Joan of Arc

by Castor, Helen

  For medieval theories of just war, see P. Contamine, ‘La Théologie de la guerre à la fin du Moyen Age: La Guerre de Cent Ans fut-elle une guerre juste?’, in Jeanne d’Arc: Une époque, un rayonnement: Colloque d’Histoire Médiévale, Orléans Octobre 1979 (Paris, 1982), pp. 9–21; J. M. Pinzino, ‘Just War, Joan of Arc, and the Politics of Salvation’, in L. J. A. Villalon and D. J. Kagay (eds), The Hundred Years War: A Wider Focus (Leiden and Boston, 2005), pp. 365–96. For Henry’s claim to the French throne, see the family tree and note on pp. xvi–xvii.

  For the aims and audience of the Gesta, see Gesta Henrici Quinti, pp. xxiii–xxviii.

  For the royal chaplain’s account of the bishop of Winchester’s speech in parliament, and ‘O God …’, see Gesta Henrici Quinti, pp. 124–5.

  For Thomas Basin’s account of the battle, see T. Basin, Histoire de Charles VII, 2 vols, trans. and ed. C. Samaran (Paris, 1933–44), I, pp. 42–7; Curry, Battle of Agincourt: Sources and Interpretations, p. 190.

  For the monk of Saint-Denis, see Chronique du religieux de Saint-Denys, trans. and ed. M. L. Bellaguet, 6 vols (Paris, 1839–52, repr. in 3, Paris, 1994), V, pp. 578–81; Curry, Battle of Agincourt: Sources and Interpretations, p. 340.

  For Burgundian contact with Henry V before 1415, see Vaughan, John the Fearless, pp. 205–7.

  For the Histoire de Charles VI of Jean Juvénal des Ursins, see J. A. C. Buchon (ed.), Choix de chroniques et mémoires relatifs à l’histoire de France (Orléans, 1875), p. 519; Curry, Battle of Agincourt: Sources and Interpretations, p. 131.

  For Fenin, see P. de Fenin, Mémoires, ed. E. Dupont (Paris, 1837), p. 67; Curry, Battle of Agincourt: Sources and Interpretations, p. 119.

  For the Burgundian view of Armagnac cowardice at the battle, see, for example, Le pastoralet, a savage indictment of Armagnac crimes in the form of an allegorical poem. Its author has no hesitation in characterising the Burgundians as the lionhearted ‘Léonois’, who would ‘rather give up their souls than flee’, while the wolfish ‘Lupalois’, the greedy and duplicitous Armagnacs, turn tail without a second thought: Curry, Battle of Agincourt: Sources and Interpretations, pp. 352–3.

  For John of Burgundy’s appearance, see his portrait in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp: plate section and http://vlaamseprimitieven.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/en/collection/john-the-fearless-duke-of-burgundy.

  John of Burgundy’s lands: Vaughan, John the Fearless, pp. 5–8, 237–8.

  For the planned attack on Calais in 1406 (which did not, in the end, take place), see Vaughan, John the Fearless, pp. 38–41.

  ‘my lord has been and is as saddened …’: letter from the duke’s treasurer Jean Chousat, see Vaughan, John the Fearless, p. 40, and for Chousat’s career, pp. 121–4.

  ‘very distressed by the deaths …’: Journal, p. 66 (trans. Parisian Journal, pp. 96–8).

  For the character of the dauphin Louis (including his tendency to sleep all day and carouse all night), and his death, see Journal de Nicolas de Baye, II, pp. 231–2; Journal, pp. 66–7 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 97); Chronique du religieux, V, pp. 586–9.

  ‘the use on either side of injurious or slanderous terms …’: Vaughan, John the Fearless, p. 200.

  The count of Armagnac’s wisdom and foresight: Chronique du religieux, V, pp. 584–5.

  The count of Armagnac in sole charge of the kingdom, and as cruel as Nero: Journal, pp. 69, 92 (trans. Parisian Journal, pp. 98–9, 115).

  For the cabinet of curiosities at Hesdin, see R. Vaughan, Philip the Good: The Apogee of Burgundy (London, 1970, repr. Woodbridge, 2002), pp. 137–9.

  For the Council of Constance, and Gerson and Cauchon, see Vaughan, John the Fearless, pp. 210–12.

  For the duke of Gloucester as a hostage, and ‘What kind of conclusion …’, see Gesta Henrici Quinti, pp. 169–75.

  For Burgundy and Hainaut, see Vaughan, John the Fearless, pp. 212–13; B. Schnerb, Armagnacs et Bourguignons: La Maudite Guerre, 1407–1435 (Paris, 1988, repr. 2009), pp. 225-6.

  For the deaths of the dauphin Jean and Count William of Hainaut (who was married to John of Burgundy’s sister), and for the presence of the new thirteen-year-old dauphin Charles in Paris from 1416, see Schnerb, Armagnacs et Bourguignons, pp. 226–8; Vaughan, John the Fearless, pp. 212–13; Juvénal des Ursins in Buchon (ed.), Choix de chroniques, p. 533; Chronique du religieux, VI, pp. 58–61.

  For the breach between the dukes of Burgundy and Anjou, see Vaughan, John the Fearless, pp. 247–8.

  For John of Burgundy’s open letter, see Vaughan, John the Fearless, pp. 215–16; Schnerb, Armagnacs et Bourguignons, p. 234.

  ‘Paris was now suffering …’: Journal, p. 80 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 105).

  Innuendo about Isabeau: see, for example, Chronique du religieux, III, pp. 266–7. For discussion of the rumours about the queen, see R. Gibbons, ‘Isabeau of Bavaria, Queen of France: The Creation of an Historical Villainess’, in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, ser. 6, VI (1997), pp. 51–73, and for sexual slurs on powerful women, see H. Castor, She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth (London, 2010), pp. 31–3.

  For Isabeau, see Gibbons, ‘Active Queenship’, chs 5 and 6; Vaughan, John the Fearless, p. 221; Schnerb, Armagnacs et Bourguignons, pp. 239–41.

  For Henry V’s conquests in Normandy, see J. Barker, Conquest: The English Kingdom of France in the Hundred Years War (London, 2009), pp. 8–18.

  ‘Some people who had come to Paris …’: Journal, p. 83 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 107).

  For Martin V’s envoys, see Schnerb, Armagnacs et Bourguignons, p. 247; Vaughan, John the Fearless, pp. 221–2.

  For the events of 29 May and 12 June, including the terrible weather, see Journal, pp. 87–98 (trans. Parisian Journal, pp. 111–19); Chronique du religieux, VI, pp. 230–7, 242–51.

  Parisians wearing Burgundian crosses of St Andrew: Journal, p. 90 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 113).

  ‘God save the king …’: Journal, p. 89 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 112).

  ‘Paris was in an uproar …’: Journal, pp. 90–1 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 113).

  For the description of the count of Armagnac and other southern captains as ‘foreigners’: Journal, p. 67 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 98).

  ‘like sides of bacon …’: Journal, p. 91 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 114).

  For the band of flesh, see Schnerb, Armagnacs et Bourguignons, p. 252; Beaune, Birth of an Ideology, p. 141.

  For the entry into Paris of the duke of Burgundy and Queen Isabeau, see Journal, p. 104 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 123); Chronique du religieux, VI, pp. 252–5; and an anonymous contemporary letter quoted in Vaughan, John the Fearless, pp. 226–7.

  For Henry V’s arrival outside Rouen, see Barker, Conquest, pp. 20–1.

  For the dauphin’s counsellors and supporters, see Beaucourt, Charles VII, I, pp. 60–7, 113–18; M. G. A. Vale, Charles VII (London, 1974), pp. 23–4; Schnerb, Armagnacs et Bourguignons, pp. 257–8.

  ‘one of the worst Christians in the world’: Journal, pp. 89–90 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 113).

  The dauphin as ‘regent of France’: Beaucourt, Charles VII, I, p. 120.

  For the dauphin’s court and the division of France, see Vaughan, John the Fearless, pp. 263–5; Vale, Charles VII, pp. 22–7.

  For the fall of Rouen and the English advance, see Barker, Conquest, pp. 22–5.

  ‘No one did anything about it …’: Journal, p. 121 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 135).

  ‘So the kingdom of France …’: Journal, p. 113 (trans. Parisian Journal, pp. 129–30).

  France torn apart; see, for example, Chronique du religieux, VI, pp. 202–3, 322–5.

  For the three-way negotiations and their failure: Chronique du religieux, VI, pp. 314–17, 324–48 (including the truce between the dauphin and the duke of Burgundy, pp. 334–45).

  John of Burgundy as a servant of Lucifer: Vaughan, John the Fearless, pp. 230–1.

  For the storms of the summer
of 1419 and their interpretation, see Chronique du religieux, VI, pp. 332–3.

  For the fall of Pontoise, and the arrival of refugees from the town in Paris, see Journal, pp. 126–8 (trans. Parisian Journal, pp. 139–40).

  For events at Montereau, see the authoritative analysis of Vaughan, John the Fearless, pp. 274–86, and contemporary documents in Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de France et de Bourgogne (Paris, 1729), pp. 271–91 (including details of Tanguy du Châtel’s role in setting up the meeting, pp. 272–3, the duke’s black velvet hat, p. 273, and the swordsman kneeling over the duke, pp. 274–5). The surviving eyewitness accounts of the murder (of which the most detailed is that of the duke’s secretary, Jean Seguinat) differ significantly: some have the duke of Burgundy raised to his feet by the dauphin before the attack began, for example, and others report the intervention of a lord named Archambaud de Foix, who died as a result of head wounds sustained in the mêlée. Since it is not possible to reconcile this testimony into a single coherent narrative, I have sought instead to offer an evocation of the murder. The circumstantial evidence supports the Burgundian case that the dauphin was centrally involved in the Armagnac plan.

  For the dauphin’s ungainliness, see Vale, Charles VII, pp. 195, 203, 229.

  For the dauphin’s account of the duke’s death, see Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de France, pp. 298–9 (his initial letter addressed to the towns of France), and G. du Fresne de Beaucourt, ‘Le Meurtre de Montereau’, Revue des questions historiques, V (1868), pp. 220–2 (letter to Philip of Burgundy, including the suggestion that Philip should stay calm), 224–9.

  See Beaucourt, Charles VII, I, pp. 173–8, for a dauphinist reading of the evidence.

  Philip of Burgundy’s distress: Vaughan, Philip the Good, p. 2.

  For the duchess of Burgundy’s comparison of the murder with Judas’s betrayal of Christ, see Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de France, p. 292 (letter to the duchess of Bourbon).

  For the Burgundian response to their perception of the dauphin’s guilt, see, for example, Chronique du religieux, VI, pp. 376–9.

  ‘where they are with their poor retinue …’: Journal, p. 135 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 147).

  For the activities of Philip of Burgundy and the dowager duchess Margaret in the autumn of 1419, see Vaughan, Philip the Good, pp. 3–4; Monstrelet, Chronique, III, pp. 358–62.

  For the bitter winter, see Journal, pp. 129–32 (trans. Parisian Journal, pp. 142–4).

  The dauphin’s declaration of his commitment to peace: Schnerb, Armagnacs et Bourguignons, pp. 282–3.

  The English as the lesser of two evils: Journal, p. 139 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 150); Chronique du religieux, VI, pp. 376–9.

  For the negotiations, and gathering at Troyes: Monstrelet, Chronique, III, pp. 363–4, 378–80, 388–9.

  For the architectural history of Troyes Cathedral, see S. Murray, Building Troyes Cathedral: The Late Gothic Campaigns (Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1987), p. 35; S. Balcon, La Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Troyes (Paris, 2001), p. 10.

  For the terms of the treaty of Troyes, see Monstrelet, Chronique, III, pp. 390–402; Chronique du religieux, VI, pp. 410–31 (‘notre très-cher fils’, pp. 424–5; the ‘so-called dauphin’ and his crimes, pp. 428–9; Henry to bring the rebels back into line, pp. 416–17).

  2: LIKE ANOTHER MESSIAH

  For the sacred history of France, see Beaune, Birth of an Ideology: Clovis, pp. 70–89; the Holy Ampulla, p. 78; the oriflamme (which was in historical, rather than mythical, fact first carried into battle by Louis VI in the twelfth century), pp. 53–5, 78–9, 217. The three possible St Denises, who were conflated at different historical moments in different combinations, were Denis the Areopagite, who became bishop of Athens after being converted to Christianity by St Paul in the first century ad; a third-century Denis, bishop of Corinth; and a Denis who was sent to evangelise Gaul in the first or perhaps the third century and became bishop of Paris. The confusion over the saint’s identity meant that the relics of St Denis kept reverently within the kingdom of France included two bodies and another separate skull: see pp. 21–32. For St Louis, pp. 90–104; the Trojan origins of Paris, pp. 226–44, 333–45; Paris as a new Athens, Rome and Jerusalem, p. 51; the French as the ‘chosen people’ of a holy land, pp. 172–81.

  Henry V’s device of a fox’s brush: Journal, p. 139 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 151).

  For the Anglo-Burgundian treaty, confirmed by Henry V on 25 December 1419, see T. Rymer (ed.), ‘Rymer’s Foedera with Syllabus: December 1419’, Rymer’s Foedera, IX, British History Online, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=115251.

  Letters patent declaring the dauphin’s guilt: Chronique du religieux, VI, pp. 384–5.

  The Armagnac pamphlet is ‘La réponse d’un bon et loyal françois au peuple de France’: see N. Grévy-Pons (ed.), L’Honneur de la couronne de France: Quatre libelles contre les Anglais (Paris, 1990), pp. 123, 132.

  For the fleurs-de-lis, see Beaune, Birth of an Ideology, pp. 197–8, 200–19; for St Michael, pp. 152–8.

  For the dauphin’s standards, banners and armour, see Beaucourt, Charles VII, I, p. 199.

  The dauphin’s physical weakness: G. Chastellain, Oeuvres, ed. K. de Lettenhove, 8 vols (Brussels, 1863–6), II, pp. 178, 181; Vale, Charles VII, pp. 34, 229.

  ‘we may all tilt and joust …’: Journal, p. 140 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 151).

  For the exhumation of John the Fearless, see Monstrelet, Chronique, III, pp. 404–5; J. Le Févre, Chronique, ed. F. Morand, 2 vols (Paris, 1876–81), II, p. 44.

  For the English advance to Melun, see Barker, Conquest, pp. 31–2.

  For the dauphin’s armour and army, his palace of Mehun-sur-Yèvre and the count of Vertus, see Beaucourt, Charles VII, I, pp. 210–12, 215.

  For the entry of ‘our French lords’ into Paris, starvation in the city and wine flowing in the conduits, see Journal, pp. 144, 146 (trans. Parisian Journal, pp. 153, 155); Monstrelet, Chronique, IV, pp. 16–17.

  Musicians playing for Catherine at Melun: Monstrelet, Chronique, III, pp. 412–13.

  For the judicial sentence against the dauphin, see Beaucourt, Charles VII, I, pp. 217–18; Monstrelet, Chronique, IV, pp. 17–20.

  Departure of Catherine and Henry for England: Barker, Conquest, p. 37.

  For the dauphin sending pilgrims to Mont-Saint-Michel, see Beaucourt, Charles VII, I, p. 219.

  For the Scots in France, see B. Chevalier, ‘Les Écossais dans les armées de Charles VII jusqu’à la bataille de Verneuil’, in Jeanne d’Arc: Une époque, un rayonnement, pp. 85–6.

  For James I as Henry’s prisoner, see E. W. M. Balfour-Melville, James I, King of Scots, 1406–1437 (London, 1936), pp. 28–32, 80–3; Chevalier, ‘Les Écossais’, pp. 88–9.

  For Clarence and Baugé, see Allmand, Henry V, pp. 158–9; G. L. Harriss, Cardinal Beaufort: A Study of Lancastrian Ascendancy and Decline (Oxford, 1988), pp. 103–4; G. L. Harriss, ‘Thomas, duke of Clarence (1387–1421)’, ODNB; Barker, Conquest, pp. 37–9; Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, ed. D. E. R. Watt and others, 9 vols (Aberdeen, 1987–98), VIII, pp. 118–19.

  For the Scottish earls’ letter to the dauphin, see Beaucourt, Charles VII, I, pp. 220–1.

  ‘drunken, mutton-eating fools’ and ‘like another Messiah’: Bower, Scotichronicon, VIII, pp. 112–15.

  For Buchan as constable, see Beaucourt, Charles VII, I, pp. 222–3, and for the dauphin’s armour and standard with an image of St Michael, p. 223n.

  For the dauphin’s advance and retreat, see Beaucourt, Charles VII, I, pp. 226–30, and for his letter to the people of Lyon explaining the difficulties his army faced, p. 461; J. H. Wylie and W. T. Waugh, The Reign of Henry V, III (Cambridge, 1929), pp. 330–2.

  For the effects of the bad winter, and Henry’s return to France, Journal, pp. 153–6 (trans. Parisian Journal, pp. 160–2).

  Catherine’s pregnancy: M. Jones, ‘Catherine (1401–1437)’, ODNB.


  For the difficulties of the siege at Meaux, see Journal, p. 160 (trans. Parisian Journal, pp. 164–5); Allmand, Henry V, p. 164.

  For the holy foreskin of Christ, see Journal, p. 376n; Parisian Journal, p. 356n; N. Vincent, Holy Blood: King Henry III and the Westminster Blood Relic (Cambridge, 2001), p. 170n.

  For the birth of the future Henry VI, and the Parisian journal-writer’s despair, see Journal, pp. 163–4 (trans. Parisian Journal, pp. 166–7); Allmand, Henry V, p. 167.

  The fall of Meaux: Barker, Conquest, pp. 42–3.

  For the hermit Jean de Gand, see R. Jacquin, ‘Un précurseur de Jeanne d’Arc’, Revue des deux mondes (1967), pp. 222–6.

  For the wedding of the dauphin and Marie of Anjou, see Beaucourt, Charles VII, I, pp. 235–6.

  For Henry and Catherine in Paris, see Monstrelet, Chronique, IV, pp. 99–101. For the Hôtel Saint-Pol, see Parisian Journal, p. 11.

  For the unusually hot summer, see Journal, p. 175 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 177).

  For Henry’s illness and death, see Allmand, Henry V, pp. 170–1, 173; Monstrelet, Chronique, IV, pp. 109–12.

  For Henry’s will of 1421 and codicils of 1422, see P. Strong and F. Strong, ‘The Last Will and Codicils of Henry V’, English Historical Review, 96 (1981), pp. 89, 98–9.

  For the last journey of the king’s body, and his funeral, see Allmand, Henry V, pp. 174–8; W. H. St John Hope, ‘The Funeral, Monument, and Chantry Chapel of King Henry the Fifth’, Archaeologia, 65 (1914), pp. 129–45, 184–5; P. Cochon, Chronique normande, ed. C. de Robillard de Beaurepaire (Rouen, 1870), pp. 288–90; Monstrelet, Chronique, IV, pp. 112–16. Monstrelet says the body was taken to Notre-Dame in Paris, but the Parisian journal-writer says that it bypassed Paris and was taken instead to Saint-Denis outside the city walls: Journal, p. 176 (trans. Parisian Journal, p. 178).