Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Joan of Arc, by Ronald Sutherland
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Title: Joan of Arc
Author: Ronald Sutherland Gower
Release Date: October 24, 2005 [EBook #16933]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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ARC ***

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[Illustration: TOUR COUDRAY--CHINON.]

JOAN OF ARC
BY
LORD RONALD GOWER, F.S.A.
A TRUSTEE OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

WITH TEN ILLUSTRATIONS
SEVEN ETCHINGS AND THREE PHOTO-ETCHINGS
LONDON JOHN C. NIMMO 14 KING WILLIAM STREET,
STRAND MDCCCXCIII

DEDICATION.
My mother had what the French call a culte for the heroine whose life I
have attempted to write in the following pages.
It was but natural that one who loved and admired all that is good and
beautiful and high-minded should have a strong feeling of admiration
for the memory of Joan of Arc. On the pedestal of the bronze statue,
which my mother placed in her house at Cliveden, are inscribed those
words which sum up the life and career of the Maid of Orleans:--
'_La grande pitié qu'il y avait au royaume de France._'
Thinking that could my mother have read the following pages she
would have approved the feeling which prompted me to write them, I
inscribe this little book to her beloved memory.
R.G.
ARCACHON,

_November 29._

PREFACE.
The authors whose works I have chiefly used in writing this Life of
Joan of Arc, are--first, Quicherat, who was the first to publish at length
the Minutes of the two trials concerning the Maid--that of her trial at
Rouen in 1430, and of her rehabilitation in 1456, and who unearthed so
many chronicles relating to her times; secondly, Wallon, whose Life of
Joan of Arc is of all the fullest and most reliable; thirdly, Fabre, who
has within the last few years published several most important books
respecting the life and death of Joan. Fabre was the first to make a
translation in full of the two trials which Quicherat had first published
in the original Latin text.
Thinking references at the foot of the page a nuisance to the reader,
these have been avoided.
The subjects for the etched illustrations in this volume have been
kindly supplied by my friend, Mr. Lee Latrobe Bateman, during a
journey we made together to places connected with the story of the
heroine.
R.G.
LONDON, _January, 1893._

CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
THE CALL 1

CHAPTER II.
THE DELIVERY OF ORLEANS 39
CHAPTER III.
THE CORONATION AT RHEIMS 70
CHAPTER IV.
THE CAPTURE 100
CHAPTER V.
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL 138
CHAPTER VI.
MARTYRDOM 242
CHAPTER VII.
THE REHABILITATION 253
APPENDIX. I. JOAN OF ARC IN FRENCH AND ENGLISH
HISTORY 289
II. JOAN OF ARC IN POETRY 301
FRENCH BIBLIOGRAPHY 311
ENGLISH BIBLIOGRAPHY 320
INDEX 323

List of Illustrations

(_SEVEN ETCHINGS, THREE PHOTO-ETCHINGS_).
TOUR COUDRAY--CHINON FRONTISPIECE
CHINON To face page 16
STREET IN CHINON " 20
HALL OF AUDIENCE--CHINON " 28
TOUR D'HORLOGE--CHINON " 32
WEST PORTAL--RHEIMS " 80
INTERIOR--RHEIMS " 96
FIFTEENTH-CENTURY HOUSES--COMPIÈGNE " 112
TOUR DE LA PUCELLE--COMPIÈGNE " 128
ST. OUEN--ROUEN " 224

_JOAN OF ARC._
CHAPTER I.
_THE CALL._
Never perhaps in modern times had a country sunk so low as France,
when, in the year 1420, the treaty of Troyes was signed. Henry V. of
England had made himself master of nearly the whole kingdom; and
although the treaty only conferred the title of Regent of France on the
English sovereign during the lifetime of the imbecile Charles VI.,
Henry was assured in the near future of the full possession of the
French throne, to the exclusion of the Dauphin. Henry received with the
daughter of Charles VI. the Duchy of Normandy, besides the places
conquered by Edward III. and his famous son; and of fourteen

provinces left by Charles V. to his successor only three remained in the
power of the French crown. The French Parliament assented to these
hard conditions, and but one voice was raised in protest to the
dismemberment of France; that solitary voice, a voice crying in a
wilderness, was that of Charles the Dauphin--afterwards Charles VII.
Henry V. had fondly imagined that by the treaty of Troyes and his
marriage with a French princess the war, which had lasted over a
century between the two countries, would now cease, and that France
would lie for ever at the foot of