The Maid and the Queen

by Nancy Goldstone

  Robert, uncertain of what to do about Joan, who was rapidly developing a following as a seer or holy woman, must have apprised the court of Lorraine of her existence. Because on January 29, 1429, after receiving a dispatch from René, he suddenly subjected Joan to the first in a series of tests. To the great surprise of her hostess, Catherine Le Royer, the captain, accompanied by a priest, appeared at the Le Royers’ door one day—clearly something that had never happened before—and asked for Joan. “I saw Robert de Baudricourt, then Town Captain at Vaucouleurs, come into my house with Messire Jean Fournier,” Catherine later testified. “I heard him telling Joan that the latter, a priest, was wearing a stole, and that he had exorcised it in the Captain’s presence, saying that if there was any evil thing in her, she would draw back from them, and if there was something good, she would approach them. And Joan approached the priest, and gone onto her knees.”

  The precaution of exorcism having been satisfied, a messenger from the court of Lorraine next appeared in Vaucouleurs seeking Joan. She was informed that the old duke—René’s father-in- law—was sick and wished to consult her about his illness; the messenger had brought with him a letter of safe conduct for her to the town of Nancy, where the duke was staying. This invitation must have been a cause for excitement among the townspeople, for Joan was suddenly the beneficiary of an outpouring of generosity. Especially, there was concern that her clothes were too shabby to appear before the duke or to protect her adequately from the rigors of a long journey in winter. “When Joan the Maid came to the place and town of Vaucouleurs, in the diocese of Toul, I saw her, dressed in poor clothes, women’s clothes, red,” reported Jean de Novellompont, another resident of the town. After Joan received the summons from the duke of Lorraine, “I asked her if she wanted to go in her own clothes,” Jean continued. “She replied that she would rather have men’s clothes. Then I gave her clothes and hose of my servants that she might don them. And that done, the inhabitants of Vaucouleurs had men’s clothes made for her and shoes and all things necessary to her and they delivered to her a horse which cost about sixteen francs. When she was dressed and had a horse, with a safe conduct from the Duke of Lorraine, the Maid went to speak with that lord and I went with her to the city of Toul.”

  So the impetus to change her dress came not from Joan herself but from a kind supporter who was worried about the impression she would make if she went in her own garments. Nor did he find it strange that she chose to clothe herself in men’s attire. Joan was going on a journey where, despite the safe conduct, she would be vulnerable to men-at-arms and other bandits; she would also be accompanied by men for the entire trip and would be forced to live and sleep beside them. Joan was a virgin and it was important that she remain so; the less temptation the better. Male apparel in this instance served as a practical form of protection.

  Interesting too was the purchase of the horse. Since Joan did not protest when the people of Vaucouleurs provided her with a mount but simply thanked them and set off for Nancy, it must be presumed that by this time she had learned to ride. Her neighbors may even have helped her to master this skill, knowing that she would need it in the future to complete her mission. This may also perhaps explain why Joan waited three weeks or so before approaching Robert de Baudricourt the second time. She was already fascinated by soldiers and might have been using this interlude to observe the men in their military exercises so as to be able to emulate them. Certainly, if she had wished to acquaint herself with army behavior and tactics she could not have chosen a better venue than the fortress of Vaucouleurs.

  Suitably outfitted, Joan obeyed the duke’s summons and left for Nancy, probably at the beginning of February 1429. “The Duke of Lorraine required that I be taken to him,” Joan reported. “I went and I told him that I wanted to go to France, and the duke questioned me about the restoration of his health and I told him that of that I knew nothing; I said little to him about my journey, but I said to the duke that he [should] give me his son and some men to take me into France and that I would pray to God for his health; I went to him by means of a safe-conduct and I returned afterwards to the town of Vaucouleurs.” Joan’s reference to the duke’s “son” indicates that René sat in on this audience.

  René was thus given a chance to observe Joan’s behavior and assess her character. He already knew from Robert that she claimed to be the virgin of the prophecies, and was believed to be such by the townspeople of Vaucouleurs, and what René saw of Joan in her interview with his father-in-law would only have confirmed that picture. Despite the male attire, here was a modest, obviously pious, extremely articulate young woman, purporting to come from God, who showed immense confidence and self-possession in the presence of a high aristocrat. In addition to asking the duke to aid in her quest, Joan had apparently gently admonished him for having left his wife for another woman. According to a witness, Joan “had told him [the duke] that he was behaving badly and that never would he recover his health if he did not mend his ways, and she exhorted him to take back his good spouse,” another indication that news originating with the duke of Lorraine’s entourage reached as far as Domrémy, for Joan was very specific about the intelligence she received from her angels, and nowhere in her testimony did she mention that they had supplied her with this bit of gossip.

  René would also already have been familiar from Robert de Baudricourt with everything Joan had said about Charles being the true king of France and the need to lift the siege of Orléans, and these would have reflected René’s own views (which was hardly unusual, as Joan’s opinions had been shaped over the years by information emanating from his court). “Precisely because her assumptions accorded so well with the prophecies then current among Charles’ supporters, she was almost guaranteed a warm reception, at least from those whose own views coincided with hers,” observed renowned medievalist Charles T. Wood. If Joan was not some incarnation of Melusine, she gave a very good impersonation of her; she had been vetted by a priest; she was obviously holy; she was worth a chance.

  René must have informed his mother of Joan’s existence prior to this interview, because Colet de Vienne, the royal messenger sent by Yolande, was already in Nancy awaiting instructions when Joan made her appearance there. And immediately following this audience, Colet de Vienne was dispatched to Vaucouleurs with a communication for Robert de Baudricourt from René. Colet rode quickly and arrived before Joan, who stopped along the way to make a pilgrimage to a local shrine.

  So it was that upon her return, Joan found that Robert de Baudricourt had for no apparent reason reconsidered her request; more than this, he was now suddenly prepared to accede to her wishes and provide her with an escort to the royal court at Chinon, where Charles was currently in residence.* Colet de Vienne, who had made the journey previously and knew the back ways, would lead her party. “Robert twice refused and repulsed me, and the third time he received me and gave me men,” Joan later recalled. “The voice had told me that it would happen so.”

  Joan left Vaucouleurs for Chinon on February 12, 1429. Robert de Baudricourt was at Joan’s leave-taking; he had given her a sword for protection on the journey, which she held in her hand. “Robert de Baudricourt caused those who escorted me to swear that they would lead me truly and surely,” Joan later recounted. “And Robert said to me, ‘Go’ as I set off, ‘Go and let what is to be come to pass.’”

  * Later when she was older and wished to consult her voices, Joan would often fast as a way of calling them.

  * Prevailing wisdom states that Robert de Baudricourt simply changed his mind about Joan and sent her to Charles on his own authority. This is highly unlikely. Robert was not of sufficient rank to make that decision. The participation of the royal messenger is further evidence that the order to send Joan to Charles originated with René.

  CHAPTER 8

  Joan Meets

  the

  Dauphin

  When I arrived at the town of Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois, I sent [a letter] to my kin
g; then I went to the town of Chinon, where my king was; I arrived there about the hour of noon and found lodging at a hostelry.

  —Joan of Arc, in response to an inquisitor

  at her Trial of Condemnation, 1431

  HE JOURNEY FROM VAUCOULEURS lasted eleven days. To get to Chinon, Joan and her companions were forced to cross territory controlled by the En glish and the Burgundians. If they betrayed their political affiliation in the slightest way, or were challenged for traveling without a safe conduct, they would be taken captive or perhaps killed. Although Colet de Vienne knew from past expeditions which roads and towns to avoid, they were a large enough party to attract attention, and so to reduce the risk of exposure they often traveled by night. Darkness carried its own perils; in the nocturnal hours they were vulnerable to roving gangs of bandits or mercenaries who preyed on travelers too poor or lost to find shelter. Long afterward, members of Joan’s party vividly remembered the need for secrecy and the fear that haunted them “because of the Burgundian and English soldiers who were masters of the roads.”

  Perhaps because they were afraid, in the beginning there was resentment against Joan. Despite the admonition from Robert de Baudricourt to lead her “truly and surely,” at least a few of the men felt they were risking their lives on a fool’s errand and sought to punish her. “Afterwards I heard those who took her to the King speak of it and heard them say that, to begin with, they thought her presumptuous and their intention was to put her to the proof…. They wanted to require her to lie with them carnally,” recalled Marguerite la Touroulde, a witness. “But when the moment came to speak to her of this they were so much ashamed that they dared not speak of it to her nor say a word of it.” Bertrand de Poulengy, one of Joan’s original sponsors from Vaucouleurs, recalled that “every night she lay down with Jean de Metz and me, keeping upon her her surcoat and hose, tied and tight. I was young then and yet I had neither desire nor carnal movement to touch [her]… because of the abundance of goodness which I saw in her.” The precaution Joan had taken of donning male attire was thus immediately justified. The clothing helped the other members of her group to separate Joan’s femininity from her spirituality, and her modesty and piety were soon noted. By the end of the trip, her exemplary courage and irreproachable behavior had completely won over every member of her entourage. “She never swore, and I myself was much stimulated by her voices, for it seemed to me that she was sent by God, and I never saw in her any evil, but always was she so virtuous a girl that she seemed a saint,” Bertrand testified. Jean de Novellompont agreed. “The Maid always told us to have no fear and that she had a mandate to do this thing…. I believe that she was sent by God…. She liked to hear mass and she crossed herself with the sign of the Cross,” he said. “And thus we took her to the King, to the place of Chinon, as secretly as we could.”

  They arrived at around noon on February 23, 1429, and found lodging at a local inn. “I sent letters to my King in which it was contained that I sent them to know if I could enter the town where my King was, and that I had made my way one hundred and fifty leagues to come to him and bring him succour, and that I knew many things [to the] good touching him, and I believe that in the same letters it was contained that I should know the King well [from] all others,” said Joan.

  But merely surviving this frightening journey and announcing her arrival was not enough to ensure the success of Joan’s mission. She still faced the burden of convincing Charles to admit her into his presence, an event that Joan serenely believed would occur, but of which the other members of her escort were by no means as confident. They were right to worry, for the royal court was bitterly divided over whether Charles ought to receive her. In particular, Georges de la Trémoïlle was strongly opposed to the idea of allowing Joan access to the king, and argued strenuously against it. When Joan’s letter was delivered announcing her arrival, La Trémoïlle was at the head of the faction that convinced Charles to send emissaries not to receive her but to interrogate her. According to Simon Charles, a member of the king’s administration, “I know that, when Joan arrived in Chinon, there was deliberation in counsel to decide whether the King should hear her or not. To start with they sent to ask her why she was come and what she was asking for…. She said that she had two [reasons] for which she had a mandate from the King of Heaven; one, to raise the siege of Orleans, the other to lead the King to Rheims for his sacring [coronation]. Which being heard, some of the King’s counselors said that the King should on no account have faith in Joan [believe her], and the others that since she said that she was sent by God, and that she had something to say to the King, the King should at least hear her.”

  These “others” were those members of the council allied with Yolande of Aragon. “There is no evidence of opposition to Joan’s ‘mission’ from any member of the house of Anjou,” observed medievalist M. G. A. Vale. This is an understatement; in fact, it is clear that Yolande and her supporters within the council were the advisers urging Charles to see Joan for himself and to listen to what she had to say. “Orliac [a noted French historian] assigns a major role to the Angevins, and especially to Yolande of Aragon, in fostering the career of the Maid,” wrote medievalist Margaret Kekewich. “She was sheltered, supplied and encouraged by a number of Angevin servants as she made her way to Chinon and whilst she remained in the Loire Valley.”

  Charles, ever the equivocator, took all day to make up his mind, but at last his craving for spiritual reassurance prevailed and Joan was invited to the castle. She arrived late in the evening. The opposition, recognizing this peasant girl’s visit for what it was—a play by Yolande of Aragon and her faction for political supremacy at court—fought desperately against Charles’s meeting her until the very last moment. La Trémoïlle used every persuasion he could think of to unsettle the king and make him reverse his decision, a stratagem that he had employed to keep himself in power with notable success for many months. But Yolande and her family understood Charles, and especially his superstitions and fears, better than any of their rivals; and they employed those arguments to which they knew he would be most susceptible. “When she [Joan] entered the castle of Chinon to come into his presence, the King, on the advice of the principal courtiers, hesitated to speak to her until the moment when it was reported that Robert de Baudricourt had written to him that he was sending him a woman and that she had been conducted through the territory of the King’s enemies; and that, in a manner quasi-miraculous, she had crossed many rivers by their fords, to reach the King,” reported Simon Charles. “Because of this the King was pressed to hear her and Joan was granted an audience.” Since Robert de Baudricourt, being still in Vaucouleurs, had no way of knowing what had occurred on Joan’s journey, or even whether at this point she had arrived safely, it must be presumed that this letter was an invention by the members of Yolande’s faction who knew to stress the mystical aspects of the case.* Georges de la Trémoïlle was overruled, and Joan was invited to enter the great hall.

  This was Joan’s first experience of a royal court, and although the surroundings were far less magnificent than those of Paris, the splendor of Charles’s retinue was more than enough to dazzle her: “There were more than three hundred knights and fifty torches,” Joan later recounted in awe. She must have looked as foreign to that great company as they did to her: a slim young woman, obviously provincial, attired in the clothes of a man; by this time she had cut her hair as male pages did in the shape of a bowl, which only enhanced the quaint, otherworldly nature of her appearance. Even now, so close to achieving her goal, she faced one last obstacle: Charles’s fear of meeting her caused him to try to camouflage himself by retreating behind his courtiers. Much has been made of Joan’s ability to recognize Charles, whom she had never seen before, despite this subterfuge; it added greatly to the miraculous nature of her visit. “When the King knew that she was coming, he withdrew apart from the others,” Simon Charles reported. “Joan, however, knew him at once and made him a reverence and spoke to him
for some time.” Joan herself confirmed this observation. “When I entered my King’s room, I knew him among the others by the counsel of my voice which revealed him to me,” she said simply.

  This episode has naturally been attributed to divine revelation; however, there was perhaps another explanation for Joan’s perspicacity. She did not in fact discover Charles by wandering alone into the main hall and through a body of three hundred knights as is implied; rather, she was escorted into Charles’s presence by the count of Vendôme. The count of Vendôme was among those who had conspicuously accompanied Yolande of Aragon when she returned to the royal court the previous September, and was one of the lords who formed the nucleus of her political party. He understood precisely what was at stake and how important it was that this young woman see Charles and convince him to stay in France and fight the English. The count of Vendôme, not finding the king precisely where he had left him, would naturally have looked around for him, and the count of Vendôme knew what Charles looked like. Since her escort both wanted and needed Joan to detect the king, it is hardly surprising that she did so. It also helped that Charles was distinctive-looking. He had inherited his father’s and uncle’s extremely large nose, and this would have been known even in Domrémy.