"...the Maiden, whom We piously
believe to be the angel of the Lord of Hosts [a Biblical term for God]..." ("...Puellae, quam angelum Domini exercituum esse pie credimus...")1
- Jacques Gelu, Archbishop of Embrun, in his treatise to Charles VII, May 1429
Anno Domini 1429
he
victory was summarized by Jean d'Aulon as follows: "...through the
help of Our Lord and the Maiden, the city was
delivered from the hands of [its] enemies."2
The lifting of the siege of Orléans was important for much
the same reason that Gettysburg was a decisive battle: while neither
brought matters to a rapid conclusion, both were
turning points in which one side staved off defeat during its
bleakest moment and ultimately went on to win the war.
The French commanders felt that the victory had been due entirely to Joan of Arc's
intervention.mn1 Lord Dunois later testified that after she had sent her
message to Lord Talbot on April 30, "...I attest that
from that hour the English, who with two hundred men could
previously rout eight hundred or a thousand of the Royal troops,
after that point four or five hundred soldiers could fight
against practically the entire strength of England..."3
The Duke of Alençon, who later toured the fortifications previously
held by the English, gave the opinion that something supernatural
would have been required to take such positions: "...I believe [them]
to have been captured through a miracle rather
than by force of arms, particularly the fortress of the Tourelles
at the end of the bridge, and the fortress of the Augustinians,
in which, if I were [there] with a mere handful of soldiers, I would
have gladly dared to wait out any armed force for six or seven
days..."4
The English and Burgundians gave their own unwitting tribute to her:
the Duke of Bedford would later say that it was the "Pucelle" who
shattered the English fortunes at Orléans, admitting that she inspired
terror among his troops - echoing Burgundians such as Jean LeFevre de
Saint-Remi and Enguerrand de Monstrelet, who noted that their English
allies feared her "more than any other commander" (to use Monstrelet's phrase).5
These events created quite a stir as the news gradually spread throughout Europe as fast as horse and rider could carry the message.
The Dauphin Charles, in his headquarters at Chinon, received the
glad tidings on May 9th and 10th while dictating a letter to be
sent to his loyal cities; he had to make two addendums to this
letter as a succession of messengers arrived with updates
from Orléans. [click here
to read the full text of the letter]
Duke Jean V of Brittany, in his capital of Nantes, reacted
to the news by sending his confessor, Friar Yves Milbeau, and
a herald, to congratulate Joan of Arc on the victory and to ask
if she was acting by God's orders. To this she replied "yes",
prompting the Friar to say that the Duke would therefore ally himself with
the Armagnacs (again) and send his son with an army.6
The Archbishop of Embrun, Jacques Gelu, overcame his original
skepticism and caution when he announced that "We piously
believe [the Maiden] to be the angel of the Lord of Hosts" ["angelum Domini exercituum"], and advised
Charles to follow her counsel in conducting
the war.7 Other
prominent clergy gave similar support, such as in Jean Gerson's treatise on
May 14th, "De Mirabili Victoria Cujusdam Puellae", which
called for an end to the criticism against her, stating that this
is a case in which God's power is at
work.8
And the 64-year old Christine de Pisan, in her final year of
life, emerged from obscurity to write one last poem
before she died, called "Le Ditie de Jehanne Darc", expressing her
joy at the unexpected good fortune for her faction. The poem
begins: "Je Christine qui ay ploure / XI ans en abbaye close" ("I, Christine,
who have wept / for eleven years in a walled convent") and
goes on to praise the victories delivered "par une vierge tendre" ("through
a tender [or "young"] virgin"). The last line of the document
concludes with the critique: "...ung tresbel ditie fait par Christine." ("a very
fine poem made by Christine"). [click here for the full text]
The reaction of the opposing faction was somewhat less jolly. Previously, the English had felt confident that their long string of victories had provided indisputable proof that God supported their cause, and they were seldom shy when it came to announcing this discovery to the rest of Christendom. Then came the unexpected and unusual defeat at Orléans at a time when ultimate victory was within sight. English morale was not improved. The Duke of Bedford, alarmed by the reports coming in from the Loire, immediately issued a call-to-arms in those areas of Northern France which were under his control, raising "from four to five thousand" men according to Monstrelet.9
The Duke of Burgundy responded to the news by plotting to add his own armies to the forces arrayed against her. Burgundy was now in a position to take a more active role in France, since the war against his "dear cousin Lady Jacqueline" had ended ten months earlier when Jacqueline of Hainault finally surrendered at Gouda and agreed to sign the Treaty of Delft on July 3, 1428, making Burgundy the legal heir to her territories.10 The Duke, despite his chronic disagreements with the English, was not willing to abandon their cause: he would soon send troops to Bedford's aid, albeit in exchange for the usual modest sum to compensate him for his expenses and pains.11
Joan's stay in Orléans was brief. On May 9th, only a day after
the English withdrawal, she and Lord Dunois were apparently at Clery,
ten miles south of Orléans: the chapel there has a record of their visit.
On the 11th they were at Loches to meet with Charles. A detailed
description was provided by a German
chronicler, Eberhardt von Windecken, the treasurer for Emperor Sigismund:
"... Then the young girl bowed her head before the King as much as she
could, and the king immediately had her raise it again; and one
would have thought that he would have kissed her from the joy that
he experienced."12
Dunois provided a description of their subsequent audience with
the king in his chamber: "...while the King was in his
private room, in which were Lord Christophe Harcourt, the Bishop
of Castres [Gerard Machet], the King's confessor, and the Lord of Treves
[Robert le Maçon], previously Chancellor of France; the Maiden,
before she entered the room, knocked on the door, and as
soon as she entered she went down on her knees and embraced the
King's legs, saying words such as these or something similar:
'Noble Dauphin, do not take so many and such lengthy deliberations,
but come as quickly as possible to Rheims, to take a worthy crown.'
Then Lord Christophe Harcourt, speaking with her, asked her if her
Counsel had said this to her; she replied: yes, that she was
being much prompted on this subject. Then, Christophe said to
Joan: 'Are you not willing to say, in the presence of the King,
the manner of your Counsel when it speaks to you?' To which she
replied, blushing: 'I understand,' she said, 'well enough what it
is you wish to know, and I will freely tell you' ... and
said words such as these or similar:
that when she was displeased sometimes because people wouldn't readily
believe that what she said was from God, she would withdraw apart
and pray to God, complaining to Him that people wouldn't readily believe
what she told them; then, her prayer to God completed, she would hear
a voice saying to her: 'Fille Dé,
va, va, va; je serai a ton aide, va" ["Daughter of God, go, go, go;
I will aid you, go."], and when she heard this voice, she
felt great joy, and desired to always be in that state;
and, what is more striking, in reciting these words she exulted in an extraordinary
manner, raising her eyes to heaven."13
The "Journal du Siège d'Orléans" says that the above
exchange convinced Charles to adopt her plan.14
Preparations were therefore made for securing the
Loire Valley before moving the army north.
The English had pulled their troops back to the remaining strongholds along the Loire. The Earl of Suffolk's contingent was at Jargeau, which was unsuccessfully assaulted by Lord Saint-Sévère and other French commanders while the aforementioned reunion with Charles was taking place.15 To make a more concerted effort, the Duke of Alençon was appointed lieutenant-general over the combined Royal forces - being a Duke, he outranked the other lords in the army, although at age 23 he was also one of the least experienced. Orders were sent out calling upon the other commanders to gather their contingents together at a place "near Remorantin", about 40 miles south of Orléans.16
On May 23rd Joan left Loches for Selles-en-Berri, near Remorantin.
It was around this time, (on June 2nd) that
Charles granted her armorial bearings [click here
for details],
and she apparently met the future Louis XI, at that time a little boy of
seven years, who
later said that he remembered meeting the famous Maiden all his life.17
On June 6th she met the grandsons of the widow of Lord
Bertrand du Guesclin, who was revered by the French for his victories
over the English several decades earlier. These young men, Guy and André
de Laval, had arrived that day with a small contingent of troops.18
The elder, Guy XIV, wrote a letter on the 8th
describing this experience to his mother and grandmother. In between personal details - e.g.,
a messenger reported that Guy's sister Catherine was now pregnant, or "fatter than usual" as Guy describes the blessed event - the letter
also gives many eyewitness descriptions of Joan herself. She came out to meet
the Laval brothers dressed in her
armor, and told them that she'd recently sent a small ring
to their grandmother in honor of her famous husband. "And the
aforesaid Maiden very cordially welcomed my brother
and myself", says the letter's author, adding that
"it seemed a thing completely divine".19
He goes on to say that Joan left on June 6th, "armored in
full plate, except her head, a little axe in her hand
on a great black courser [i.e., war-horse], which put up a great
fuss at the door to her lodging and wouldn't allow her
to mount; and then she said 'Lead him to
the cross', which was in front of the church nearby, on the road.
And then she mounted without him budging, as if he were tied.
Then she turned toward the door of the church, which was right nearby,
and said in a very womanly voice: 'You, priests and men of the Church,
form procession and make prayers to God.' And then she turned back
to the road before her, saying "Forward, forward'..."20
The letter, which is rather lengthy [click here to read the
full text] is a rare account written during the
campaigns themselves by a soldier in her army, giving us a detailed
and chatty glimpse of the moment: Guy mentions working on his
last will and testament; says that he won a bet with the Duke of
Alençon at a game of "paulme" [referring to an early variation of tennis
played with the bare hands, as in modern handball]; and worries that, to his potential dishonor,
his doting mother must have asked Georges de la Trémoille to keep him
out of combat. He anxiously notes that his brother and the Duke of Alençon
are telling him that anyone who remains behind would be disgraced. To show
their dedication to the cause, the Laval brothers
even went so far as to direct their mother to mortgage or sell
their lands in order to raise funds for the army - a drastic
step for nobles who generally found it unthinkable to sell their
ancestral estates. The feeling seems to have been that this was the
"big push", and now was the time for all good men to come to the aid
of the party.
As Guy mentions above, Joan left Selles on June 6th and went to
Remorantin, where the army was massing.
On June 9th she was back at Orléans, the last stop before
setting out for the English positions on the 10th. With her was the Duke of
Alençon with 600 "lances" (a total of about 1,800 troops),
reinforced the following morning by a roughly equal number led by Dunois
and d'Illiers.21
To these must be added an unknown number of lightly-armed "commons"
who rallied to her army, perhaps several thousand in total.
The first target was Jargeau, ten miles to the southeast of Orléans on the south bank of the Loire. Lord Suffolk had several hundred men with him to defend the town,22 and as usual, the French commanders bickered over the wisdom of launching an attack against a position which some of the troops felt was impregnable. The Duke of Alençon says that the issue was settled when Joan spoke up and "...said that they had nothing to fear; that they shouldn't fear any number [of troops], nor make difficulties about attacking the English, because God was overseeing their work...[adding that] if she were not secure in the knowledge that God was overseeing this work, she would have preferred to watch over the sheep rather than expose herself to such perils."23 This won everyone over.
The outskirts of Jargeau were reached on June 11th, "about
two hours after dinner" according to Perceval de Cagny, squire
and chronicler for the Duke of Alençon.24
The common soldiers immediately launched an assault on their own without
the support of the men-at-arms,
apparently thinking that their great ardor would be sufficient to carry
the day. They were retreating with equal ardor when the Maiden
showed up: "Seeing this [i.e., the retreat],
Joan, taking up her banner, went in to the battle, telling the troops to
have courage". She got the soldiers turned around and encouraged
them on to a new assault which forced
the English to retire to their fortifications.25
That night, Cagny says, she told the English to "Surrender the place to the King
of Heaven and the noble King Charles, and go away, or else disaster will befall you" ["Rendez la place au Roy du ciel and au gentilz
roy Charles, et vous en alez, ou autrement il vous mescherra."]26
To provide an added inducement the artillery was put in place and
began bombarding the walls; "The Journal..."
says that a large cannon from Orléans called "La Bergère" ("The
Shepherdess", presumably named in honor of Joan herself)
succeeded in bringing down Jargeau's "largest tower" with only
three shots.27
This cannon, which required a team of 36 horses
to lug it overland and was so heavy that soldiers had to strengthen
bridges over which it would cross,28
was apparently a large bombarde of the "mortar" variety
(i.e., a chubby bombarde shaped like a large bucket or megaphone
with a barrel almost as wide as its length) perhaps built along the
lines of the famous "Pumhart von Steyr".29
The bombardment may have unnerved the English: Lord Suffolk tried
to arrange a two-week truce, and was apparently negotiating independently
with La Hire, much to the displeasure of the other commanders. La Hire
was reeled in by Alençon and told to cease his efforts;30
Joan
would later say that the lords in her army refused to grant
Suffolk's request, and instead told him to pull out immediately or
face an assault.31
The assault apparently came around the ninth hour on the 12th of
June;32
Alençon says he thought the timing was premature, but
she encouraged him forward, reminding him that she had promised
his wife that he would be brought back safely.33
He adds that
she saved his life during an event which is also described by two other
sources: she pointed out a weapon (a veuglaire it seems) on the
fortifications and told the Duke that it would kill him unless
he moved from his current position. He had scarcely moved a few
yards when the veuglaire fired and hit a certain "Seigneur de Lude"
from the Anjou region, who had made the mistake of moving into
the spot which the Duke had just vacated. The projectile
decapitated him with the force of the impact.34
Joan herself was hit with a large stone thrown down by an English soldier
on the ramparts: the stone tore through her banner and broke apart
on her helmet, knocking her to the ground but otherwise doing no
damage. She immediately got back up and shouted to the soldiers:
"Friends, friends, up! Up! Our Lord has doomed the English.
["Amys, amys, sus! Sus! Nostre Sire a condempne les Angloys"] This
moment they are ours; have courage."35
The French surged up and over
the walls and then pursued the enemy across the
bridge.36
Here the remaining English troops met disaster. The Earl of Suffolk
was forced to surrender to a soldier named Guillaume
Regnault (after first knighting him, as it would be disgraceful
for the Earl to surrender to anyone below equestrian rank).37
Some early sources repeat a rumor that Suffolk had instead
submitted to Joan herself by his express demand to surrender
only to, quote, "the most courageous woman in the
world ... who will defeat us all".38
His brother John de la Pole was also captured; his other brother
Alexander was killed.39
Estimates of English casualties ranged from 300 - 1100 dead and
40 - 300 captured.40
This victory achieved, Joan returned to Orléans on the 13th,
where she received an honor granted in the name of the city's duke:
an entry in the city's financial
accounts for the following day records a commission to make
"[cloth] nettle leaves for the Maiden's robes",41
referring to two items
of clothing which are described in detail in a later letter (dated September 30)
sent by the Duke of Orléans himself. Nettle leaves were a symbol of
his family which were often worn by the municipal troops and anyone whom
he wished to honor, and the woman who saved his city was now to
be accorded such an honor.
The circumstances of this letter are worth noting. At some
point, news of the liberation of his city reached
the miserable Armagnac leader at Peterborough in
England, where he was being held as a "guest" of his English cousins.42
While battles
were being fought for his lands, the captive Charles' only battlefield
now was his cherished chessboard, well-worn by many hundreds of matches
against his guards. The rest of
his time was largely spent writing page after page of the poetry for
which he is now best known, frequently in the form of
melancholy love ballads believed to have been addressed to the
wife whom he would never see again.43
The news of Joan's
campaigns must have been the first good tidings he had heard in
years, and he repaid her in the traditional fashion - in this case,
by confirming his council's gift of a rich robe made with
"fine Brussels vermilion cloth" bordered with cloth nettle leaves in
two shades of green and lined with silk and white
satin; and a knee-length tunic or surcoat ("huque") made with dark
green cloth and likewise bordered with nettle leaves. The letter
also gives the amount of cloth purchased for each garment,
thereby allowing us to estimate the saint's maximum possible height.
It begins: "Charles, Duke
of Orléans and of Valois, Count of Blois and of Beaumont and Lord of
Coucy; to Our esteemed and loyal friends the men of Our accounts,
greetings and affection", and eventually
goes on to say that the clothing was granted in recognition
of the "good and agreeable services which the aforesaid Maiden has
rendered for Us against the English, long-standing enemies of
my lord the King and of Ourselves."
[Click here
to read the full text]. It can only
be assumed that she must have treasured this gift from a duke whom
she admired, but whom she would never meet.
She didn't stay in Orléans long, however: on the night of the 14th she told Alençon to have the troops ready to move out by the next day "after dinner" in order to "go see those of Meung".44
This was done, and the army moved southwest along the Loire. Rather than launch a full assault against Meung, the decision was made to merely take the town's fortified bridge and garrison it with troops, thereby preventing any unpleasant surprises as the army continued farther south to Beaugency. The bridge was taken speedily enough so that the effort barely held up the army's progress to the main target, which was reached on the following day.45
Beaugency was at the southern limit of the English positions
which had been clustered around Orléans. The town was dominated by
a 12th century tower whose sturdy block form still looks imposing
today even in its partially ruined state; the English
had set aside about 500 soldiers to hold this tower, supplemented
by a smaller garrison delegated for the bridge.46
Upon sighting the
French army the defenders withdrew into these fortified positions, leaving only
a small number of men concealed in some of the houses in the town's outlying
area. These troops emerged to ambush the French as they moved in,
and a sharp skirmish ensued in which "many were killed or wounded
on both sides".47
After driving off these attackers,
the French proceeded to pummel the tower with artillery48
in what seems to have been a sustained bombardment: to feed the
hungry cannons, the financial accounts for the city of
Orléans mention that a man named Robin le Boçant was sent by Joan
to obtain more gunpowder.49
Meanwhile, two new armies were approaching: Sir John Fastolf was working
his way south with a few thousand men50
to reinforce the English at Beaugency;
and Count Arthur de Richemont was moving northeast to aid the French with his
"400 lances and 800 archers"51
plus their auxiliaries. Both of these posed a dilemma for the
French commanders, since Richemont was at that time held in disgrace
by the Royal court for having led a revolt against Georges de la
Trémoille.
Arthur de Richemont exemplified the situation of
many nobles who found themselves painfully caught, both politically
and personally, between the various factions in France at that time.
He was
a younger son of a family which was originally rooted in central and
northeastern France
but had inherited the far-flung domains of Brittany in the northwest,
Limoges in the south-central,
and the still more distant County of Richmond in northern England.
The latter title was granted as Arthur's share by his elder brother, Duke Jean V of
Brittany, who sought to retain a measure of independent control over
his duchy and therefore routinely lurched back and forth between
both sides. To make matters more tangled, Richemont's mother was the widow of King Henry IV of
England, and yet, possibly due to his friendship with Louis de
Valois (elder brother of the Dauphin Charles) Arthur had fought
against the English at Aginçourt. Wounded and captured, he was brought
to England with the other prisoners
and was thereby able to see his mother again, although he was said to have
been unable to recognize her. The Anglo-Burgundians tried to tie
him down to their faction by arranging his marriage to Burgundy's
eldest sister Margaret in 1423; but when Bedford refused to grant
him field command of an army he threw his lot in with the Armagnacs and
was rewarded with the title "Connétable" (chief commander of Royal forces). Dismayed by
the vicious infighting among members of the Dauphin's Court, he
soon became a victim of it himself: the
political schemes of Georges de la Trémoille (himself a former Burgundian
with a very checkered and sometimes murderous career) led to
a major rift, open warfare, and
Richemont's exile from the Court. He was
now marching toward Beaugency
with the intent of rejoining the Royal army whether he was welcome
or not.52
The chroniclers are divided on the latter question: it seems that
Joan, the Duke of Alençon, and several others were opposed to his
arrival (in fact the Duke says that he was planning to leave if
Richemont showed up),53
while perhaps some of the mercenary captains
of the La Hire variety wanted to welcome him.54
It would be interesting to
know Dunois' opinion: in 1424 when Dunois himself had been out of favor with
the Court (as many of the commanders were at one point or another),
the person sent to arrest him had been none other than Richemont
himself. Richemont's enthusiastic chronicler and squire, Guillaume Gruel,
claims that it was primarily the Maiden who opposed him,
prompting some of the commanders to
allegedly retort that they "esteemed him and his contingent
better than all the maidens in the Kingdom of France".55
| Margin Note 2: |
With the retreat of Beaugency's garrison, the only remaining English troops to contend with were those at Meung, reinforced by the army under Sir John Fastolf. One of Fastolf's soldiers at that time was a Burgundian mercenary named Jean de Wavrin du Forestel, whose personal recollections written down after the war provide us with a vivid eyewitness account of the events that followed.
On the 17th the rival armies came into view of each other, the French placing themselves on a small hill and the English arranged behind their usual protective screen of stakes to impede any cavalry charge sent against them. Heralds were sent to offer a challenge to the French, who were said to have sent back the reply: "Go place yourselves in camp for now, as it is fairly late; but tomorrow, at the pleasure of God and Our Lady, we will see you at closer range".60 Battles were often still arranged by mutual agreement, in the leisured manner of the "gentlemanly" style of aristocratic warfare.
On the following day the two armies faced each other again; when the jittery French asked Joan what they should do, she replied: "En nom Dieu, il les fault combatre. S'ilz estoient pendus aux nues nous les arons" ("In God's name, we must fight them. If they were hanging in the skies we would [still] get them"),61 adding that they would need "good spurs" to chase after the enemy.62
She was correct: the English decided to fall back to the northwards, riding toward the town of Patay with the French in close pursuit.63 The running battle which would soon erupt would become one of those rare occurrences when French cavalry won a major open-field victory against English archers.
The army was divided into the traditional three segments, with the vanguard entrusted to La Hire (much to the saint's displeasure, according to Louis de Coutes, who noted that she "greatly wanted to have the burden of the vanguard" herself).64
The lead elements of the French army stopped for a rest at
St-Sigismond around noon, then continued along the road towards
Lignorolles with 60 - 80 cavalry serving as advance scouts.65
The English, remembered Jean de Wavrin, soon became aware
that they were being followed by cavalry "riding at great
speed", and so: "...it was ordered by our
commanders that those of the vanguard, the merchants, provisions,
and artillery should go on ahead to take up positions all along the hedgerows
near Patay", while the main division found an advantageous position
farther south. At the extreme southern end, Lord Talbot placed himself
with 500 of his best archers in the
area between two hedgerows, calculating that the narrow passage could
be held long enough for the rest of the army to pull itself together.66
He miscalculated, and an unexpected occurrence would seal his army's fate.
Near St-Peravy-la-Colombe the French scouts frightened a stag in the
nearby woods, and the animal ran headlong into soldiers of the English
rearguard. The latter, unaware that enemy scouts were so close,
sent up a loud shout and thereby unwittingly revealed their
position. After venturing closer to confirm
that the uproar was caused by English troops, the scouts went
pounding back to report the news to La Hire.67
The veteran mercenary wasted little time bringing
up his cavalry, which promptly charged
Talbot's lines.68
Normally, English archers
would have flung back such a charge with several volleys of arrows
fired from behind a protective line of stakes, but on this
occasion the results were markedly different. The cavalry reached
their target with few or no casualties and slammed into
the English line at full gallop. The archers broke and ran.69
The archers, caught in a maelstrom of horsemen, were cut down by the hundreds as they tried to get away. Talbot himself was taken prisoner.70
Meanwhile, Fastolf pushed his men onward in an attempt to join up with the English vanguard. The latter, seeing Fastolf's troops in such a hurry, mistakenly thought that a rout was underway. As a result they started a real one: as the vanguard panicked and abandoned the field, Fastolf's contingent realized the battle was now hopeless and decided to follow suit.71
The French cavalry tore into the disorganized elements of the army as it fled north, chasing them all the way to the English garrison town of Janville fourteen miles northeast of Patay. As a final blow, the citizens of this town forced the garrison commander to capitulate and then promptly shut their gates against Fastolf's survivors.72 Jean de Wavrin wrote that he himself and the "very small company" grouped around Fastolf had to press onward to Etampes, the exhausted troops reaching it only at midnight.73
| Margin Note 3: |
A more fortunate English prisoner was shortly brought before the Duke of Alençon, Lord Richemont, and Joan when they returned to camp at Patay. The "guest" was Lord Talbot, to whom Alençon helpfully remarked: "This morning, I hadn't thought that things would happen the way they did"; to which Talbot stoically replied: "It is the fortune of war."75
The "fortune of war" had dealt another blow to English morale.
Most of their commanders present at the battle - not only Talbot,
but also Lord Scales, Lord Thomas Rampston, Lord Walter Hungerford,
and others - had been
captured.76
Fastolf was disgraced by his retreat. Losses among the rank-and-file
were catastrophic: the official casualty figure given
by English heralds was around 2,200 men
dead or captured (nearly half their total strength),
compared to "not even three" Frenchmen and less than twenty Scots77
- the reverse of so many previous battles. Strategically, control
of the region was lost when several English garrisons
abandoned their posts, terrified and discouraged by word of the
disaster.78
The effect on the occupation government in Normandy was
similar. Monstrelet notes that Duke John of Bedford was "very much disturbed"
when he heard the news, and some among his group "wept in the
council".79
They would soon face larger concerns: the way was now open for the march toward Rheims for the coronation of the man who would be known to posterity as Charles VII.
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