Her voice to go from Burgundy 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 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 of Henry VI 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 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. 180. The of St. Albans Whenne the kyng herde of thayre commyng, they that were aboute hym counseyled hym to gadre a power for to wythestand theym, and enformed hym that they came for to dystroy hymme. Thenne lay the quene at Eglishale, and anone by hire stiryng the kyng assembled a grete power whereof the Lorde Audeley was chyef and had the ledyng of thaym, and wente forthe in to the felde called Blorehethe; by the whyche the sayde duk of York and the erl most nedes passe. And there bothe hostes mette and countred to gedre, and faught mortally. And there was the Lorde Audeley sleyne, and meny of the notable knyghtes and squyers of Chesshyre that had resceved the lyvery of the swannes; and there were take prysoners, the erlles two sones of Salisbury, Thomas and Johan, and Sir Thomas Haryngtone, and enprysoned in the castelle of Chestre; but sone after they were delyvered. Two years after the events just described, the king being in the possession of the Yorkists, the second battle of St. Albans was fought. It went against the Yorkists, and the poor imbecile king fell into the hands of his wife and other friends. The cruel execution of captured opponents was characteristic of the times, but the harsh sentence put into the mouth of the ten-year-old prince by his mother, according to the following contemporary account, was extreme even then, and was believed at the time to be avenged when he was himself murdered after the battle of Tewkesbury, fought the next year. When the earl of Warwick perceived that things were going second battle ill, he bethought him to seek the king, but he could not for the people who were fleeing. And thus the king was taken under a great oak, where he was laughing greatly at what had occurred, and he begged those who came to him that they should do no hurt to the person of Monsieur Kyriel, which they promised; but Lovelace, the disloyal traitor, led the king, Sir Thomas, and his son to the queen, who was right glad to meet the king. Then she spoke to Sir Thomas Kyriel and his son, |