Winter Solstice Bonus Ep: Joan of Arc in full
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Winter Solstice 2022 Bonus Episode
The Story of Joan of Arc in its entirety, in one place.
References:
Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism by Marina Warner
Trial of Joan of Arc Transcript
Transcripts:
Word: Winter Solstice Bonus Ep - Joan of Arc in full
PDF: Winter Solstice Bonus Ep - Joan of Arc in full
Listen and read on Youtube
Transcript
Winter Solstice 2022 Bonus Episode Joan of Arc
Welcome to Tide to the Moon. Thai is a special bonus episode for the Winter Solstice 2022. The last two episodes we have heard parts of the story of Joan of Arc.
Well at the risk of being totally repetitive, here is the same story but altogether in one episode.
MUSIC
‘I was 13 when I first heard a voice from God for my help and guidance.
When I first heard the voice I was frightened. I was in the garden it was high summer, and the voice came from the right, from the church.
By the time I was 17, two to three times a week the voice would say to me
‘You must go to France, you must go to France. You must lay the seige at Orleans. You must go to Robert de Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs. He will arrange safe travel for you. ‘
So said Joan of Arc in 1431 at her trial for witchcraft and heresy.
She was 19 years old
And she’s referring to a time, two years earlier, when she was 17 years old.
At that time, France was in its darkest hour.
For 75 years the English had been invading the country, seeking to conquer it and claim the French crown.
For the last 20 years, the French themselves had disintegrated into Civil War.
There were the Burgundians, who had aligned with the English led by the Duke of Burgundy, and there were the Armagnacs led by the Duke of Orleans.
The French royal family itself had splintered.
In 1420, when Joan was nine, the Queen of France had signed the Treaty of Troyes with the English . And under that treaty her daughter, would marry the King of England, and their heir would inherit both the French and the English crowns.
That same treaty disinherited the Queen’s son, Charles, and he was with the Armagnac camp.
Now France is geographically divided across the middle in a great arc, by the River Loire. And at the time when Joan is 17, most of the territory north of the River Loire, including Paris, is held by the English and the Burgundians.
And most of the territory south of the River Loire was held by the Armagnacs. And Charles, who is also known as The Dauphin, has his royal court south of the River at Chinon.
A few months before Joan’s 17th birthday the English lay siege to the city of Orleans.
Orleans sits on the River Loire at the most northern point of that arc of the River Loire
And the thinking is that if Orleans falls to the English, the gateway to an invasion of the south of France, would lay open.
So Charles the Dauphin is like a rat in a trap.
He is considering moving his court further south, maybe even going into exile.
His coffers are empty and his soldiers are completely demoralised, they have been beaten time and time again
.
***
Now Joan comes from a tiny village called Domremy, that's sits up in the far north east of France, a pocket of Armagnac territory, completely surrounded by Burgundian territory.
And in her home village she’s considered as good and kind, charming, maybe charismatic, but boringly pious.
But she conceals a
steely determination.
A strong and resolute voice.
A clearly focused eye.
And an unshakable faith in her God, her mission and her role.
And so she sets off to the nearest town where there’s a Captain, which is Voucolours and there she seeks an audience with Robert De Baudricourt the captain, to convince him to support her mission
And her mission, as guided by the voices she hears from God, is to see France rid of the english and to have Charles crowned the rightful King of France.
Robert de beaudricourt meets her and says
“take that woman back to her father and tell him to have her beaten.’
Joan does not return to her father to be beaten,
and a few days laters she comes back to De Baudricourt,
but by this stage because of the clarity of her vision and her strength of character she is starting to garner support in Voucolours and 6 men say we’ll go with her in the long trek to Chinon, to the Royal Court.
and so eventually Robert De Beaudricourt is persuaded to support her mission to attend the royal court.
Joan’s hair is cut short, she dons men's clothing, she learns to ride a horse and then her and the six armed men she’s just met, set off on the 500 km trek, across mostly enemy territory,
It's a miracle in itself that they make it
but they finally arrive at the Royal Court of Charles The Dauphin in Chinon.
Now At the Royal court, they know this girl is coming.
And their only question is, is she divinely guided or is she a dupe of the devil.
And so they meet her and they can’t tell so charles decides to send her further south to Poitiers (Pwa te ay)
where all the religious clergy, theologians and learned men are gathered and there they check her virginity of course (its already been checked on Chinon, and is checked many times in the short course of her public life)
And for three weeks she is interrogated and they find she is good and pious and that there is no sign of evil in her
But they want a sign from God to show that she is truly guided by him, so they decide to set a test, and the test is that she will be allowed to lead a siege of Orleans.
And so she goes back to Chinon and over a number of weeks she is fitted for her own armour and she has a banner made.
A banner that she will carry at the head of the army going into battle
It's a big white banner and she has the words Jesus Maria painted at the top, and there's a picture of Jesus and there's two angels, one behind each of his shoulders and he's sitting in judgement on the world.
And she chooses a symbol for herself and she chooses the fleurs-de-lis, the French flower and has that painted on the banner.
And so she spent a few weeks learning to walk with the weight of the armour and learning to ride with it on and carrying the banner while she’s riding.
And then her and army set off to Orleans
Now Orleans was under siege by The English and the Burgundians but they didn’t have enough troops to have a fully surround the walled town, and so it is fairly easy to get Joan into Orleans,
She arrives in there with supplies and six of her entourage
But for some confusion of reasons, the army stay on the other side of the river and after Joan goes into the town they about face and go back to the last staging ground where they'd spent the previous night.
So Joan arrives into Orleans to a hero’s welcome. They line the streets to catch a glimpse of the woman sent by God sent by Charlkes their rightful King to save Orleans, they reach their hands out to touch her and she is ready to fight
But the leaders of Orleans say “It’s great that you’re here, you’ve raised ours spirits and youve brought us food we were hungry, but you’ve only brought six more soldiers and we're not in much better position than we were before.’
And Joan “I have been sent here on a mission from God. I have been sent by the Dauphin, the rightful King of France. I need an army. Send for the army. How can I do God's will without an army?’
So they sent for the army.
While she’s waiting she decides to send a letter to the English. It will be wrapped around an arrow and fired across the rive to where they are. She doesn't write it because she’s illiterate, but she dictates it and the this what that letter says in part:
“King of England, and you Duke of Bedford, who call yourself the regent of the kingdom of France, submit yourselves to the King of heaven.
Restore to the Maid is sent here by God, the keys of all the fine towns that you have taken and violated in France.
And if you refuse to listen, I will raise a war cry greater than France has heard in a thousand years. “
The English fall about themselves laughing. This is hilarious.
They send a message back saying “You're a trollop, go back to herding cattle.”
She is having none of it. She storms up to the ramparts and she bellows at them across the River Loire:
“Duke of Bedford and all you English men. Return to your God-given country. Or I, Joan the maid will come there and kill every last one of you without mercy. “
They didn’t pay her any attention at all.
So the Armangan army comes back into Orleans, the preparations are made and they are ready to fight.
and at the break of dawn they head into battle
And Joan leads the charge with her banner held high and she rallies them:
‘In the name of God and in the name of France fight!
Fight for your country!
Fight to restore France and Orlean to God’s order,
fight to rid France of the English.’
And those Armagnac forces are filled with a faith and a fighting fervour they have never felt before and they surge forward
And the English see her as well and they wonder Has God has deserted us? and they falter,
But late on the first day Joan is injured in the shoulder,
she lays in a ditch and the Armagnacs are confused, they don’t know what to do, they hesitate
And the English and Burgundians seize the moment and they push back..
But then Joan stands yells above the battle
“In the name of God fight, fight for France, fight.”
And they push again and they surge again and the English forces are full of self doubt and the armaganganc forces are full of courage.
And within four days, the siege of Orleans is over. And the English have retreated.
MUSIC
Joan returns to the Royal court of Chinon a hero.
But she's not finished. She has a mission to rid the whole of France of the English, and see the Dauphin crowned the rightful King in Reims.
Reims is a town 400 km north from Chinon, in the middle of enemy territory.
And it is at the cathedral of Reims where every king of France since Clovis the first King of the Francs, has been crowned and annointed with the sacred oil.
And so Joan starts to persuade Charles to go on this journey with her, but he is as averse to risk danger and Joan is ready for it.
‘Mmm, I’m not so sure about this, it’s a bit risky isn’t it…. Why don’t we just wait until we win the war, or, I don’t know, there is an agreement made and I can go protected…’
But he is also deeply insecure about his position and he desperately wants to be given the legitimacy of being crowned.
So eventually, Joan with her vision and her persuasion convinces him and they set off on this 400 km journey.
And town after town after town after town, open their gates to Joan the Maid and her vision to see the Dauphin crowned the rightful king of France.
So they get to Reims and its a small affair, but the archbishop of Reims annoints Charles with the sacred oil and Joan stands beside him with her banner tall, and he is crowned King.
At this height in Joan's favour with the king, the King declares that Domremy, Joan's home village, will be exempt from taxes in perpetuity. And so for 350 years the people of Domremy don’t pay tax until the French Revolution.
But the King is still the dilly dallying, risk averse diplomat that he always was and he heads back Chinon, even though Joan wants to fight. She wants to rid France of the English, that’s her God given mission, that is the direction from her voices.
But she has to obey her King and go back with him
But she is vocal about her frustrations, very vocal, and she’s becoming a problem that won’t quietly go away, and she borders on usurping royal power. So they send her out to this squirmish and after that renegade and to deal with this mercenary to keep her occupied. And finally she was sent to Compiègne. Compeigne in an Armagnac town under attack from the Burgundians. She knows what to do, it's like Orleans, charge in and God will deliver!
But this time, she is surrounded. And they press in, there is no way to escape, and she is yanked off her horse hard onto the ground. They stand over her and whoop with triumph.
As a knight should, Joan immediately surrenders herself to the nearest Burgundian captain.
And then The English run their hands with glee,
“At last we have caught Armagnac whore, and that means that God is not the side of the Armagnacs, but is on the side of the English and the Burgundians!
And we will prove she is a witch and a heretic and that will prove that Charles is not the rightful king of France at all.”
The Armagnacs, for their part, decide that the very fact that Charles has been crowned King at Reims and anointed with the sacred oil is proof positive that he is the rightful king of France.And nothing that Joan did or didn't do, and nothing the English prove or don’t prove alters that fact.
Charles the VII did not once, then or ever offer a ransom or enter into any negotiations for the release of the woman who turned the tide of war against the English and saw him crowned King.
So the English then set out to conduct the most meticulous and rigorous trial that the Middle Ages would see. They were going to leave no stone unturned to make sure that everything is strictly lawful in the trial, and they will prove without a shadow of a doubt that this woman is a witch and a heretic.
It takes them 8 months to bring the trial to a public hearing and then Joan of Arc 19, illiterate, faces public interrogation by between 40 and 70 men
Most are double her age. All are vastly more powerful and educated- they are - lawyers, theologians, judges, clerics. She might be illiterate, but she's deeply grounded in her faith and articulate. In 6 long sessions, stretched out over 2 weeks, they don’t what they want from her.
And so they adjourn and decide they'll continue the hearings in her prison cell. Naturally they can't fit 70 men in there, but they can cram about a dozen of them into that dark dank cold cell, where she's shackled hand and foot.
And there, soft and hard, cajoling and menacing, they duck and weave and trip and trick
try to break her resolve like hounds fox with the scent of fox in their nostrils, they barrage her. And finally she gives them something that they seize upon. She talks of an angel walking upstairs with a crown for the king. And they all know, all those lawyers and bishops know that visions from God are ethereal. They don't walk upstairs and they don't carry things. Vision like that are the work of the devil. But they want more. They want Joan to submit to the church. And so they leave her languishing for another two weeks.
They come back and by this stage she's sick, she's been in prison for ten months. Two months under intense interrogation. She's comforted by the voices of St. Catherine and St. Margaret. But she’s said way more than she ever wanted to about her vision, the voices and her relationship with God.
They leave again and come back another two weeks later and take her out to a room full of implements of torture: Jagged metal teeth, Beds of barbs, Racks and screws. And she says: Truly if you were to tear me limb from limb, if you were to separate my soul from my body I would tell you no more.
The next time they come they take her to a scaffold over the graves in the cemetery of Rouen and there is the executioner and a sea of men who berate and cajole, to convince and persuade her. And finally the bishop says:
You leave the church no choice, but to abandon you to the secular power to be burned at the stake in the purifying fires!
And a wave of terror steels through her she speaks: I submit, I wish to obey the church and her judges.
They take her back to her cell. She bows her head, they shave her hair, and give her women's clothes.
But three days later, the judges are called back and when they come she's agitated, she's distressed. But they see none of that. All they see is that she's back in men's clothes.
And she says: It is only right and proper that I wear men's clothes if I am to live among men! And what of the promise that I would have mass, and I would be removed from these shackles. I would rather die than live in irons.
Bishop: Have you heard the voices of St. Catherine and St. Margaret?
Joan: Yes.
Bishop: And what did they say?
Joan: They said I have done a great evil, that I have dammed myself to save my life.
She was declared a relapsed heretic and sentenced to burn at the stake.
The next day, as she had been wanting to for so long, Brother Martin came and heard her confession. And he administered the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
And then they put a tall white hat on her shaved head, that said Relapsed heretic, apostate, adulter.
They put her in a cart and they jerked her through the streets of Rouen to the pyre and the marketplace. And there she endured more lectures.
Bishop: You Joan the Maid have fallen. You have returned to your sin like a dog to its vomit. Hardened heretics must be separated less the pernicious vipers lodge in the bosom of the holy mother church.
The English soldiers lifted her slender body to the stake. And they tied her to it.
And then they moved back and the executioner lit the pyre. And Joan’s eyes fixed on the crucifix that someone held high in the crowd for her. And her lips moved in ceaseless prayer.
Jesus Mary of God.
Jesus Mary mother of God.
Jesus Mary mother of God.
Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!
They say her head slumped in unconsciousness before the flames reached her.
And then once the flames had died down, the executioner raked back the fire so that all could see and satisfy themselves that she was a woman.
***
Joan of Arc's public life was for two years, the first year she was a soldier. The second year she was a prisoner.
Her courage, her faith and vision in the face of unfathomable differences in power: in gender, rank, education and age, will always be extraordinary and inspiring.The power of her imagination enabled her to envision a France that wasn’t in living memory. A France free of the invading English. And she saw clearly the means and the need to have the Dauphin crowned the rightful king of France.
Her youthful, impetuous, abstinent, glorious life draws for me a desire to honour and support the willful visionary compelling young women of today.
Unlike them Joan did not have the luxury of time and of maturing.
Her sins cascaded around her. She her heard voices. She fought like a soldier. She dressed like a man. She cowed before no one. But most heinous of all she refused to submit to the church. And claimed for herself direct communication with God. A particularly Pagan view of the divine.
The Roman Catholic Church spent the next 400 years with trials and torture, persecution and murder, mostly directed at women. To make sure that no one else claimed a direct line to God.
And the legacy of that violence, over all those years is with us still today. But so too is the legacy of Joan of Arc.
MUSIC
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Theme music for this podcast is by Danya from Audio Jungle.
This podcast is a production of Story Ground, and me, Kate Lawrence and is made on the traditional lands of the Gunum Willam Balluk,
at the foot of Mt Macedon, 65 km north west of Melbourne, Australia.
