The Valet's Tragedy, and Other StudiesLang, Andrew
History
The Valet's Tragedy, and Other Studies
Lang, Andrew
History; World history
She is again heard of on September 27, 1439, when the town of Tours pays
a messenger for carrying to Orleans letters which Jeanne wrote to
the King, and also letters from the bailli of Touraine to the King,
concerning Jeanne. The real Jeanne could not write, but the impostor,
too, may have employed a secretary.*
*Quicherat, v. p. 332.
In June 1441 Charles VII. pardoned, for an escape from prison, one de
Siquemville, who, ‘two years ago or thereabouts’ (1439), was sent by the
late Gilles de Raiz, Marechal de France, to take over the leadership of
a commando at Mans, which had hitherto been under ‘UNE APPELEE JEHANNE,
QUI SE DISOIT PUCELLE.’* The phrase ‘one styled Jehanne who called
herself Pucelle’ does not indicate fervent belief on the part of the
King. Apparently this Jeanne went to Orleans and Tours after quitting
her command at Mans in 1439. If ever she saw Gilles de Raiz (the
notorious monster of cruelty) in 1439, she saw a man who had fought in
the campaigns of the true Maid under her sacred banner, argent a dove on
an azure field.**
*Quicherat, v. p. 333.
**She never used the arms given to her and her family by Charles VII.
Here public documents about the impostor fall silent. It is not known
what she was doing between August 9, 1436, and September 1439. At the
earlier date she had written to the town of Orleans; at the later, she
was writing to the King, from Tours. Here an error must be avoided.
According to the author of the ‘Chronicle of the Constable of Alvaro de
Luna,’ * the impostor was, in 1436, sending a letter, and ambassadors,
to the King of Spain, asking him to succour La Rochelle. The ambassadors
found the King at Valladolid, and the Constable treated the letter, ‘as
if it were a relic, with great reverence.’
*Madrid, 1784, p. 131.
The impostor flies high! But the whole story is false.
M. Quicherat held at first that the date and place may be erroneously
stated, but did not doubt that the False Pucelle did send her
ambassadors and letter to the King of Spain. We never hear that the true
Maid did anything of the sort. But Quicherat changed his mind on the
subject. The author of the ‘Chronicle of Alvaro de Luna’ merely cites
a Coronica de la Poncella. That coronica, says Quicherat later, ‘is a
tissue of fables, a romance in the Spanish taste,’ and in this nonsense
occurs the story of the embassy to the Spanish King. That story does not
apply to the False Pucelle, and is not true, a point of which students
of Quicherat’s great work need to be warned; his correction may escape
notice.*
*Revue des Questions Historiques, April 1, 1881, pp. 553-566.
Article by the Comte de Puymaigre.
We thus discard a strong trump in the hand of believers that the
impostor was the real Maid; had a Pucelle actually sent ambassadors to
Spain in 1436, their case would be stronger than it is.
Next, why is the false Pucelle styled ‘Jeanne des Armoises’ in the town
accounts of Orleans in 1439?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
The Valet's Tragedy, and Other Studies — John Shaqi
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