I am sent here by God, the King of heaven, body for body, to drive you out of all France. And all who are willing to go I will receive to mercy. And do not have confidence in God, the King of heaven, son of the blessed Mary; for you shall not have the realm of France; but God, the King of heaven, wills that King Charles, the true heir, shall have it, and the Maid has revealed this to him. He shall enter Paris with a good company. If you will not believe the news that the Maid brings from God, in whatsoever place we find you we will attack you, and will make a greater slaughter than there has been in France in a thousand years, if you will not do right. And believe that the King of heaven will send more strength to the Maid than you can bring in all your assaults against her and her good soldiers. And it shall be clearly seen who has the best right from the King of heaven. You, duke of Bedford, the Maid begs and requires you that you will not let yourself be destroyed. If you do right to her, you will be able to come into her company, wherein the French will do the best deed that ever was done for Christianity. And make answer, if you are willing to make peace in the city of Orleans; and you do not do it, you will learn of it right soon to your very great loss. Written this Tuesday in Holy Week.

if

At her trial Joan was subjected to an examination lasting through more than a month, in which every detail of her life and actions was inquired into. Fortunately the report of this trial is still preserved, and no better testimony to her pure, childlike, devoted character is needed than her replies, a few of which are given here.

Asked concerning the place of her origin, she replied that 176. Testishe was born in the village of Domremy.

Asked concerning the name of her parents, she replied that her father was called Jacques d'Arc, her mother Isabella. Asked where she was baptized, she replied in the church of Domremy..

Asked how old she is, she replied that so far as she knows she is about nineteen..

mony of Joan of Arc concerning herself

Her voice

to go

from

She confessed that when she was thirteen years of age she had a voice from God, to aid her in how to act. And the first time she had great fear. The voice came about noontime, in summer, in her father's garden; and the said Joan had been fasting the previous day. She heard the voice on the right hand in the direction of the church, and she seldom heard it without there being a light. The light came from the same direction the voice was heard from, and usually it was a very great light. And when the same Joan came into France she often heard that voice.

She said that when she was in the woods she heard a voice coming toward her. She said, moreover, that it seemed to her to be a good voice, and she believed that the voice was sent from God; and after she heard the voice three times she knew that it was the voice of an angel. She said, besides, that that voice always kept her safe, and that she understood the voice very well.

Asked what proof she had that that voice was for the good requires her of her soul, she said that it taught her to act rightly, to attend Burgundy church, and said to the same Joan that it was necessary for into France her to go into France. She confessed that that voice said to her twice or three times in a week that the same Joan must go into France, and she said that her father knew nothing of her departure. Moreover, the voice told her that she should raise a siege laid against the city of Orleans. She said that the voice said to her farther that the same Joan should go to Robert de Baudricourt, at the city of Vaucouleurs, captain of that place, and he would give her men to go with her; and the said Joan then replied that she was a poor girl, who did not know how to ride, nor to carry on war.

She said, likewise, that when she entered the chamber of the king, she recognized him among others, by the counsel of her voice revealing this to her; and she said to the same king that she wished to go to make war against the English. . . .

Asked whether she knew that she was in the grace of God, she replied, "If I am not, God will place me there; and if I am, God will hold me in it; I should be the most sorrowful person in the whole world if I did not know myself to be in the grace of God."

Likewise she was asked about a certain tree near her village. To this she replied, that quite near her village of Domremy, there is a certain tree called the "Tree of the Ladies," and others call it the "Tree of the Fairies," and alongside of it is a spring. . . . Also she said that sometimes she went for a walk to it with the other girls, and made at the tree wreaths for the image of the Blessed Mary of Domremy. And she has often heard from old people that there are fairies there, but she said that she had never seen the fairies there. And she said that after she learned that she must go into France, she took very little part in the plays or walks.

Asked whether it was the voice of an angel which spoke to her, or of a man or a woman saint, or of God directly, she replied that that voice was of St. Catherine and of St. Margaret, and that their forms were crowned with beautiful crowns, very rich and precious.

Asked what was the first voice that came to her when she was thirteen years old, she said that it was St. Michael.

Asked whether she saw St. Michael and the angels bodily, she replied, "I saw them with my bodily eyes, as well as I see you, and when they left me I cried and would have liked them to take me away with them."

Asked whether when she went to Orleans she had a banner, and of what color it was, she replied that she had a banner of which the field was sowed with lilies, and there was on it the figure of the world and two angels at the side. It was of white color made of linen, and the words "Jesus, Mary" were written on it, and it was embroidered with silk.

Asked which she liked best, her banner or her sword, she replied that she liked much better, yes, forty times better, her banner than her sword. She said, moreover, that she herself carried the banner when she attacked the enemy, so that she would not have to kill any one, and she said she had never killed a man, so far as she knew.

After a long series of campaigns, expeditions, sieges, and attempted agreements, the English were finally driven out of Normandy, and somewhat later out of the southern

177. The final expulsion of the English

provinces, and a French chronicler thus describes the close of the English invasion of France.

Thus by the grace and help of God was reduced to obedience to the king of France the duchy of Aquitaine, very soon after that of Normandy, and, in general, all the realm of France, except the city of Calais, which still remains in the hands of the English. May God grant that all shall soon be returned, and then shall be accomplished the scripture, which says, "Better is obedience than sacrifice."

178. A contemporary

description

IV. THE WARS OF THE ROSES

Much of the misery and tumult of the civil war known as the Wars of the Roses was, no doubt, due to the fact that the king was not strong enough or harsh enough to force the great nobles to behave themselves. The piety, simplicity, and kindliness of Henry VI, as described by Blakman, would have been most estimable in a private. man but were unsuitable to a king, at that time.

He was like another Job- a simple, upright man, fearing the Lord God above all, and avoiding evil. He never used of Henry VI any one deceitfully, nor spoke falsely to any man. He would never wittingly do any man harm. In church or oratory he never indulged himself by sitting on a seat, or by walking to and fro, as is the manner of worldly men during divine service, but always with his head bare, and his royal limbs seldom erect, but continually making genuflexions before the book, with eyes and hands raised he sought inwardly to repeat the prayers, epistles, and gospels of the mass with the celebrant. Also he would allow no one to enter the church with swords or spears, or to converse there.

Concerning his humility in his gait, raiment, and demeanor, he was wont from a youth to wear broad shoes and boots like a farmer. Also his cloak was long, with a round hood such as

a burgess wears, and his tunic reached below his knees, all dove colored, and he avoided anything fanciful.

Once when he was coming through Cripplegate, seeing the quarter of a man set over the gate there, he asked what it might be. And his lords told him that it was the quarter of a traitor who had been false to the king's Majesty. The king said: "Take it away. I will not that any Christian man be so cruelly used for me." Also four noble gentlemen convicted of treason, and lawfully condemned therefor, he piously released, giving them charter of pardon for their speedy liberation.

The following extracts from a chronicle, written in English, show how many of the battles of the Wars of the Roses occurred. King Henry VI, who was at this time under the influence of the queen and the nobles of her party, was traveling toward the north of England. The earl of Salisbury and the duke of York, with an army which they professed was simply for their protection against the Lancastrian nobles, were coming to appeal to the king. The nobles about the king and queen with their troops opposed them, and the battle of Blore Heath occurred as described here. The king's troops were defeated and he came for the moment under the influence of the Yorkists.

Blore Heath

The thirty eighth yere of kyng Harry, in the moneth of 179. The Septembre, in yere of our Lord 1459 on the Sonday in the battle of feste of Seynt Mathew, Richard erle of Salisbury, havyng (1459) with hym seven thousand of wele arayed men, dredyng the malyces of his enemyes and specially of the quene and hyre company the whiche hated hym dedly and the duk of York and the erle of Warrewyk also, tooke hys wey towarde Ludlow where the sayde duk of York lay at that tyme, to thentent that bothe togedre wolde have ryde to the kyng to Colshylle in Staffordshyre, for to have excused theym of certeyne articles and fals accusaciones touchyng thaire ligeaunce layde agayns theyme maliciously by their enemyes.