Book review of “L’Affaire Jeanne d’Arc” by Roger Senzig and Marcel Gay

There was an interesting book review in French News of “L’Affaire Jeanne d’Arc” by Roger Senzig and Marcel Gay. The authors have gone back to the 15th century documents and come up with a very different story to the accepted tale.

It turns out that Jeanne d’Arc was the niece of the French King, not a shepherdess or peasant girl and she never was burnt at the stake by the wicked English. About all that is left of the traditional story is that she was called Jeanne (or Joan or Jehanne) and was a charismatic military figurehead, instrumental in restoring her cousin Charles VII to the French throne – his father having been taken prisoner at Agincourt and dying years later in the Tower of London.

Jeanne was the (illegitimate) 12th child of the king’s brother, Louis of Orléans. She was a tomboy and mental and physical prodigy. She was trained to bear arms and joust wearing heavy armour.

Yolande, Duchess of Anjou – the force behind the anti-English party – needed a charismatic leader to rally the demoralised yet religious French public. There had been rumours of a divinely inspired peasant girl from Lorraine, Yolande nurtured the myth that Jeanne was this person. Had she been a peasant from Domrémy she would have spoken the local patois not French and certainly been unable to ride stallion warhorses in armour - contemporary records have her taking part in jousting, no ‘peasant’ girl could have done this, however inspired.

Yolande brought Jeanne to court where Jeanne told the dauphin that she would see him crowned in Reims - then in English hands. Jeanne indeed led the French army that relieved Orléans and indeed saw the prince crowned King in Reims.

In due course the English captured her and a careful study of the record of her trial shows her the intellectual equal of her interrogators, said to be some of the finest theologians of the day. Someone was burnt at the stake and Jeanne disappeared for five years.

My own guess is that the English wanted to neutralise this charismatic French leader but not actually kill a member of the French nobility, a bad precedent - what would happen if her captors were themselves later captured? So they did a deal with Jeanne that she disappeared for a while and undertook not to bear arms against the English again. Charles VII once crowned, had been increasingly annoyed by her unauthorised (by him) continuing military adventures – also it cannot have been much fun having a younger and more atractive military commander who his nobles preferred to him. There is no evidence for any supposition that he knew about or connived with this deal but I don’t think that he would have been dismayed by it.

The French public certainly were convinced at first that she had died. The archives of the city of Orléans show that a few years later they sent their herald to investigate rumours that she was still alive. He took a leisurely 36 days to get to North East France but only four to return. The city then stopped the annual festival of remembrance for her death. Instead they gave Jeanne £210 – a considerable sum at that time.

By then she had married a knight - Robert des Armoises - and she had been received by the king and pardoned for attacking Paris without his permission (one of her freelance operations). She and Robert lived in Jaulny castle in the Meurthe-et-Moselle until she died aged about 50.

It is interesting that the Joan of Arc story was promoted hard by the authorities during the Franco-Prussian war – when the French needed a hero, local to the disputed territory.

So here is a real ‘Wag The Dog’ style story. Maybe a far better one for Kate Mosse or Dan Brown et al to write than their usual concoctions?

Gus Coulton
Holiday Home Charente