Saint Joan of Arc (Jeanne la Pucelle): Difference between revisions

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The history depicts the typology explicitly. However, we can still ask, why'd she have to go through all this?

== ~~The Trial~~ ==

== Martyrdom ==

It is not the purpose of this work to work through the narrative of the Trial of Condemnation, which we have ~~essentially~~ reviewed in pieces leading up to here. We do see in the trial the extent to which the English and Burgundians went to justify the execution of Joan, and the utter hatred of her that the court at Rouen exercised, which demonstrates by the opposing virtue how monumental were Joan's accomplishments.

It is not the purpose of this work to work through the narrative of the Trial of Condemnation, which we have reviewed in pieces leading up to here. We do see in the trial the extent to which the English and Burgundians went to justify the execution of Joan, and the utter hatred of her that the court at Rouen exercised, which demonstrates by the opposing virtue how monumental were Joan's accomplishments.

Having been ransomed by the English from her captor, the Duke of Luxembourg, Joan was handed not to a military court but to an ecclesiastical one. For the English, it'd be an easy solution to put her death, as they did other mystics such as the Shephard of ~~Lorraine~~, who was dispatched by the English without process or ceremony. Additionally, while Joan could claim noble protection, having been knighted by Charles VII after Paris, but the English would not allow any niceties that might complicate her execution.<ref>Medieval codes of chivalry gave a certain but not unlimited degree of protection to a captured noble. But in Joan's case, the usual solution, ransom, had already taken place. France refused to ransom her, and the British did, so she was theirs to do what they pleased.</ref> Still, it was a tricky situation: this young woman ~~had~~ brought ~~great defeats~~ upon them and roused the sentiments of the loyal French. For those common French people who did support the English they were embracing traditional ties going back to the times of Normal rule of England, as well as ~~from~~ hatred of their French rivals, the ~~Armagnacs~~. The Burgundian elites, nobility and ecclesiastic, however, were, if not enthusiastic for English rule, steadfast in its support, as it not only gave them power over their Armagnac rivals but it empowered ~~them individually in~~ their political economies. An English-ruled France would put them right at the top.

Having been ransomed by the English from her captor, the Duke of Luxembourg, Joan was handed not to a military court but to an ecclesiastical one. For the English, it'd be an easy solution to put her death, as they did other mystics such as the Shephard of Gévaudan, who was dispatched by the English without process or ceremony. Additionally, while Joan could claim noble protection, having been knighted by Charles VII after Paris, but the English would not allow any niceties that might complicate her execution.<ref>Medieval codes of chivalry gave a certain but not unlimited degree of protection to a captured noble. But in Joan's case, the usual solution, ransom, had already taken place. France refused to ransom her, and the British did, so she was theirs to do what they pleased.</ref> Still, it was a tricky situation: this young woman brought upon them debilitating and humiliating defeats and roused the sentiments of the loyal French within their hold. For those common French people who did support the English, they were embracing traditional ties going back to the times of Normal rule of England, as well as hatred of their French rivals and the burdens and punishments of intermitant French rule. The Burgundian elites, nobility and ecclesiastic, however, were, if not enthusiastic for English rule, steadfast in its support, as it not only gave them power over their Armagnac rivals but it empowered their political and religious economies. An English-ruled France would put them right at the top.

Given top-down support and the dangers of bottom-up resentment or even potential rebellion that Joan represented, to the English and the Burgundian elites, she simply had to die. Only it had to be justified, and no greater justification could be found in the 15th century than from the Church. To get there, it had to be carefully orchestrated with clear lines of authority. However, when Joan was captured by Burgundian forces under the Count of Luxembourg, she was ''de facto'' held by a Burgundian ally but ''de jure'' held by an independent entity. This was an important distinction because it took from English and the Duke of Burgundy direct jurisdiction over her. To overcome the problem, the location of her capture was invented to place her under the command of the Bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon.

Given top-down support and the dangers of bottom-up resentment, or even potential rebellion, that Joan represented, to the English and the Burgundian elites, she simply had to die. Only it had to be justified, and no greater justification could be found in the 15th century than from the Church. To get there, it had to be carefully orchestrated with clear lines of authority. However, when Joan was captured by Burgundian forces under the Count of Luxembourg, she was ''de facto'' held by a Burgundian ally but ''de jure'' held by an independent entity. This was an important distinction because it took from English and the Duke of Burgundy direct jurisdiction over her. To overcome the problem, the location of her capture was invented to place her under the command of the Bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon. There commenced the serious irregularities of her treatment, most egregiously her ultimate confinement in a military and not ecclesiastical prison.

~~>>here~~

More tricky yet was the problem of martyrdom. A clean military execution wouldn't do: she had to be removed of any taint of justification. To that end, the strategy was to deny her counsel, abuse, threaten and humiliate her physically and emotionally, trip her up in testimony and theology, and to turn her from French hero, and, even at Rouen and Paris, a sympathetic curiosity, to loathsome witch. Joan defeated those plans with inspired replies, not just countering but reversing upon her accusers their own accusations upon her. She made them look bad. Hence the trial was removed from a public to a private location, and she was only shown in public under a controlled scenes with berating sermons in the final attempts at forcing into admission of heresy,

~~To explain away~~ the ~~improbability~~ in Joan's ~~actions~~ and ~~words, the ecclesiastical court~~ at ~~Rouen developed~~ a ~~theory of "malice inherent in feminine nature~~."

Here came an even larger problem. Having manipulated Joan into a public abjuration, the court could label her a self-admitted heretic. Except now they couldn't burn a repentant. I have no evidence that it was planned, but the evidence overwhelmingly points to prior arrangement of the attacks on upon her by the English guards after she returned to women's clothes under the terms of the abjuration (which was likely the only point of clarity in it from Joan's point of view). Cauchon's "gotchya" when she put on the men's clothes that the guards then threw upon the floor before her, was absolutely fulfillment of a plan and not glee at a favorable event. Now they could put her to death.

== Saving France - or a Catholic France? ==

We see much testimony form the clerics who were interviewed during the Trial of Rehabilitation as to the irregularity of her execution by secular authorities who omitted any process and put her straight to the stake. By then, the English were just trying to get rid of her, and whether or not she had abjured, then relapsed, they were going to kill her. Bedford was impatient to get on the move, and had been preparing for some time the campaign he launched nearly immediately after Joan's death. There would be no coronation of Henry VI as King of France with Joan still alive.

We must note that the transcript of the Trial of Condemnation was not released for some time. The only documentation on Joan to come from Rouen was the hurriedly released, fake testimony of her recantation in the "Examinations", which were not official documents from the Trial. Bedford and Burgundy issued public pronouncements, hoping that was that. The trial transcripts, so embarrassing to the court and exculpatory of Joan were compiled, translated into Latin and tucked away in the Church archives at Rouen, recovered only twenty years later by the French Inquisitor, Jean Bréhal, the Inquisitor of France.

We will never know what Charles VII thought of Joan's execution, although having done nothing to save her, he likely knew it was coming and had already walled himself off from anything to do or feel about it. For a man who was supposedly so wrought up over the killing of John the Fearless, who had only recently before then massacred several thousand French loyalist in Paris, that Charles was suddenly stoic about Joan's death, for which he had to know he held a large responsibility, makes no sense. He was in charge of a country, and was making decisions, frequently poor ones, as he thought best.

As for Joan's military comrades, we have already seen how La Hire and de Brosse both went, albeit hopelessly, after Rouen. All of them, however, such as Dunois and de Richemont, kept their faith in Joan and her mission and continued to prosecute her kind of war, not Charles', to which he came around later. The common people, we know, never gave up their love, pride and admiration for Joan. Her mother's crusade the redeem her daughter's name would have gone nowhere but for the vast feelings of injustice over Joan's treatment felt across France and held on to over time.

Whether it was God's plan -- Saint Catherine told Joan she would be captured and liberated, something Joan did not understand likely until the very end -- or if God was as ever yielding good from the bad, Joan's death was understood immediately to have been martyrdom. The following May, the city of Orléans held the first annual Feast of Joan with military displays, processions and Masses.

Common French defiance only solidified after her death, which she herself, eyes fixed on the cross held before her, chanting, "Jesus, Jesus," marked as the foundation of a new, united and Catholic France.

== Saving France - or a Catholic France ==

France doesn't become "France" until Philip II in the late 12th century, but even so it lacked national integrity until after the appearance of Joan of Arc. Instead, Charles VII is generally credited with the ultimate victory of France over England in the Hundred Years War,<ref>The remaining English toehold on the continent was Calais, which was due more to Burgundian ambitions for the city than the English hold on it. Both sides would rather it remain English than French, but the English would rather it be English than Burgundian.</ref> as well as for administrative and military reforms that centralized the French state and led to a greater uniformity of the French language and culture, which remained an ongoing process as the various duchies evolved from French suzerainty to outright ownership. Charles VII, though, had no "France" to rule without Joan.

@@ Line 1,312: / Line 1,312: @@
 The history depicts the typology explicitly. However, we can still ask, why'd she have to go through all this?
-== The Trial ==
+== Martyrdom ==
-It is not the purpose of this work to work through the narrative of the Trial of Condemnation, which we have essentially reviewed in pieces leading up to here. We do see in the trial the extent to which the English and Burgundians went to justify the execution of Joan, and the utter hatred of her that the court at Rouen exercised, which demonstrates by the opposing virtue how monumental were Joan's accomplishments.
+It is not the purpose of this work to work through the narrative of the Trial of Condemnation, which we have reviewed in pieces leading up to here. We do see in the trial the extent to which the English and Burgundians went to justify the execution of Joan, and the utter hatred of her that the court at Rouen exercised, which demonstrates by the opposing virtue how monumental were Joan's accomplishments.
-Having been ransomed by the English from her captor, the Duke of Luxembourg, Joan was handed not to a military court but to an ecclesiastical one. For the English, it'd be an easy solution to put her death, as they did other mystics such as the Shephard of Lorraine, who was dispatched by the English without process or ceremony. Additionally, while Joan could claim noble protection, having been knighted by Charles VII after Paris, but the English would not allow any niceties that might complicate her execution.<ref>Medieval codes of chivalry gave a certain but not unlimited degree of protection to a captured noble. But in Joan's case, the usual solution, ransom, had already taken place. France refused to ransom her, and the British did, so she was theirs to do what they pleased.</ref> Still, it was a tricky situation: this young woman had brought great defeats upon them and roused the sentiments of the loyal French. For those common French people who did support the English they were embracing traditional ties going back to the times of Normal rule of England, as well as from hatred of their French rivals, the Armagnacs. The Burgundian elites, nobility and ecclesiastic, however, were, if not enthusiastic for English rule, steadfast in its support, as it not only gave them power over their Armagnac rivals but it empowered them individually in their political economies. An English-ruled France would put them right at the top.
+Having been ransomed by the English from her captor, the Duke of Luxembourg, Joan was handed not to a military court but to an ecclesiastical one. For the English, it'd be an easy solution to put her death, as they did other mystics such as the Shephard of Gévaudan, who was dispatched by the English without process or ceremony. Additionally, while Joan could claim noble protection, having been knighted by Charles VII after Paris, but the English would not allow any niceties that might complicate her execution.<ref>Medieval codes of chivalry gave a certain but not unlimited degree of protection to a captured noble. But in Joan's case, the usual solution, ransom, had already taken place. France refused to ransom her, and the British did, so she was theirs to do what they pleased.</ref> Still, it was a tricky situation: this young woman brought upon them debilitating and humiliating defeats and roused the sentiments of the loyal French within their hold. For those common French people who did support the English, they were embracing traditional ties going back to the times of Normal rule of England, as well as hatred of their French rivals and the burdens and punishments of intermitant French rule. The Burgundian elites, nobility and ecclesiastic, however, were, if not enthusiastic for English rule, steadfast in its support, as it not only gave them power over their Armagnac rivals but it empowered their political and religious economies. An English-ruled France would put them right at the top.
-Given top-down support and the dangers of bottom-up resentment or even potential rebellion that Joan represented, to the English and the Burgundian elites, she simply had to die. Only it had to be justified, and no greater justification could be found in the 15th century than from the Church. To get there, it had to be carefully orchestrated with clear lines of authority. However, when Joan was captured by Burgundian forces under the Count of Luxembourg, she was ''de facto'' held by a Burgundian ally but ''de jure'' held by an independent entity. This was an important distinction because it took from English and the Duke of Burgundy direct jurisdiction over her. To overcome the problem, the location of her capture was invented to place her under the command of the Bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon.
+Given top-down support and the dangers of bottom-up resentment, or even potential rebellion, that Joan represented, to the English and the Burgundian elites, she simply had to die.  Only it had to be justified, and no greater justification could be found in the 15th century than from the Church. To get there, it had to be carefully orchestrated with clear lines of authority. However, when Joan was captured by Burgundian forces under the Count of Luxembourg, she was ''de facto'' held by a Burgundian ally but ''de jure'' held by an independent entity. This was an important distinction because it took from English and the Duke of Burgundy direct jurisdiction over her. To overcome the problem, the location of her capture was invented to place her under the command of the Bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon. There commenced the serious irregularities of her treatment, most egregiously her ultimate confinement in a military and not ecclesiastical prison.
->>here
+More tricky yet was the problem of martyrdom. A clean military execution wouldn't do: she had to be removed of any taint of justification. To that end, the strategy was to deny her counsel, abuse, threaten and humiliate her physically and emotionally, trip her up in testimony and theology, and to turn her from French hero, and, even at Rouen and Paris, a sympathetic curiosity, to loathsome witch. Joan defeated those plans with inspired replies, not just countering but reversing upon her accusers their own accusations upon her. She made them look bad. Hence the trial was removed from a public to a private location, and she was only shown in public under a controlled scenes with berating sermons in the final attempts at forcing into admission of heresy,
-To explain away the improbability in Joan's actions and words, the ecclesiastical court at Rouen developed a theory of "malice inherent in feminine nature."
+Here came an even larger problem. Having manipulated Joan into a public abjuration, the court could label her a self-admitted heretic. Except now they couldn't burn a repentant. I have no evidence that it was planned, but the evidence overwhelmingly points to prior arrangement of the attacks on upon her by the English guards after she returned to women's clothes under the terms of the abjuration (which was likely the only point of clarity in it from Joan's point of view). Cauchon's "gotchya" when she put on the men's clothes that the guards then threw upon the floor before her, was absolutely fulfillment of a plan and not glee at a favorable event. Now they could put her to death.
-== Saving France - or a Catholic France? ==
+We see much testimony form the clerics who were interviewed during the Trial of Rehabilitation as to the irregularity of her execution by secular authorities who omitted any process and put her straight to the stake. By then, the English were just trying to get rid of her, and whether or not she had abjured, then relapsed, they were going to kill her. Bedford was impatient to get on the move, and had been preparing for some time the campaign he launched nearly immediately after Joan's death. There would be no coronation of Henry VI as King of France with Joan still alive.
+We must note that the transcript of the Trial of Condemnation was not released for some time. The only documentation on Joan to come from Rouen was the hurriedly released, fake testimony of her recantation in the "Examinations", which were not official documents from the Trial. Bedford and Burgundy issued public pronouncements, hoping that was that. The trial transcripts, so embarrassing to the court and exculpatory of Joan were compiled, translated into Latin and tucked away in the Church archives at Rouen, recovered only twenty years later by the French Inquisitor, Jean Bréhal, the Inquisitor of France.
+We will never know what Charles VII thought of Joan's execution, although having done nothing to save her, he likely knew it was coming and had already walled himself off from anything to do or feel about it. For a man who was supposedly so wrought up over the killing of John the Fearless, who had only recently before then massacred several thousand French loyalist in Paris, that Charles was suddenly stoic about Joan's death, for which he had to know he held a large responsibility, makes no sense. He was in charge of a country, and was making decisions, frequently poor ones, as he thought best.
+As for Joan's military comrades, we have already seen how La Hire and de Brosse both went, albeit hopelessly, after Rouen. All of them, however, such as Dunois and de Richemont, kept their faith in Joan and her mission and continued to prosecute her kind of war, not Charles', to which he came around later. The common people, we know, never gave up their love, pride and admiration for Joan. Her mother's crusade the redeem her daughter's name would have gone nowhere but for the vast feelings of injustice over Joan's treatment felt across France and held on to over time.
+Whether it was God's plan -- Saint Catherine told Joan she would be captured and liberated, something Joan did not understand likely until the very end -- or if God was as ever yielding good from the bad, Joan's death was understood immediately to have been martyrdom. The following May, the city of Orléans held the first annual Feast of Joan with military displays, processions and Masses.
+Common French defiance only solidified after her death, which she herself, eyes fixed on the cross held before her, chanting, "Jesus, Jesus," marked as the foundation of a new, united and Catholic France.
+== Saving France - or a Catholic France ==
 France doesn't become "France" until Philip II in the late 12th century, but even so it lacked national integrity until after the appearance of Joan of Arc. Instead, Charles VII is generally credited with the ultimate victory of France over England in the Hundred Years War,<ref>The remaining English toehold on the continent was Calais, which was due more to Burgundian ambitions for the city than the English hold on it. Both sides would rather it remain English than French, but the English would rather it be English than Burgundian.</ref> as well as for administrative and military reforms that centralized the French state and led to a greater uniformity of the French language and culture, which remained an ongoing process as the various duchies evolved from French suzerainty to outright ownership. Charles VII, though, had no "France" to rule without Joan.