Marriage Alliances

It was expected that kings and other nobles would try to gain alliances (and therefore security) by marrying their sons and daughters to important people in other realms, and King Henry II of England was no exception. He had gained Aquitaine and Poitou on the continent by marriage to Eleanor, and was already Duke of Normandy.

Not all marriage plans come to fruition, however, for one reason or another.

His first plan was to marry his eldest legitimate son, Henry the Young King, to Marguerite the daughter of Louis VII of France. Ideally, their offspring would rule both France and England. They were married in 1172, when Henry was only 17 and Marguerite 14 (it had been negotiated when he was only five). Young Henry died in 1183 from dysentery while rebelling against his father. His one child, a son named William, did not survive. The attempt to bring several territories together failed.

Another son, Richard "Lionhearted," was betrothed to another daughter of Louis, Alys, in 1169. But the rumor became that Alys, being fostered in the care of Henry II, became his mistress. As the sister of the new king of France, Philip II, Richard was reluctant to renounce the betrothal. When Henry died in 1189 and Richard was crowned, he broke off the intended marriage in 1190 while speaking with Philip on the Third Crusade. A year later Richard married Berengaria of Navarre.

Alys was offered by Philip to Prince John, but Eleanor stopped it. Alys went on to marry William IV Talvas, Count of Ponthieu, in 1195; she was 35, he was 16.

Another son, Geoffrey, was married to Constance of Brittany, daughter of Conan IV, Duke of Brittany, in order to quell problems of rebellion there.

While Henry II was figuring out how his kingdom would be divided among his sons, he had nothing left for the youngest son, John. Jahn's nickname of "Lackland" reflects this. Looking far afield for some way to use his youngest, he made an arrangement to marry John to Alice, the daughter of Humbert III of Savoy. John was promised to inherit from hi father-in-law Savoy, Piedmont, Maurienne, and other possessions in northern Italy. Alice of Maurienne traveled to England to become a ward of Henry II, but she died before the wedding could take place. John later married twice, both women named Isabella; "local" women whose fathers were important and wanted their grandchildren to rule England.

Political marriages don't always work out as planned.

I've used Henry the Young King mostly as a footnote, but he was much written about while he lived, and accomplished more than being crowned prematurely and dying while rebelling unsuccessfully against his father. I want to dive into his life and motives a little more...next time.

Eleanor Later

In the later years of their marriage, Eleanor of Aquitaine spent long stretches of time apart from King Henry II. From 1168 until 1173, for instance, she held court in Poitiers. She wasn't idle: she had responsibilities to Poitou and Aquitaine—territories that came to her from her father—and Henry was apparently content to have her stay there and manage them as his regent in the area. Moreover, the weather and lifestyle of the continent might have suited her more than life in England.

Her grandfather, William the Troubadour, had added to the Palace of Poitiers, where she lived, and Eleanor would also add to the original Merovingian structure, with a dining hall so vast that it was called the Salle des Pas Perdus, the "hall of lost footsteps," because the sound of footsteps got lost in the 50 by 17 meter expanse (see illustration).

Henry traveled to meet King Louis VII in January 1169. The purpose was to create alliances by betrothing his son Richard to Louis' daughter Alys. Henry's son Henry was already betrothed to Louis' daughter Marguerite. There is no evidence that Henry visited Eleanor while on the continent. They were together for Christmas 1170 near Bayeaux, and again in 1172 at Chinon.

The couple were together for a week in February 1173 at Montferrand for the betrothal of Prince John to Alice of Maurienne. At this time, the young Henry, who had already been crowned in order to establish the succession, became openly rebellious against his father. Henry II took him to Chinon, but the morning after they arrived found young Henry gone. He had fled to Paris and Louis VII, who supported him as the new king of England.

This started a revolt of his sons (but not John, who was only seven and by his father's side) against Henry II. Later writers found reason to blame Eleanor. William of Newburgh wrote that young Henry went to his mother, where his brothers Richard and Geoffrey were staying, to convince them to join him in overthrowing their father. Newburgh claims Henry had help from Eleanor to convince the two. Roger of Hoveden is more explicit, stating Eleanor deliberately sent the other sons to join their brother.

Whatever the case, it seemed Eleanor did put the resources of Aquitaine behind the rebellion. Going to join her sons in Paris in April, Eleanor was captured by Henry II's men and confined in Rouen. In 1174, Henry II took Eleanor and other nobles back to England to prepare for invasion from France. Eleanor was confined to an unknown location.

Henry senior beat the rebellion, and the sons had freedom afterward, but Eleanor was never allowed to be totally free. Her wealth and reputation were too risky to be allowed to interfere in royal policy. He tried having the marriage annulled on the grounds of consanguinity—which is how she became free to marry him in the first place—but a papal legate advised against it. He then tried to convince Eleanor to become a nun, but she requested the Archbishop of Rouen to persuade Henry to stop. Henry turned again to the pope, but was denied. The only recourse was to keep her under "house arrest" while he lived.

Her life after Henry's death was long and eventful, but would take months to discuss in 300-word snippets, so we will say that she died on the night of 31 March 1204 at the age of 80 and entombed between Henry II and Richard I.

History knows that Prince John was a pretty ineffective king, and of his role in Magna Carta and the trouble with Barons, but what happened to that marriage plan with Alice of Maurienne, and what or where was Maurienne, and was it a good match? I'll go into that tomorrow.

Eleanor in England

On 19 December 1154, Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury crowned Henry Curtmantle as King Henry II of England. His wife, the former queen of France, Eleanor of Aquitaine, was present. It is not recorded if she were also crowned, but it is undeniable that she was now Queen of England, and one of the most wealthy and powerful women of the Middle Ages.

Her wealth grew, as Henry granted her possessions and a generous financial gifts. She used her money to become a patron of the arts, supporting troubadours and authors of stories of courtly love. Many writers Wace was one) dedicated their works to her.

Henry traveled away from home frequently, putting down rebellions or establishing closer ties to his people. Eleanor sometimes traveled with him, and sometimes traveled around separately with their children. When he was gone and she at home, she acted as regent, sometimes with the help of the justiciar. Although contemporary historians did not write much about her life, we can see how busy she was from all the writs and court documents she signed as regent, signing herself Alienor Dei Gracia Regine Anglorum "(Eleanor by the Grace of God Queen of England").

Their first child, William, was born prior to their coronation in England. He was named William IX, Count of Poitiers. Their second child, Henry (later named "The Young King") was born 28 February 1155. She was pregnant again when Henry left England for a long absence on 10 January 1156. Not long after, the eldest son died, not yet three years old. Eleanor's pregnancy resulted in their third child and first daughter, Matilda. She took the children to France to be with their father, but they all came back to England which resulted in their fourth child, Richard (later "Lionheart") born on 8 September 1157.

Eleanor's first husband, Louis VII, had re-married and produced a daughter, Marguerite. His apparent inability to produce a male heir gave Henry the idea of joining their two kingdoms with an eye eventually to ruling both. He went to France to negotiate with Louis and to take Marguerite to foster until she was old enough to marry. Meanwhile, Eleanor had another son, Geoffrey.

When in England, Eleanor mad decisions for the court. In May 1165 she acted as his regent for Anjou and Maine while Henry as negotiating marriages with hi daughters to cement his relations with Frederick Barbarossa. Not long after, she became less involved in the affairs of state.

All their time apart from each other inspired stories of Henry's affairs. He had illegitimate children, whom he acknowledged. His eldest out of wedlock, Geoffrey of York, for instance, ultimately became an archbishop and joined the court of one of his half-brothers. Henry's best-known lover was Rosamund Clifford, the relationship with whom he acknowledged in 1174.

Although some romantic spark might have faded between the king and queen, she remained important for decades, even after moving from England and spending years apart. I'll explain tomorrow.

Attacking Henry and Eleanor

When Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry Curtmantle (the future King Henry II of England), the move felt threatening to many people on the continent. Marrying her provinces of Aquitaine and Poitou to his control of Normandy and Anjou covered a lot of area in Western Europe.

King Louis VII, who had just had his marriage to Eleanor annulled, was threatened by Henry's presence against his borders. He might also have been upset that he just lost Aquitaine and that his ex-wife so quickly married a man who was set to become a rival king with possessions near France.

There were others who were not happy with the Henry-Eleanor alliance. Henry's brother Geoffrey, Count of Nantes, had tried to abduct Eleanor immediately after the annulment, in order to forcibly marry her and obtain title to Aquitaine himself. Geoffrey allied himself with Louis, and three others: Count Robert I of Dreux (Louis' brother), Count Henry I of Champagne, and Theobald V of Blois. They all joined Louis in his attack on Henry Curtmantle's Normandy in 1152, hoping to divide up Henry's and Eleanor's lands among themselves.

They were foiled, however. Normandy beat them back in six weeks from Normandy. Theobald V in late 1153 or early 1154 invaded Touraine, east of Henry's Anjou and considered by Henry to be under his protection. By that time, Geoffrey had reconciled with his brother; Theobald took him captive. His "ransom" was to destroy the castle of Chaumont-sur-Loire (a 10th century castle that was an important site for many royal visits; rebuilt, it exists today). In December 1154, Stephen of Blois died, and Geoffrey accompanied Henry and Eleanor to England for the coronation.

The brotherly love was not to last, however. Geoffrey making trouble for Henry, thinking he was safe on the continent while Henry was in England being king, but Henry laid siege to some of Geoffrey's castles: Chinon, Mirebeau, Loudun, and Montsoreau. Geoffrey lost them to his brother.

There were always conflicts between nobles to be dealt with, and Henry was often away from home with his army, dealing with them. He had, however, a capable queen he could leave as regent in his absence. Next time we will look at the early years of her queenship of England.

Eleanor on the Run

With the annulment on 21 March 1152 from King Louis VII of France, Eleanor of Aquitaine was now a target for any unscrupulous noble who thought they could possess the province of Aquitaine by marrying her—whether she wanted to or not. She was at Beaugency with Louis during the council that decided on the annulment due to consanguinity (they were third cousins), and left directly from there to head south toward Poitiers (capital city of Poitou) where she would be safe.

There were two times on the journey where she had to evade capture. On the night of the 21st while she passed through Blois, the Count of Blois and Chartres, Theobald V, tried to surround her small retinue. She got on a boat at the Loire and floated down to Tours.

At the border of Poitou, she narrowly avoided Geoffrey, Count of Nantes (son of the Geoffrey, Count of Anjou who was part of the Anarchy, and brother of Henry Curtmantle, who had recently become Duke of Normandy on the death of their father). He was waiting for her at the Port des Piles, but she had been forewarned. After this, Eleanor continued to use rivers and avoided roads.

Once she reached Poitiers and safety, she immediately sent secret envoys to England to speak to Henry, Duke of Normandy. They had met when Henry came to Paris to pledge loyalty to Louis as a vassal of his, since Normandy was part of France. Eleanor must have been impressed by this man 11 years her junior. She wanted him to travel as soon as possible to Poitiers to marry her. Besides being Duke of Normandy, Henry was also Count of Anjou, on the northern border of Aquitaine. An alliance with Anjou would give Aquitaine protection from the north.

Henry received the envoys on 6 April. Six weeks later (eight after the annulment) the two were married on 18 May 1152 in a small ceremony at Poitiers Cathedral without any fanfare. As for consanguinity, Eleanor and Henry were more closely related than she was to Louis, but they did not let that stop them. They kept things quiet to avoid interference from Louis, who would have reason to try to prevent the alliance of all these territories on the continent that would create a force that could challenge his rule, especially since Henry was in line to become King of England. (You might get some idea of just how much of the continent would be out of Louis' hands in the illustration above.)

Louis refused to give up the title Duke of Aquitaine; if Eleanor had a male heir, that heir would come the next Duke, and Louis wanted to keep it for his daughters by Eleanor, Marie and Alice. He made preparations for war. And he wasn't alone: he had allies who were all too willing to join him, in the hopes that they would benefit from victory by dividing up Aquitaine and Poitou.

We will see how that turned out for them tomorrow.

Louis, Eleanor, Annulment

King Louis VII of France had a problem. His clever and wealthy wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, was really getting on his nerves. On the Second Crusade, she contributed to a blunder that cost thousands of French lives, and they argued over whether to stay ion Antioch and help her uncle, Raymond of Poitiers, or go to Jerusalem. Louis also (according to Odo of Deuil, eyewitness to the Crusade) suspected her of an improper relationship with her uncle, although that may simply have been because the Aquitainian culture was far more emotional and expressive than the Capetians.

She had also not been able to deliver a son and heir, although after 13 years they had two daughters. With their relationship severely strained after the Crusade, Louis sought a way out of the marriage. For that, Louis turned to Beaugency, an important town at a crossing of the Loire.

Beaugency, coincidentally, had been the site where another royal marriage was a topic: in 1104, Philip was excommunicated by the first Council of Beaugency because he had put away his first wife, claiming se was too fat, so he could abduct and marry another man's wife. The Second Council of Beaugency was called in 1152 to find a way to get Louis out of his marriage to Eleanor. Abbot Suger had been an advocate of the marriage, but after his death in 1151, Bernard of Clairvaux's view that the two were too closely related became an issue.

Also in 1151, Henry, Count of Anjou, became the new Duke of Normandy and went to Paris to pay his respects to his liege lord, Louis. Historians such as Walter Map, Gerald of Wales, and William of Newburgh all suspected that something, some spark happened between the 18-year-old Henry (future king Henry II of England) and the 30-year-old Eleanor that also might have contributed to Eleanor wanting to be released from the marriage.

The archbishops of Reims, Bordeaux, and Rouen attended the Council, presided over by Archbishop Hugues of Orléans. Archbishop Samson of Reims represented Eleanor (who was there, as was Louis).

They settled on annulment on the grounds of consanguinity. Sure, they had a common ancestor, Robert II of France (c.972 - 1031), but that was a long way back and didn't prevent the marriage in the first place. But here they were, looking for a reason, and being third cousins once removed, however distant it seemed, was sufficient. The marriage was declared null and void. Eleanor did not object. Their two daughters were declared legitimate, since the couple had married in good faith. Louis gained custody of the daughters. Aquitaine would remain Eleanor's possession.

One would think that the attractive and wealthy Eleanor would be glad to be free from the stiff and monk-like Louis. She was, however, an attractive and wealthy woman, which in 1151 did not allow her independence and agency. Believe it or not, her life was in peril. I'll explain tomorrow.

Louis and the Second Crusade, Part 2

The decision of Eleanor of Aquitaine to accompany her husband, King Louis VII of France, on the Second Crusade might have been made thinking it would be a lovely journey, but the perils of travel in the 12th century were magnified by the dangers of heading into enemy territory. And then there were problems of their own making.

Eleanor and her female retinue traveled separately from Louis and the main part of the army. Louis had taken a vow of chastity for the duration of the Crusade, and did not want to be tempted by the proximity of his young wife. In January of 1148, Louis sent a part of the army with Eleanor to go ahead and establish a camp at a certain spot, while he and the bulk of the army made their way to it. Arriving at the king's choice, Eleanor decided she did not like it, and persuaded or ordered the leaders to move to a place more suitable.

When the king and the main army arrived, they found nothing prepared, and in the growing darkness could not find the new location. The army was now divided, and an easier target for the Turks whose land they were traversing. The main force was attacked. Louis survived, although his horse was killed while he was riding it. In all, 7000 Crusaders were killed. Eleanor was blamed for the slaughter.

The remainder of the army went to the coast, looking for ships to continue to the Holy Land. They ran out of supplies, and turned to the horses for food. They did not have money for enough ships to continue their quest. Illness swept through the camp.

Louis took Eleanor and his nobles and got on a ship bound for Antioch, abandoning the army. It was written that 3000 soldiers converted to Islam in order to save their lives.

Antioch at the time was ruled by Eleanor's uncle, Raymond of Poitiers. Raymond wanted Louis to stay in Antioch and help him in the conquest of Aleppo and Caesarea, but Louis (despite Eleanor's protests) would not take his eye off Jerusalem. Louis with his remaining men left Antioch abruptly, meeting up with Conrad III of Germany again. Along with King Baldwin III of Jerusalem, they lay siege to Damascus, which was an utter failure.

Eleanor pushed for a return to Antioch to help her uncle, but the Crusade was finished, and so Louis returned to France. Raymond of Poitiers died later that year. The relationship between Louis and Eleanor was strained. Perhaps if Eleanor had produced a male heir, Louis would have been content with letting her live in her own castle somewhere, but he needed a wife who would beget a son, and he was no longer looking at Eleanor as a path to that.

He needed to get rid of her. I'll explain how tomorrow.

Louis and the Second Crusade, Part 1

The Second Crusade was the first to be led by European kings. It was announced by Pope Eugene III, preached widely by Bernard of Clairvaux, and brought Louis VII of France together with Conrad III of Germany and other European nobles, like Frederick "Barbarossa."

The French army reached Hungary, where they were hosted by King Géza II of Hungary. Conrad was already there. Géza asked Louis to be godfather to his son, Stephen. Relations between France and Hungary remained cordial for a long time, and later on Louis' daughter Margaret would marry Géza's son Béla III of Hungary.

Eleanor of Aquitaine accompanied her husband on this journey—well, they traveled separately: Louis had taken a vow of chastity during the Crusade, and did not want to be tempted. She brought 1000 knights from Aquitaine and equipped a large retinue of women with horses and armor, dressed as Amazons. When they reached Constantinople, the men camped outside, while the women were entertained in palaces the likes of which Europe could not offer.

Constantinople had recently negotiated a treaty with the Seljuk Turks, and was now hosting a Crusading army that was going to enter Turkish territory and cause trouble. Some speculate that what happened next was due to interference by Emperor Manuel I Comnenos, who may have tipped off the Turks.

The European armies marched separately, Conrad going first. The French army encountered remnants of the Germans who warned that they had been attacked and defeated by Turks. Shortly after, Louis caught up with Conrad (who was wounded in the head) and the remains of his army. They reached Ephesus at Christmas, where Conrad decided he was too injured to continue. His foot soldiers stayed with Louis while the German nobles all went home.

The French army was then struck with four days of torrential rain that smashed their tents and washed away supplies. Louis chose to cross the mountains to get to Antioch as soon as possible. This put them in the path of Turkish raiders who threw rocks down and shot arrows at them. The parade-and-party atmosphere had faded for Eleanor and the ladies who followed her.

Another disaster arose, this one of Eleanor's making, and it almost destroyed the army. I'll tell you more tomorrow.

Battling Your Allies

King Louis VII of France was thrust into the spotlight in his late teens. Intended for the Church, he became his father's successor when his older brother died in 1131. He was quickly anointed as the heir apparent, got a young wife who brought with her a large province, and then became king when his father, Louis VI, died a week after the wedding.

He might have eased himself into kingship, but he immediately began to make some bold decisions. There were a few uprisings by the free citizens of Orléans and Poitiers, who wished to organize communes, taking on responsibility locally for some rules and regulations (instead of heeding solely the centralized authority from the Crown). This was the way much of Europe was going, but Louis wanted to keep control.

The archbishopric of Bourges became vacant at the death in 1141 of Alberich of Reims, who had been a student of Anselm of Laon and had instigated charges against Peter Abelard. Louis wanted to name his chancellor, Cadurc, to the post. Pope Innocent II, who had not many years earlier been the one to anoint Louis as king, nominated Pierre de la Chatre. Louis asserted himself, vowing on holy relics that Pierre would never enter Bourges so long as Louis lived. This was the wrong way to start your relationship as king with the pope. Innocent placed Louis under interdict, prohibiting Louis from participation in the Liturgy and the sacraments. (Pierre became Archbishop from 1141 to 1171.)

Louis was asked by his seneschal, Raoul I of Vermandois, to be allowed to divorce his wife and marry Petronilla, the sister of Louis' wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Louis gave his permission; it would tie Raoul more closely to Louis' circle. Unfortunately, Raoul's first wife was the sister of the powerful Count Theobald II of Champagne, son of Stephen II of Blois and Adela of Normandy (daughter of William the Conqueror). The war that ensued between Champagne and Louis lasted two years (1142-44) and led to Louis' army occupying Champagne and the death of 1500 in the burning by Louis of a church in Vitry-en-Perthois. (In the future, Theobald's daughter would become Louis' third wife.)

The Church condemned Louis' actions vehemently. Louis returned Champagne to Theobald, accepted Pierre as archbishop, shunned Raoul and Petronilla, and vowed to go on Crusade to atone for his sins.

Eleanor went on Crusade with him, and cracks in the marriage became apparent. Let's talk about that next time.

King Louis VII

King Louis VI of France (1120 - 1180) had several children with his second wife, Adélaide of Maurienne. Their eldest, Philip (1116 - 1131) was named heir apparent. The second child was Louis, intended for the Church.

Louis' childhood education was designed to prepare him for a high ecclesiastical position. He spent a lot of his youth therefore at Saint-Denis with the Abbot Suger, his father's advisor, which had the effect of making him a very devout Christian his whole life. The accidental death of Louis' older brother Philip in 1131 changed Louis' life forever. He was named heir apparent and anointed king by Pope Innocent II at Reims Cathedral. (The French Capetian dynasty for a time followed the practice of actually naming the heir as king while the father lived; see another example here.)

In 1137, Duke William X of Aquitaine died on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. William had asked Louis VI to be his daughter Eleanor's guardian, and Louis VI moved quickly to have his son marry her, especially since she inherited her father's lands. Louis married Eleanor of Aquitaine that same year when he was 17 and she was a few years younger. As heir to the enormous province of Aquitaine, she was one of the wealthiest women in Europe; the alliance spread the Capetian territory significantly.

Louis VI died one week after the wedding, and all at once Louis and his new bride became King and Queen of France. Suddenly the raised-to-be-a-cleric Louis had the weight of running a kingdom on his shoulders, and his lively young and wealthy bride was not quite suited to the serious older teen he had just married.

Louis was monkish, but not meek, and immediately asserted his authority as king over areas that were certain to cause him trouble. But we'll start discussing those tomorrow.

The Holy Ampulla

Many years ago, I posted how Clovis I (c.466 - 511) was the first king of the Franks to be converted to Christianity, influenced by his Christian wife Clotilde and St. Rémy (also known as Remigius). There is a legend about his baptism that says that just as he was about to be baptized, a dove flew down from above carrying a vial of chrism, the oil needed for anointing.

That legend, however, was a later creation and seemed based on an earlier miracle of St. Rémy, called the "Legend of the Baptism of the Moribund Pagan." In this legend, when Rémy (c.437 - 533) was the Bishop of Reims, a dying pagan requested baptism, but there was no oil for anointing. Rémy asked that two vials be placed on the altar, and as he prayed they miraculously filled with a chrism that gave off an unearthly fragrance.

At the time of Archbishop Hincmar of Reims (806 - 882), Rémy's sepulcher was opened and found to contain two vials of oil. In a clever piece of marketing, Hincmar combined the discovery of the vials, the story of the pagan, and the knowledge that Rémy baptized Clovis, into a new legend that allowed him to declare that French kings in the future should all be crowned at Reims Cathedral and anointed with the miraculous oil that Reims possessed.

The Holy Ampulla is about 1.5 inches tall and made of Roman glass. Its use was first noted at the coronation of Louis VII in 1131, and the connection to Clovis and Rémy was made common knowledge. Its last use for a coronation (for a time) was that of Louis XVI in 1775, because it the ampoule was destroyed.

The illustration above is not the Holy Ampulla found in the tomb of St. Rémy. During the French Revolution, symbols of monarchy were routinely vandalized. Fearing the invasion of the cathedral, a cleric drained the chrism from the ampoule. Shortly after, a revolutionary smashed the ampoule. The fragments were saved by several of the faithful, and in 1823 they were brought together. A reliquary was ordered by Louis XVIII to house the fragments, and a new glass bulb was created to hold the oil. It is still preserved at the Saint-Rémi Basilica in Reims. The new Holy Ampulla and its contents were used for the coronation of Charles X in 1825.

And speaking of French kings, we've never said much about Louis VII, although he is connected to several posts of the past, including having one of the most amazing women of the Middle Ages divorce him for a younger man. Let's give Louis his due tomorrow.

How Far They Fall

Gilles, the Baron de Rais (c.1405 - 26 October 1440) was a French leader during the Hundred Years War. In 1429 he was made the Marshal of France (a distinction awarded for special achievement) after the military campaigns inspired by Joan of Arc.

When Joan first arrived at Chinon to speak to the Dauphin, Charles, Gilles was present. Gilles wrote to John V, Duke of Brittany, requesting support for Joan's planned attempt to raise the Siege of Orléans. On 25 April 1429, when Joan arrived at Blois, she found a well-supplied and well-armed contingent of soldiers headed by Gilles and the Marshal of Boussac, Jean de Brosse. There were additional soldiers paid by Gilles personally, who apparently had put great faith in Joan and her divine mission.

Gilles was also with Joan during the progress through the Loire, and the Battle of Patay in June of 1429. Their efforts helped put Charles on the throne. Gilles (and three other lords) carried the Holy Ampulla (a glass vial with the anointing oil) during the coronation of the Dauphin as Charles VII. Charles entrusted Jean de Brosse and Gilles to head the army against the Anglo-Burgundian alliance. At the Siege of Paris, Joan asked for Gilles to stay by her side, which he did all day. For his service, Charles allowed Gilles to add a border of flour-de-lis around his coat of arms, a distinction only shared by Joan herself.

The man had a darker side, however. Military failures and financial issues caused him to withdraw more and more from court and public life, and Charles was not happy with him. Supposedly, he looked for power in other directions.

According to the records of a trial against him in 1438, Gilles looked for people with knowledge of alchemy and summoning demons. He found an Italian cleric named François Prelati who claimed expertise in both. Gilles and Prelati conducted rituals to summon a demon in Gilles' Château de Tiffauges in the border lands between Brittany, Poitou, and Anjou. When no demon materialized after three attempts, Prelati claimed the demon required an offering of the body parts of a child. Gilles provided the required offering, but with no better result.

He may have wanted a demon's help in reclaiming some of his properties. He decided to reclaim by force a castle he had given to someone else; he was unsuccessful, and succeeded only in alienating his former comrades. In mid-May 1440, he ambushed a troop of men; he then entered a church, disrupting Mass and threatening the priest to leave. He physically abused servants and harassed clerics.

An ecclesiastical investigation was begun. Bishop Jean de Malestroit visited Gilles' local parish and began investigating tales of local children missing. Locals claimed that children entered the castle to beg for food and never emerged. Charges were brought against Gilles and Prelati for murder, sodomy, and heresy. The charges were also brought against a few servants and some local women who were accused of providing the children. Court records claim there were 140 or more.

Gilles confessed to the charges on 21 October 1440; his death sentence was declared on the 25th. He was simultaneously hanged while fire was set to brush piled around the gallows. His remains were cut down before being completely burned.

Some think he was the model for the tales of Bluebeard, the French folktale about a man who murders all his wives.

We need a palate cleanser after all the war and executions. Tomorrow let us see if there is anything interesting about a vial named the Holy Ampulla.

Brother of a Saint

Jeanne d'Arc had four siblings. Although Charles VII ennobled the family after her help getting him crowned, the family did not distinguish itself very much politically or otherwise. Her father died shortly after her execution for heresy. Her mother lived for several years and fought successfully to get her daughter exonerated. Her siblings drop out of sight, except for her younger brother, Pierre d'Arc.

Pierre had actually joined his sister, along with their older brother Jéan, and fought at the Siege of Orléand. Pierre was captured at the same time Jeanne was, but he was released as having no value as a captive. He stayed in the army and, after the family was ennobled, was knighted. He married and had two sons and a daughter. He was even given an island of his own, the Île aux Bœufs, a small island in the Seine south of Rouen, currently uninhabited and serving only as a support for a bridge across the river.

Jeanne was executed on 30 May 1431. Of this there is no doubt...now. At the time, there were people who were willing to take advantage of her fame and impersonate her. A woman calling herself Jeanne des Armoises (in a 19th century depiction above) started telling people that she was the Maid of Orléans and not dead after all. As shameless as this scam was, even more shameless was the reaction of the dead Jeanne's brothers.

In 1434, Pierre and Jéan met this woman and supported her claim. From 1434 to 1450 they traveled the country with her, taking advantage of the original Jeanne's fame and accepting gifts from admirers. At least two princesses fell for this scam (Elizabeth of Luxembourg and Elizabeth of Burgundy)—and who wouldn't? Jeanne's own brothers vouched for her identity.

Emboldened by the public's acceptance, the trio took a step too far, meeting with someone who know Jeanne well and was certain of the execution: King Charles VII himself. Even if there was a physical resemblance to the original, Charles tested her by asking her to repeat something that the real Jeanne had told him. She could not, and the scam fell apart. Her real name was Claude des Armoises. (For more on her, see here.)

Pierre and Jéan faded from historical records. In the 19th century, a descendant of Pierre named Henry Gautier received permission from Charles X to rename the family "d'Arc." His great-great-granddaughter Clotilde d'Arc portrayed her famous ancestor in an Orléans commemoration of the raising of the Siege by her intervention.

Pierre was pretty darn unethical about using his sister's fame to enrich himself. There are worse things, however, like going from a companion and supporter of Jeanne d'Arc to being a serial killer. Sad, but true, and I'll go into that horrible true story tomorrow.

Mother of a Saint

Isabelle Romée (1377 - 1458) grew up in Vouthon-Bas and move to Domrémy when she married Jacques d'Arc, a wealthy farmer who had inherited 50 acres and a stone house from his father. Her surname is unusual, and may have been used because of a pilgrimage to Rome. Whatever the case, she was a devout Roman Catholic who raised her five children (Jacquemin, Jean, Catherine, Jeanne, and Pierre) to be devout Catholics.

Her daughter, Jeanne (we know her as Joan of Arc), claimed to have visions that inspired her to get involved in the Hundred Years War and the French civil war that prevented the Dauphin (son of Charles VI) to be enthroned. Jeanne's involvement helped the Dauphin become Charles VII. Unfortunately, that made Jeanne many enemies, and she was eventually captured and put on trial for (among other things) heresy, after which she was burned at the stake.

Jeanne's father died shortly after, some say of grief. Isabelle had a different reaction: she would fight to clear her daughter's name. Isabelle moved to Orléans, where a city grateful for her daughter's work offered Isabelle a pension.

Her first move was to send a petition to Pope Nicholas V to re-open the case. An inquiry was begun in 1449, and the chief inquisitor for heresy in France took it on in May 1452. Investigations dragged on, and Isabelle went to Paris to speak to the new pope, Calixtus III. Calixtus gave the chief inquisitor, Jean Bréhal, his support and three assistants. Bréhal presided over the re-trial in November 1455, at which the 70-year-old Isabelle gave a moving speech. 115 witnesses were questioned (many of whom had been part of the first trial). Bréhal declared in June 1456 that Jeanne had died a martyr, and he posthumously excommunicated the head of the original trial, Bishop Pierre Cauchon, as a heretic who pursued a secular vendetta. Calixtus confirmed the excommunication.

The illustration above shows Isabelle and two of her children kneeling in the lower right, facing Jean Bréhal dressed as a Dominican, with the pope and others presiding. Bréhal wrote two books about his investigations and the retrial. He was present at a public burning of the articles of the original trial.

A victorious Isabelle died on 28 November 1458.

There is another member of the family that we know about: Jeanne's brother, Pierre. Why more information about him has made it to the historical record is not necessarily commendable, however. Little brothers can be annoying, and Jeanne's little brother did something selfish and bad. I'll explain next time.

Father of a Saint

Often in history a figure comes out of nowhere who has a big effect on the world stage, yet we know nothing of their background. In the case of Joan of Arc, however, we actually know quite a bit about her parents, even though they were not particularly remarkable politically or culturally until after her rise to prominence.

Her father was Jacques d'Arc (1375 - 1431), a successful farmer in Domrémy, France. Domrémy, unremarkable until the rise of Joan, chained a special dispensation in 1429 from King Charles VII. At Joan's request, the town became exempt from taxes because she felt the taxes were too burdensome for the people. This tax-exempt status lasted until the French Revolution.

Jacques inherited 50 acres of land from his father. He married Isabelle Romée (1377 - 1458), from the nearby village of Vouthon-Bas. Together they raised five children: Jacquemin, Jean, Catherine, Jeanne, and Pierre. The size and success of his farm made Jacques a prominent citizen in his own way; he was a town government official, and owned the only stone house in the town.

That stone home was a blessing. In July 1428, the Armagnac-aligned townspeople evacuated to Neufchâteau when the surrounding Burgundian forces invaded as part of the civil unrest between the Duke of Burgundy and the Dauphin. After they returned, they discovered the town ransacked and houses destroyed—there was even damage to the church. The d'Arc home survived the invasion.

His relationship with his daughter was contentious. She was headstrong as a child, and he had recurring dreams of her going off to war, a future that dismayed him, because the only women he knew of who followed armies were prostitutes. Jacques told his sons that, if Joan were to show that she were going to follow the army, they should drown her to preserve her virtue. His attempts to marry her to get her to settle down were rebuffed.

After Joan's aid in getting Charles VII crowned, the king ennobled the family and gave them a coat of arms in 1429. Jacques had gone to Reims for the coronation, and Joan probably introduced her father and the king. Her trial and execution a year later, however (Parts One and Two), likely disturbed him deeply. He died in 1431 in his 50s, some say from grief. He was honored later by a statue in Domrémy (see above).

His wife, Joan's mother, did not die from grief, but lived long after. This is not because she did not grieve; rather, it is because Joan's execution gave her a cause to which to dedicate her life. We'll talk about Isabelle next time.

The Trial of Joan of Arc, Part 2

One of the problems the authorities had with Jeanne d'Arc after her capture and during her trial was her insistence, from the start of he campaign to put Charles on the throne of France, that she wear men's clothing and act as a soldier. This was such an aberration to the Europe of 1431 that they would not allow her into the courtroom unless she dressed appropriately.

Her constant requests to hear Mass were being denied; finally, they pointed out that it would not be appropriate to attend mass in men's clothing. The transcript of the questioning reads:

Joan: Promise me that I'll get to hear Mass if I wear woman's clothing.

Interrogator: I promise that you will hear Mass if you wear women's clothing.

Joan: And what do you say if I've promised our king and sworn not to remove these clothes? Nonetheless, I say, make me a long robe that touches the ground, with no train and give it to me for Mass. Then when I come back I'll put back on these clothes I'm wearing.

She was not allowed to hear Mass. Her English captors put men's clothes in her cell, knowing she would put them on and they could point out her inappropriate ways.

There were 70 articles drawn up against her, including the wearing of men's clothes, heresy, lying, stealing a horse (she swore she gave money for it, but did not know if the money got to the owner), and many more. The trial ended in an abjuration, in which the accused is forced to renounce a previous belief.

On 24 May she was led to a scaffold and told her burning at the stake was imminent unless she signed the abjuration, agreeing that her visions were false and returning to wearing women's clothing. She agreed to sign, but four days later she regretted what fear of her life drove her to do, and she recanted. This "relapse into heresy" was punishable by death, and so, two days after she recanted, on 30 May 1431, she was burned at the stake.

Charles VII requested an investigation into the trial—18 years later—that declared the judgment faulty because proper procedure was not followed. An appeals court overturned the conviction on 7 July 1456.

What motivated Charles to look into the trial of Jeanne years later, when at the time of the trial he showed no interest? To answer that question we have to look back at the people who were the source of Jeanne d'Arc: her parents. I'll tell you about them tomorrow.

The Trial of Joan of Arc, Part 1

After she was captured by the French Burgundians and handed over to the English, Jeanne d'Arc was taken to Rouen (the center of the English in France) for trial. Just being an enemy of the English was not a sufficient reason to try someone, so they used a different charge: heresy.

Jeanne had claimed she was shown vision of Saints Mic hall and Catherine that motivated her to do whatever necessary to make sure the Dauphn Charles was crowned King of France. The previous few days' worth of blog posts show that she did, in fact, help achieve this goal. Unfortunately, she reached a point where her desire for military action was no longer consistent with the new King Charles' Armagnac party's desire for less-bloody negotiation with the Burgundians.

The trial was headed by Bishop Pierre Cauchon. Although French, Cauchon was allied to the Burgundian party (he was the ambassador to the Duke of Burgundy), and had Anglo-centric leanings. If Joan could be proven not to be an agent of God, then they could delegitimize Charles VII and place the use of Burgundy on the throne.

Three notaries were appointed to each make an account of the trial while it proceeded in February 1431. Translated from Middle French to Latin in 1435, they were preserved sufficiently that there are three copies extant. An investigation in the 1450s spoke to many of the 115 witnesses that were Brough forth in the trial and uncovered much new information that had not been recorded during the trial.

Cauchon arranged for investigators to look into Jeanne's character. The Duchess of Bedford oversaw an examination into the maid's claims of virginity, and declared them true. An investigator sent to her home town of Domrémy came back with the statement that he could hear nothing about her character "that he would not have liked to find about his own sister." (Cauchon declared that investigator a bad man and refused to pay his salary.)

A trial for heresy required some specific facets according to canon law: the presence of the vice-inquisitor, permission for Cauchon to preside over (he was outside his diocese of Beauvais), and equal numbers of prelates representing both sides of the debate. Joan said she would attend, but wanted to hear Mass. She was not allowed to hear Mass, and was not allowed to attend the trial because she refused to wear anything but a (male) soldier's garments. Complaints about her improper clothing were raised again and again. (The illustration is by a 19th century artist, depicting the Cardinal of Winchester interrogating her in her prison cell.)

She refused to reveal any details of what her visions said to her, claiming that she shared them only with Charles and would not share them with anyone else. She would repeatedly say "Everything I have done is at God's command."

Weeks of questioning were to determine her standing with God and the Church and to create the list of potential charges. Tomorrow I'll explain the actual trial that followed, the compromise about clothing she offered them, and her execution.

Joan of Arc Captured

Jeanne d'Arc had accomplished the chief mission of her visions, putting Charles VII on the Throne of France through her military support and inspiration of the troops. In exchange, Charles had raised her family to noble status. At that point, with Charles in charge, peaceful negotiations were the way forward for France, but she wanted to do more to drive the English out of the continent.

In April of 1430, she was on the march (without royal approval), driving out English and Burgundians (Charles' political party was the Armagnacs) from towns and garrisons they encountered. More local people and soldiers joined her along the way. At the town of Lagny-sur-Marne, the group defeated an Anglo-Burgundian force and captured their leader, a mercenary named Franquet d'Arras. Usually, someone of his status would be used for ransom, but Joan allowed a trial that led to his execution.

They continued to Compiègne, reaching it on 14 May. At that time, the number of followers had grown so large that it could not find sufficient food locally to support itself, so Joan disbanded them, retaining only 400 soldiers to enter Compiègne. Ten days later, they left Compiègne to attack a Burgundian camp northeast of the town. The attack failed and Jeanne was captured (shown above in a 19th century painting). A Burgundian nobleman, Lyonnel de Wandomme, took her to his castle at Beaulieu-les-Fontaines.

She tried to escape and was moved to the more secure Beaurevoir Castle. She attempted another escape, jumping from a high window to a dry moat, but was too injured from the fall to go any further. She was then moved to the town of Arras, deep in Burgundian-held territory.

The English were happy to offer a ransom to get this devil-maid into their hands. Philip the Good, son of the Duke of Burgundy, was all too happy to hand her off to the English and shed responsibility for her fate since she was so beloved by many of her countrymen. After a payment of 10,000 livres tournois, Jeanne was moved to the main stronghold of the English in France, Rouen. We have no evidence that Charles VII took any steps to save the person who was instrumental in putting him on the throne.

Although there was no doubt as to the outcome of handing her to the English, formalities had to be observed. I'll go through her trial for heresy tomorrow.

The Siege of Paris

The goal and prediction of Jeanne d'Arc was that she would lift the Siege of Orléans and get the Dauphin crowned as King Charles VII of France. After the coronation at Reims Cathedral, a fifteen-day truce between Charles' Armagnac forces and the Duke of Burgundy who held Paris discussed a peaceful transfer of Paris to the new king. The Duke of Burgundy reneged once the fifteen-day period was over.

On the way to Paris, many towns easily switched their allegiance to the new king. On 15 August, however, the Armagnacs came up against English forces in a fortified position led by the Duke of Bedford. Joan rode alone against the English, hoping they could be goaded to leave their fortifications and attack, but they stayed put.  For whatever reason, however, the English retreated the next day, and the Armagnacs were able to continue their march to Paris, which they reached on 8 September.

The Siege of Paris turned out to be a turning point for Jeanne. She was wounded in the leg by a crossbow bolt and hid in a trench until nightfall, when she could be rescued. Fifteen hundred Armagnac casualties led Charles to call off the assault. Jeanne argued against this course of action, but the Armagnacs retreated.

Jeanne insisted on fighting, but the court wanted a diplomatic solution. The failure of the Siege of Paris reduced the army's faith in her. Scholars at the University of Paris concluded that her involvement in the army was not, in fact, divine as they had thought.

She was allowed, in October, to be part of a force sent to deal with a mercenary. A siege and attack urged by Jeanne succeeded, but attempts to retake another town failed, further diminishing faith in Jeanne.

Nevertheless, in December, upon her return to court, she found that Charles had ennobled her family as a reward for services. She also discovered that a truce had been made with the Burgundians which would last until Easter 1430, so her services as a soldier were not needed.

She took matters into her own hands, however, and still had influence over many who believed in her mission. Her independent attempts to drive out the Burgundians and English led to her downfall, however, which I will go into tomorrow.

On to Reims!

After the siege of Orléans was lifted thanks to Jeanne d'Arc's motivation and inspiration, she insisted there push on to Reims, the traditional site of coronation for the kings of France. The Dauphin, Charles, let her go ahead with the army to clear a path. Doing so meant gaining control of all the bridges over the Loire River.

The army set out on this task on 11 June 1429. Jeanne, as before, was not shy about battle. While besieging the town of Jargeau, she scaled a ladder against the wall, only to be struck in the head by a stone that cracked her helmet. Jargeau was taken and many English were executed.

Beaugency, a castle along the south bank of the Loire, was the next target. Those holding Beaugency, unaware that help was on its way under the command of Sir John Fastolf, surrendered on the 18th. The main English army in the region was on the north bank, and they retreated toward Paris. On Jeanne's advice, the French pursued, caught up, and the Battle of Patay took place on the same day.

The English tried to repeat the tactic that worked at Agincourt: a barrier of stakes to stop any cavalry, and long bowmen to rain arrows on the enemy. They did not know how close behind the French were, however, and so while finding a place to make their stand, the French sent archers to the sides of the road to ambush the English. The following battle is estimated to have cost the English over 2000 deaths out of 5000. Most of the rest were captured. The French declared only 100 dead or wounded.

The wild success of Patay encouraged the French leaders to want to push on to Normandy and continue taking land back and driving English out, but Jeanne insisted that Reims and a coronation of Charles was of primary importance. Charles agreed, and on 29 June the march to Reims began. Towns along the way offered no resistance, except for Troyes with a garrison of English and Burgundians (rivals of the Dauphin's Armagnac party). They held out for four days, until Jeanne ordered the moat to be filled with wood. Fearing that the city would be destroyed by fire, Troyes surrendered.

The Dauphin, Jeanne, and the Armagnacs marched in to Reims unopposed on the evening of 16 July. The Dauphin was crowned Charles VII the next morning at Reims Cathedral, with Jeanne prominent in the ceremony. (The statue of her above is outside Reims Cathedral.)

Charles was now king, and proceeded to negotiate a fifteen-day truce with the Duke of Burgundy, his cousin who had driven him from Paris years earlier. They would agree to a peaceful transfer of Paris from the Duke and Burgundians to Charles and the Armagnacs, but at the end of the fifteen days the Duke reneged.

If Charles wanted Paris, he would have to fight for it. Let's talk about that next time.

Joan of Arc

The historical figure we call Joan of Arc was born Jeanne d'Arc c.1412 in northeast France. During a crucial time in the Hundred Years War, she managed to gain an audience with the Dauphin, the rightful heir to the French throne, who was having trouble not only with the English but also with his own countrymen.

They met in late February or early March at the Dauphin's court in Chinon, where he had retired since being driven from the capital, Paris, years earlier. Orléans was under siege at the time, and she told the Dauphin that she had come to raise the siege and ensure his coronation. This was based on a series of visions she had.

Not willing to accept the seventeen-year-old illiterate peasant girl at her word, she was sent to theologians at Poitiers to be examined. Her strong Catholic upbringing was in her favor, but they could not agree that she was in fact seeing visions of St. Michael and others. Still, if she went to Orléans and was successful, that would be the best test of her claims. First she was sent to Tours where the Dauphin's mother, Yolande of Aragon, led a team of women who examined her physically and determined that she was, indeed, a virgin as she claimed. The prophecy that a virgin would be France's savior might have been satisfied by this girl, after all.

The Dauphin was sufficiently convinced that he commissioned plate armor for his maiden warrior. She gained a sword, brought from under the altar in the church at Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois. The Armagnac faction was severely demoralized at this point in the face of the Burgundian and English occupation, but Jeanne's arrival, her constant optimism, and her profound and public assurances of the divine support of their cause inspired the troops. Before going to raise the siege of Orléans in April of 1429, she dictated a letter to be delivered to the Duke of Bedford, warning him that she would drive him out of France.

She and the troops arrived at Orléans on 29 April. They managed to get her into the city where she was initially treated as a symbol, with no part in the military attempt to fight back. On 4 May, the Armagnac troops in Orléans took the offensive. Jeanne always seemed to be in the thick of the fighting, and gained the respect of the troops and their commanders, who sometimes even accepted her suggestions on where to focus their forces.

The next day was Ascension Thursday, commemorating the bodily ascension of Jesus to Heaven after the Resurrection, and therefore a day when no fighting was allowed by the Church. Jeanne dictated another letter to the English to leave France; it was tied to a crossbow bolt and fired at the enemy. On the next two days, the Armagnacs made progress, but each time they wanted to stop and consolidate their gains, Jeanne urged them to continue the forward offensive. Their progress continued from 5 - 7 May, when they attacked the main English stronghold. Jeanne, holding her banner, got an arrow in her shoulder but was part of the successful assault. On 8 May it was clear that Orléans was free of danger from the English.

For the French, like theologian Jean Gerson, the liberation of Orléans satisfied Jeanne's claim that she was sent by God. To the English, it clearly affirmed that the power behind her came from the devil.

She was famous, and there was more to come. See you next time.

A Maid Appears

About the year 1412, on (tradition claims) the Feast of the Epiphany, 6 January, a girl was born to a peasant family in northeast France, in the town of Domrémy. Her parents were Jacques d'Arc, a farmer who owned 50 acres of land, and Isabelle Romée. Jacques and Isabelle had five children: Jacquemin, Jean, Catherine, Jeanne, and Pierre. 

The d'Arcs were relatively wealthy, with a house—modest by modern standards, but the only stone house in the town at the time—that is now a museum (shown here). Their children did not have opportunities to learn to read and write, but the family had strong Catholic values that would form their children's upbringing. It is their second daughter that we want to focus on.

Her name was Jeanne, and she would refer to herself later as Jeanne la Pucelle ("Jean/Joan the Maiden"). As a child she performed the usual household chores: spinning, looking after livestock. Her father claimed to have dreams that his younger daughter was going to go to war. This disturbed him so much that he told his sons to guard against this by drowning her if it looked like his dreams proved prophetic. Attempts to marry Joan off failed due to her obstinacy.

In 1425, Jeanne says, a figure she identified as St. Michael appeared to her in the garden. She started having visions regularly, especially when she heard the church bells rung (in the illustration above, the church is the building in the distance to the right). Its. Margaret and Catherine also appeared (although which Margaret and which Catherine were never made clear). Saints Margaret of Antioch and Catherine of Alexandria were known as virgins who had powerful enemies and were martyred for their beliefs.

In the French countryside at the time, a prophecy circulated based on the statements of Marie Robine of Avignon (died 1399), a French mystic who said an "armed virgin" would save France. In 1428, she went to the nearby town of Vaucouleurs where soldiers were garrisoned and asked the commander to escort her to the Dauphin, Charles. The commander, Robert de Baudricourt, sent her back home. The following year, Burgundian forces hostile to the Dauphin raided Domrémy, burned the crops, stole the cattle, and destroyed houses (the d'arc's stone house survived). Jeanne went back to Vaucoleurs and was again rebuffed by the commander, but two of the garrison's soldiers were intrigued by her claims and offered their support.

News of her claims of visions and desire to help the Dauphin had spread, and the Duke of Lorraine, Charles II, summoned her. He was ill, and wondered if she had some supernatural ability that could help cure him. Her only comment to him as that he had sinned by living with a mistress.

Meanwhile, English forces were encroaching more and more. Baudricourt agreed to meet with Jeanne for a third time, urged by the two soldiers, Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy. She was given an escort of six soldiers to see the Dauphin. For the journey, she borrowed men's clothing to wear. For the rest of her life she dressed as a man. 

She reached the Dauphin in late February or early March 1429, and the story will continue tomorrow.

Question of Succession

When Charles VI died in October 1422, the Treaty of Troyes determined that the Crown would pass to Henry V of England or his successor. Henry had died a couple months before, on 31 August, and his successor was his son, Henry VI, who was only 10 months old.

Of course there were people in France who did not ant to abide by the Treaty of Troyes, giving Charles VI's mental instability at the signing. They considered the Dauphin—Charles VI's eldest surviving son Charles—the rightful heir.

Even so, there were some who questioned the legitimacy of the Dauphin's birth, and supported the claim of his cousin Charles, the Duke of Orléans. One problem with that choice: the Duke of Orléans had been a captive of the English since the Battle of Agincourt. Henry had disallowed a ransom for Orléans' release, considering him too close to the line of succession to the French throne and (rightly) assuming he would be a threat to the terms of Troyes. (Spoiler: he would not be released until 1440!) The illustration represents him in the Tower of London.

Because of Agincourt, England already occupied northern France, including Paris. Henry V's brother, John Duke of Bedford, was regent for the child Henry and was put in control of France.

Charles and his people decided to ignore Troyes and continue the Hundred Years War. He gained some land back, executing any Frenchman who sided with the English. In December 1422 he married Marie of Anjou, the daughter of Yolande of Aragon, Duchess of Anjou and Countess of Provence, giving him an alliance that might prove useful.

Although he claimed the title King of France, he did not achieve any significant progress driving the English out of France. He operated out of Chinon. By 1429, Charles' future was looking particularly bleak because of advances by the Duke of Bedford.

Then, on 23 February 1429, a young girl arrived in Chinon to meet with the Dauphin. She was about 16 years old, from the village of Domrémy, and she had demanded of a garrison commander that he assemble an escort to take her to the Dauphin, because she had been given a mission in a vision.

Her name was Jeanne, and we will begin her part of the story next time.

Charles VII of France

Charles was born on 22 February 1403, the third "Charles" of his father's sons. His father was King Charles VI, and had a son Charles who was born and died in 1386, then a son named Charles who lived from 1392 to 1401. (He had two additional older brothers, but they died in 1415 and 1417, respectively.) You might say that the third Charles was lucky, but only if you did not know what the rest of his life was like.

His (surviving) older brothers had each held the title Dauphin of France, declaring them heirs apparent to the French throne; their deaths without children (although each had been married young) left the title Dauphin to Charles in 1417. This was no guarantee of succession, however.

In May 1418 the Duke of Burgundy, John the Fearless, invaded Paris. He was a cousin of the current king, Charles VI, whom everyone realized was mentally unwell. Reducing a lot of rivalries to simple terms: the defeat at the Battle of Agincourt angered the Burgundians, who blamed the king and his Armagnac supporters for mismanagement. John felt he should take over, so he established himself in the capital, Paris, but the Dauphin escaped the night before, going to Bourges where he would be safe.

Charles actually set up a court and a parliament in Bourges, and he was referred to sarcastically in Paris as "King of Bourges." Charles did not have the support to challenge John directly, so he agreed to meet and discuss a treaty. The two met on 11 July 1419 at a bridge where they signed the Treaty of Pouilly-le-Fort, in which they agreed to share government and not sign any treaties with other parties without discussing it first with each other. They also agreed to a second meeting on 10 September.

With peace established between them, the second meeting took place as planned. John figured he had nothing to fear, so he arrived with a small contingent of men. The Dauphin's men assassinated Duke John.

I'll pause to point out that this was during the period known as the Hundred Years War. The Battle of Agincourt had been so devastating to the French that the English were in a position to make the terms. Henry V of England had taken Charles VI's daughter Catherine of Valois (Charles VII's sister) as his wife, and their son would rule both England and France. This arrangement was supposed to be the end of hostilities forever.

The result of the assassination of the Duke of Burgundy was that his son and heir, Philip the Good, aged 24, continued the hostilities between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs. He also made an alliance with Henry V. A few years later, he married his sister to the English Duke of Bedford, who was regent for Henry's son Henry VI, who was intended to be the king of both countries. Although he did not involve himself directly in major conflicts of the Hundred Years War, Philip was constantly involved in more local conflicts. It was Philip, however, who in 1430 would capture Joan of Arc and turn her over to the English.

But there's a lot that happened in France between now and then, and we'll go into more detail tomorrow.

Christine and Joan

One of the last written works by Christine de Pizan was the poem Ditié de Jehanne d'Arc ("The Tale of Joan of Arc"), published mere weeks after the coronation of Charles VII (17 July 1429). Two complete manuscripts of the poem have survived. This is the only work about Joan of Arc that was written in her lifetime. Christine never mentions here or anywhere the capture of Joan by the English, and it is assumed that Christine's death took place in 1430, preceding Joan's capture in May of that year.

Her opening prologue of a dozen stanzas offer us a bit of autobiography as well as her emotions about the end of the war, showing us a tremendous surge in national pride and optimism over the end of the war and the restoration of the original monarchy:

I.
I, Christine, who have wept for eleven years in a walled
abbey where I have lived ever since Charles (how strange
this is!) the King’s son–dare I say it?–fled in haste
from Paris, I who have lived enclosed there on account of
the treachery, now, for the first time, begin to laugh;

III.
In 1429 the sun began to shine again. It brings back the
good, new season which had not really been seen for a
long time–and because of that many people had lived
out their lives in sorrow; I myself am one of them. But I
no longer grieve over anything, now that I can see what I desire.

The following 49 stanzas tell us the story of the civil war, the first of which immediately credits the efforts of Joan of Arc:

XIII.
And you Charles, King of France, seventh of that noble
name, Who have been involved in such a great war before
things turned out at all well for you, now, thanks be to
God, see your honour exalted by the Maid Who has laid
low your enemies beneath your standard (and this is new!)

Joan's contribution to the war is considered a sign of divine intervention, as the young Maid of Orleans single-handedly renewed the fighting spirit of the French.

Christine concludes the poem with the understanding that not everyone sees the end of the war the same way as she:

LXI.
This poem was completed by Christine in the above
mentioned year, 1429, on the last day of July. But I
believe that some people will bc displeased by its
contents, for a person whose head is bowed and whose
eyes are heavy [can not] look at the light.

Christine's works were kept alive in small pockets of literary interest since her death. In 1949, French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir wrote that Christine's 1399 L'Épistre au Dieu d'amours ("Epistle to the God of Love") was "the first time we see a woman take up her pen in defence of her sex." The later 20th century saw increased interest in her as the first feminist writer.

We, however, will use her last work to veer off into politics of the French civil war and the appearance of Joan of Arc. See you tomorrow.

Poets and Politics

Christine de Pizan (1364 - c.1430) was considered the first professional woman of letters in Europe, first writing after the death of her husband to support her family, and then becoming so well-known for her poems and ballads that she got commissions from nobility. Her works for others were often more scholarly, such as Le Livre des trois vertus ("The Book of Three Virtues") instructing the wife of Dauphin Louis of France, Margaret of Nevers.

As the Dauphin himself was growing up, Christine dedicated three works to him, advising him on wise and effective government. One of these works, Livre du Corps de policie ("The Book of the Body Politic") described the governments of medieval Europe. In it, she criticized the Italian city-states of her birth that were run by corporations, favoring hereditary monarchies that she felt were better for the common good. Much of this book covered the king's duties as a military leader.

Perhaps it was those chapters that inspired a gift of 200 livres* to her for writing Livre des fais d'armes et de chevalerie ("The Book of Feats of Arms and of Chivalry"). In it, she explains the rationale for a "just war" and quotes classical writers on warfare. She rejected Trial by Combat, discussed proper treatment of noncombatants and prisoners of war, and claimed that only a king can start a war because the king is responsible for the welfare of his people and country. One year after producing this book, nobles were prohibited from raising armies by royal edict.

In 1413, Christine followed this work with Livre de la paix ("The Book of Peace"), her thoughts on good governance. This was a time of civil war in France, and she urged the Dauphin to seek peace, quoting writings of Abelard, St. Benedict, and Cicero.

The Dauphin's mother, Queen Isabeau, requested of Christine her collected works. In 1414, Christine presented the queen with a lavishly illustrated compendium of 30 of her writings. The illustration above is the frontispiece, with Christine presenting the work to Isabeau.

There was a long period away from court when she wrote less. It is assumed she was avoiding the stress of civil war by staying in a Dominican convent, but in 1429 she came out with another work at the end of the civil war. That was a poem, Ditié de Jehanne d'Arc ("The Tale of Joan of Arc"). I'll talk about that, and Joan, tomorrow.

*A unit of currency. Charlemagne established it as equal to 1 pound of silver.