At Blois a supply train for the relief of Orleans had been assembled by Queen Yolande of Aragon, the king’s mother-in-law. Because of the placement of the besieging English forces, the French convoy had to approach Orleans by a roundabout route.
The English besiegers were attacking Orleans from a series of fortifications called bastides or boulevards. The strongest offensive fortifications were the Augustins, an abandoned Augustinian convent, and the Tourelles, a towered structure that had been part of the city’s defenses before being taken over by the English. When the English captured it, the citizens of Orleans destroyed the section of the bridge nearest the Tourelles so that the enemy could come no closer. The most impenetrable line of English bastides impeded the approach to Orleans on the west and the south, so the convoy headed for a crossing across the Loire located about five miles to the east of the city, near a town called Checy. Only one English bastide presented any problem from this approach, the Boulevard Saint-Loup.
The defense of Orleans was under the command of Jean d’Orleans, also known as the Bastard of Orleans, the illegitimate half-brother of Charles duke of Orleans, who had been a prisoner of the English since the battle of Agin-court in 1415. A soldier from the age of 15, the Bastard of Orleans was one of the most successful French war leaders, but his defense of Orleans was not going well. The townspeople had become so discouraged with the situation that they had recently sent an envoy to the duke of Burgundy asking him to help them against his allies the English. Morale was at an all-time low when Joan of Arc arrived at the ford at Checy on April 29. Boats with sails were assembled to ferry the supplies across the Loire, but the wind was blowing the wrong way. Impatient to reach Orleans and attack the English, Joan lost her temper. Testifying in 1455, the Bastard of Orleans, then called the count of Dunois, described their first meeting:
Joan spoke to me these words which follow: “Are you the Bastard of Orleans?” I answered her: “Yes, I am so and I rejoice at your coming.” Then she said to me: “Did you give the counsel that I should come here, to this side of the river, and that I go not straight there where are Talbot and the English?” I answered that myself and the others wiser had given this counsel, thinking to do what was best and safest. Then Joan said to me: “In God’s name, the counsel of the Lord your God is wiser and safer than yours. You thought to deceive me and it is yourself above all whom you deceive, for I bring you better succor than has reached you from any soldier or any city: it is succor from the King of Heaven. . . .” Forthwith and as in the same moment, the wind which was contrary and absolutely prevented the boats from moving upstream. . . changed and became favorable. Forthwith I had the sails hoisted, and sent in the rafts and vessels. . . . And we passed beyond the Church of Saint-Loup despite the English. From that moment I had good hope in her, more than before; and I then implored her to consent to cross the river of Loire and to enter into the town of Orleans where she was greatly wished for.
The change of wind was hailed as a miracle, but the French captains still hesitated to engage the enemy. Joan’s impatience mounted when her page Louis de Coutes informed her on April 30 that no attack was planned for that day. Disappointed, angry, and wanting to do something, Joan thought of a way to confront the English on her own. Her page testified that she went to the place in Orleans where the end of the bridge from the Tourelles met the city walls, within shouting distance of the enemy. Joan spoke with the English in the other boulevard, saying to them that they should retreat in the name of Christ, otherwise she would expel them. The English shouted back insults and the promise that if they captured her, they would burn her.
On May 1, Dunois told Joan that he was going back to Blois to gather reinforcements. Any action against the enemy would have to wait until his return. Forced to wait some more, Joan did what she had done at Vaucouleurs: she spent her time getting acquainted with the townspeople.
Joan’s ability to make friends and learn from everyone she met contributed to her success. She had left Domremy with no experience in riding a warhorse, but by the end of the 11-day journey from Vaucouleurs to Chinon, her equestrian ability had impressed the duke of Alenqon. That journey in the company of a royal herald and an archer had given Joan the opportunity to learn about court protocol and the workings of a crossbow. Among her new acquaintances at Orleans was a man from her own country of Lorraine, Master Jean the Gunner. From him she must have had her first lessons in the use of gunpowder weapons. The duke of Alenqon and others would later testify to Joan’s skillful use of cannon and her ability to gauge the range of an enemy emplacement. When Joan was not in the field, she was housed in homes where she made lasting friendships with women.
On May 1 Joan spent the day riding around Orleans with her companions and talking to the citizens. On May 2 she ventured outside the city walls and, staying beyond the range of the enemy’s weapons, looked over the placement of the bastides, estimating their strength. On May 3 the people of Orleans held a procession in her honor and gave her and her companions money and other gifts. Finally, on May 4, the Bastard returned with more troops and supplies. Joan rode out to meet him but was disappointed to learn that he was still reluctant to mount the attack she desired. The Bastard had learned that an English army commanded by Sir John Fastolf was coming from the north to reinforce the besiegers. Frustrated by the continued delay, and aware that she was being excluded from important discussions, Joan again lashed out at the noble Bastard:
Bastard, Bastard, in the name of God I command you that as soon as you hear of Fastolf’s coming you will let me know. For, if he gets through without my knowing it, I swear to you that I will have your head cut off.
The Bastard replied that he had no doubt that she would, and so he would indeed let her know. Later that day, Joan was resting in her room when her voices told her that French blood was being shed. She armed quickly and rode to join the battle that had broken out between the French and the English besiegers at the bastide Saint-Loup. After three hours of fighting, the French captured the bastide, killing 140 English and taking 10 prisoner. Joan was so elated that she announced that “within five days the siege being waged before Orleans would be raised and no English would remain in front of the city.” On May 5, Joan wrote another letter to the English, asking that they return one of her heralds. According to the laws of war, heralds were protected persons, but such was the English contempt for Joan that they kept and abused several of her heralds. That same day, still feeling the elation of the victory at Saint-Loup, the French mounted an attack on the bastide Saint-Jean-le-Blanc. They arrived to find the bastide deserted; its garrison had retreated to the better-fortified Augustins.
On May 6, Joan was eager to attack the Augustins, but the French captains ruled against it. Raoul de Gaucourt was ordered to guard the gate so that no one—that is, Joan and those loyal to her—could inaugurate an offensive. Here it was that Joan’s initiative forced the issue. With a crowd of burghers and soldiers at her back, Joan challenged Gaucourt, calling him “an evil man” and forcing him to let them out.
Joan’s military tactics were more reckless than those of the cautious French captains, but she provided an element of religious faith that inspired men to follow her in the face of almost certain death. She told her troops that they were God’s army. She forbade swearing and gambling among them and insisted that they make their confessions before battle. When she commanded a killing frontal assault, men obeyed in the confident belief that if they were killed, they would wake in Paradise.
Gaucourt was unable to prevent Joan and her followers from passing. The French captains had no choice but to accompany them:
[The Maid] sallied out of Orleans in the company of the Bastard of Orleans, the marshals of Sainte-Severe and de Rais, the lord of Graville,
Sir Florent d’llliers, La Hire, and many other knights and squires, and around four thousand soldiers.
Joan was in the vanguard:
The Maid and La Hire both crossed. . . in separate boats, each with a horse; they mounted their horses as soon as they had crossed, each with his lance in his hand. And when they saw the enemy had come out of [the Augustins] in order to charge their men, the Pucelle and La Hire, who were constantly in front of [their troops] to protect them, immediately couched their lances and at once began to strike the enemy.
The battle lasted all day. Many French died in the prolonged frontal attack, but at the end of the day the French troops had taken the boulevard of the Augustins, killing or capturing the majority of the enemy. Again the Bastard and his fellow captains wanted to withdraw and leave the Tourelles until such time as they could gain reinforcements, but Joan was adamant. She succeeded in keeping her troops in the field, remaining with them herself, and early on May 7 she led them against the Tourelles. The Bastard and the other captains had little choice but to join her.
From early morning until about eight in the evening they fought, with many casualties on both sides. Joan was wounded but went back to the battle. The Bastard wanted to sound the retreat and return to the city, but Joan asked him to wait while she prayed. After a short prayer, she rejoined him, took up her standard, and placed it where both the English and the French could see it. The French renewed the attack, and this time they took the boulevard. The Tourelles was theirs. One of the English casualties was Sir William Glasdale, the commander of the Tourelles who had hurled insults at Joan across the bridge. He fell into the Loire and was drowned.
On May 8, a Sunday, the English from the other bastides lined up in battle array in front of the city. The defenders of Orleans came out and lined up opposite them. Joan forbade the French to make the first move, but told them to be ready to defend themselves. The two forces stood facing each other for about an hour. Then the English turned and marched away. Some of the French followed, capturing “large numbers of bombards and cannon, bows, crossbows, and other artillery.”
Lifting the siege had been costly. Further actions against the English had to wait while the king raised more money and troops. A month passed before the army regrouped and Joan and the other captains could continue clearing the English out of the Loire valley. Movies about Joan of Arc often jump from the siege at Orleans to the coronation of Charles VII at Reims. In fact, several other towns in the Loire valley had to be retaken from the English before Charles could set out for his coronation.
World History
