Queen Of Four Kingdoms, The (34 page)

‘I have undertaken my own investigations and the story is even more horrific than you have told me or I have witnessed. I know now that all I have heard for so long is not only true, but worse, much worse. There is not just debauchery at court, not just bribery, but our king’s own chief minister, Pierre de Giac, and his accomplices from Montereau openly rejoice in crime. Theft from lesser noblemen’s houses is common practice, since no complaint ever reaches a judge; the chief minister sees to that. I know of the raping of these lesser noblemen’s wives and daughters on a regular basis, and if resisted, not only are their servants killed, but also the daughters and then the wives in front of their husbands. I have here signed statements from at least a dozen witnesses to these foul deeds.’

She can see she has shocked her audience. It certainly shocked Yolande when she discovered these terrible deeds, and she has agonized over finding a way to counter them.

‘I have never employed violence to dispatch an enemy, but this time there seems no other way. France needs to be saved and so does her king.’ Yolande has educated all of them, and they know she will not countenance argument or opposition. And they can be sure that whatever she says must be true.

Pierre, René, Jean Dunois and the Queen of Sicily gather a small band of her faithful followers. She decides to include the odious Georges de la Trémoille, too. He is strong, a good soldier and he hates Giac. La Trémoille may think he will be given back his position which Giac usurped, but she will see to it that the king will never reinstate him. And if he is a part of the plot to eliminate Giac, they will all have a hold over him by claiming him to be the instigator and solely responsible – thereby neutralizing a potentially dangerous enemy. She tells them her intention. Giac has the king’s ear, and since no judge will act against the king, they all agree that theirs is the only course of action for the sake of the kingdom.

That night, Giac is kidnapped, gagged and tied up wearing just his night shirt. He is put into a cart, to be driven to a town four leagues away. Yolande and her group accompany the cart on horseback. When they arrive, a local judge is presented with the evidence of numerous sworn and witnessed statements. When the judge hears that the executioner is on his way from Bourges, he remains deaf to Giac’s bribes. The verdict is foregone. Giac’s sentence is death.

No emotion shows on the faces of the Queen of Sicily, René d’Anjou, Jean Dunois or Pierre de Brézé. The evidence speaks for itself. They, the jury, are agreed; the judge has passed the sentence. Their decision is unanimous and made for the sake of France and the king. If any of them doubt the validity of their actions, it does not show. They do not speak, discuss or argue. They are united in their aim – to save the king and France. To do that they need the dukes to be in accord and that is not possible if life at Charles VII’s court continues as it has in recent months. Their jaws are set, their eyes impassive, their expressions frozen in the little light glowing from the lanterns they have brought with them. The town is asleep, what words need to be said are whispered. There are no furtive movements as with thieves; quietly, they just get on with their unified plan.

Giac once boasted he had made a pact with the devil – to exchange his right hand for material success. This he achieved. Now the condemned man asks for his right hand to be cut off, which is quickly done by axe. He is then put in a leather sack tied tight at the neck, and thrown into the river. His executioners stand and watch. No one speaks. Once Georges de la Trémoille sees the last of the bubbles, he leaves the others and rides back to Bourges. It seems he arrived at the door of the newly widowed Jeanne de Giac, and he marries her!

*

The following day, the conspirators ask to see the king and Yolande, with the others, tells him how Giac has been dispatched, and the reasons why. To Yolande’s surprise he does not really react at all. Not to the crimes committed by his corrupt courtiers, nor to the death of their leader, his favourite and chief minister. It is as if he half expected – or even hoped – that someone would rid him of a man who exercised such evil power over him.

When told, Marie shows no more emotion than the others. Yolande has educated them all, and they understand. When the law fails to protect the innocent, justice must be done another way.

As for Yolande, her conscience is clear. Her husband taught her that there are times when one must act against the teachings of Church and State. This she believes. She has acted for France and the king – the greater good.

B
y 1428, the English are advancing steadily towards the king’s territory of Berry, and Charles VII decides it would be advisable to leave his capital, Bourges. His fortified castles of Loches and Chinon in the Loire district offer more protection. It is a major decision and an enormous undertaking, but he moves his seat of government there with his family and the whole court, including the Queen of Sicily. Chinon can easily accommodate an entire army, and strategically is almost impregnable.

No sooner is the large court settled in its new surroundings than there is worse news. The Duke of Bedford, once again appointed England’s regent of France, has succeeded in persuading Parliament to grant him a huge endowment to finance a new army. Its commander is to be none other than the Earl of Salisbury, victor of the battles of Cravant and of Le Mans, capital of Louis d’Anjou’s territory of Maine.

To general surprise on both sides of the Channel, the English people prove unwilling to continue to fight in France. French agents inform the court that fewer than five hundred and fifty soldiers have enlisted, and together with two and a half thousand archers, they set sail from Calais. However, combined with the troops already in France, the total strength of the English army is still formidable, and there is always the possibility of their being joined by the Burgundians. Since the Duke of Bedford is said to have designs on Anjou and Maine for himself and he does not want to see these, Yolande’s lands, destroyed by an invasion, he has issued orders to attack the mighty city of Orléans instead. With its great stone bridge crossing the river and leading directly on to Bourges, once Orléans is taken, the road to Paris will be open, and Charles VII will be obliged to flee – satisfying for the English, but a terrifying scenario for the citizens and the country.

From Chinon, Yolande writes to René at Nancy:

You cannot know how baffling it is to see the difference between the seventeen-year-old prince who had the courage to stand up to his father the King of France, the King of England and Duke Jean of Burgundy; and this indecisive, feeble twenty-five-year-old that Charles has become, unable to make any move at all. It is beyond my understanding. As you know, I will never give up – no situation is hopeless, no matter how grave it may seem, and I am resolved to find some solution.

But even René, a born optimist like his formidable mother, is not so sure. He too has good informers, and knows the strength of the enemy.

An English army of three or four thousand is marching towards Orléans – the second-largest, richest, most important and powerful city in France after Paris. The Queen of Sicily watches developments from Chinon with growing anxiety.

By 12 October 1428, the English army has arrived at Orléans and immediately occupies the two flanking fortresses defending the city and the approach to the strategic stone bridge. Aged twenty-five, Jean de Dunois is an experienced captain. He is tall, well built and possesses the famous good looks of his late father, Louis d’Orléans. Jean is known to be immensely brave, honest and most highly regarded by his superiors. As the last of the Orléans family left in France, Jean Dunois decides to enter the blockaded city together with a few hundred men, to help with its defence. Once inside, he sends the Queen of Sicily a message:

Madame, you will be interested to hear of a strange accident that has lifted the spirits of the French within Orléans. While the English commander, the Earl of Salisbury, was inspecting one of the strongholds adjoining the city, a stone bullet fired by one of the defenders hit the corner of the window out of which he was looking, rebounded, and smashed into the earl’s head. He died four hours later. The majority of the people are convinced this is a positive sign from God. Forgive me, but I think it was just good fortune for us.

The English command has been taken over by William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, but he realizes he cannot surround the city with the resources at his command. Until their reinforcements arrive, the English busy themselves building a dozen watchtowers to control the surrounding area. Our men have found a way through between them, and we are still able to use the river to resupply the city. Once the English reinforcements arrive, however, our situation will become critical and I urge you to use your influence with the king to send an army for the relief of this vitally important city. All thinking Frenchmen know what will happen should Orléans fall.

This letter from Jean moves Yolande more than she would care to admit. This boy who never gave her a single moment of worry during his childhood with her and her family, is so very dear to her. He has all the qualities of his wonderful father – a man Yolande considered, together with her own Louis, the epitome of what a prince should be. Such memories of his father flood back while she reads his words – how the two Louis would banter together and what fun they had in the early days of her marriage. She recalls the way Valentina told her about Jean’s birth to her husband’s mistress. Never did it occur to Yolande that she would be the one to bring up this bastard son of the king’s brother – and what a rewarding experience it has been. Now he has put himself in such danger with the same courage of his father – and probably just as doomed. With the English reinforcements on their way, Orléans’ citizens will surely die of starvation or be slaughtered when the city falls.

The Queen of Sicily spends her time writing hollow, optimistic letters to her children from Chinon, telling them privately of her relief that her own territories of Anjou and Maine were spared by the English and Orléans chosen instead, but for their dear friend Jean Dunois inside the walls. But the truth is, she is desperate about the overall situation.

Other good fighting men known to Yolande and loyal to the king join Dunois in Orléans – the generals La Hire and Chabannes among them – each bringing large numbers of soldiers. This reassures the citizens, but knowing they cannot defeat the English without an army to relieve them, they have sent several reliable messengers to the king, asking –
begging
– for his help, and Yolande endorses their pleas, but to no avail. Charles seems in some sort of trance, almost as if he does not care.

One after another of the king’s loyal representatives comes to Chinon, men to whom he has always listened in the past, and whom he trusts – the Bishop of Clermont, the Archbishop of Chartres – but all, to their consternation, find the situation at the court as bewildering as does the Queen of Sicily. Charles appears listless and incapable, unwilling to take any decision at all. Without an army, and with no ability to hire mercenaries, he cannot send help to relieve Orléans. It is as if the king sees ruin as inevitable, and is mentally absent, watching the disaster as it unfolds from a distance. Yolande realises that her momentous decision to have dispatched Giac – thereby freeing Charles from the influence of such evil – has been in vain.

T
he punishing siege of Orléans is destroying morale throughout France. This once great city, whose inhabitants are starving and at the mercy of the Burgundians and the English, has become the symbol of the depth of the country’s despair. No one, and certainly not the king, has the means to help to save the city.

The mood in the country is desperate. Fear herds people into the churches, but also into the clutches of smooth-talking charlatans who peddle so-called ‘divine powers’ to the gullible masses. Faith in God our Saviour and the saints is strong, but when the French see their beautiful country despoiled and the English relentlessly invading, it is hard for them to believe without some sign from the Lord that he is with them. What relief is there to be found in prayer when villages are being torched by the enemy, and rape, pillage and plunder dominate people’s daily lives? ‘Where is God?’ is the cry heard uttered more and more.

The only small relief for Yolande at this time comes from letters she receives from René in Lorraine. When a courier arrives from Nancy, her spirits lift momentarily as she takes the packet to her room alone to enjoy slowly, in secret, like a child with a sweetmeat.

And it is from this source, when all appears lost, that it seems an answer comes.

‘Maman, please give me your advice,’ René writes in 1429. ‘I have heard from the captain of the border territory between our duchies of Bar and Lorraine about a simple yet impressive girl from Domrémy. For the past three years, no one has paid her much heed, until finally her uncle, exasperated by her constant beseeching, brought her to the attention of her feudal lord, our excellent captain Robert de Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs. The captain has written to us several times saying that this girl is determined to save France and I admit we have ignored her requests to meet us. What can a young girl do to save France? It seems she has convinced many of the local people, and Baudricourt admits that even he has been forced to change his mind once he met her. I know you have often found a use for persuasive young women in the interests of France. What would you like me to do?’

Yolande’s advice is simple – René must meet the girl and judge for himself. She trusts him to make the right decision.

At once Baudricourt agrees to bring the girl to Nancy to meet René d’Anjou. After the meeting, René writes to his mother at Chinon.

‘I was present with Isabelle and my father-in-law when the girl, Jeanne d’Arc, arrived. She is shy and looks quite ordinary. It is her eyes that held my attention; I could see the strength of her mission in them – and her determination impresses me greatly. She must have heard of my closeness to our young king, and that is surely the reason she asked to meet me. While listening to her, I realized how misguided we had been not to see her when Baudricourt initially contacted me. She told us that she had been at home in Domrémy when the Anglo-Burgundian army invaded and all the inhabitants were forced to flee. It was then, she says, that she first heard her ‘voices’.