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Joan of Arc’s Effect on the Hundred Year War
The Hundred Year War was caused by a struggle for power. In 1328, King Philip IV died, ending the Capetian dynasty and France was left without a king. Philip’s daughter, Isabelle, had married King Edward II of England. King Edward III their son had a good claim to the French throne by being Philip’s grandson. Most of the French nobles thought that an English king wouldn’t give them as much power as a king they helped put on the throne, so French lawyers brought up an old law which stated that property could not be passed down through a woman. The French then crowned Philip of Valois, nephew of Philip VI. The Count of Flanders was friendly with the English, due to trade. Based on the French decision to ignore Edward’s claim to the French crown, Flanders then decided to ally with the English. The English king also held Aquitaine in southern France. Due to both the dispute over the French crown and the English nutcracker (Flanders in the north and Aquitaine in the south), a lot of tension built up between the English and the French. In response, the French allied with the Scottish to create their own nutcracker and put pressure on the English. Both the English and the French knew that the English Channel was the key to possible conflict. The French needed it to stop an English invasion, and the English needed it to resupply Flanders. The channel also was a major trade route for each nation. Both sides continually tried to gain the upper hand until they both resorted to hiring what would normally be considered pirates. These pirates were in charge of stalking the channel and raiding any opposing trading vessels. A war between England and France was ready to break out at any moment.
War was officially declared in 1337. King Philip of Valois prepared to deliver the first blow. He assembled a mighty fleet to support an army intended to crush English allies in Flanders. The English attacked this fleet at the sea off of Sluys (modern day Netherlands). Both fleets anchored their ships and fought a battle on the decks. The English fire ships destroyed the French fleet. This gave the English control of the English Channel, which freed them from the threat of a French invasion and allowed them to attack France at will. King Edward of England launched an invasion fleet on France. However, his army was weakened by the Black Death, so the English army tried to retreat to a fortified port to recover. The French tried to force the English into a battle. The English were finally caught by the larger French army at Crecy. Edward’s army consisted of twelve thousand men, including seven thousand longbow men. The French army was a traditional army made up of feudal cavalry and crossbow men. The French army which had thirty-six thousand people outnumbered the English three to one (Crecy). The English army took position on the crest of a hill in a v-shape. The French cavalry tried to ride up the slope to engage the English in battle. This slowed and tired the French horses giving the English archers sufficient time to obliterate the French lines in a hail of arrows. French troops who managed to make it up the hill faced quickly erected but effective barriers. As the French tried to retreat they were met by a fresh unit of English mounted knights. Five to ten thousand of the very finest French knights were slaughtered at Crecy (Crecy). The English, in comparison, only lost a couple hundred men. The French did not learn a lesson from Crecy and attempted to use the same strategy at Poiters in 1356.
After Crecy, Edward III laid siege to Calais. After a year of siege, the inhabitants were starving. Six of the leading citizens offered their lives to Edward on the terms that he would spare the lives of the townsfolk. Edward’s queen took pity on them and asked the king if those leading citizens could be spared along with the townsfolk (Siege). Unlike medieval tradition, the king allowed the citizens of Calais to leave their town without any further bloodshed and their homes were given to English settlers. They then made Calais a fortified English stronghold giving the English army a base in northern France for military expeditions. Northern France, however, was not the only place that was suffering.
Destructive fighting upset the economy and the Black Death killed a third of the population in both France and England. This also caused peasant revolts where nobles’ houses and castles were looted. In 1347, a treaty was signed due to the Black Plague (Hundred Years’ War). This treaty was only temporary and would only last for a few years.
A force of English men lead by Edward III’s son arrived at Bordeaux in 1355 while Edward III was busy fighting the Scottish. A second invasion force arrived in Normandy led by the Duke of Lancaster and began to advance south (Battle of Poiters). Newly anointed king of France John I led an army against the Lancaster army forcing them to retreat to the coast. He then turned his attention on the other invasion force which had been pillaging the countryside as it moved north-eastward toward the Loire (a river in France). The French surprised the English at Poiters just as they were about to turn back toward Bordeaux. The English army was once again outnumbered by the French. A treaty between the two armies was unable to be reached and the two armies prepared to fight. The English army led by the Black Prince, Edward, took a defensive positioning among the orchards and hedges of the area. His army was a very experienced force and even included many of the archer veterans from Crecy ten years before (Battle of Poiters). The French army split into three divisions; one led by Dauphin Charles (Dauphin refers to the eldest son of the king), another by the Duke of Orleans, and the last by the King himself. The Dauphin’s division reached the English lines first, exhausted by a long march in heavy equipment. The English archers harried the French advance and the English army rushed forward and engaged the French. The fight was short and savage and the Dauphin’s division broke and retreated, floundering into the Duke of Orleans division causing both divisions to retreat in confusion. Eventually, the divisions reunited and resumed their advance on the English. The Black Prince thinking the retreat of the two division marked the end of battle ordered a force commanded by Captal de Buche to pursue the French. As the French army worked its way up to the hedgerow the English force broke through the hedge. The sudden and unexpected charge of the English, coupled with the flanking force led by Captal de Buche arriving simultaneously, caused the French army to break. Many of the French retreated and were pursued by the English as the rest were left to fight surrounded in small packs. King John I of France eventually conceded defeat and surrendered. Many of the French nobility were captured in the battle. King John was eventually ransomed for three million crowns and for the Treaty of Bretigny in 1360; granting the English control of much of western France (Treaty of Bretigny). The English luck would not last long though.
Under the peace treaty the French king was able to establish more control. In 1369, the Count of Flanders died. King Charles of France, who had recently retaken much of the land seized by the English in their earlier conquests, managed to end the Anglo-Flemish alliance by arranging for the marriage of his brother, Philippe, Duke of Burgundy, and the Count of Flander’s only child, Marguerite. The dying English king Edward III had hoped to strengthen the alliance with Flanders by marrying his fifth son to Marguerite but instead his ally was now lost to France. The English suffered another blow when the peasants, angered by an unfair poll tax raised to pay the cost of war, revolted on the young king Richard II. As the English weakened, the French only grew stronger and began striking out across the channel with the help of Spanish warships. The French sent vicious raiding parties across the channel in the 1380’s. They managed even to capture the Isle of Wight and burned some of the coast cities in southern England. The English expected a large invasion in 1386 by the larger and stronger French army. The French’s luck this time would not hold.
In 1380, the French king Charles V was succeeded by his son Charles VI, who became insane. He had no children and it was unsure who should take over. In 1407, Armagnacs of Orleans and the Burgundians became the front runners to take the crown. Their feud split the country in civil war, but was ultimately won by the Armagnacs. Instead of conceding defeat, the Duke of Burgundy decided to establish his own empire. The English took advantage of the French divisions.
In 1415, Henry V, King of England, was returning to Calais when the larger French army once again managed to surprise the English at Agincourt. The Battle of Agincourt was very similar to the Battles of Crecy and Poiters, where the English archers, once again outnumbered (this time two to one), destroyed the French army and wiped out many French nobles. Four to ten thousand of the very finest French troops died at Agincourt while only around one and a half thousand English died (Battle of Agincourt). Henry V continued his march to Calais and sailed back to London. This would mark the height of England’s power in the war.
In 1417, Henry V returns to France to capture the towns and castles of Normandy until he eventually takes Rouen. The Treaty of Troyes was signed in 1420, granting England most of north and west France and giving Henry V the right to inherit the French crown. Henry V then marries the current king of France’s daughter Catherine. They have a son, Henry. By the time he is a year old, both his father (the king of England) and his grandfather (the king of France) have died giving him the right to both thrones. Dauphin Charles VII, son of the mad Charles VI, is confined to rule the remainder of his kingdom from Chinon. Peace did not last long and the English laid siege to Orleans, which is consider the key to the rest of France. France was doomed if Orleans fell to the English. Already without a king and without hope, the French were in despair. Dauphin Charles did have a plan to save Orleans, by sending an army to relieve them, led by a sixteen year old girl.
Jehanne Darc was born in Doremy, a province of Lorraine, France, under Burgundian control, in 1412 to Jacques Darc, a poor farmer. Most of Joan’s early life was spent helping the family farm. She had three brothers and one sister and was very fond of her father. She loved spinning and sewing and enjoyed being outdoors (Banfield 20). She was, by all means, a very normal young girl. However, she was different in some ways. She whole-heartedly stood by her opinions and was impossible to sway. Also, instead of making flower offerings to the “fairies” like other girls, she would instead make offerings to the saints. “All the witnesses in the process of rehabilitation [people interviewed by the church in Joan’s retrial twenty four years after her death] spoke of her as a singularly pious child, grave beyond her years, who often knelt in the church absorbed in prayer, and loved the poor tenderly.” (Herbermann 409). Soon, her life would change drastically.
At the age of thirteen and a half, in 1425, Joan had her first encounter with the “saints”. She was dancing with her friends and got tired, so she collapsed by a large tree to rest. Suddenly, she saw a great light and St. Michael and other angels spoke to her. They told her to be a good girl and to go to church often (Banfield 21). She called the voices her counsel. It was at first just a voice, accompanied by light. The voice was as if someone had spoken quite close to her. She recognized the voices as St. Michael, St. Margaret, St. Catherine, and others. When asked at her trial about how she recognized the saints she told her judges, "I saw them with these very eyes, as well as I see you" (Trial of Joan of Arc). At first the voices were general and their mission was not made apparent, but at the age of sixteen, St. Michael told her “Go, go daughter of God, into the realm of France[at the time Doremy was held by the Burgundians]. You must drive out the English and bring the king to be crowned” (Banfield 21). At first, Joan was afraid but the voice comforted her by telling her god was with her and a sense of deep resolve took root in her. The voices told her she had to go to the local lord, Robert de Baudricourt, who lived in Vaucoulears, and get his backing to see Dauphin Charles at Chinon. This was an especially hard task because Sir Robert was a worldly administrator and did not give much thought to some farm girl’s voices. Joan was honest and direct with Sir Robert, but he sent her back to Doremy. Then in 1429, when the French situation grew even more desperate as Orleans was under siege, with defeat appearing imminent; the voices urged her to go back to Sir Robert. Baudricourt was still skeptical, but she continued to ask for his support. Her persistence made an impression on him. On February 17, she announced a great defeat which had been suffered by the French army outside Orleans (the Battle of Herrings). When the statement was officially confirmed a few days later Baudricourt gained more respect for her. Finally, Baudricourt gave in and sent her with an armed escort to Dauphin Charles at Chinon (Banfield 27-28).
Joan reached Chinon on March 6, 1429. In attempts to trick her, Charles disguised himself, but she saluted him at once even though he was in a group of attendants (Joan of Arc). Many people at the court regarded Joan as a crazy visionary, but Joan convinced Dauphin Charles into believing her mission when the voices made known to her a secret fear of Charles. Charles then sent her to Poiters to be examined by a committee of bishops and doctors. After returning to Charles at Chinon, she made her preparations to free Orleans. Her voices indicated that an ancient sword was buried behind the altar at the chapel of Ste-Catherine-de-Fierbois. She found the sword in the very spot the voices said it would be. She then began her campaign.
Her first move was to order the King of England to withdraw his troops from France. In April 1429, Joan entered Orleans. The French troops before Joan had offered little resistance to the English. By the time Joan arrived, the situation in Orleans had become increasingly desperate. Her first few days in Orleans resulted in little action and as she soon found out the defenders in Orleans did not wish to attack the English, who had surrounded Orleans in forts. On May 1st, after a short truce, Joan announced that it was finally time to attack. She found that the French sally against the fort at St. Loup was going poorly and she rallied the French and the fort fell. The French only lost two men while all the English defenders died. She commanded her army to praise God and confess their sins. She then led a sortie against the fort at St. Jean le Blanc and managed to capture that also. She then turned around and marched toward the larger fort at Les Augustins. The fight for Les Augustins was taxing and bloody for both sides but Joan ultimately captured the fort. On the 6th, Joan attacked the towers at Le Tournelles and was struck by an arrow and had to be carried from battle (Military Appreciation). She prayed for ten minutes and was back to the battle by afternoon. Joan led her exhausted troops once more in battle. On May 7th, a French knight took Joan’s banner and charged Les Tournelles. When the French army saw Joan’s banner they rushed to follow it. Joan led the charge on Les Tournelles and the English were overwhelmed. The next day the English abandoned the siege and the French troops reentered Orleans after eliminating all of the remaining English troops.
Dauphin Charles tried to take complete credit for the relief of Orleans but the citizens of France knew who really won the battle. After Orleans, Joan led skirmishes against English garrisons in towns in the area around Orleans. She then met with Dauphin Charles and urged him to get crowned at Rheims. She lead the French army into the heart of the English land and captured both Troyes and Rheims surprisingly without opposition. Dauphin Charles was crowned at Rheims but he was not what Joan had hoped for.
Shortly after his coronation, Charles attempted to undercut Joan’s influence in any way he could. Joan led an attack on Paris, even though the voices had not commanded her to, and suffered her first defeat. Charles opened negotiations with the English and the Burgundians and disbanded the army even though the France was still threatened. This upset Joan who wanted to completely remove the English from France. Joan continued to make war any way possible. She led a small army of mercenaries against the English and the Burgundians. She was captured at the Siege of Compiegne when she sallied the fort and was faced with a larger Burgundian army. She took the commanders place at the very back of the retreat. The Commander of Compiegne panicked when he saw how closely the Burgundians army followed Joan’s army and decided to raise the drawbridge sacrificing any troops left behind. Joan unfortunately, was one of those left outside and she found herself surrounded by Burgundians. An archer finally pulled her from her horse. Most prisoners in those days would be ransomed back to their family. Unfortunately, Joan’s family was poor and even though Joan had give Charles a kingdom and saved Orleans, he was ungrateful and didn’t try to ransom for her. Eventually, Joan was sold to the English and promptly given to the Church for a trail accusing her of heresy and witchcraft. The trial was led by a court primarily of French men, however this was not an advantage to Joan due to the fact many of the assessors were sympathetic to English cause. Her captors kept her in a secular prison instead of a church prison where she would be treated far better. And though Joan was bold and answered every question intending to trick her the best way possible, she was eventually convicted of heresy and was burned at the stake. Her effect on France though, far outlived herself.
After her death, Charles retook almost all of the land seized by the English in the past hundred including Aquitaine. The war with England ended in 1453 when Charles captured Bordeaux, but it was not the end of the war for the French. Charles VII’s son Louis XI turned the French armies on the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Foolhardy. When Charles the Foolhardy died Louis XI captured the remaining Burgundy land. Charles daughter however married the king of the Holy Roman Empire extending the conflict for a few more years.
Joan of Arc revived the French army and saved her country which was almost completely destroyed. Without her, Orleans would have been captured and Dauphin Charles would not have been crowned king. Her affect on the war and on France in general was profound and lasting. France probably would not be a country today without Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans.
Pictures
France 1388
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...3/Apanages.svg
France 1430
http://www.theotherside.co.uk/tm-her...r-map-1430.gif
Works Cited:
I would give you my works cited, but I have no idea what happened to it. It has been years since I did this essay, so I can't remember where or what I saved it as.
Senator
Historical take overs with England
Civis
Originally Posted by RabidSheepLegion
Cymru (Wales)
Miles
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