oano

Forget the gauzy Hollywood saint-she was an inspired battlefield leader

By Kelly DeVries

oo

he most famous woman writer of the Middle Ages, Christine de Pisan, wrote her lasttreatise about the most famous woman in the Middle Ages, Joan of Arc. De Pisan'sDitie dejehanne d'Arc was a paean to the French military leader whose victories wereturning the tide of the Hundred Years' War and would lead to the crowning ofCharles VII on July 17, 1429. Her account is also a contemporary recognition that

Joan's mission was not an act of heresy but had come from God, just as Joan had declared.

Addressing herself to the English and Burgundians thenfighting against Joan, de Pisan poses the questions they wereafraid to have answered:

Oh, all you blind people, can you not detect God's hand in this?If you cannot, you are truly stupid, for how else could the Maidwho strikesyou all down dead have been sent to us?Andyou do nothave sufficient strength! Do you want to fight against Cod?

Christine de Pisan was well positioned to ask thosequestions. She had lived through the military resur-gence of France at the end of the 14th century,and she had witnessed its many defeats atthe hands of Henry V since 1415: Harfleur,Agincourt, Caen and Rouen. Ultimately,nearly all of northern France had falleninto his hands. She had watched herformer patron, John the Fearless, dukeof Burgundy (head of a faction of Frenchnobles that had wrested control of thethrone from King Charles VI, whosemadness had rendered him unable torule), lead the conquering English kinginto Paris and then into a marriage withCatherine of Valois, Charles' daughter.For his part in this intrigue, John was laterassassinated by men under the commandof Catherines brother, Charles, the disinher-ited Dauphin—the very man Joan wouldcrown king. And, following Henrys earlydeath in 1422, de Pisan had also seen theEnglish armies push French forces across theLoire River, far to the south of Paris. Indeed,by 1429 and the advent of Joan of Arc,the English occupied some Lwo-thirds ofFrance, their Burgundian allies controllingeven more.

The 1415 Battle of Agincourt had been a resoundingFnglish victory. An estimated 6,000 Englishmen defeated aforce that may have numbered more than 25,000 (although, oneauthority on that battle, Anne Curry, has recently suggestedcloser numbers: 7,000 English against 12,000 Frencb). Frenchlosses, especially among knights and nobles, had been high.The French had been not only militarily defeated, but alsoprofoundly demoralized. After Agincourt, French resistanceto their conquerors was light and ineffective. Fearing other

Legend has it that Joan of Arcwore this iron heimet, above, inthe coliection of New York'sMetropolitan Museum of Art.Right, Dante Gahriel Rossetti's1863 portrait imagines her aspart saint, part warrior. The realJoan would certainly have beenfamiliar with such weaponry.

embarrassing and costly losses, les armies grew cautious andavoided open confrontations. Leadership problems, recruitmentwoes and logistical troubles multiplied on the French side,while the smaller English army, under the dynamic leadershipof Henry V, went on to conquer Normandy, Brittany, Le Maineand Ile-de-France with unprecedented speed during between1415 and 1422. The English had also capitalized on a civil warthat raged throughout France, dividing the kingdom and

making allies of the Burgundians, led after 1419 byDuke Philip the Good.

Such setbacks prompted many French townsto surrender to the Fnglish and Burgundianswithout even being attacked. They sought toavoid any punishment that might follow afailed defense. Often, the English didn't evenassign garrisons to the surrendered towns,enabling them to disperse their limited forcesand cover even more threatened territory.

But through these years of setbacks,pockets of French resistance did hold out,largely unsupported by the Dauphin orhis generals. The successful defenses atMont-Saint-Michel, Tournai, Vaucouleursand Orleans gave hope to many Frenchpatriots who thought the occupiers of theirlands were vulnerable to a concerted, ag-gressive military effort. Such leaders as Jean,due d'Alengon; Robert de Baudricourt;Etienne de Vignolles, dit La Hire; Louis deCulen; and Jean Poton de Xaintrailles,not to mention many anonymous Frenchsoldiers, believed that the English couldbe defeated, but that the French neededinspiring leadership. The Dauphin hadcertainly not provided any such thing. Norwas he likely to, as his favorites, Georgesde la Tremoille and Archbishop Renault

de Chartres, were counseling him to proceed with cautionagainst the English and Burgundians. That the spark ofinspiration for more aggressive military action was to arise inthe person of a peasant female was probably not anticipatedby any of those willing French warriors. However, when Joanof Arc appeared, they felt her confidence and determinationand soon followed her with a fervent loyalty few soldiersin history have given their leaders. Joan responded by leadingthem to victory.

MILITARY HISTORY

J oan^ approach to military action was simple. In this regard,some of her detractors are correct: Joan did not appearto possess the kind of strategic or tactical cleverness in

campaign and battlefield maneuvers that would have impressedclassical theorists like Xenophon or Frontinus. But becauseshe believed God had sent her on a mission to save France,and had even provided her with a means of fulfillitig thatmission by arranging for the Dauphin to give her leadershipwithin the French army (Joan was never appointed asthe leader of the French army, only one of several leaders),her strategy and tactics reflected her belief that she could donothing wrong, and that direct and aggressive action was themeans to victory. Joans convictions further mean! that anyonewho died in her army, while doing God's bidding, was a mariyrlor a righteous cause, destined for heaven.

Joan best demonstrated effective leadership in her reliefof the Siege of Orleans, although her pre-Orleans history hadforecast her battlefield successes. Indeed, her confidencein confronting Robert de Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs, theDauphin at Chinon, the ecclesiastical leaders in Chinon,the offtcials in Poitiersand, finally, Charles'mother-in-law, Yo-lande d'Aragon, queenof Sicily, in Poitiers,brought her promi-nence and a devotedfollowing even be-fore she reached theFrench camps atOrleans. Her earlyreputation also elicited animosity from the other Frenchleaders she encountered upon her arrival at the besiegedLoire holdout. But who could blame them? Sending a peasantgirl to assist them in their struggles to relieve the Fnglishsiege of Orleans—regardless of whether she had receivedthis mission directly from God—was an indictment of theirmilitary leadership.

Joan would have none of such negative attitudes; she hadneither the time nor the patience for their hurt feelings.She was anxious only to engage the enemy. At their firsttneeting, on April 29, 1429, the following exchange occurred(later recalled in a deposition by Jean, the Bastard of Orleans,commander of the French armies al Orleans):

Then Joan spoke to him those words which follow: "Are you theBastard of Orleans?" He answered her: "Yes, I am so and 1 rejoiceatyour coming." Then said she to him: "Didyou^ve counsel thatI should come here, to this side of the river, and that 1 shouldgo not straight there where Talbot [Lord John Talbot, head of theEnglish annyl and the English are?" Qoan had been led aroundthe English army] He answered that he and others, wiser on thismatter, had given this counsel, believing thai they were doingthe best and surest. Then Joan said to him, "In the name of Cod,the counsel of our Lord God is surer and wiser than yours. Youthought to deceive me, but it is you who are deceived, for / am

hnn^ngyou better help than ever came from any soldier or anycity, because it is the help of the King of Heaven. It does not comethrough love for me, but from God himself who, on the petition ofSaint Louis and Saint Charlemagne, has had pity on the townof Orleans and has refused to suffer the enemy to have [this] city."

Jean was not used to endunng such a direct affront to hisauthority. But then, neither was he prepared to attack theFnglish. In fact, there is evidence he intended to pull awayfrom the town, in effect surrendering it to the English forceof some 5,000, then led by the Farl of Suffolk. Joan took thatintention as an insult to herself, to the people of Orleans andlo God. She also had difficulty understanding why ihe Bastardwould do this, as the English did nol even have sufficientiroops on hand to surround Orleans. Instead, they hadmanned only four strongholds, or "boulevards," along the eastside of town, one on an island in the Loire River farther east,one more to the north, and another on the road from Orleansto Jargeau. Each held few English troops. Indeed, in comingto Orleans, Joan and her relatively largo retinue had passed

one English strong-hold, the Boulevardof Saint-Loup, with-out notice. Ooanand a few Orleanaiswould later capturethat same boulevardwith ease.) The Eng-lish had more sol-diers on the southbank of the Loire,

most of them concentrated at Les Tourelles, the fortificationbeside the single bridge into Orleans, and in the adjacentBoulevard Augustin, amid the ruins of an Augustinianmonastery. The bridge no longer spanned the river, havingbeen destroyed by the Orleanais at the beginning of the siegethe previous October, hut it remained the defensive hub forthe Fnglish. To relieve the siege, the French would have toconcentrate their efforis on that fortification.

Perhaps this is what frightened the Bastard of Orleans.A boulevard was one of the most daunting fortifications of thelater Middle Ages, despite being constructed simply out of eanhand wood. Defended by soldiers with gunpowder weapons,however, it could hold out seemingly forever against almostany size force. Most military leaders, unwilling to sacrifice alarge number of their men in attacking such a position, simplyleft the boulevards alone. Complicating matters, the Englishtroops at Les Tourelles could directly support the BoulevardAugustin. It was also rumored that an Fnglish force led by thecapable Sir John Fastolf was approaching Orleans.

Joan's reaction to the Bastard's withdrawal plans was tobe expected. After discovering he had left her out of leader-ship councils that addressed how to handle Faslolfs arrival,she again rebuked, even threatened, the French leader.Joan's squire, Jean d'Aulon, later recalled her words: "Bastard,Bastard, in the tiame of God I command you that as soon as

I am blinging youbetter help than evercame from any soldier,because it is the helpof the King of Heaven'

MILITARY HISTORY

you hear of Fastolfs coming, you will let me know. For iT hegets through without my knowing it, I swear to you that 1 willhave your head cut off." The count "answered that he did notdoubt thai, and that he would certainly let her know."

Once firmly established within the French military leader-ship ranks, Joan devised a plan lo relieve the siege before thearrival of ihe English reinforcements, lt was simple and direct:She herself would lead an assault on the Boulevard Augustin.The Bastard and the oiher French leaders quickly agreed withher plan. They had little choice and after all could only profitfrom the position in which she had placed herself: If shesucceeded, ihey would share in her victory. If she failed,they could blame her for the incautious attack.

The only potential flaw in Joan's plan was the high num-ber of French casualties likely to result from an attack against

ened skillfully all of the defensible places. And also theyfougj^t well,noiwithsianding that the French scaled the different places adeptlyand attacked the angles at the highest of the strong and sturdyfortijicalions, so ihat they seemed by this to be immortal. But theEnglish rt'pulst'd themfrom many places and attacked with artilleryhoth fiigfi and low, both with cannons and other weapons, such asaxes, lances, pole-arms, lead hammers and other personal arms,so that they killed and wounded many Frenchmen.

Despite being wounded herself, Joan persisted in the assault.Delivering a fiery speech "in the name of God," she urged hermen forward, claiming that the English "were not a strongerforce" than they She promised "to touch the siafl of her stan-dard on the boulevard." Her troops responded with shoutsand a renewed charge forward. Les Tourelles soon felt. The

Joan addressed the citizens of Reims on March 28,1430, telling them in part, "Know that you are in [the king's] favor...He wilt deliver you, if it pleases God, very soon." It is her last known letter, dictated before setting out on her final campaign.

such a strong position defended by well-armed men. Forti-fied by her belief in God's will and presence, Joan didn'tseem concerned. Nor were the French soldiers, for they hadbeen drawn to her patriotism and shared her spiritual zeal.It was almost as if they believed they couldn't die in thisstruggle, and that if they did, they would gain otherwiseunattainable salvation.

M any apparently did gain that salvation on May 7,1429. The bloodiest encounter of the Hundred Years"War since the battle of Agincourt is described in the

contemporary youmal du siege d'Orleans:

Early in the morning on the day after, which was Saturday, the 7thday of May, the French attacked Les Tourelles and the boulevardwhile the English were attempting to fortify it. And there was aspectacular assault, during which there were performed manygreat feats of arms, both in the attack and in the defense, becausethe English had a large number of strong soldiers and had strength-

English defenders fled, and Joan—now bearing her well-earned nickname, the "Maid of Orleans"—entered the cityat the head of her victorious army. She had made believersout of those who had doubted her.

Similar direct assaults against other Fnglish-held LoireValley towns brought similar results. Despite Fastolfs attemptto reinforce Jargeau with troops and gunpowder weapons,it fell on June 12. Beaugency succumbed just five days laterafter an intense bombardment by French guns of the 12thcentury casde where English troops had holed up. 'The Englishwere able to put up only a small amount of resistance," wrote JeanChanier, a 15th centur>' French monk and historian. That samenight the English abandoned the town of Meung-sur-Loire,slipping away under cover of darkness.

English militaiy leaders were nol accustomed to such defeats,and Talbot and Fastolf were determined to turn things around.They met the French in battle outside the town of Patay onJune 18, 1429. The French were again victorious. Talbot wascaptured, while Faslolf barely escaped and retreated to Paris.

oo

Joan was present, although how much of a role she took in Lhebattle is disputed.

I n less than a month, Joan of .Arc had relieved the siege of Or-leans, retaken the towns of Jaigeau, Meung-sur-Loire and Beau-gency and panicipated in the major French victory at Patay

And a month later, on July 17, 1429, when the Dauphin wascrowned King Charles VII of France at Reims, Joan was by hisside. All along their route to Reims, towns that had earlier will-ingly subjugated themselves to English Rile—Auxerre, Chalons,Troyes and even Reims itself—welcomed "liberation" by the Maid.

Pans, however, remained in enemy hands, and thus Joanundertook a new mission: 5he would recapture the French

chronicled the conflict, "and it was a mar\'el how much noisewas made by the cannons and couleuvhncs, which fired atthose outside the walls al such a rate and in such a quantityas to be without number." Still, Cagny insists, because oflhe Maid's presence with the army and by the grace of God,"no man was wounded or killed." (A more credible eyewitnessis French artist Clement de Fauquembergue, who says iheguns killed and wounded many French soldiers.) During thefighting, Joan was wounded in the thigh by a crossbow bolt.

Joan cannot be blamed for the failure to retake Paris,declared \.hc Journal du siege d'OrUans: "She wished toattack such a strong lown and so well stocked with men

Burgundian troops captured Joan at Compiegne in May 1430, later ransoming her to the English. She was executed a year later.

capital, then under the control of a sizable Anglo-Burgitndianarmy led by John, duke of Bedford, cotnmander ofall Englishtroops in occupied France. Again, Joan did not shrink fromthis challenge. Before the year was out, she conducted minorbloodless skirmishes with the duke of Bedford's force, thenattacked and captured the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis, thebasilica of which held the bones of many earlier French kings.The French saw its capture as divine endorsement of theirattempts to win back their kingdom.

But when Joan's forces attacked Paris on September 8, it didnot fall. "The assault was difficuli and long,"' wrote Percival deCagny, who rode under the standard of Alengon and later

and artillery simply because it was the city of Paris." Theanonymous author of the journal was undoubtedly accuratein his assessment of the militaiy situation at Paris. But his wasnot the opinion that prevailed at Charles VU's court: Joanhad failed, and her failure cast doubt on the divinity of hermission. It also cast doubt on the tactical methods she hadused to gain her Loire victories and assault Paris.

Over tbe objections of many French military leaders,Charles sought the overly cautious advice of La Tremoille andChartres. They urged dehberation, to avoid bringing theBurgundians more actively into the fray They even suggestedihai the king return to the Fnglish some of the towns captured

f

by Joan. This the king refused, but La Tremoille and Chartres didpersuade Charles to disband his coronation army and to sendJoan—tince she had reco\-ered from her wound—to a less signif-icant theater of operations, against a band of mercenaries ledby Perrinet Gressart, along the southern Loire River. There shewas able to capture the town of Saini-Pierre-lc-Moutier bydirect assault, despite being woefully undcrsupplied. But shefailed to take hea'vily fortified La Charit^-sur-Loire. The reasonfor her failure at La Charity is suggested in a letter Joan hadwritten on Nov 9. 1429, to the townspeople of nearby Riomat lhe outset of the siege:

Because of the great quantitiesof gunpowder, arrows and otherequipment of war expended beforethe said town [Saint-Pierre-le-Mouticr], and because the lordswho are in this town and I areso poorly provided to besiegeLa Charite., where we are goingpresently, I beseech you, that asyou love the good and honor ofthe king and also those othershere, that you would instantlysend help for this siege, of gun-powder, saltpeter, sulphur, anows,heavy crossbows and other equip-ment of war. And do this so that,for lack of the said powder andother equipment of war, the situa-tion will not be prolonged, and(hat you will not be said to beneglectful or rejecting.

Petitions that winter frotnher friends at court, includ-ing ihc king's mother-in-law,returned Joan to more pressingmilitary engagements the fol-lowing spring. She answeredby skirmishing with Englishtroops at Senlis, Crepy-en-Valoisand Melun. Bui again her leader-ship was less than successful inthese engagements. Although

Joan and her contemporaries considered them victories, iheyfailed to move the Fnglish from any of their occupied territoiyBut her persistence was enough to further irritate the dukeof Bedford and to drag Philip the Good, duke ol" Burgundy,into the fray

In Apnl 1430, the Burgundians, urged on by the Fnglish,attacked the French-controlled town of Compiegne, forcingJoan to move her troops there to thwart a Burgundian occu-pation. Defense had never been a part of Joan's strategy, andlighting from behind protective walls was certainly not hermilitary siyle. She frequently sortied out against the attacking

Burgundian troops. On May 23, 1430, leading one of thesesorties out of Compiegne, Joan got separated from the tnainbody of her force and was captured by the Burgimdians, whoeventually ransomed her to the Fnglish. Some historians l>elieveshe was betrayed by Guillaume de Flavy, the ^rrison commanderat Compiegne, but later trial testimony indicates otherwise:

She crossed over the bridge and through the French boulevardand went with a company of soldiers manning those seclioivi againstthe lord of Luxembourg's men [jean de Luxembourg was one ofthe Burgundian leaders at Compiegnel, whom she drove backtwice, all the way to the Burgundian ramp, and a third time halfwuv

back. And then the English whowere there cut her and her men off,cominghetwcen her and the boule-vard, and so her men retreatedfrom her And retreating into thefields on her flank, in the directionof Picardy, near the boulevard,she was captured.

Joan of Arc was burned todeath as a heretic in the market-place of Rouen a little over ayear later, on May 30, 1431.

I

This crude sketch of Joan from a Parisian parliamentaryregister dates from May 10.1429. Many artists havesince tried their hand, but no known life portraits survive.

t would be a satisfying end tothe story ol'Joan of Arc if onecould say she was the direct

cause of the end of the HundredYears' War and lhe expulsion ol"Fngland from most of France.But that war did not end for 23years after her capture. So ifJoan did not directly end theHundred Years' War, why is sheso celebrated? No doubt thecharacter of her trial and execu-tion have much lo do with hercelebrity But Joan's renownstems from her military ability,her skill at leading men in battleagainst great odds and at therisk of death.

Not long after Joans death,French military leaders began to adopt tactics similar to hers.Her policy of direct engagement and frontal assault was costly,but it ultimately proved more effective than any other militarytactic in wresting the English from France. And possibly, as otherFrench generals started to use her tactics, they too began tobelieve that, should their soldiers die in battle, they might join theMaid who inspired them, thelaier-to-beSain(Joanof Arc. (^

For further reading, Kelly DeVries recommends his book, Joan ofArc: A Military Leader, as wel! as Joan of Arc: La Pucelle, editedby Craig Taylor