Transcript of 633. Joan of Arc: Saviour of France (Part 2)

King of England, and you, Duke of Bedford, who call yourself regent of the Kingdom of France, you, William Paul, Count of Suffolk, John Tolbot, and you, Thomas Lord Scales, who call yourselves lieutenants of the said Duke of Bedford, make satisfaction to the King heaven. Surrender to the maid who is sent here by God, the King of heaven, the keys of all the good towns which you have taken and violated in France. She has come here by God's will to reclaim the kingdom for its rightful king. She is perfectly ready to make peace if you are willing to grant her satisfaction by abandoning France and paying for what you have held. And you, archers, men at war, gentlemen and others who are before the town of Oléon, get going back to your own country in the name of God. And should you not do so, then expect tidings from the maid who will come to see you shortly to your very great arm. King of England, if you do not do so, I am a captain of war, and in whatever place I meet your people in France, I shall compel them to depart, whether they want to or And if they refuse to obey, then I will have them all put to death.

I am sent here by God, the King of heaven, to drive you out of France. So that's one of the most remarkable letters in history. And it was dictated, not written, dictated, on the 22nd of March, 1429, by an illiterate peasant girl to the King of England and his captains who were in France. And these captains, since the previous October 1428, had been laying siege to the city of Orléans on the River Loire, the lynch pin of the front line between the English and Dauphins held possessions in France. Now, by the spring of 1429, the city of Orléans seemed about to fall. And if it did fall, then the English would be able to drive a stake into the heart of their enemy's holdings and possibly bring an end at last to the noble crusade of the Hundred Years War. But this peasant girl, Tom, had other ideas. Now, who on earth is she? Who are we talking about?

Well, she is, of course, it will stun our listeners to learn, Joan of Arques, or as she called herself, Jeanne la Pucelle, the maid. In our previous episode, we described her background We described her childhood. She'd been born in a village called Domrémy, on the war-torn Eastern margins of France. She's a peasant girl, and so by definition, she hasn't learnt to ride a horse. She's not practiced in the handling of arms. But then at the age of 13, she hears a voice that she says has come from heaven, and these are soon to become voices in the plural. And by 1428, these voices are telling her to lead an army to Orléans and to break the English siege, and so she obeys. And she sets out on this mission in February 1429. She has a horse house, she's riding it, and she sets off on what is a very long and dangerous journey through territory infested by bandits and men at arms, partisans of the hostile Duke of Burgundy. It's an It's an astonishing mission.

The one thing we've not done is to describe Joan, to make her come alive for our listeners. Give us a sense of what you'd have seen if you looked up from your job, as you would undoubtedly have been doing, Tom, you'd have been tilling the fields had you lived in the Middle Ages because you're a man of the soil, horny-handed son of toil. You're not cut out for life as a cleric. You'd have been working probably quite near the bottom of the social spectrum. You'd have looked up and you'd have seen this person passing.

What would you have seen? The descriptions of Joan are scanty and not entirely reliable, but she seems to have been dark haired, and she has cut this hair, cropped it short in the style of a night. Someone who knew her well, her future squire, described her as being beautiful and well-formed, and she does seem to have been attractive. But she is not dressed as a woman, she is dressed as a man. And specifically, she is wearing hose, she's wearing breaches, and these are both tightly knotted into a gray doublet. This is obviously to guard herself against sexual assault. Over this doublet, she wears a black tunic and she has a black cloak. She also has a hat. It's made of wool. Again, it's black. She's pulled this over her hair. As we said, she's riding a horse, even though she had never ridden one before. It seems that over the course of this journey, she becomes actually a very good horsewoman. She's got sword by her side, the marker of a night. In her train, she has two pages and four men at arms.

I mean, it's a long, long journey, 250 miles. They ride mostly by night, presumably to avoid detection and to avoid bandits and Burgundians. They cross the Loire, and it takes them 10 days. Then finally, they reach a shrine, Sainte Catherine de Fierbois. What's the point of this shrine? Why this shrine in particular?

Well, it's sacred to Saint Catherine, who we know from data records is very important to Joan, but Saint Catherine at Fierbois is also very important to prisoners of war who have escaped from the English. They see the Saint Catherine in this shrine as their particular patron, and so there are all kinds of fetters that they've hung up to mark their liberation. It's a very Joan place to make a halt. At this shrine, she dictates a letter to the man who she has come to see, the man that she acknowledges as being the rightful king of France. This is Charles of Valois. He is the son of the previous king, Charles VI. He is the heir to the ancestral dynasty that has been sitting on the throne of France and which has been replaced by the house of Lancaster the English dynasty.

And he's not Charles VII yet. I mean, he should be Charles VII, but everyone calls him the Dauphin because they think the English have the upper hand and that he's basically, he's doomed to fail, right?

Well, I mean, legally, if you're a supporter Charles, he is Charles VII, but he is widely called the Dauphin, I think for a number of reasons. He doesn't have a kingly heir. He's physically unprepossessing people who've seen the first series of Black Adder. He looks a bit like that. More Mainly, he lives under the shadow of a terrible crime, notorious crime, which is the murder at a peace summit back in 1419 of John the Fearless, the Duke of Burgundy, who had been the most powerful nobleman in France. He's got holdings that are not just in the east of France, but in the low countries as well. It was this murder that had driven the son of John the Fearless, Philip, who is the good, to enter his alliance with the English. As you said, the Loire is the marker between these two rival zones of influence. South, the Dauphin, Charles VII, as he legally is, that's where he essentially still can draw on support. But north of the Loire, Northern France is effectively now an Anglo-bergundian condominium.

Right. So one other important point about the Dauphin, though, the Dauphin hasn't been crowned, has he? No. So tradition holds that French king should be crowned in the cathedral in As. But Haas is in English territory, and until he can get to a house and be crowned, people will not accept him as the rightful king of France. That's about right, isn't it?

Correct. And this is a big problem to which Joan has a solution. And she wants to meet the Dauphin so that she can present this solution to him. And Charles, at this point, is in a great castle called Chinon, which is south of Loire, not far. It's about 20 miles from Fierbois, where the shrine of Saint Catherine is. And when he receives the letter from this illiterate peasant girl, he says, Okay, fine. I will meet you, despite the fact that plenty of his advisors are advising against it, saying, What if she's a crank? What if she's a fraud? What if she's worse? What if she's a sauceress? Because the news has come that this girl is dressed as a man, and this is strictly against biblical injunctions. To people who are worried about the possibility that Joan might be a sauceress, the fact that she's wearing male clothing is a warning sign. But Charles overrules this advice and agrees that, Yeah, I will see this extraordinary person.

And part of this, presumably, is because he's really up against it. He has nothing to lose. If Orneel falls, this is a disaster for him. The English will pour across the River Loire into the south. So there's that element to it. But also, am I not right in thinking that there are people at his court, not least his mother-in-law, who we talked about last time, who's called Yolande, who is a very impressive woman, who are very keen on Joan, who think that Joan might actually be sent from God.

Yeah. So Yolande, she's the dowager Duchesse of Anjou, and her son, of Anjou had his power base in the very region from which Joan is coming. And so I think it's easy to see, we talked about it in the previous episode, how between them, they might have evaluated Joan and decided that she was worth taking a punt on. But why would they have thought that her mission might in any way be plausible? And I think there is an explanation for this, and it's to do with the fact that for decades, even before the arrival of Henry in France to resume the Hundred Years War. There had been a swirl of professes in France foretelling that the kingdom would be redeemed by a virgin sent by God. Back in the dying days of the 14th century, there had been this visionary, Marie d'Avignon, who had foretold that an armed maid would emerge to save France in her hour of need. There were other professes, too. These were cited by Christine de Pizan, who we mentioned in the previous episode, this poet who wrote this great eulogy to Joan. And in that poem, Christine listed some of the professes.

So to quote her, Over 500 years ago, her coming was foreseen by Merlin, the Sybil, and Bede. They wrote of her as someone who would put an end to Francis' troubles, prophesied she would carry a banner in the French Wars, and described all she would achieve. So that, too, I think, is part of the context. But I think above all, ultimately, what enables Joan to secure her meeting with the Dauphin is her own energy, her own charisma. So she has what Marina Warner in her wonderful book on Joan of Art, It comes up as an astonishing ability to compel credence. Somehow, Joan has a genius for making people believe the most extraordinary things. It had won over her feudal Overlord, so René of Anjou and the Duke of Lorraine as well. It had won over Yolande, who's a very hard-boiled, sensible woman. And in due course, when she comes to meet the Dauphin, it wins over the Dauphin as well.

So they meet in the great hall, the audience chamber at Chinon, and the Dauphin kicks off, doesn't he, by asking Joan her name. And she says, I'm called Jeanne la Pucelle. And then comes the great bombshell.

Yeah. So Joan goes on, The King of Heaven has commanded that through me you were to be consecrated and crowned in the city of Rase. On behalf of our Lord God, I tell you that you are the true heir of France. Then again, she gives the dauphin her promise, not just that she's going to save all Lyon, but that she is going to secure for him the consecration that he desperately craves, that he desperately needs, if he is going to be accepted by the mass of French people as the legitimate king. And so she says to him again, God has sent me to take you to Rase.

Well, this doesn't seem terribly difficult to explain. She's basically just telling him what he wants to hear. And in an age when people are interested in professes and saints and stuff like that, to have this girl who seems a bit weird turning up and saying, I'm sent by God, and I know everything's going to work out all right. I mean, of course, he's going to love that, right?

Well, he is. But I mean, again, he's not stupid either. He's a very smart guy. He needs to be on his guard. She's come from the region where the Burgundians are very What if she has been sent as a Burgundian agent? So the fact that he is prepared to take a punt on her, I think, is tribute to certainly Jones' powers of persuasion. And it's not just the Dauphin who is persuaded. There is also another guy who is massively smitten by Joan. And this is a guy who also is desperate to believe that God might be sending a virgin savior to redeem France. And this is, again, a guy we met in the previous episode, and he is the Duke of Alençon, Jean. And by now, this guy is 20. So his father had died at Agencourt. He'd been captured in 1424. The Duke of Bedford, the English regent, had appropriated all his lands. The Duke of Alençon had had to mortgage everything to raise his ransom. So basically, he's completely skint, and he is known at the court as the poorest man in France, even though he is a Duke of the realm. So you can see, again, why Alençon would be desperate to believe in Joan.

In fact, he starts taking his meals with her. He joins her meetings with the Dauphin. They become great pals.

Right. He, too, he can sense this conviction in her, this intensity. It's this intensity, actually, that will make her a military leader, that she will carry into battle.

I think that's the reason why Alonso and perhaps the Dauphin also believe in her, is that they sense that this sense of conviction is something that will inspire their men The French armies at this point are demoralized. They have zero morale. Perhaps this girl with her absolute sense of conviction, perhaps that's just what they need.

The fact that she is a girl, as we said in the last episode, we did a previous episode about Catherine of Siena, this mystical figure who claimed to have married Christ. The fact that she's a woman, that doesn't make her implausible as a messenger from God. In fact, it enhances it because women have a special place, a unique place in the medieval Christian sense of the world.

Women obviously can't be priests, but there is a sense that perhaps that gives them a more intimate relationship with God, that God will sometimes bypass the structure of the church and speak directly to women in a way that he tends not to do to men. Joan, as you said, is absolutely not the first female visionary to be granted interviews with the power and the mighty on the basis of their claim that they have been spoken to by the saints and by God. Catherine of Siena is exactly such a woman because she had ended up a counselor and adviser to popes. It was Catherine of Siena who had dissuaded who did the Pope in Avignon to move back to Rome. So it is possible for women who claim a direct access to God to play a striking role in the affairs of Christendom. But against that, to repeat, there is an enormous risk in relying on such people. Because what if Joan is a fraud? What if she's been set up by the Burgundians? What if she's delusional? And even if her voice is are real, what if they are not from God? What if they are from Hell?

Yeah. So the first thing to test, I suppose, is whether or not she is who she claims to be. So for example, is she a bucel? Is she a maid? So they actually get to women at court, don't they, to examine her and to see whether or not she is, in fact, a virgin. And they say she is. So that's good news.

That is good news.

So they've checked out her physical condition, and now they have to check out her moral and spiritual condition. This is called the Discretio spirituum. And they send her off. Basically, they send her off for a vivor, PhD vivor.

They do. Well, it's like a debrief, I guess. So she's sent to Poitou, not far from Chinon. And In Poitou, there are all kinds of scholars and doctors from the University of Paris, which has always been the leading center of theology in Christendom. But lots of these scholars are refugees from the English. So Poitou is their base. Among the scholars and doctors there in the prelates is the Archbishop of Rase, who is Charles' Chancellor. So he puts himself at the head of the investigation into Joan. They, more than anyone, even more than the King, is alert to the risks. To quote Helen Caster, friend of the show, author of a wonderful book on Joan of Arc, Female visionaries in the Church's recent history had experienced their revelations when they were already under the care of a spiritual advisor. So this was true of Catherine of Siena, a confessor, perhaps, who could testify to their morals and the nature of their claims. Joan, by contrast, had appeared alone apart from her escort of armed men. Rather than simply conveying a message from heaven, she, a teenage girl, wanted to lead the king's troops into battle. And so this does make her exceptional.

Nothing really like Joan has been seen before. To repeat, she's wearing male clothes and that she absolutely insists on wearing them. And then on top of that, there's the styling of these male clothes. They're not drab. Joan clearly is a bit of a fashionista. She loves exactly the expensive male clothing that moralists at the time are very down on. So this also is a cause of anxiety.

But the people in Poitiers say, No, she's okay. She has conversed with everyone publicly and privately, but no evil is found in her. Only goodness, humility, virginity, piety, integrity, and simplicity. I have to say they're making it sound absolutely awful. Her clothing, they say that's fine, too, because actually Christ has superseded Deuteronomy. Actually, Deuteronomy doesn't really apply to a woman who's been sent by God to lead men in war, to recapture all the on from the English, so it's fine.

Yeah, because basically, the scholars, too, want to believe in it. They're desperate to see the English thrown out. Also, of course, they know what the Dauphin wants, and so essentially, they're serving it up to him. This is their verdict, which they send back to the Dauphin. The king should not prevent Joan from going to Orléans with his soldiers, but should have her escorted there honorably, placing his faith in God. Essentially, they're saying, take a punt on Let's see what happens.

This is the point when Joan dictates the letter that we began with to the English, basically an ultimatum. I'm on my way. You better watch out.

Although she doesn't at this point send it, she will send it later on, but it's there waiting to go. Then from Poitiers, she rejoins the Dauphin who has moved from Chinon to Thau, Thau is on the Loire. Here, in the full gaze of the court, and therefore of France, the seal is set on her status as potential redeemer of France. This happens in three ways. First of all, she submits to an intimate inspection, this time by Yolande.

There's a lot of inspections.

Then there's a mad pantomime at court, to where Joan arrives and she gets directed to a captain and told, This is the dauphin, and then to someone who has just returned from Orléans and told, Well, this is the Dauphin. She says, Oh, no, no, no, it's not. And she goes up to the real dauphin.

But hold on, she's met the dauphin, hasn't She has.

So it's a pantomime. It's staged. It's clearly designed to illustrate both the inherent regality of the dauphin and the ability of Joan to fathom it.

That's the maddest thing in this story so far. An identity parade when she's already met him.

No, it's not mad because it's a pageant. It's a display making public to the court the role that both the King and Joan are going to play. And then something very weird and mysterious does happen, which not normal at all. He asks Joan for a sign, Convince me, reassure me that you have indeed come from God. And Joan gives it to him. But what this sign was remains vealed. It's not publicized. And in due course, Joan will be asked about it at her trial, and she will talk about it. But we will come to that later on.

Oh, my That's tantalizing. Isn't that exciting?

It is tantalizing. It's a complex issue. But I think it's clear that the sign is accepted by the DOFA. The green light is given. Joan is ready to go to war. So it's now late April, and As she rides off, she is a magnificent sight. She is wearing a full suit of white armor that has been handmade for her by the king's own armorer. She has a new sword, which had been found behind the altar of the church at Fébois, and which Joan later would say that her voices had said would be found there. She had then sent messengers, and they had discovered this sword. The sword is very mysterious. It's covered with rust, which magically falls away as soon as it's touched, and it reveals five crosses along the blade, and on the edge are inscribed the words Jesus and Maria. This, of course, is absolutely It's part of medieval romance. It's very Lord of the Rings. Yeah, sword that was broken, thing. A great hero has to have a magical sword, and Joan now has a magical sword.

She's got a very nice banner as well. People often like a magic banner, don't they?

I mean, you Very nice. This is a magnificent banner. It's made out of white silk. It's covered in golden fleur de lie. Again, the words Jesus and Maria are stitched into it, and they appear alongside an image of Christ flanked by two angels. It's a really splendid sight. She's on a black horse, which is a gift from the Duke of Alençon, who absolutely loves her. We've said that. He'd seen her practicing in the lists that Sheena had been so impressed that he gave her the best charger that he had in his stables. Again, how Joan had made herself so proficient at horsemanship is a puzzle. It's a mystery. She is at the head of an entire military retinue now. This is led by the man who will serve her as her squire, a guy who's a very experienced soldier called Jean Dolen. He's basically there not just to serve her, but to look after her and protect her to make sure she doesn't get captured.

What's going on in Orléans while this has been happening? Because the Orléans has been besieged all this time, so presumably the people there are getting increasingly desperate.

Well, the news from Orléans is very grim. The garrison is depleted, the supplies are running out, both ammunition and food, and people are starting to starve. And so Jones' mission is to ride with a convoy of some 3,000 men that the Dauphin has scrabbled together. He's found ammunition, he's found food, he's put them in wagons, he's got a herd of cattle, and Jones is going to accompany this train and hopefully get to Orléans and relieve the siege in that way. And so they set off. She's taking her role as God's messenger very seriously. So all prostitutes have been banished There are priests singing hymns at the head of the convoy. Soldiers who are marching are urge to offer confession daily. I can see from your face, Dominic, that you were thinking this is not the way to build Ben's morale.

No.

But actually, it seems that it does. It seems to have inspired the men. As they ride, their morale is palpably higher.

Okay, well, I'm glad I'm not in that, that's what I'll say.

Well, horses for courses, Dominic. Yeah, of course. There's This is the 15th century. They approach Orléans, and they reach it on the evening of the 28th of April. But when they get there, and Joan can see Orléans for the first time, she makes a terrible discovery because she and her fellow warriors and the wagon train are on the south side of the Loire, and Orléans is on the north side of the Loire. That is where the vast majority of the English are as well. Joan feels that she has come to attack the English. What she doing on the wrong side of the river? How has this been allowed to happen? Has she been deliberately deceived by the French captains?

Golly, what a cliffhanger. I can't contain myself. I'm so excited. Come back after the break and we'll find out what's gone wrong and why she's on the wrong side of that river. Welcome back to the Restes History. Unbelievable tension. And of course, it's been mounting during the break while those of you who are not members of the Restes History Club have been listening the adverts. Now, while you've been listening to the adverts, Joan of Arc has been steaming with rage. It's the evening of the 28th of April, 1429. She's on the bank of the Loire, which is broader than it is now, fast-flowing river. On the other side, she can see Orléans and the English. She can see the Citadel, the spires of the churches, the city walls. So, Tom, she can also see the ruins of a bridge, can't she? And this is going to play a very important part in this story.

Yeah. So the archers have been demolished, so you've just got the pillars of the bridge. This had connected the city to an Augustinian priory on the South bank, and also to a great fortress called Les Tourelles, which directly commanded the approaches, the roads from the south leading over the the bridge into the city of Orléans. The defenders of Orléans had demolished it for obvious reasons in the early days of the siege, because the English had gathered on the south bank and captured the citadel of Laeterelle and the Priory. Laeterelle is now the major English stronghold on the south bank. So directly facing Orléans, it's under the command of a guy called Sir William Glasgow, who, even though he is a night, had begun his career as an archer, very proficient and formidable warrior. He has turned Laeterelle into a massive platform for artillery. This artillery It's firing across the Loire, it's battering the walls of Orléans on the North bank. And Glasgow is able to hurl abuse at the defenders of Orléans, threatening them with... He's going to slaughter the lot of them when he captures the city. He's a notorious figure. So there's Gwazdell in Laetorelle, and it's a significant target, but Joan isn't really interested in it because she knows that the real action is on the north side.

That's where the English have focused most of their efforts. On the north side, they've got three fortresses along the length of the Loire, blocking off attempts to relieve the city by the river. They've also got a great screen of fortresses on the western side of the city that runs from the Loire up to a great forest north of Orléans. That basically is blocking off access from there. Now, on the Eastern side of Auléon, things are open. That is an opportunity, perhaps, for the French. This is what they decide that they will do. They decide that they will go upriver, maybe six miles north of Orléans, and there they will make a crossing, and they will then come back, and they will try and get into Orléans that way because there aren't that many English siege works blocking them. The guy who comes up with this strategy is the guy who has been in command in Orléans and who has been rode over to meet Joan and the relief force. This is a very, very impressive man. He is called Jean, and he is also more impressively known as the the Bastard of Orléans.

And he's called this because he's the half brother, the illegitimate half brother of the Duke of Orléans, who's in captivity in England, isn't he? Yes. And this guy, the Bastard, he's 27. He's very formidable He's a serious person. He's a very experienced commander. He's the Dauphine's cousin. Actually, one reason for his prominence is that he's the last man standing of the house of Orléans, who's in a position to fight for the city of Orléans.

Yeah, and there's an It's an incredible painting of him. People could look him up. I mean, it's such a realistic portrait. You look at it and you can absolutely imagine what he's like. Not the person that you, I think, would want to get into an argument with, but also clearly very smart. But Joan, it has to be said, is not impressed. Despite the fact that the bastard of Orléans is the cousin of the king himself, she roundly bollocks him. Was it on your advice she demands that I've been brought here on this side of the river instead of going directly against Talbot and the English? And John Talbot is the most feared of all the English commanders. And the bastard of Orléans, he says, Yeah, it's absolutely my decision. Joan is very angry. She's very hurt. She says, I have brought you the best reinforcement that any soldier or city ever had, the support of the King of Heaven. I think, Dominic, that at this point, you can imagine the bastard of Orléans pulling the face that you even now are pulling.

Not wrong. But they have another Council of War the next morning, don't they? And once again, she starts ranting and raving about how she wants to go onto the attack straight away.

She's very basball about it. Let's just attack. But again, she's ignored because the priority is to get the supplies across to the city. And so the Bastard's plan that they will go upriver, this is now everyone apart from Jones says, yes, this is a great idea, and so that's what they do. And so the plan is that they will go there and they will load the supplies onto barges, and then the barges will go back and take the food to Orléans. But when they get there, absolute disaster. The current is obviously against the barges, but so too is the wind, which is very, very strong, almost gale force, and it's preventing the barges from reaching the French supply force. So what does Joan do? She kneels down. She pray to God to change the course of the wind. And Dominic, miraculously, the wind changes.

Yeah, that is a miracle. I mean, winds never change otherwise, right?

The bastard of Orléans is convinced. And from this point on, he is persuaded that Joan has indeed been sent by God. So the supplies are loaded onto the barges. They're then sent back to Aulian. And 200 men at arms with Joan now cross the River Loire to the North bank, but not the rest of the expedition, not the rest of the 3,000 men. They instead turn around and head back to Blois downriver from Orléans, which is their base.

Right.

And the reason for this, and again, Joan is upset about this because she had imagined that these soldiers had been sent to take on the English, but this turns out not to be the case at all. So again, she's absolutely steaming. However, now she's on the North bank, she is able to ride back the six miles and get to Orléans, because as we said, there aren't really many English fortresses in the way.

So the English have not been able to cut it off completely. So they've left gaps in the east.

They haven't got enough men.

Yeah, and she's able to just ride straight in, basically, isn't she?

Yes. And so she makes a triumphant entry into the city. She's got her page preceding her, carrying her great silken banner. She's flanked on one side by the bastard of Orléans, but also on the other by one of the most formidable of all the French captains, a guy known by the English, and indeed by the French, as La Hire, who is a man of very humble origins. He's lame because he had a spectacular accident when the chimney of a pub fell on his legs. Oh, my God. It hasn't stopped him from forging a very impressive reputation for himself. In fact, his name La Hire seems to have come from the Latin, Eirede, the Wroth of God, which is the nickname that the English give him.

Yeah, like the friend of the show, Lope di Aguirre. Yeah.

He's a menacing figure as well. And there he is by the side of Joan. Joan, of course, is delighted by the reception she gets. She's being cheered and saluted as the savior of Aulnior. But she knows that she still has lots to do The chief of which is persuading the bastard of Aulior and La Eire that they should go on the offensive and attack the English. The Bastard and La Eire say, We can't because we haven't got enough men. We still haven't got enough men. The people of Aulior Seeing Jones' escort, how few it is in number, only 200 men rather than the thousands they've been hoping for. They also, like Jones, are very downcast. And despite their delight at getting food supplies and extra ammunition, They almost immediately plunge back into a deep despond. And there's a sense that barely hours after Joan has arrived, morale is, in a sense, even worse than it had been before Joan arrived. And Joan and the bastard of Orléans respond to this crisis in their own distinctive ways. So Joan's approach is to send a letter to Talbot and the English commanders. And of course, she had already sent Talbot a letter, that letter, Dominic, that you read out at the beginning of the show.

The herald who had taken that letter had been held captive by Talbot, which is very powerful, and that's not the thing that you should do with heralds. And so Joan is very angry about this. And in the second letter, she demands that he release the herald, that she give up the siege, and that he and all the rest of the English retire from Orléans and go back to England. Talbot, when he gets this letter, says, All right, I'm going to release the herald. But he also sends Joan a message with this herald saying, You are a whore. You should return to herding livestock. If you don't, you are going to be burned as a witch. Joan, of course, is absolutely outraged by this. She climbs up onto the battlements, overlooking the Loire, and she shouts out to the English in Laetorelle, the great fortress on the south side, telling them to surrender. They They also reply with insults, and specifically, they say, Well, why would we surrender to a whore and her pimps? You are all toast. That's Joan's approach. The bastard of Orleans approach. He decides, Actually, maybe Joan has a point. Maybe there is no point in just trying to string the siege along.

Maybe we really do have to stake everything on a single throw, because if we don't, then the city is going to fall. On the first of May, he leaves Orléans and he rides to Blois as fast as he possibly can. When he gets there, he persuades all the various captains who were gathered there that they need to return with him to Orléans, because unless they do, then the city is definitely going to be lost. And this time, he decides he's not going to go along the South bank, he's going to go along the North bank, so directly towards the English siege positions where they're strongest. In other words, he basically has adopted Jones' plan. And this plan, of course, because the The English siege lines are at their strongest, means that he is probably going to have to fight his way through. So on the third of May, the bastard leaves Blois. He's got another huge train of wagons full of ammunition and food and stuff. And the following day, he approaches the English lines on the western flank of Orléans, their fortresses, siege positions, and so on. Simultaneously, as he approaches the siege lines, a squad of 500 horsemen led by La Hire and accompanied by Joan with her splendid banner, sally out from Orléans to meet them.

They are, of course, absolutely expecting that the English will be there and that there will be a battle. But in the event, the English don't try to stop them. The bastard of Orléans and his men are able to pass through the siege lines. They meet up with the horsemen led by La Eire and accompanied by Joan, and together in a mood of absolute triumph, they head to Orléans, they enter the city, and there they are. They haven't had to And the reason for this is basically because, and we've touched on it before, the English don't have quite enough men to make the investment of Aulior absolute. There are about 4,000 of them, and these 4,000 men have to occupy a series of fortresses that are scattered all around Aulian, including, of course, La Tarelle on the South bank.

I have to say, Tom, it's really striking you make this point. So the siege of Aulian, the relief of Aulian, is often seen as this Miraculous underdog victory against all the odds. But actually, if there's any 4,000 English, when you think of all the battles we've done in the rest of this history, I'm not talking about the World Wars and so on, but I don't know, the Great Northern War or something. These numbers are pretty small, aren't they? I mean, by the standards of some wars, this is a skirmish rather than a battle.

Not by the standards of the Hundred Years War. I mean, 4,000 is a really substantial force, and it would certainly be a substantial force in a pitch battle. But Orléans is a large city, so there just aren't quite enough. Also, there is a backup force that had been stationed by the English for just such an eventuality, but the messengers don't reach it in time. That's a piece of luck. The consequence of this is that basically the French numbers now match the English. The French now have about 4,000 men as well.

Yeah, and the English are fighting on foreign soil as well, so they've really got it all to do.

Well, but also they're scattered in all these fortresses, whereas the French are concentrated in a single place. This is a key moment. Now, Joan, when she says to the bastard of all you're here, Come on, let's have a crack. Let's get on with it. They say, Yeah, fine. Okay, let's. That same afternoon, that the bastard of Orléans has arrived in Orléans, they decide to attack the softest English target available to them, which is a very isolated fortress east of Orléans on the North bank. Basically, there aren't any other English soldiers ready to hand. The garrison in that fortress is on its own. And so the French launch a full scale attack against this fortress, and it falls after three hours of a very hard fighting. The English, you'll be pleased to hear, put up a very good show.

Of course they do.

And this is Joan's first experience of battle. She doesn't actually fight herself. She never actually draws a sword. She never kills anyone. But she is absolutely in the battle line, brandishing her banner, urging the French on. At the end of the... When the fortress has been captured, blood is flowing. She sees this for the first time, and so she broods on it that evening, I think. The next day, she makes yet another call on the English to surrender. So again, she writes her third letter to them. You men of England who have no right to this Kingdom of France, the King of Heaven orders and commands you through me, Joan the maid, to abandon your strongholds and go back to your own country. If not, I will make a war cry that will be remembered forever. I am writing this to you for the third and last time. I will write no more. And she ties the letter to an arrow and has it fired into the English camp, and the response is the familiar one. Basically, piss off, you whore.

Yeah, Armagnac whore, they call her. Interesting. A reminder that there is an element of a civil war to this, as well as a war between the French and English, right? Burgundians and Armagnacs. Yeah.

The English clearly are not going to withdraw. Joan and the French captains decide, Well, we're going to continue attacking them. And so on dawn the next day, which is the sixth of May, Joan makes confession. She hears Mass, and then she joins hundreds of French soldiers who are clambering into boats, crossing the Loire in a great flotilla to an island in the middle of the river. Then from that island, a pontoon is made out of the bridges, and soldiers start crossing it onto the south bank. The goal of this operation is to flush the English out of the the great Augustinian Priory and the tower of Les Tourelles, so that they will then be cleared pretty completely from the Southern bank, and Glasgow the ex-archer, the captain of L'Éterelle, will no longer be able to menace Orléans with his artillery.

Joan is on the Southern bank, isn't she? She's with all her cronies. So there's the bastard, there's that bloke, La the Wroth of God. And there's a third guy. Now, I always think you should judge somebody by the company they keep. And this is a Lord from Brittany, and he's got quite a reputation, hasn't he? For all kinds of activities. And he is called Gilles Deray.

Well, at this point, Dominic, he has a reputation as a very proficient guerrilla leader. In due course, he will have a reputation for other things, and we may come to that in due course. But at this point, his reputation, like that of the Barthes of Orléans and La is as a very proficient captain of men. And so these three men, with Joan, are leading the attack on the English positions in the Priory and les de Garelle. When the captains reach the priori, they're right up against it. They think, Oh, actually, I don't know. I mean, this looks a bit quite a tough nut to crack. And they think, Oh, maybe we should delay. Maybe we should try and get some more reinforcements. But Joan, she's not having any of it. She says, We've got this. We're ready to do it. And La Ere agrees. And so the whole mass of the French forces gathered in front of the Priory, they surge towards the walls of the Priory, and they break over it. And even though the English fight bravely, the French are able to sweep them aside. They pile into the Priory itself, the English withdraw, and they retreat into the great tower of La Tourrelle.

And Joan, again, despite the fact that she has just trodden on the spike of a cow trap, so those are those weapon, those booby traps that they put to stop horses. She's limping, but she doesn't care about that. She's all for launching a massive attack, but she is in pain. The captain say, Well, look, I think you should maybe retreat, go and have it tended to have a few plasters or whatever. And so she, James says, Yeah, all right. And so she withdraws to the camp. But once she's gone, the remaining captains, they hold a council of war, and they agree that they don't actually have the numbers to attack later Well, they may have taken the priori, but Laeterelle is just too formidable. It's the largest, it's the most heavily defended fortress the English have, and therefore it would be insane to launch an attack against it.

That's fair enough. But Joan doesn't like that, does she? Because when she finds out about it that evening, she goes absolutely ballistic and she says, Come on, God wants us to do this. What are you thinking? You need to change your mind.

Yeah. And she says, You captains, you've conferred among yourselves. But I, Joan, I have conferred with God. The next morning, there's another Council of War, and Joan succeeds in changing their minds. They say, Yeah, all right. Okay, let's go for it. To quote who Huysinger, the great Dutch historian we quoted in the previous episode. It is clear, I think, that it's tempting to think this is a lunatic approach. He's just saying, Attack, attack, attack. But I think it does touch something deep in the hearts of the French captains. They sense a a quality of heroism to it. To quote Huysinger, Her courage and her confidence, these are the most immediate elements of her nature and the ones that give the most tangible explanation of her success, a greatness that manifestsests itself in a superior, irresistible, and infectious bravery. I think that infectious bravery, the captains pick up on it. As a result, on the seventh of May, 1429, The fateful decision is taken to attack Laetorelle, and this is a decision that it may be determines the course of the Hundred Years War.

Okay.

So waves after waves of French attacks are launched on the great keep of La Toural. The goal is to bridge the ditch that surrounds the tower with brushwood, and then to bring ladders, to put them on the side of the walls, and to climb up. Joan is with an attack party. There's a ladder, she climbs up the ladder, and as she does so, she's hit in the neck by a crossbow bolt. She's knocked backwards off the ladder, and she drops her banner into the mud that's being churned up by all the men at arms. And so there's a great cheer goes up from the English, and obviously, the morale of the French is pretty badly dented. Joan is led away. The French attack flags the bastard of Orléans decides, Well, I think this attack isn't going to work. We should call it We'll wait for the morning. We'll bring over artillery from Orléans. We got all this ammunition. We'll have a crack again the next day. But Joan's squire, Jean Doulon, who is a big fan of Joan by this point, he picks up her banner. He begins climbing up the ladder, still brandishing it.

War cries, left, right, and center. All the other soldiers see this. They start following Jean up his ladder. They start putting up their ladders, they're all piling up. And Joan, who is standing on the edge of the ditch, yelling encouragement, she urges the bastard, Come on, we've got this. Let's renew the attack. And the bastard of Orléans is dissuaded, and so the attack continues. And meanwhile, on the far side of the river, the townsmen of Orléans have got these great wooden planks, and they are laying these planks over the gap in the bridge that they demolished so that they taken so that the arch is bridged. And their aim is to cross this makeshift bridge and attack Laeterelle from the opposite side to the attack that's being launched by Joan and the bastard of Orléans, so that effectively, the English in the Keep will be completely surrounded. The English defenders, recognizing this, begin to panic, and their commander, this much-feared, much-hated, incredibly intimidating ex-archer, Sir William Glasgow, He loses his footing, he plummets into the river, and of course, he's weighed down by his armor, and so he sinks to the bottom.

Oh, no.

That is the end of him. With the loss of their commander, the English effectively give up, and they are massacred by the victorious French. Five hundred men in all are slaughter. And so by the evening, the Tower of L'Éterelle, the Priory, both of them are in French hands, and the victors, rather than return to Orléans by boats, are able to return to the city across the wooden planks that have been laid across the river. And of course, there's an absolute mood of to see. Bells are peeling, crowds are cheering. Joan is the heroine of the moment.

And what about the English? So the English back out in their siege, their encampments and whatnot. So you've got Suffolk and Talbot and Scales, all these hard-bitten captains. And they're pretty downcast now, aren't they? Because they've lost a lot of men. They've lost their principal fort for prosecuting the siege. They've also crucially lost control of the bridge and the river, so Allian can now get supplies and reinforcements from the south. And basically, the game is up for them in Allian, right? Yeah.

They've got no prospect of success, and the English commanders recognize this. Obviously, They're anxious to save face. And so Suffolk, the guy who's in overall command, he draws his men up in formation, essentially challenging the French to a pitch battle. But of course, the French don't need to do it. They came here to relieve Allian. They've relieved it. So why would they risk losing it all again by taking on the English bowman? An hour passes, the English give up, they turn around, and they start marching northwards away from Orléans, and the siege is over.

So the siege should last for six months. But in four days, Joan and the French have been able to relieve the city. To the Dauphin and to those who support him, this seems like she's delivered on her promises. The miracle from God was foretold and it has duly arrived.

Yeah, it absolutely strikes the Dauphin and everybody who supports him as a miracle. This victory seems to have come from nowhere. Soldiers whose morale was at rock bottom now seem possessed with an absolute confidence that God is on their side and that victory for them is inevitable. They attribute this miracle to one person, to Joan, the maid. This is the news, for instance, That brought to Christine de Pessin, the great poet in the Abbey in seclusion, in silence. She's been so despondent. It's what inspires her to start writing poetry again. Christine writes about Joan, The beauty of her life proves that she has been blessed with God's grace. How clear this was at the siege of Orléans. It is my belief that never was a miracle more evident.

Crikey. Well, the story of Joan of Arc is, of course, not yet over because she has promised that she will lead the Dauphatourasse for his coronation and drive the English out of France. We'll discover whether or not they do that. We will also turn to the question that is now on the Englishman's minds. Is Joan really sent from God Or is she, as the trial will prove, a witch? Now, if you're a member of the Restus History Club, you can hear those episodes right now. You don't need to wait. If you'd like to join our club members and enjoy all the amazing benefits that they take great pleasure from every day, then just head to theresteshistory. Com. But we will be back to find out what happens next in this extraordinary story and to examine exactly what was going on in Joan of Arc's head. On that bombshell, Tom, merci et au revoir.

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