by Helen Castor
Joan summoned ‘to answer truly …’: Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 33–4 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 33–4; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 47–8).
Joan’s response to the summons, and the judges’ decision not to allow her to hear mass: Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 35–6 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 35–6; English in Hobbins, Trial, p. 48).
Examination of her virginity, under the supervision of the duchess of Bedford: see testimony in 1456 in Duparc, Nullité, I, pp. 360 (Jean Monnet), 379 (Jean Marcel), 432 (Jean Massieu) (all trans. French in Duparc, Nullité, IV, pp. 45, 62, 112; Massieu in English in Taylor, Joan of Arc, p. 333).
Exchange between Cauchon and Joan over the question of the oath: Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 37–9 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, p. 37; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 49–50, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 137–8).
For details of the first day’s interrogation (Wednesday 21 February), see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 40–2 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 38–42; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 50–1, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 138–9). Joan explained that she was known at home as Jeannette, and then from when she came to court as Jeanne. Later in the trial, on Saturday 24 March, she said that her surname was d’Arc or Rommée, and that girls in her region took their mother’s surname (which, in this case, would therefore mean that she was Jeanne Rommée): see Tisset, Condamnation, I, p. 181 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, p. 148; English in Hobbins, Trial, p. 116, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, p. 204).
For the second day’s interrogation (Thursday 22 February), see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 42–54 (quotations from pp. 45–6, 50, 53) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 43–57; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 51–6, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 140–5).
For the third session (Saturday 24 February), see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 54–68 (quotations from pp. 56, 59, 61–2, 67) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 57–68; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 56–63, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 145–51). Where there are slight variations between the French minute and the Latin transcript in these pages, I have preferred the French text, since its meaning seems clearer: see, for example, Tisset, Condamnation, I, p. 62, where the Latin has Joan say that the light comes ‘in the name of the voice’, whereas in French she says that the light ‘comes before the voice’.
Clerics struggling to find a seat: when the first inquiry into the trial process took place in 1450, a friar named Guillaume Duval testified that he had attended one session with another friar named Isambard de la Pierre. Neither of them, he said, had been able to find a seat, so they had sat on the carpet near to Joan herself in the midst of the assembly. The session these two men attended (assuming that the ‘Jean Duval’ listed in the trial transcript of 1431 is a clerical error for ‘Guillaume’) took place in the same chamber on 27 March, when around twenty fewer clerics were present than on 24 February, so it seems safe to assume that on this earlier occasion latecomers might have had to stand. For the testimony of Guillaume Duval, see P. Doncoeur and Y. Lanhers (ed. and trans.), L’Enquête ordonnée par Charles VII en 1450 et le codicile de Guillaume Bouillé (Paris, 1956), pp. 46–7; for Duval’s attendance in 1431, see Tisset, Condamnation, I, p. 185 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, p. 152; English in Hobbins, Trial, p. 119), and for the identification of Jean with Guillaume, see Tisset, Condamnation, II, p. 398.
For the trial as a case of the discernment of spirits, see Sullivan, Interrogation, pp. 32–41.
For Gerson warning against the possibility that women and the unlearned might claim the gift of discernment for themselves, see Elliott, ‘Seeing Double’, pp. 29–30, 33–5, 37–8, and, for the need for prudence and humility in seeking counsel in such cases, pp. 39–40.
For the parish prayers on which Joan drew in her answer about being in a state of grace, see Tisset, Condamnation, II, p. 63 n. 1.
For the theological issues relating to the tree of the fairies, see Sullivan, Interrogation, pp. 7–20.
For the fourth session (Tuesday 27 February), see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 68–79 (quotations from pp. 69, 72–5) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 69–79; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 63–70, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 151–8).
For saints, angels, and the need for a sign, see Sullivan, Interrogation, pp. 23–32, 35–41, 61–4; see also K. Sullivan, ‘“I do not name to you the voice of St Michael”: The Identification of Joan of Arc’s Voices’, in Wheeler and Wood (eds), Fresh Verdicts, pp. 85–112.
For the nature and tactics of the interrogation, see Sullivan, Interrogation, pp. 82–99; Hobbins, Trial, pp. 13–17.
For the theological implications of a woman wearing men’s clothes, see Sullivan, Interrogation, pp. 42–54; S. Schibanoff, ‘True Lies: Transvestism and Idolatry in the Trial of Joan of Arc’, in Wheeler and Wood (eds), Fresh Verdicts, pp. 31–60.
For the fifth session (Thursday 1 March), see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 80–90 (quotations from pp. 84, 88) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 79–89; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 70–7, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 159–66).
For the last day of public interrogation (sixth session, Saturday 3 March), see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 90–109 (quotations from pp. 104, 106) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 89–102; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 77–85, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 166–74).
For the appointment of Jean de La Fontaine to lead the next phase of questioning, see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 109–10 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 102–3; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 85–6).
For the first session in Joan’s prison cell (Saturday 10 March), see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 110–18 (quotations from p. 117, where I have preferred the French reading) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 103–9; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 86–9).
For the second session in prison (Monday 12 March), see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 121–9 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 111–16; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 93–4, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 178–82).
For the third session in prison (Tuesday 13 March), see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 133–42 (quotation from p. 136) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 119–24; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 95–9, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 182–6).
For the fourth, fifth and sixth sessions in prison (Wednesday 14, Thursday 15, Saturday 17 March), see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 143–79 (quotation from p. 166) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 126–46; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 99–114, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 186–203).
For the decision made on Passion Sunday, discussion of procedure, and d’Estivet’s seventy articles (which he began to read on Tuesday 27 March and continued on Wednesday 28), see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 179–286 (quotation from pp. 191–2) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 146–242; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 114–55).
For turning the seventy articles into twelve, plus the opinions of the theologians and the lawyers, see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 289–327 (quotation from p. 298) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 244–84; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 156–66, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 207–12).
For the rigour with which the trial was conducted, see Hobbins, Trial, pp. 16–19, 21–4, 26.
For the concern of the judges for the fate of Joan’s soul, see Sullivan, Interrogation, pp. 106–13, 120–8.
10: FEAR OF THE FIRE
For Joan’s illness, see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 328–9 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 285–6; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 166–7).
For the visit to Joan’s cell on 31 March, see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 286–9 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 242–4; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 155–6, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 205–6).
For Joan’s escape attempts, see the interrogations of 14 and 15 Mar
ch: Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 143–5, 153, 155–6, 164 (quotation from p. 156) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 126–7, 131, 133, 137; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 100, 103–5, 108, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 187, 191–3, 196). Joan and her interrogators spoke always of her ‘leap’ from the tower, but the Burgundian ‘Chronicle of the Cordeliers’, written around 1432, instead describes an escape attempt in which whatever she was using to lower herself from the tower broke, thus causing her fall: see Taylor, Joan of Arc, p. 237.
For St Catherine resisting the interrogation of pagan scholars, see Taylor, Virgin Warrior, p. 26.
For exchanges between Joan and her judges about the possibility that she could hear mass if she would put on women’s clothes, see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 156–8, 167–8, 182–3 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 133–4, 139–40, 149–50; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 105–6, 110, 117, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 193–4, 198–9, 204–5).
For the visit to Joan’s cell on Wednesday 18 April, see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 327–33 (quotations from pp. 329, 330, 332) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 284–8; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 166–9).
For Cauchon’s birth probably in 1371, see Neveux, L’Evêque Pierre Cauchon, p. 7.
For the session on Wednesday 2 May, see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 333–48 (quotations pp. 337, 342–3, 346–7) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 288–301; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 169–78).
For the threat of torture on Wednesday 9 May, see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 348–50 (quotation from p. 349) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 301–2; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 178–9). The following session on 12 May consisted of the judges’ deliberations about whether or not they should proceed to the use of torture: see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 350–2 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 302–4; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 179–80). In the session after that, on 19 May, Cauchon and fifty-one advisers met to consider the opinions on the case sent by the faculties of theology and canon law at the university of Paris: Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 352–74 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 304–25; English in Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 213–16, and summary in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 180–4).
For the final hearing (Wednesday 23 May), see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 374–85 (quotations from pp. 376, 380, 383–4) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 325–35; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 184–90).
For Pierre Maurice’s age, see Tisset, Condamnation, I, p. 418 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, p. 364; English in Hobbins, Trial, p. 205); for his career, see Tisset, Condamnation, II, p. 417.
For proceedings at Saint-Ouen, and events afterwards, on Thursday 24 May, see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 385–94 (quotation from p. 386), (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 335–43; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 190–2, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 216–19).
For Joan previously asking to be taken to the pope (on 17 March and 2 May), see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 176, 343 (quotation from p. 343) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 144, 298; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 113, 176, and, for 17 March, Taylor, Joan of Arc, p. 202).
For the executioner waiting with his cart, see the testimony of Guillaume Manchon in 1456: Duparc, Nullité, I, pp. 425, 427 (trans. French in Duparc, Nullité, IV, pp. 106, 108; English in Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 328, 330).
For the discovery of Joan’s relapse and the visit to her cell on Monday 28 May, see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 395–9 (quotation from p. 398) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 344–6; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 196–8, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 220–2); and see discussion of Joan’s distressed state in Sullivan, Interrogation, pp. 131–9.
For discussion of Joan’s resumption of male clothing, see Hobbins, Trial, pp. 24–6, and above, pp. 225–6, for the suggestion in 1456 that she might have found herself under threat or coercion, albeit that the stories varied in their detail. Certainly, the fact that men’s clothes were still available to her in her cell suggests that someone had an interest in the possibility of her relapse.
For the hearing of Tuesday 29 May, see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 399–408 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 346–53; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 198–9).
For the visit to Joan’s cell on the morning of Wednesday 30 May, see the witness statements compiled on 7 June in Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 416–22 (quotation from p. 418) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 362–8; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 204–9). Many historians have been reluctant to accept the evidence contained in these statements, on the grounds that they were recorded eight days after the event and not signed by the notaries. Larissa Juliet Taylor, for example, mentions them only in an endnote, to say that ‘additions to the trial transcript were made on June 7 but not signed by the trial notaries, including a falsified confession’ (her emphasis, Virgin Warrior, p. 236n). However, this is an endnote appended to a part of Taylor’s text entirely derived from witness statements given twenty-five years after the event, in the context of a no less politicised inquiry than that of 1431. The absence of the notaries’ signatures can straightforwardly be explained by the fact that they were not there to witness the meeting of 30 May; and they were not there to witness it because, in the terms by which the trial was conducted, this was a pastoral visit concerned with saving Joan’s soul, not a judicial one, since the fate of her body was already decided. Certainly, the judges and the English had an interest in Joan being seen to renounce her claims, and the fact that these statements were taken down and added to the trial transcript is undoubtedly significant, but if their account of Joan’s words were wholly falsified – a suggestion for which there is no evidence – it is hard not to believe that the confession put into her mouth would have been, on the one hand, more fulsome and dramatic, and, on the other, less psychologically detailed and convincing. As a whole, the description of Joan on her last morning derived from these testimonies seems to me to be consistent with the distress evident in her last formal interview on 28 May. It presents a psychologically plausible account of her voices and visions: for example, several witnesses at the nullification trial spoke of her love for the ringing of bells (see pp. 234, 238). It also presents a plausible explanation of her story of her ‘sign’ as an angel presenting a golden crown to the king – something which has not become a part of her myth in the same way as the communication she claimed with Saints Catherine, Margaret and Michael, precisely because it seems to strain credulity too far. Joan’s acknowledgement of error also helps to explain why she was allowed that morning to make confession and take communion, an unusual privilege for a relapsed heretic. I see no reason not to take the evidence recorded on 7 June as seriously, and carefully, as the rest of the evidence from the two trials. See discussion in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 12–13; Sullivan, Interrogation, pp. 71–81, 139–48.
For the official transcript of Joan’s final sentencing on 30 May, see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 408–14 (quotation from p. 410) (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 353–60; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 199–202, and Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 222–4).
For the cap Joan wore to the stake, see the journal of Clément de Fauquembergue in Quicherat, Procès, IV, p. 459, and English translation in Taylor, Joan of Arc, p. 228.
For the English soldiers, and Joan saying the name of Jesus amid the flames, see, for example, testimony given in 1450: Doncoeur and Lanhers (eds), L’Enquête ordonnée par Charles VII, pp. 38–9 (Isambard de la Pierre), 44–5 (Martin Lavenu), 51 (Guillaume Manchon), 56 (Jean Massieu).
11: THOSE WHO CALLED THEMSELVES FRENCHMEN
For Bedford’s move to Paris and the convoy of supplies, see Journal, pp. 261–2 (trans. Parisian Journal, pp. 255–6); J. Stevenson (ed.), Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Wars of the English in France, II, part II (London, 1864), pp. 424–6.
For Bedford on campaign, see Rams
ay, Lancaster and York, p. 431.
For Henry VI’s letters to the emperor and to the lords and cities of France, see Tisset, Condamnation, I, pp. 423–30 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, pp. 368–76; English in Hobbins, Trial, pp. 209–11, and second letter in Taylor, Joan of Arc, pp. 225–8). Griffiths suggests (Reign of King Henry VI, p. 220) that the duke of Bedford wrote the text, but that seems unlikely given how little he had to do with the process of the trial, and that he was not in Rouen in June, where the letters were dated.
For Jean Graverent’s sermon in Paris, and the account of Joan’s execution, see Journal, pp. 266–72 (trans. Parisian Journal, pp. 260–5).
For the writing up of the Latin transcript of the trial, see Hobbins, Trial, pp. 5–6, 8–13. Cauchon addressed the transcript ‘to all who will read the present letters or public instrument’: Tisset, Condamnation, I, p. 1 (trans. French in Tisset, Condamnation, II, p. 1; English in Hobbins, Trial, p. 33).
For the letter from Bruges to Venice reporting St Catherine’s words, see Morosini, Chronique, III, pp. 348–57.
For the letter of the archbishop of Reims, see Quicherat, Procès, V, pp. 168–9, and above, p. 160.
For comment and information about William the Shepherd collected from the Parisian journal and the chronicles of Jean Le Févre, Monstrelet, the Berry herald and Jean Chartier, see Quicherat, Procès, V, pp. 169–73.
For the fall of Louviers and Château Gaillard to the English, see Barker, Conquest, pp. 151, 169–70.
For King Henry’s entry into Paris, see Journal, pp. 274–6 (trans. Parisian Journal, pp. 268–71); F. W. D. Brie (ed.), The Brut, or the Chronicles of England, I (London, 1906), pp. 459–60; Monstrelet, Chronique, V, pp. 2–4; G. L. Thompson, Paris and Its People under English Rule: The Anglo-Burgundian Regime, 1420–1436 (Oxford, 1991), pp. 199–205, 244–6; Curry, ‘“Coronation Expedition”’, p. 49.
