The Valet's Tragedy, and Other StudiesLang, Andrew
History
The Valet's Tragedy, and Other Studies
Lang, Andrew
History; World history
However, the Madame de Luxembourg who entertained the impostor was aunt,
by marriage, of the Duke of Burgundy, the true Maid’s enemy, and she
had means of being absolutely well informed, so the case remains very
strange. Strange, too, it is that, in the records of payment of pension
to the true Maid’s mother, from the town of Orleans, she is ‘mere de la
Pucelle’ till 1452, when she becomes ‘mere de feue la Pucelle,’ ‘mother
of the LATE Pucelle.’ That is to say, the family and the town of Orleans
recognised the impostor till, in 1452, the Trial of Rehabilitation
began. So I have inferred, as regards the family, from the record of the
inquest of 1476, which, though it suited the argument of M. Save, was
unknown to him.
His brochure distressed the faithful. The Abbe, Dr. Jangen, editor of
‘Le Pretre,’ wrote anxiously to M. P. Lanery d’Arc, who replied in a
tract already cited (1894). But M. Lanery d’Arc did not demolish the
sounder parts of the argument of M. Save, and he knew nothing of the
inquest of 1476, or said nothing. Then arose M. Lefevre Pontalis.*
Admitting the merits of M. Save’s other works, he noted many errors in
this tract. For example, the fire at Rouen was raked (as we saw) more
or less (admodum) clear of the dead body of the martyr. But would it
be easy, in the circumstances, to recognise a charred corpse? The two
Mesdames de Luxembourg were distinguished apart, as by Quicherat. The
Vignier documents as to Robert des Armoises were said to be impostures.
Quicherat, however, throws no doubt on the deed of sale by Jehanne and
her husband, des Armoises, in November 1436. Many errors in dates were
exposed. The difficulty about the impostor’s reception in Orleans,
was recognised, and it is, of course, THE difficulty. M. Lefevre de
Pontalis, however, urges that her brothers are not said to have been
with her, ‘and there is not a trace of their persistence in their
error after the first months of the imposture.’ But we have traces, nay
proofs, in the inquest of 1476. The inference of M. Save from the fact
that the Pucelle is never styled ‘the late Pucelle,’ in the Orleans
accounts, till 1452, is merely declared ‘inadmissible.’ The fact, on the
other hand, is highly significant. In 1452 the impostor was recognised
by the family; but in that year began the Trial of Rehabilitation, and
we hear no more of her among the du Lys and the Voultons. M. Lefevre
Pontalis merely mentions the inquest of 1476, saying that the impostor
of Sermaise (1449-1452) may perhaps have been another impostor, not
Jeanne des Armoises. The family of the Maid was not capable, surely, of
accepting TWO impostors, ‘one down, the other come on’! This is utterly
incredible.
*Le Moyen Age, June 1895.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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