Why should we care about the Maid of Orleans?
Few history buffs or not have not heard of the Maid of Orleans. She is a sui generis character from the Middle Ages, a stage that is being rediscovered despite the mistreatment of the historiography of the past. A time when an eighteen-year-old woman arrives at the court of the King of France, she asks for an army to take a theoretically impregnable place. And, to everyone’s surprise, she gets them. A woman who knows how to fascinate from the most pious clergyman to the most corrupt of noblemen like Gilles de Rais.
It is also one of the main emblems of the well-known French nationalism. At no time does he show servility towards anyone, as if the vast majority of nobles, or betray their ideals. She fights for and for France and God. The fact of the conceptualization of an idea of homeland would earn it very good historical press in romanticism. Proof of this is the exciting introductory chapter dedicated to him by Jules Michelet, an essential historian for France and a romantic par excellence. In addition to the fact that she is considered the patron saint of France, since she was her savior, and it does not take a great effort to think that she would have been of the world without what France has given her. Voltaire, Moliere, Napoleon, characters without whom the world would be a very different place, probably worse. That said, we can thus assure that Joan of Arc is one of the most influential characters in history.
Not to mention the exciting period in which its history is framed. A time of change where forces fight to occupy the void that exists after the times of the black plague. The nobility has suffered important defeats and sees how its world is in danger due to the increase in power of the Church and the appearance of a bourgeoisie that would control the money. And besides, the peasants began revolts against their lords, fed up with unworthy tax burdens on the condition of every human being.
However, we must remember that we are in the germ of modernity. A time where one of the most important countries in the history of mankind, France, will be consolidated, where the Middle Ages gradually disappear to end up giving way to the Renaissance. The end of an era. I also have to admit that as a fan of cinema and literature I have vibrated with many works. Perhaps the one that marked me the most was Ingrid Bergman with her spectacular performance in Joan of Arc, (Fleming). I think that with historical movies and novels is how many of us started in this career. So I dare to say that I and many more of my classmates owe something to Juana, to be studying this career.
Sweet France drowned by the hand of Perfidious Albion
At the time in which Joan of Arc lives, the Hundred Years’ War is taking place, which between 1337 and 1453 was fought by the kings of France and England. Actually it was not a continuous state of war, but there were long truces dotted with small conflicts in a feudal framework. Other states of the time were involved, such as Burgundy and Castile in some stages. It is essential to know this conflict, since during its development there was the rise of the state of the Modern Age where the monarch gains power to the detriment of the nobility.
The main cause of the conflict was the problems in the feudal relationship between the King of France and the Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, who was his vassal and at the same time the King of England. Furthermore, that feudal order was gradually being replaced by a growth of nationalist sentiment. Philip IV, as King of France, confiscated the Duchy of Aquitaine from England, which officially started the war. From there, we can make several periods: There is a first stage of English victories (1337-1360) in Crécy (1346) and Poitiers (1356). England conquers Calais in northern France. Eduardo the “black prince” has important victories, and Juan II of France is imprisoned in Poitiers. The Treaty of Brétigny is signed in 1360, by which France cedes Aquitaine, but in exchange Eduardo renounces the French crown. A relative peace will come later (1360-1396); open hostilities were reduced, and the scene moves to the Iberian Peninsula for the succession to the throne of Castile after the death of Henry IV. France recovers the parts ceded to the English, and hostilities are reopened. The Western Schism (1378) and internal politics, makes them wear out and sign a new pact by which they married Richard II of England with a daughter of the King of France. Between 1396 and 1422, French support for the Scots worsened relations with England. As a consequence England signed the Treaty of Bourges (1412), getting an ally against France. England achieved important victories at Agincourt (1415) and Harfleur (1416). Siege warfare ravaged Normandy. England signs the Treaty of Troyes (1420) by which Edward V intends to seize the French crown with the help of the Burgundians, but the idea was cut short by his death, as well as that of Charles VI of France. He leaves Enrique VI as heir, who had only one year. In this way the regency is assumed by Juan, Duke of Bedford. Between 1422 and 1453, John puts into force the Treaty of Troyes. This creates a division between English and French supporters. At first, the English had victories in the North of France, strengthening their power, but from 1429, Juan de Arco made his appearance, achieving significant victories. The war was more lost each year for France, until a girl changed the course of history. We must then enter a more personal context of Juana, moving away from the social and political part and entering the parallels of the historical character with other contemporaries. And in that case we must externally analyze the skills and facets of the Maid of Orleans. She is a woman, a preacher and a consecrated soldier with very important victories. The Dauphin Carlos was crowned King of France in Reims, and Henry VI in Paris, which created a double monarchy and the consequent internal division. Joan is burned at the stake, and a period of fundamental victories for France opens, especially at the moment when Burgundy withdraws her support from England. Her victory at Castillon in 1453 ended the Hundred Years’ War.
It is important to insist on how the Hundred Years War has decisively influenced the Modern State. In France, the identity as a nation was strengthened, becoming a kingdom that no longer had vassals, but subjects. The machinery of struggle was created under the auspices of the monarchy, and in England the modernization of its system was accelerated. Throughout this system, Joan of Arc played a determining role.
The path of the warrior, the path of the mystic
For a biography as unique as that of such a particular character in the Middle Ages, I will follow the scheme of the prestigious author Jules Michelet. He is the one who best adapts, in my opinion, to a life so short in years but intense in events.
The early years of a peculiar peasant
Juana was the daughter of Jaime and Isabel, two peasants from the Lorena area. These lands were harsher if possible than the rest of France. The reason is that they were under the domain of the King of France directly, and were border. That is to say that nobody really took care of them, and the peasants especially noticed the bad harvests and the invasions. At no time does he learn to write, he does not even take care of the fields or other animals. Her mother keeps her close to her, and teaches her religion orally and practically as a story. She is also characterized by her solidarity and her help to the poor, as testified by a peasant, whom Juana had cared for.
However, we should not be fooled into thinking that his childhood was idyllic. The land of Lorraine is where the Scots in the service of England made huge raids. Her land gives a hard and difficult life to the peasantry, and the war makes it very precarious. That way one morning he has a vision. She is called by the archangel Michael to liberate France, and give that land to her king. Santa Catalina and Santa Margarita would help him to convince the lord of Baudricourt to be presented to the king. Disobeying her father and with the help of her uncle (her father threatened to strangle her if she went with the soldiers) refused a marriage and went in search of it.
In the more religious aspect that caresses mysticism we see that it was not so strange. She was not the only woman from her warrior age nor the only one of hers. Many examples and testimonies of charismatic religious leaders indicate this. The most accepted explanation is that charismatic characters of this type of oratory usually have more weight in hard times for ordinary people. In Paris, Brother Ricardo shakes the French population against the English authorities until they execute him. In Arras the Breton Carmelite Conecta was listened to by masses of fifteen thousand to twenty thousand men. And it is that in hard times the speakers are heard like never before, because people need to hear that there is hope.
We will also say about the question of women on the battlefield, that in sieges it was not so strange that women fought in the Middle Ages. At a time when every arm was highly valued for war matters, in an emergency situation little or nothing mattered the gender. Only if she knew how to wield a weapon. Proof of this is how Amiens faced the enemy in 1414.
Specifically, the Prince of Parma would be stopped in the attempt to take the square, happening that the courage of the woman to throw herself for a knight encouraged the defenders. In the wars of the Hussites, the valiant women of Bohemia fought with unusual ferocity. “Et amoient les femmes ainsi que diables, pleines de toutes cruautés, et en fuerent trouvees plusiers mortes et occises aux rencontres”. And bearing in mind that Joan lived in Lorraine des Vosges, a dangerous place in no man’s land, it is not surprising that she knew how to fight.
But it would be Juana who would outshine them all.
Better a cruel war than a humiliating peace
The curious story spread like wildfire among the common people, about a girl who was going to talk to the lord of the region to tell him to take her to court. The gentleman is moved by her insistence, despite initial rejections. However, it is very possible that it was popular pressure from a people who saw how their land was devastated and the army was unable to stop it. The nobles lost credibility and the peasants needed a miracle. It should be noted that in the course of events the Duke of Lorraine asked for his advice in the face of his illness. She replied that he had to reconcile with his wife.
Escorted by seven gendarmes (men-at-arms, derived from “gent d armees”) she crossed the dangerous region. Attending to brother Seguin in the Procés, she suffers a trap in Chinon from which she miraculously escapes. This only added to her aura of mysticism. A close French defeat meant that the king had to receive it. The peasant in little…