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JEANNE D'ARC at ROUEN

Jeanne d'Arc by Peter Paul Rubens c. 1620

Rouen Cathedral photo by G. Wilson

Rouen landmark Le Gros Horlage photo by G. Wilson

Narrow Rouen Street photo by G. Wilson

15th & 16th Century Rouen Buildings Near Site of Joan's Burning photo by G. Wilson

La Pucelle The Maid Jeanne d'Arc

With the English occupying Paris and large parts of the country, French daring and dauntlessness were at low ebb. Their Dauphin was listless and languid as were his ministers. In 1428 the Dauphin's cause seemed bleak. The English appeared invincible, their victories proof that God was with them. The Dauphinists' most horribel handicap was the character of their king-to-be. He was a weak, graceless degenerate. Stunted and puny, he had a blank face with scared, shifty, sleepy eye, that peered out from either side of a big, long nose. He was afflicted with strange fears, like entering strange houses and never crossing a wooden bridge. He left governing to his greedy favourites who instead of fighting the English, fought among themselves.

The country needed confidence and courage and who could have guessed it would be inspired by a teenaged peasant girl. In 1428 an illiterate, seventeen-year old, shepherdess named Joan of Arc, declared she had been called by God to save king and country by exelling the English. Hardly anything is known of this young woman warrior, summoned to save her king and country by three saints - .Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret. No drawing exists of Joan, but an outline sketched at the bottom of a document. Even the armour attributed to her is unauthenticated, Joan was born in Domremy in the province of Lorraine. It was devastated by the Hundred Years' War, a dynastic duel with England that began in 1337. The conflict comprised a series of destructive wars lasting from 1337 to 1453 over a long-standing dispute regarding the relationship between the crown of France and several rich feudal principalities held by England within France's territory.

The hour required a leader that combined the old religious faith and a force known as patriotism. It found one in Joan, whom he voices of God commanded her to rescue the country from foreign tyrants. She responded by raising the siege of Orleons and delivered the city in May 1429.

Jeanne d'Arc in Armour Before Orleans by Jules-Eugene Lenepveu (French Neo-Classical Painter (1819-1898)

Jeanne d'Arc at the Coronation of Charles VII at the cathedral of Reims by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

On the wave of that wondrous victory, she carried the Dauphin to Rheims and the sacred ceremony of coronation two months later. Joan stood near him throughout the ceremony, holding her white banner and afterwords she was the first to address him as King.

Jeanne d'Arc at Reims by Jules-Eugene Lenepveu (French Neo-Classical Painter (1819-1898)

The coronation of Charles VII did wonders for his morale and this country's cause. French militarry morale was reinspired, for how could the army possibly lose, if God was against the English.

Rheims Cathedral Coronation Church of the Kings of France

Construction of this cathedral began in 1211 and was finished about the middle of the century. This church is the culmination of the French Gothic and owes its cruciform plan to its purpose as the coronation church of the kings of France. Its existence was engendered by the religious fervour of the twelfth century, something manifested in another way in the Crusades. A sense of immensity has been achieved within that is both solemn and regal.

Joan of Arc's appearance resulted in a slow decline in English successes. Their nobles became distracted by factional fighting under their infant King Henry VI, who was only nine years of age in 1430. The 'witch' who bewitched them had to be destroyed. Time was not on Joan's side. Her good fortune lasted only three years.

A final image of Joan as a warrior was described by a Burgundian chronicler. "She mounted her horse armed as would a man, adorned with a doublet of rich cloth-of-gold over her breastplate. She rode a handsome, very proud, grey courser and displayed herself in armor and her bearing as a captain would have done... and in that array with her standard raised high and fluttering in the wind and well accompanied by many men, she sallied forth from the city about four hours past midday."

Jeanne d'Arc On The Road To Victory

On May 23rd 1430 Joan left the safety of ramparts of Compiegne to skirmish with the English. Noting the arrival of enemy reinforcements and fearing they would be overwhelmed, many of her followers commenced a hasty retreat. Joan, who never withdrew without regret, covered their withdrawal to seek refuge inside the walls of the city. Most of them entered successfully before the gate was suddenly closed.

It was explained later that the captain at the gate seeing a great many Burgundians and Englishmen approaching to cross the bridge and enter the city, raised the drawbridge and closed the gate. Left outside to face the enemy flood were a few men and the Maid. Subsequently, another reason was given for her abandonment. Some of the French captains found it insulting to suggest their victories resulted from the leadership of a young, village virgin. Jealously justified leaving her to fend for herself. Such suggestions led chroniclers to conclude that a French officer acted treasonously when he ordered the gate to the city, closed.

As a result, Joan was manhandled from her mount by a Burgundian soldier. Nevertheless, it was widely believed that Joan could still not be captured and kept in captivity because her power was too great. God would guide and protect her and see to her escape.

Charles VII

Neither Charles VII, nor his nobles, made any effort to save her. The British railed at the royals. "You call yourself a King, consorting with a disorderly and disgraced woman wearing the dress of a man.!" Shamed by their foe for fighting with a female leader, they were reluctant to ransom the Maid, so great was their embarrassment at having been led to victory by a village girl.

The Burgundians and English were ecstatic and "more joyous than if they had captured five hundred combatants." Joan's death was considered essential by the English, because she claimed to have been moved to act by God. If her claim was not disavowed, it would have meant that the final Arbiter of all affairs had decided against the English domination of France. Curses and catcalls were heaped upon this sorcercess soldier, whose sexual perversity was wearing male dress, "a thing displeasing and abominable to God."

King Henry VI called her a "Foul fiend of France and hag of all despite." .

A London chronicler followed with, "ffalse witche"

Drawing of Joan done by a Burgundian chronicler at the time of her capture.

Warrior Joan

Taken prisoner by Burgundians at Compiegne on 23 May 1430, Joan did not reach Rouen, the appointed place of her trial, until Christmas Eve of that year. The intervening time was taken up with negotiations for her ultimate purchase price of 10,000 pounds, which the English eventually paid the Burgundians.

Jeanne d'Arc in Prison in Rouen by Pierre Henri Revoil

Joan's trial lasted from February 24 to March 17 1431. The charge was that this "false soothsayer" had rejected the authority of the Church in claiming a personal revelation from God, in prophesying, in signing her letters with the names of Christ and the Virgin and in asserting she was assured of salvation. She held firm through the long days of questioning, neither denying her messages nor blaming her monarch for her plight. Among the many question put to Jeanne during her trial were the following.
Q. Which do you care for most, your banner or yoiur sword? A.Better, forty times better, my banner than my sword.
Q. In what likeness did St. Michael appear to you? A. I did not see a crown: I know nothing of his dress.
Q. Was he naked? A. Do you think God has not the wherewithal to clothe him?
Q. Does God hate the English? A. Of the love or hate God may have for the English or of what He will do for their souls, I know nothing, but I know quite well that they will be put out of France, except those who die there, and that God will send victory to the Franch against the English.

Lesser charges included wearing male dress - "a thing displeasing and abominable to God," and her insistence that the saints spoke French not English. After much bullying, trickery and misrepresentation, the lawyers trapped her and she was found guilty and sentenced to be burned at the stake. When she heard the manner of her death, she cried out and pleaded to be beheaded.

On 30 May, 1431, Joan was led to the Old Marketplace. The site of her incineration was filled with hundreds of men-at-arm in case they were needed to contain the crowd. English hands seized her and pushed her to the waiting stake and faggots. She was hoisted upon the plaster stake that was built so high, the executioner had trouble reaching her. A tall paper hat like a mitre was set upon her head bearing the words "Heretic, relapsed apostate, idolatress."

As she was bound to the stake, she cried out:

"Ah, Rouen, J'ay grant paour que tu ayes a souffrir de ma mort." She continued all the while to praise God and the saints while lamenting devoutly.

Jeanne d'Arc at the Stake

She called for a cross and an Englishman made her one from the end of a stick which she took and kissed. Friar Isambard de La Pierre went to find in the nearby church of Saint-Sauveur a cross "to hold elevated right above her eyes up to the moment of death, so that the cross on which God hung during his life could be continuously in her sight."

"My voices were of God, they have not deceived me." she cried as the flames crackled and rose about her. She called out loudly and repeatedly upon Jesus. Scarcely an eye was dry among those who looked on. Even her judges wept The last word she cried in a high voice as she died was, "Jesus." Horror at the havoc was widespread. "We are lost, we have killed a saint," cried King Henry's secretary.

Jeanne suffocated from the smoke. The fire failed to burn her heart and entrails, a sign then considered to signify a miracle. One historial source stated that in spite of all the "oil, sulphur and fuel" used, the entrails and her heart "could not be reduced to ashes," After a third incinceration, nothing but ashes remained and these were thrown into the River Seine.

"Joan of Arc, without a tomb and without a portrait, you who knew that the grave of heroes is the heart of the living."
These words were spoken by Andre Malraux when he dedicated the complex 1964.

Richard Beauchamp (1382-1439) The individual responsible for the burning of Joan of Arc. [Beauchamp was governor as well of the Castle in which Joan was kept during her trial. He was also guardian of the Young English King Henry VI, Earl of Warwick, Count of Aumale Captain of Rouen and of many other French Cities

The Cross Marks Site of Burning of Jeanne d'Arc in Rouen photo by G. Wilson

Charles made no move whatsoever to save her, his memory marred forever by this shameful failure even to attempt to free his faithful follower. King Charles had serious, second thoughts, however, about his seeming indifference to to death. He belatedly believed he had to rectify his reluctance to act twenty years after the fact in 1456 and sought to rehabilitate her reputation by ordering an inquiry into the trial. It resulted in the Papacy annulling the sentence. This decision required that a cross by erected at the site of the stake, which today towers over the square.

Stainless Steel Marker at the Site of the Immolation of Jeanne d'Arc in Rouen photo by G..Wilson

Stainless Steel Marker at the Site of Burning of Jeanne d'Arc in Rouen photo by G. Wilson

Two stainless steel markers record the place of Joan's death. Near the same spot, a public pillory once stood, where numerous nefarious folk were executed and/or exposed for public humiliation. Its remnants are still there. Restoration work on the old square subsequently disclosed the ruins of Saint Sauveur's Church which was destroyed in 1833.

The statue of Jeanne d'Arc by Real del Sarte, dates from 1926. It is located in a niche of the Saint Joan of Arc Church situated in the Old Market Square. photo by G. Wilson

Saint Joan of Arc Church located in the Old Market Square. photo by G. Wilson

Ceiling of Saint Joan of Arc Church photo by G. Wilson

Stained Glass Window of Saint Joan of Arc Church depicting the Bridge from which Joan's heart and entrails were thrown into the Seine River photo by G. Wilson

Stained Glass Windows of Saint Joan of Arc Church photo by G. Wilson

Legend has it that 19-year-old Joan of Arc's remains were scattered in the Seine River. However, a fragment of rib bone and some skin covered in a black substance, as well as a cat's femur and a fragment of cloth were reportedly found at the site by an unidentified person. The cat's femur was thought to confuse matters, because it lent weight to the notion of a hoax or a fake relic. Other historians say that throwing a cat or another animal representing the devil onto a pyre is credible, for cats or other animals representing the devil could have been thrown into pyres in medieval times. These remnants were conserved by an apothecary until 1867 amd then turned over to the archdiocese of Tours. The remains are conserved at a museum of the Association of Friends of Old Chinon and are one of the Roman Catholic church's most precious relics. Joan was burned at the stake after a trial by church officials for heresy and witchcraft, but she was rehablilitated by the Roman Catholic Church a quarter century after her death. She was beatified in 1909 and canonized a saint by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. In 1909, scientists declared it "highly probable" that the remains were Joan of Arc's.

Fast forward to 2006.

Given developments in genetic technology in recent years, researchers at Garches, France, decided to try again. A team of French experts planned a series of tests on the remnants to determine whether Joan of Arc's supposed remains - a rib bone and some skin - may indeed have belonged to the 15th-century French heroine.

The rib bone measuring 15 centimetres, which is "remarkably well preserved is wrapped in a blackish substance," Subsequent testing revealed that the substance was not "carbonized remains, but vegetable and mineral debris, something that rather resembles embalming substance, It could be that these are human remains of the 15th century, subjected to a sort of embalming or protection as happened when relics were manipulated, But we know, in any event, that Joan of Arc was not embalmed. The fragment of linen from the 15th century wasn't burned. It was dyed,"

The scientist stressed that full results are not yet in, such as carbon-14 dating and additional genetic tests to determine the sex of the individual, and of the cat."We will first have to assure that this rib corresponds with a 19-year old woman with DNA testing used to determine the sex." The team of experts will also subject the bone to other tests to determine its exact age and to build up "a body of presumptions to show as well as possible, if it was Jaon of Arc's," he said. He added: "We won't be able to say, 'Yes this is Joan of Arc', but within six months we will able to say if these remains belong to a female of 19 years old whose body was burned three times in Rouen in 1431."

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Copyright © 2010 W. R. Wilson