to Orleans by the northern route. The commander of the garrison at Orleans, John, the Count of Denois, Bastard of Orleans, then interceded. He begged Joan not to leave; for he pleaded that the people of Orleans had heard of Joan’s arrival and would lose hope and surrender if they learnt she had come and gone. Joan saw the wisdom in the Count’s argument. She reluctantly entrusted the army to her Captains, and with the Bastard and Captain Le Hire, entered the city in tumultuous triumph.
The Norman/English besiegers had erected ten blockhouses of various sizes to enforce the investment. The siege was not complete as it was still possible to sortie out of the town in force and boats could still navigate the Loire in and out of the city. The effectiveness of the siege lay in the fact that medieval agrarian life was completely disrupted and the citizens were slowing losing their strength to resist. Joan gave everyone newfound courage. A few days after her arrival, a group of townsmen armed themselves into a mob and took the weakest of the blockhouses by coup de main. The attack was in full swing when Joan heard of it. She sprang to horse and arrived in time to give the mob courage to maintain the assault. Hot blooded, the rabble broke through and it was all Joan could do to halt the wholesale slaughter of prisoners by the inflamed citizenry. Joyous in victory and in sorrow for the bloodshed, she cried. But the girl was astute. She saw that the Norman/English siege could be broken and since her army was not yet arrived, she resolved to send the Norman/English commanders a letter, advising them to surrender. 3.
Joan’s first letter to the Norman/English, written like Caesar in the
third person, gives keen insight into her character. It is incredible that
Joan is almost always referred to as “illiterate,” often vehemently. In
fact, Joan had dictated close to thirty letters, seventeen of which are
still extant. Some of them are signed in her own hand. She had her own
unique literary style, made lengthily speeches and at her trial of condemnation,
asked if she might have a copy of the articles against her “so that I might
ponder them.” After all, what’s so difficult about learning to read? A
child can do it. Her letter began:
King of England, and you, duke of Bedford, who call yourself regent
of the kingdom of France, you, Sir John Talbot, and you, Sir Thomas of
Scales, who call yourself lieutenant of the aforesaid duke of Bedford,
render your account to the King of Heaven. Surrender to the Maid.
What nerve!
She is entirely ready to make peace, provided you are willing to settle accounts with her and provided that you give up France and pay for having occupied her… and go back to your own countries for God’s sake. And if you do not do so, wait for the word of the Maid, who will come visit you briefly to your great sorrow. I am the war commander, and in whatever place I shall meet your French allies I shall make them leave it. And if they will not obey, I shall have them all killed.
And so on. This letter reveals Joan’s essential qualities as military commander; her audacity and nerve. When the army arrived, she counted upon her Captains to lead an immediate attack. They instead advised her to be prudent. Scrupulously avoiding profanity, she told them, in effect, to go to hell. She mounted her war-horse, donned a magnificent white and gold mantle, and with her heralds trumpeting, gathered the army and led it to the gates of the city for a sortie. There, she was met by the mayor who blocked the gate and refused to lower the drawbridge. Joan drew her sword and threatened to cut his head off right then and there. The bridge went down immediately as her Captains hastened to join her or be left behind. Joan personally led the assault upon the stronger Norman/English positions and was wounded for the first time. This only kept her out of the fight for a while. Her wound was dressed and she returned the next day to again personally lead the attack the broke the siege. The date was May 7, 1429.
The next day, Sunday, the Norman/English army drew up before Orleans in battle order. Joan forbade her men to attack, not just because it was Sunday, as she did prefer to honor the Lord’s Day, but also because she knew that the enemy was already defeated. She advised her Captains to let them retreat and the men obeyed. Here Joan exhibited for the first time her essential grasp of grand strategy. The strategic imperative was the relief of the fortress. With the redoubts taken, the siege was broken. A pitched battle would gain little at the risk of losing all.
This was the turning point not only in the whole war but also for Joan as military commander. It is difficult to grasp that a young girl might be so endowed with wisdom that she could immediately see long-term strategic as well as tactical goals while experienced statesmen and soldiers did not. However, there is nothing extraordinary about this. There are principles of military action which are immediately discernible to some people the way brilliant children intuitively grasp the essential strategic and tactical principles of chess. For example, the Prince of Conde' took command at 21 with neither training nor experience and led the French army to major victories. From this point on, it was Joan who made every strategic, grand tactical and tactical decision for the French Army. She took advice to be sure, especially since she had a loyal retinue of experienced warlords by her side. But it was the Maid who always made the final determination.
Joan didn’t linger. Within a few days she was with Charles. His advisors
wanted the army to attack the Norman/English bastions in Normandy, thus
isolating Paris. It was a good military plan but Joan took into consideration
long term strategic goals.
Testimony from Denois:
And I remember that after the victories of which I have spoken," (which he credits entirely to the Maid), "the Princes of the blood royal and the captains wanted the King to go into Normandy, and not to Rheims. But the Maid remained of the opinion that they should go to Rheims to anoint the King and gave as reason for her advice that once the King was crowned and anointed the power of his enemies would decline continually until finally they would be powerless to harm him or his kingdom. Everyone (then) subscribed to her opinion. 4.
Here was the single most significant strategic decision of the campaign and the one that changed the course of French history. Traditionally French kings were not just crowned at Rheims but were sanctified with an ancient and precious holy oil, kept at Rheims. Charles would never be the true king in the popular imagination until he was anointed with this oil in Rheims. It’s true Charles had been named king seven years before by Electors. But it is important to remember there were severe doubts about Charles” legitimacy, even in his own mind. In fact, he was derisively known as “King of Bourges” rather than of France, in reference to the few southern provinces he still controlled. To oppose him, the Rectors of the University of Paris, who would later burn Joan, had laboriously worked out the theoretical foundation for the “Double Monarchy” in which the King of England was also that of France. Charles Valois’ triumphal march upon Rheims and coronation, which was so sudden and seemingly quite miraculous, shattered those theories and eliminated doubts about his legitimacy forever. 5.
But to get to Rheims Joan had to escort Charles through enemy territory and past a number of fortified cities, no easy task. This was the Loire Campaign of 1429. Joan’s success here marks her not only one of history’s Great Captains, but within the ranks of Napoleon and Alexander, for her military victories altered the fate of nations. Her contemporaries remarked upon Joan’s attributes as a military commander, and it’s rather amazing that she is still given scant credit for the success of French arms after she took command.
Here is Thibault d' Armagnac, a knight and captain of Chartres:
Except in matters of war she was simple and innocent. But in the leading and drawing up of armies and in the conduct of war, in disposing an army for battle and haranguing the soldiers, she behaved like the most experienced captain in the world, like one with a whole lifetime of experience. 6.
The evidence indicates that Joan was especially skillful in the use of artillery. Since the Norman/English relied on the longbow and as the French were never able to develop a comparable arm, the gunpowder revolution affected French arms more positively than their opponents. As early as October 7, 1418, Charles VI gave a certain Jean Petit the title “Master of Artillery.” On October 1, 1420, Dauphin and later Charles VII, gave Pierre Bessonneau the title “Master General and Inspector of Artillery” and this officer was with Joan on the drive on Paris. Also, one of her younger officers, Ambrose de Lore’, defeated the Norman/English in a small engagement prior to Joan’s arrival and no doubt Joan learned well from him. 7.
The Duke of Alencon:
In everything that she did, apart from the conduct of the war, Joan was young and simple; but in the conduct of war she was most skillful, both in carrying the lance herself, in drawing up the army in battle order, and in placing the artillery. And everyone was astonished that she acted with such prudence and clear-sightedness in military matters, as cleverly as some great captain with twenty or thirty years experience; and especially in the placing of artillery, for in that she acquitted herself magnificently. 8.
If Joan knew how to well place artillery, and there is no reason to assume the Duke be lying here, then she must have intuitively grasped the principle of concentration. The necessary corollary is that concentrated artillery, well placed, will defeat archers in the open field. This must be the reason why the course of the war was so suddenly and drastically altered when Joan took command: The French changed their tactics. Artillery became the decisive arm, and the French retained superiority in this domain into the modern era.
The Loire Campaign began with the fall of Jargeau on June 10, 1429.
For this campaign, a strong battalion of Scots, whom Joan held in high
esteem, also reinforced the French. “You Scots make good war” she told
them. Joan directed the timing of the assault and personally led it. This
was one of her hallmarks: She was in the vanguard of every attack and personally
commanded the rearguard in every retreat, although those would come later.
It’s not altogether clear how the French defeated the Norman/English in the pitched battle at Patay on June 18, 1429. We do know the armies were in place the night before when the Norman/English tried to get out of the fight by issuing a single combat challenge. Joan turned them down, telling them she would take a closer look at them on the morrow. The Norman/English then withdrew to a stronger position near Patay. With a set piece battle in the offering, the French would have had time to set up their guns.
There are nonsensical accounts of the armies blundering into one another in this battle with the Norman/English revealing their positions to cheer a stag that bounded by. This popular story, from the English/Burgundian side, only serves to discredit the great achievement of French arms at Patay. There are no detailed accounts of the battle’s course from the French side. We can surmise that the Norman/English were defeated with the same innovative methods Joan used throughout the campaign. She was in control of the troops. They obeyed her every command. Just as at Orleans and Jargeau, she made the appropriate deployments and with the essential element of correct timing, she properly directed the battle. Patay would not be a replay of Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt, with French battalions advancing and retreating of their own accord to destruction. The French Army under Joan’s authority moved with the unison of command and control that a Great Captain lends to victorious troops. The Norman/English chose to defend a field similar to Agincourt. The results were different. Their archers did not stand. The French quickly pounded a hole in the Norman/English center, broke through and routed the enemy army.
The remnants of the Norman/English army retreated to Paris and the road to Rheims lay open. The first town to fall in the drive on Rheims was the city of Troyes. Garrisoned by a strong Burgundian force, Joan personally reconnoitered the approaches and directed the disposition of troops and artillery. Eyewitnesses report that her deployments were so powerfully directed that the city surrendered rather than receive the assault.
Denois:
Then the Maid crossed at once with the king’s army and left the encampment beside the moats, and made admirable dispositions, such as could not have been done better by two or three of the most famous and experienced soldiers. 9.
It is not reasonable to affirm that Joan’s only contribution to the French Army’s astounding reversal of form was in the sphere of morale. French soldiery at Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt had fanatical determination. Their problem was that they lacked firm and decisive leadership. They needed a great general officer. In Joan, they found one. The results should, and must, speak for themselves.
Chalons fell next, and on July 16, Charles received a delegation from Rheims, which offered the city’s acquiescence to his authority. Later that evening Charles entered the city as a number of French collaborators crept out the back gate, among them Bishop Pierre Cauchon who would be the prime figure in Joan’s judicial murder.
The coronation took place the next day. Four knights known as the Guardians of the Holy Vial escorted the precious oil into the cathedral on horseback. Interestingly enough, it seems that the holy oil was the only traditional coronation item the Norman/English had not removed to Paris. They probably didn’t understand how significant it was in the popular mind. Folklore had it that the oil was brought to earth by angels for the coronation of Clovis, first king of the Franks. Charles was anointed with the oil and confirmed king. With the coronation at Rheims, Joan’s prediction proved correct: Charles VII ‘s power generally and steadily increased while his opponents’ decreased.
This was the high point of Joan’s career and for her, it all went downhill from there. She wanted to lead the army on an immediate assault upon Paris but Charles thought he might negotiate a peace with the Burgundians. The three-week truce he arranged only allowed the Norman/English time to reinforce Paris. When the French finally did attack they were unable to break through the defenses and Joan was again wounded storming the bulwarks. Another truce was established and Charles disbanded the army. Joan went into retreat, probably donned women’s clothing again and managed the stable of fine horses she had acquired from Charles. Now ennobled, and with her elder brother directing her finances, Joan accumulated some wealth. Charles continued to lavish fine gifts upon her. It seems Joan did wear and enjoy the fabulous dresses and fine furs he gave her, just as Bishop Cauchon did later charge, when he accused her of worldly extravagance.
The evidence indicates that Joan might have used the wealth she accumulated to support resistance movements that sprung up in the winter of 1430. One resistance leader in Paris, the owner of the Hotel de l’Ours, was arrested and killed by the Burgundians. Before his death Joan had tried to arrange his ransom with a prisoner exchange. The evidence is sketchy but in the winter of 1430 Joan traveled quite a bit, continued to write letters asking the citizens of various cities for support, and the resistance flared up at exactly the same time. 10.
By the spring of 1430 Charles had to admit that his negotiations had failed. The Burgundians laid siege to Compiegne and Joan resolved to help. “We have good friends in Compiegne” she said. Dressed again as a man, she outfitted her own battalion of Italian freebooters, led them to Compiegne and was greeted rightly as a savior. Never liking to waste any time, she led an immediate sortie, which was repulsed. She was captured commanding the rear guard.
Joan was now the prisoner of John of Luxembourg and by the laws of chivalry he could sell her to the Norman/English, ransom her to Charles or set her free. His aunt, Joan of Luxembourg, forbade him to sell Joan. However, the old lady died a few months later and he then sold his famous prisoner to the Norman/English for ten thousand in gold. This was the Maid’s death warrant. John’s wife and young daughter, both also named Joan, knew it well, and his act split the family asunder. John never recovered their good will and later tried to buy Joan back to mend his family ties. The Norman/English only duped him, for they would never, even for one moment, let Joan out of irons.
The Norman/English plan for their prisoner was simple. They contrived a phony trial conducted by their French collaborators in the University of Paris. A guilty verdict would discredit Charles Valois, while also eliminating their most dangerous foe. The outcome was seldom in doubt. The theologians tried their best to give the proceedings an aura of legitimacy but it was impossible. Joan was a not only a prisoner of war but also a political prisoner, for in modern terms, she represented a political faction.
Joan was denied counsel and was forced to defend herself. No charges were ever proved, as no evidence was ever submitted. Joan was condemned solely upon the interrogations conducted during her trail. Her own speech, as interpreted by her enemies, was the only testimony against her. She was not allowed to call any witnesses in her defense. Accused of witchcraft, her learned accusers could not prove any sorcery. Regarding Joan’s visions, the charge of heresy was also not shown, for in the Catholic tradition to see angels and speak with them is not heresy, but rather an enlightened condition to be attained.
Eventually they broke her down and tricked her into signing a confession with the promise that she would be kept with women in a church prison. Instead, she was returned to a Norman/English dungeon. After three days she recanted which led her to the stake.
Most commentators go along with the notion that Joan had no real impact
upon martial affairs except in morale. The direct testimony of her compatriots
contradicts this. And so do the results. In Joan, we have a girl of nineteen
who was able to cogently argue arcane points of theology with university
rectors intent to destroy her, as well as triumphantly command an army
in one of history’s most decisive campaigns. She is surely one of the great
geniuses in the thousand-year history of medieval agrarian civilization
and it is time to finally reassess her status as a military commander.
FIN
A word on the sources: Regine Pernoud is the foremost Joan of Arc scholar in the 20th century. Her work has assembled Joan’s own words, and the sworn testimony of fifteen hundred eyewitnesses, in narrative format.
NOTES
1. Regine Pernoud, The Retrial of Joan of Arc: The Evidence at the Trial for Her Rehabilitation, 1450-1456, (New York, 1955), pp.85-6.
2. Georges Duby, France in the Middle Ages, Juliet Vale, trans., (Oxford,1991),pp.289-90.
3. Regine Pernoud and Marie Veronique Clin, Joan of Arc: Her Story, Jeremy duQuesnay Adams trans., (New York, 1998), Appendix I, “The Letters of Joan of Arc,” pp. 247-64.
4. Pernoud, The Retrial of Joan of Arc, p.126.
5. J.F.C. Fuller, A Military History of the Western World, vol. I (New York, 1954).
6. Pernoud, The Retrial of Joan of Arc, p.108.
7. The First Biography of Joan of Arc, translated and annotated by Daniel Rankin and Claire Quintal, (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964) p.139-40.
8. Pernoud, The Retrial of Joan of Arc, p.142.
9. Regine Pernoud, Joan of Arc: By Herself and Her Witnesses, Edward Hyams, trans. (New York, 1966), p.123.
10. Pernoud, Joan of Arc: By Herself and Her Witnesses, p.148
Index