"In God's name, the soldiers will fight and God will grant victory [En nom De, les gens d'armes batailleront et Dieu donnera victoire]."¹
- Joan of Arc herself, as quoted by Friar Seguin.

Anno Domini 1429

he first part of the journey lay through the countryside between Vaucouleurs and Saint-Urbain, about 20 miles to the southwest. The area was controlled by troops loyal to the Duke of Burgundy.
Their destination during the first twenty-four hours was the abbey in the latter town, as Joan of Arc said: "... I reached the town of Saint-Urbain, where I slept in an abbey."² This abbey, long exempt from secular jurisdiction, was then headed by an abbot named Arnould d'Aulnoy, a relative of Lord Baudricourt. Although a woman would not be allowed within the monastery itself, she would have been allowed to stay in the guest house.
Jean de Metz remembered: "... in leaving Vaucouleurs, we sometimes went by night out of fear of the English and Burgundians who were all along the route, and we spent eleven days on the road while riding towards Chinon; and while traveling I asked her if she would truly do what she said; she always replied that we should have no fear, that she was ordered to do this, that her Brothers of Paradise had told her what she had to do: it was four or five years since her Brothers of Paradise and her Lord, that is to say God, told her that she should go to the war to recover the Kingdom of France... while traveling, she would have liked to have heard Mass, as she said, because she told us: 'If we could hear Mass, we would be doing well'; but since she might be recognized we only heard Mass twice...." ³

Beyond Auxerre was a stretch of some 37 miles across the Baulche, l'Ouanne and Branlin rivers, past the Burgundian garrison at Mézilles, and finally on to the safety of the Dauphinist town of Gien on the Loire. News of her arrival and intentions reached the besieged city of Orléans, only about 34 miles downriver to the northwest. As the city's commander Lord Dunois would comment: "They say that a maiden passed the city of Gien...", noting that she had come to lift the siege of Orléans;⁵ although it would be another couple months and many more miles of travel before she would be given an army to liberate it.

At Orléans the battle of Rouvray had led to a feeling of defeatism and an attempt to end the siege by negotiation. The citizens sent a proposal to the Duke of Burgundy offering him temporary oversight of his cousin's city and the right to appoint a governor of his choice. Burgundy thought this was a splendid idea, of course ("...as much from his affection for his cousin of Orléans as to prevent it suffering the perils likely to befall it" said Enguerrand de Monstrelet, perhaps failing to mention Burgundy's equal affection for expanding his jurisdiction). However, his brother-in-law the Duke of Bedford was not enthusiastic about allowing so much English effort to benefit a troublesome ally who had barely contributed to the siege. His oft-quoted remark was, "I should be mighty angry to beat the bushes so someone else can get the birds from the branches." Another English partisan, Lord Raoul de Saint-Pierre-Église, made a comment to the effect that he didn't wish to chew the food only to have the Duke of Burgundy swallow it. Negotiations for the city's neutrality under Burgundian administration came to naught, and in retaliation the small Burgundian contingent was withdrawn from the siege.⁶ This contingent was not militarily significant, but it was politically valuable as a token of the Anglo-Burgundian alliance; for the rest of the duration of the siege, the English would go it alone.

From Gien, the future deliverer of Orléans still had some 105 miles to travel before reaching Chinon to the southwest, although this final stretch of her journey lay across the friendly bubble of Dauphinist territory within the arc of the Loire river. The highlight for her was apparently the town of Ste-Catherine-de-Fierbois, where, as she would later say, "I heard three masses in one day, and then I went to the town of Chinon. I sent letters to my king, in which I said that I was sending word to ask if I should enter the town where he was, and that I had come 150 leagues to come to his aid, and knew many good tidings for him. And it seems to me that in these letters I said that I would know the king among all the others."⁷ The three masses were held in the town's church, whose successor contains a plaque commemorating her stop there. The letters have not survived.
From Ste-Catherine-de-Fierbois it was only a brief 20 miles to Chinon, a narrow strip of a city on the Vienne river overlooked by a sprawling château on the nearby hill. She arrived in the city at noon around March 4th, and found a place to stay in a local home.⁸ It had been her intention to meet immediately with the Dauphin, but she was made to wait for two days while Charles' counselors debated whether it would be prudent to arrange an audience. Simon Charles, master of the Court of Requests, said: "I know that when she arrived at Chinon the Council debated whether or not the King should hear her... she said that she had two mandates from the King of Heaven: one was to raise the siege of Orléans; the other to lead the King to Rheims for his coronation and anointing. Having heard this, some of the King's counselors said that the King should not put any faith in Joan, and others [gave the opinion] that since she said she was sent by God and had something to say to the King, he should at least hear her. Nevertheless, the King wished for her to be examined first by clerics and men of the Church, and this was done. And finally it was decided, albeit with difficulty, that the King would hear her."⁹
She was escorted by Count Louis de Vendome into Charles' presence, in the audience hall at Chinon. The château at Chinon was composed of three fortresses (Saint-Georges, Le Milieu, and Couldray) linked together by bridges; the great hall in the Milieu was 75 feet long by 33 feet wide.¹⁰ This hall was apparently packed with the Dauphin's supporters, curious to see the visitor: that visitor would later remember that there were "more than three hundred men-at-arms" in the room when she arrived.¹¹
"When I entered my King's room I knew him among the others by the advice of my voice."¹²
Simon Charles: "And when the King knew that she was coming, the King drew aside beyond the others. Joan nevertheless recognized him and did him reverence, and spoke with him for a long time. And having heard her, the King looked joyful."¹³

As mentioned above, she was questioned by clergymen both at Chinon, where she lived in the tower of Couldray, and later also at Poitiers. While staying at Chinon she met one of her future commanders, Duke Jean II d'Alençon, the cousin of the Dauphin and son-in-law of Duke Charles d'Orléans, who had heard news of her arrival and promptly came to see her for himself. As he described it: "... [as] I was hunting quail, a messenger arrived and notified me that a certain maiden had come before the King asserting that she had been sent by God to chase out the English... the next day I went before the King in the town of Chinon, and found Joan talking with the King. As I approached, Joan inquired who I was, and the King replied that I was the Duke of Alençon. Then Joan said 'You are very welcome. The more of the French Royal family we have together, the better."¹⁷ According to Alençon's squire, Perceval de Cagny, she took an instant liking to the Duke because of his connection to Charles of Orléans,¹⁸ about whom she had had "more revelations than about any other living man, aside from my King",¹⁹ as she would put it. Jean d'Alençon was married to Charles d'Orléans' daughter, who was also named Joan; the two women would meet when the Duke brought the saint to see his family in the Abbey of St. Florent. Duchess Joan, according to the testimony of her husband, was worried that he might be captured again (as he had been at Verneuil), since the ransom from the previous captivity had nearly bankrupted the family; Saint Joan answered: "Lady, do not fear. I will bring him back safe to you, and in the same condition, or better..."²⁰
During the time spent at Chinon she also met one of the page boys who would shortly be assigned to her group: while she was staying in Couldray the King evidently ordered that she be placed under the watchful eye of a 14 year old page in the service of Lord Gaucourt by the name of Louis de Coutes (or de Contes), who is unfortunately most famous for being the supposed author of Mark Twain's fictional novel about Joan of Arc (a claim which Twain meant facetiously, of course, but this has nevertheless caused confusion). While he didn't actually write the book, Louis himself was genuine enough: he testified at the Rehabilitation, and is mentioned by a number of other 15th century sources. We know that the soldiers in her army later took to calling him "Imerguet", "Mugot", or "Minguet".²¹

In early March Charles decided to send her to Poitiers, a little over 30 miles to the south of Chinon, to be questioned by a group of theologians who had relocated to that city after the University of Paris became pro-English.
As with other uneducated visionaries (such as Saint Bernadette Soubirous, associated with the famous shrine at Lourdes, France), she would now be subjected to hassling by skeptical clergy. The girl who was mocked in her village for being "too pious" would now have her piety questioned, and according to her later confessor, Friar Jean Pasquerel, she was not amused by any of it.
The clergy delegated to examine her consisted of many high-ranking ecclesiastics, including : the Archbishop of Rheims; the Inquisitor-General of Toulouse; the Bishops of Poitiers and Maguelonne; the future Bishops of Meaux, Castres, and Senlis; and many other dignitaries.

She came through these examinations with the approval of the theologians, however (click here to see the official text of their conclusions). François Garivel later remembered: "Finally, after long examinations by the clergy of several faculties, they all deliberated and concluded that the King could legitimately receive her, and allow her to take a company of soldiers to the siege of Orléans, because they had found nothing in her that was not of the Catholic faith and entirely consistent with reason."²⁶
A merchant in Bruges affiliated with the House of Morosini, Pancrazio Giustiniani, relayed the prevailing view that "... Her incontestable victory in the argument with the masters of theology makes her like another Saint Catherine come down to earth."²⁷ Her reputation as a saint was already developing.
Jean d'Aulon, who later served as her squire and one of her bodyguards, said, "... the King, considering the great goodness in this maiden... concluded in his council that he would henceforth avail himself of her aid..."²⁸
With this approval, a flurry of actions were taken to get her ready. She was sent to the city of Tours, 25 miles northeast of Chinon, in which troops were massing for the campaign.
In this town her war banners were made, at the cost of 25 livres-tournois²⁹ for a standard and a pennon. The pennon showed an angel presenting a lily to the Virgin Mary; the standard apparently had an image of God or Christ holding the world on a white field covered with fleurs-de-lis, flanked by two angels and the names "Jesus" and Mary" along one side (the eyewitness descriptions differ somewhat on the details). Both were made by a man named Hauves Poulnoir (Hamish Power).
She described her standard as follows: "I had a banner whose field was strewn with lilies; and the world was painted there, and two angels at the sides; it was white in color, of white linen or boucassin [a type of canvas]; there was written upon it the names 'Jesus, Mary', it seems to me; and it was fringed with silk."³⁰
Jean Pasquerel:"...And she therefore had her banner made, upon which was depicted an image of our Saviour sitting in judgement in the clouds of the sky, and therein an angel was depicted holding in its hands a lily flower which was being blessed by the image. I arrived in Tours at the time that this banner was being painted."³¹
As mentioned above, it was in Tours that she met Jean Pasquerel, a hermit of the Order of St. Augustine who would serve as her confessor / chaplain. Pasquerel had met her mother, and some of the men who had escorted her to Chinon, during a pilgrimage to Notre Dame du Puy-en-Velay around March 25th, 1429, and they insisted that he should join her at Tours.
His own testimony on that issue runs as follows: "When I first had news of Joan and at the time when she came before the King, I was at Puy, in which town were her mother and some of those who had brought her before the King. As they had some knowledge of me, they told me that it would be appropriate for me to come with them to Joan, and they would not let me go until they had brought me to her. And I went with them to the town of Chinon and then to the town of Tours in whose monastery I was Lector. And in the town of Tours, Joan was staying in the house of Jean Dupuy, a burgess of Tours; and we found Joan in this house, and those who had brought me spoke to her, saying, 'Joan, we brought you this good Father; if you knew him well you would hold him in great esteem.' To which Joan replied that she was well pleased with me, and that she had already heard people speak of me and that she would like to confess to me tomorrow. And the next day I heard her in confession and I personally sang the mass for her, and from that hour I always accompanied her, and remained with her up to the town of Compiègne, when she was captured."³²
Two of her brothers, Jean and Pierre, arrived around this point, perhaps with Friar Pasquerel: the records show that the Royal treasury paid for their armor at the cost of 100 livres-tournois apiece.³³

She also obtained a new sword at this point, which, as she would say, she "esteemed greatly, since it was found in the church of St. Catherine";³⁴ [i.e., St. Catherine of Alexandria was one of her Voices]. Although she would gradually obtain a large and varied collection of weapons of all kinds, she would testify that she didn't use them, preferring to carry her banner instead so she wouldn't have to harm anyone.³⁵

Now that she had all of the necessaries, the moment had finally come.

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