The Life of Joan of Arc Part 57

[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 a.s.surances emboldened the Royal Council; and the march into Champagne was resolved upon.

The army a.s.sembled at Gien; it increased daily. The n.o.bles 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 a.s.sembled 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 mult.i.tude 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.]

[Footnote 1341: "_Gens de guerre et de commun_," says Perceval de Cagny, p. 157.]

[Footnote 1342: Eustache Deschamps ed. Queux de Saint-Hilaire and G.

Raynaud, vol. i, p. 159, _pa.s.sim_. Th. Basin, _Histoire de Charles VII et de Louis XI_, vol. i, p. 44. Letter from Nicholas de Clamanges to Gerson, LIV.]

[Footnote 1343: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 308. Perceval de Cagny, p. 157. _Journal du siege_, p. 180. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 85.]

His idea was to take her to Reims and have her crowned with him, following the example of Queen Blanche of Castille, of Jeanne de Valois, and of Queen Jeanne, wife of King John. But queens had not usually been crowned at Reims; Queen Ysabeau, mother of the present King, had received the crown from the hands of the Archbishop of Rouen in the Sainte-Chapelle, in Paris.[1344] Before her time, the wives of the kings, following the example set by Berthe, wife of Pepin the Short, generally came to Saint-Denys to receive the crown of gold, of sapphire and of pearls given by Jeanne of evreux to the monks of the Abbey.[1345] Sometimes the queens were crowned with their husbands, sometimes alone and in a different place; many had never been crowned at all.

[Footnote 1344: S.J. Morand, _Histoire de la Sainte-Chapelle royale du Palais_, Paris, 1790, in 4to, p. 77, and _pa.s.sim_.]

[Footnote 1345: Le P. J. Doublet, _Histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Denys en France_, Paris, 1625, in fol., ch. 1, pp. 373 _et seq._ Dom Felibien, _Histoire de l'abbaye royale de Saint-Denis_, 1706, in fol., pp. 203, 275, 543.]

That King Charles should have thought of taking Queen Marie on this expedition proves that he did not antic.i.p.ate great fatigue or great danger. Nevertheless, at the last moment the plan was changed. The Queen, who had come to Gien, was sent back to Bourges. The King set out without her.[1346]

[Footnote 1346: _Journal du siege_, p. 107. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 310.]

Quand le roy s'en vint en France, Il feit oindre ses houssiaulx, Et la royne lui demande: Ou veult aller cest damoiseaulx?[1347]

[Footnote 1347: When the King set out in France, he had his gaiters greased; and the Queen asked him: whither will wend these damoiseaux?

Quoted according to _La Chronique Messine_ by Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 424, note 1.]

In reality the Queen asked nothing. She was ill-favoured and weak of will.[1348] But the song says that the King on his departure had his old gaiters greased because he had no new ones. Those old jokes about the poverty of the King of Bourges still held good.[1349] The King had not grown rich. It was customary to pay the men-at-arms a part of their wages in advance. At Gien each fighting man received three francs. It did not seem much, but they hoped to gain more on the way.[1350]

[Footnote 1348: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. iv, p.

88.]

[Footnote 1349: See _ante_, pp. 148-152.]

[Footnote 1350: Perceval de Cagny, p. 157. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 87. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 313.]

On Friday, the 24th of June, the Maid set out from Orleans for Gien.

On the morrow she dictated from Gien a letter to the inhabitants of Tournai, telling them how the English had been driven from all their strongholds on the Loire and discomfited in battle. In this letter she invited them to come to the anointing of King Charles at Reims and called upon them to continue loyal Frenchmen. Here is the letter:

[cross symbol] JHESUS [cross symbol] MARIA.

Fair Frenchmen and loyal, of the town of Tournay, from this place the Maid maketh known unto you these tidings: that in eight days, by a.s.sault or otherwise, she hath driven the English from all the strongholds they held on the River Loire. Know ye that the Earl of Suffort, Lapoulle his brother, the Sire of Tallebord, the Sire of Scallez and my lords Jean Falscof and many knights and captains have been taken, and the brother of the Earl of Suffort and Glasdas slain. I beseech you to remain good and loyal Frenchmen; and I beseech and entreat you that ye make yourselves ready to come to the anointing of the fair King Charles at Rains, where we shall shortly be, and come ye to meet us when ye know that we draw nigh. To G.o.d I commend you. G.o.d keep you and give you his grace that ye may worthily maintain the good cause of the realm of France. Written at Gien the xxvth day of June.

Addressed "to the loyal Frenchmen of the town of Tournay."[1351]

[Footnote 1351: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 125. _Registre des consaux, extraits a.n.a.lytiques des anciens consaux de la ville de Tournay_, ed.

H. Vandenbroeck, vol. ii, p. 329. F. Hennebert, _Une lettre de Jeanne d'Arc aux Tournaisiens_ in _Arch. hist. et litteraires du nord de la France_, 1837, vol. i, p. 525. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. iii, p. 516.]

An epistle in the same tenor must have been sent by the Maid's monkish scribes to all the towns which had remained true to King Charles, and the priests themselves must have drawn up the list of them.[1352]

They would certainly not have forgotten that town of the royal domain, which, situated in Flanders,[1353] in the heart of Burgundian territory, still remained loyal to its liege lord. The town of Tournai, ceded to Philip the Good by the English government, in 1423, had not recognised its new master. Jean de Thoisy, its bishop, resided at Duke Philip's court;[1354] but it remained the King's town,[1355]

and the well-known attachment of its townsfolk to the Dauphin's fortunes was exemplary and famous.[1356] The Consuls of Albi, in a short note concerning the marvels of 1429, were careful to remark that this northern city, so remote that they did not exactly know where it was, still held out for France, though surrounded by France's enemies.

"The truth is that the English occupy the whole land of Normandy, and of Picardy, except Tournay,"[1357] they wrote.

[Footnote 1352: Letter from Charles VII to the people of Dauphine, published by Fauche-Prunelle, in _Bulletin de l'Academie Delphinale_, vol. ii, p. 459; to the inhabitants of Tours, in _Le Cabinet historique_, vol. i, C. p. 109; to those of Poitiers, by Redet, in _Les memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires de l'Ouest_, vol. iii, p.

106. _Relation du greffier de la Roch.e.l.le_ in _Revue historique_, vol.

iv, p. 341.]

[Footnote 1353: This is a mere form of speech. Le Tournesis has always been territory separate from the County of Flanders, the Bishops of which were the former Lords of Tournai. As early as 1187 the King of France nominally held sovereign sway there. In reality the town was divided into two factions: the rich and the merchants were for the Burgundian party, the common folk for the French (De La Grange, _Troubles a Tournai_, 1422-1430).]

[Footnote 1354: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 352.]

[Footnote 1355: _Chambre du Roi._]

[Footnote 1356: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 184-185. _Chronique de Tournai_, ed. Smedt (_Recueil des chroniques de Flandre_, vol. iii, _pa.s.sim_); _Troubles a Tournai_ (1422-1430) in _Memoires de la Societe historique et litteraire de Tournai_, vol. xvii (1882). _Extraits des anciens registres des consaux_, ed. Vandenbroeck, vol. ii, _pa.s.sim_.

Monstrelet, ch. lxvii, lxix. A. Longnon, _Paris sous la domination anglaise_, pp. 143, 144.]

[Footnote 1357: The Town Clerk of Albi in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 301.]

Indeed the inhabitants of the bailiwick of Tournai, jealously guarding the liberties and privileges accorded to them by the King of France, would not have separated themselves from the Crown on any consideration. They protested their loyalty, and in honour of the King and in the hope of his recovering his kingdom they had grand processions; but their devotion stopped there; and, when their liege Lord, King Charles, urgently demanded the arrears of their contribution, of which he said he stood in great need, their magistrates deliberated and decided to ask leave to postpone payment again, and for as long as possible.[1358]

[Footnote 1358: H. Vandenbroeck, _Extraits a.n.a.lytiques des anciens registres des consaux de la ville de Tournai_, vol. ii, pp. 328-330.]

There is no doubt that the Maid herself dictated this letter. It will be noticed that therein she takes to herself the credit and the whole credit for the victory. Her candour obliged her to do so. In her opinion G.o.d had done everything, but he had done everything through her. "The Maid hath driven the English out of all their strongholds."

She alone could reveal so nave a faith in herself. Brother Pasquerel would not have written with such saintly simplicity.

It is remarkable that in this letter Sir John Fastolf should be reckoned among the prisoners. This mistake is not peculiar to Jeanne.

The King announces to his good towns that three English captains have been taken, Talbot, the Lord of Scales and Fastolf. Perceval de Boulainvilliers, in his Latin epistle to the Duke of Milan, includes Fastolf, whom he calls _Fastechat_, among the thousand prisoners taken by the folk of Dauphine. Finally, a missive despatched about the 25th of June, from one of the towns of the diocese of Lucon, shows great uncertainty concerning the fate of Talbot, Fastolf and Scales, "who are said to be either prisoners or dead."[1359] Possibly the French had laid hands on some n.o.ble who resembled Fastolf in appearance or in name; or perhaps some man-at-arms in order to be held to ransom had given himself out to be Fastolf. The Maid's letter reached Tournai on the 7th of July. On the morrow the town council resolved to send an emba.s.sy to King Charles of France.[1360]

[Footnote 1359: Letter from Perceval de Boulainvilliers, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 120. Fragment of a letter concerning the marvels which have occurred in Poitou, _ibid._, p. 122. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 74-76.]

[Footnote 1360: Hennebert, _Archives historiques et litteraires du nord de la France_, 1837, vol. i, p. 520. _Extraits des anciens registres des consaux_, ed. Vandenbroeck, vol. ii, _loc. cit._]

On the 27th of June, or about then, the Maid caused letters to be despatched to the Duke of Burgundy, inviting him to come to the King's coronation. She received no reply.[1361] Duke Philip was the last man in the world to correspond with the Maid. And that she should have written to him courteously was a sign of her goodness of heart. As a child in her village she had been the enemy of the Burgundians before being the enemy of the English, but none the less she desired the good of the kingdom and a reconciliation between Burgundians and French.

[Footnote 1361: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 127. These letters are now lost.

Jeanne alludes to them in her letter of the 17th of July, 1429. "_Et a trois sepmaines que je vous avoye escript et envoie bonnes lettres par un heraut...._"]

The Duke of Burgundy could not lightly pardon the ambush of Montereau; but at no time of his life had he vowed an irreconcilable hatred of the French. An understanding had become possible after the year 1425, when his brother-in-law, the Constable of France, had excluded Duke John's murderers from the Royal Council. As for the Dauphin Charles, he maintained that he had had nothing to do with the crime; but among the Burgundians he pa.s.sed for an idiot.[1362] In the depths of his heart Duke Philip disliked the English. After King Henry V's death he had refused to act as their regent in France. Then there was the affair of the Countess Jacqueline which very nearly brought about an open rupture.[1363] For many years the House of Burgundy had been endeavouring to gain control over the Low Countries. At last Duke Philip attained his object by marrying his second cousin, John, Duke of Brabant to Jacqueline of Bavaria, Countess of Hainault, Holland and Zealand, and Lady of Friesland. Jacqueline, finding her husband intolerable, fled to England, and there, having had her marriage annulled by the Antipope, Benedict XIII, married the Duke of Gloucester, the Regent's brother.

[Footnote 1362: Dom Plancher, _Histoire de Bourgogne_, vol. iv, pp.