The Virgin Warrior: The Life and Death of Joan of Arc by Taylor Larissa Juliet

Author:Taylor, Larissa Juliet [Taylor, Larissa Juliet]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780300114584
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2009-10-05T16:00:00+00:00

Map 10 Joan's route to captivity and execution, March–May 1430.

The bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon, an important diplomat and former rector of the University of Paris, wrote offering money. When they refused, he threatened that “although the taking of this woman is not similar to the capture of a king, of princes and others of high estate … the bishop summons and requires the abovesaid in his name and [Henry VI's] to deliver the Maid to him.”16 Not similar to the capture of a king!

Jean of Luxembourg had good reason to procrastinate. Joan was a very important prisoner. But in view of her attempted escape from Beaulieu, she was transferred to the much more secure fortress of Beaurevoir, where she enjoyed a relatively comfortable captivity in the tower from July 11 until mid-autumn. The duke's aunt, Jeanne of Luxembourg, was the main reason he did not hand Joan over to the English. First, as godmother to Charles VII she had close connections to the French royal family. Secondly, the elderly countess had willed her estate to Jean rather than his older brother, so he had every incentive to remain in her good graces. Along with Jean's wife Jeanne of Béthune and his stepdaughter Jeanne of Bar, Jeanne of Luxembourg seems to have done everything in her power to make Joan's confinement at Beaurevoir as pleasant as possible. They may well have enjoyed the opportunity to get to know the girl about whom practically everyone in Europe was talking.

Joan may have appreciated the women's kindness but it did not make the loss of her freedom any more agreeable. Perhaps to make her more acceptable to their male relatives, the three Jeannes asked her to give up her male clothing. Joan responded that she would not change her clothes without God's permission. She told them she appreciated their offer of a dress or cloth to make a new one, adding that she would rather have done it for these ladies than any others in France, save her queen.17 Although Joan claimed that she could not change her clothes because God had not given her leave, at Beaurevoir she had no good reason to continue wearing the clothes of a soldier. More importantly, Joan rejected the offer because she knew that her clothing had made her “the Maid.” Everything she had accomplished since her departure from Vaucouleurs had been done wearing simple male clothing and a man's haircut, followed by suits of armor, chain mail, and finally the sumptuous and symbolic clothing given to her by the duke of Orléans after the victory. Joan had come to equate her male attire with power and honor. To give it up was not possible without losing her identity.

Accustomed to activity, Joan could not have been happy. Moreover, while the ladies at Beaurevoir protected her, she was subjected to occasional harassment. A knight later admitted that “several times, joking around, he tried to touch her breasts, doing his best to put his hands on her bosom but Joan would not allow it and pushed him away as hard as she could.

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