Letter from Joan of Arc
March 22nd, 1429.
King of England,
render unto the maid here sent by God,
the keys of all the good towns,
which you have taken and violated in France,
and you, archers companions of war, men at arms before Orléans.
Go away to your country by God.
And if you do not,
expect news of the maid who will come to see you shortly,
to your very, great injury.
King of England, if you do not do so,
I, am a chieftain of war,
and in whatever place I find your people in France,
I will make them flee.
And if they will not obey, I will have them slain.
Woooh~
Zoey you feel that? I'm getting tingles.
**Intro music**
It was a strange procession that came to relieve the besieged city of Orléans.
At the front were not troops,
but priests singing hymns and carrying banners.
Then came the soldiers,
and more numerous than either were the carts full of supplies.
And leading them was Joan,
dressed in plate armor, astride a white horse.
Her pages and Squires rode behind,
carrying her new banner.
It was a column of the devoted.
The forces who saw her,
Armagnac in the city and English and Burgundian outside,
were all exhausted.
At the beginning of the siege,
the Armagnac had centered their defences around the south bank of the Loire,
where a quarter mile bridge,
the only way to cross the river was anchored by a gatehouse.
But the English had taken that gatehouse in an assault,
forcing the Armagnac to blow the bridge and cut the city off.
The English responded by making the gatehouse their headquarters
and building a number of earth and forts around Orléans.
This meant that the city was surrounded,
but supplies could still slip through if they were swift and protected.
Joan's party was armed and before the English could sally out,
They reached the bank of the Loire, where ferries could carry them into the city.
But there was a problem,
when they boarded, the wind wasn't right.
The troops and supplies couldn't get across.
In fact now they were vulnerable,
if they remained pinned to the bank,
the English could marshal forces to wipe them out.
Then, the wind changed.
Upon her arrival, jubilation filled Orléans,
as Joan rode through the narrow streets,
throngs reached out to touch her hoping for a blessing.
These people had heard of this maid,
the one prophesized to save France.
The one who had brought them food.
The one God had sent to them, on a miraculous wind.
She took quarters in a house set aside for her
and received a welcome from the city's commanders.
And that's when Joan found out that not all was as she expected it to be.
Her visions had told her to lead the Armagnac army,
but these military men weren't interested in taking orders from a teenaged girl.
They welcomed her supplies.
Sure, and the morale boost she brought was amazing.
They invited her to councils of war,
where they explained the tactical subtleties of siege warfare,
and they even conceded that, maybe
she was on a mission from God.
But sieges they explained,
"were won by tons of supplies,
artillery angles,
and precise, strategic planning.
Success came in months, not days.
They would wear down one earthwork, then the next, then the next" they told her.
Joan however, had developed an alternative strategy.
An intricate plan to dislodge the English from their positions.
It went like this
and follow me closely for a minute
because this gets a little bit complicated and into the weeds of siege warfare.
But her plan was...
"Get' em".
Like full frontal attack,
RIGHT NOW!
On the strongest position.
Huh? *wink wink*
After all God was with them
and would reward their faith with victory!
Upon hearing this plan the commanders,
weren't, so, keen.
They didn't want to waste lives and supplies
on an attack that even if successful,
might damage the garrison in the long term.
Plus if it failed,
they'd squander the high morale drummed up by Jones arrival.
Their plan was to go a little more of the,
"Captain America" route,
using Joan as a mascot,
sending her out to distribute food and soldiers pay.
Not to like put her in a place where she might get her head shot off with a cannon,
which side note,
was a very real threat.
The previous English commander had died from just such a lucky shot.
But Joan was not about to be some lucky charm,
she did the meet-and-greet duties,
but also slipped outside the walls and observed enemy positions.
During one outing,
she walked to the edge of the destroyed bridge and called the English to surrender.
Their commander responded with a rain of insults,
calling her a witch, a coward,
and saying that the French had taken her from a brothel and put her in armor.
He would later regret those insults.
But Joan's activities also won over the citizens of Orléans,
because unlike the city commanders.
Joan was fresh.
She promised a quick victory
and she did things like ride out to escort new trains of supplies into the city
and as a result,
support for Joan grew.
When she rode into the streets,
she could barely move due to the crowds
and on one occasion a mob broke down the door to her house,
desperate to see and touch her.
Within days,
It was clear to the commanders that some kind of action was needed to relieve the pressure.
So, they picked an easy target, a less defended earthwork,
but also didn't tell Joan, fearing she rushed to the battle line
Aaaannnnd yeah,
they were right.
Upon being woken and told of the attack,
Joan strapped on her armor and rushed to join the troops
not to fight, but to inspire.
She carried her banner, displaying herself,
urging them on
AND, they won!
Hours of hard fighting gave the Armagnac defenders their first victory in months.
Faith in the Holy Maid soared even higher,
the populace sensed imminent liberation.
But while the townsmen and soldiers celebrated,
Joan turned inward.
She'd preached holy warfare and the defeat of the English,
but she'd never until now, witnessed combat up-close.
It was awful, a far cry from the glorious victory she'd imagined.
This was sadness though,
not doubt.
God's will was not to be questioned.
So the next day, with the fighting suspended due to a religious feast,
she presented a revamped plan.
"GET' EEEMMM!!!!!"
Not the small fort this time,
THE BIGEST,
BADDEST,
English bastion on the north bank,
the one with the most men.
Again, the commanders compromised.
They would cross the river on pontoon bridges
and attack the weaker forts on the south bank,
taking the earthworks in front of the bridge,
then that done, they would attack the gatehouse.
Now was that, "get'em" enough for Joan?
It was.
The next day the army marshaled at the city gates
when they noticed that their numbers were,
larger than usual. *Confused Pikachu faces*
The citizens of Orléans had flocked to Joan,
organizing militias to fight for their Maid.
The commanders tried to get them to leave, but she insisted that they come.
Joan's second day of battle was hard.
The English had abandoned their outer works
to concentrate forces in front of the gatehouse,
she led the first attack personally,
before the Armagnac forces were fully across the river
and was beaten back.
The English pursued, only checked when Joan turned and bellowed for them to stop,
in the name
OF
GOD!!!!!!
Context fairy, don't think I don't see you.
We were just having a little fun.
And then, it was a grinding,
earthwork by earthwork battle.
Joan led the assault,
waving her banner and urging the troops on.
She limped, one foot pierced by an English caltrop.
It was bloody.
But by nightfall,
the Armagnac held the earthworks around the gatehouse.
The next day, they closed in.
Citizens repaired the bridge to hit the gatehouse from two sides,
cannons bombarded the thick stonework.
They even sent burning boats in a fruitless attempt to burned the English out.
But none of it worked
and as it neared dark,
the commanders decided to starve the gatehouse into submission.
Joan heard this and grabbed a ladder,
because it was time to and say it with me now,
"GET' EM!!!"
She ran toward the last earthwork, soldiers snatched up scaling ladders and followed her.
They would take it by escalate, one of the most dangerous operations in medieval warfare.
Climbing ladders face-first into the blades and missiles of the enemy.
Joan threw herself into a ditch, passed off the ladder and took her banner,
yelling that God was with them.
"ssSSTHWACK"!
An arrow slammed into the gap between her helmet and breastplate and buried itself deep in her shoulder.
She toppled,
carried off the battlefield by her pages.
The English jeered, that they'd slain the witch and the attacks stalled
Men dying in the ditch as they tried to climb their way into English arrows.
Rumours of the Maid's death were rampant.
And then, from behind the French ranks,
a white banner rose,
Joan stopped back toward the embarkment, clad in battered armor.
Each step would have been agony.
It had only been a flesh wound,
but doctors would have had to pull the arrow through her shoulder, in order to dislodge it.
She insisted on rejoining the attack.
Seeing their maid arisen, seemingly unwounded,
the French rallied and scaled the final earthwork.
English and Burgundian soldiers evacuated to the gatehouse,
swarming across the drawbridge in such numbers,
that the timber snapped, dropping a handful of men into the Loire River.
Among the drowned was the English captain, who'd cursed Joan only a few days before.
They'd take the gatehouse by nightfall.
The next day, Joan drew up her army on the north bank,
in front of the English forts there.
And to be clear, it was
her army now.
Sure, other men might command it but these soldiers fought for her,
for this strange Holy Maid who bled with them in battle.
She didn't order an attack,
the sight of her force
was enough to get the English to withdraw.
Joan had done what the voices commanded.
In four days of battle, she'd ended a siege that had dragged on for six months.
She had her miracle and none doubted her mission or her power.
She saved the Dauphiné and opened the door to northern France.
And for her next trick, she would give the Dauphiné,
a crown.
**Outro Music**
Special thanks to educational tier patrons, Ahmad Ziad Turk and Joseph Blain.