While military preparations proceeded at Tours and at Blois, the king’s publicists prepared a flier intended to recruit additional soldiers for the relief of Orleans. It made use of the prophecies that Joan had already used to her advantage at Vaucouleurs. Known as “Virgo puellares” because of the two Latin words with which it begins, the publicity piece, written as a 16-line poem, describes Joan as “a virgin dressed in the clothing of a man,” a “pucelle” instructed by God to help the French king put to flight the English who have besieged Orleans. To people used to online social networks, fifteenth-century modes of communication probably seem unspeakably slow, but news and rumor spread relatively rapidly back then. The defenders of Orleans heard about “the Maid” while she was en route from Vaucouleurs to the king. Between March 24, when Joan left Poitiers, and April 21, when she was completely outfitted and ready to join the army at Blois, “Virgo puellares” had time to do its work.
Another document used to promote Joan’s military mission was an open letter to the English that she herself dictated before leaving Poitiers. In this “Letter to the English,” Joan called upon the English leaders by name, telling them that she had been sent by God to clear them out of France. She offered them the option of making peace, warning that if they chose war, she and her troops would make them regret it.
At Tours Joan completed her transformation from peasant girl to man-at-arms. The king provided her with a captain’s income and an entourage to go with it. At Chinon she had already been assigned a page, a young male servant, whose duties included providing haircuts, cleaning, and running errands. At Tours she acquired another page, two heralds, and a steward named Jean d’Aulon, whose job was to manage her finances and run her household. Along with her armor, Joan needed a banner and a sword. Banners served as rallying points in the confusion of battle and were usually painted with the owner’s coat of arms. As a peasant, Joan had no coat of arms, so she designed flags with holy images. Her principal banner was white with an image of Jesus seated in glory and flanked by two angels. The white field was sprinkled with golden fleurs-de-lis, and the words “Jhesus Maria” (“Jesus Mary”) were prominent in gold. Baudricourt had given Joan a sword at Vaucouleurs, but at Tours she astounded everyone by saying that her voices had told her about
A sword that lay buried near the altar in the shrine at Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois. An arms merchant was sent to fetch it, and Joan wore it until after Charles’s coronation. The miraculous origin of the sword must have been well known, because the judges asked Joan about it at her trial. Joan told them that her voices had told her where it could be found:
This sword was in the earth, all rusty, and there were upon it five crosses and I knew it by my voices. . . . I wrote to the prelates of the place that if they please I should have the sword and they sent it to me. It was not very deep under ground behind the altar. . . . After this sword had been found, the prelates of the place had it rubbed and at once the rust fell from it without difficulty.
Joan testified that she wore the sword until after the assault on Paris in September 1429.
From Tours Joan proceeded to Blois in the company of Regnault de Chartres and Raoul de Gaucourt, two men who would play important roles in her life. Regnault de Chartres was a priest, the archbishop of Reims, but he was also the king’s chancellor and an experienced diplomat. In 1429 he was governor of Orleans. He soon befriended Joan but later turned against her. Gaucourt was a career soldier, in 1429 bailiff of Orleans. After a stormy beginning, Gaucourt became Joan’s staunch companion. When Joan was wounded in the assault on Paris, it was Gaucourt who carried her from the field. Years later, in his eighties, Gaucourt traveled to Rome to arrange a review of Joan’s trial.
World History
