A lot of scientific research has been written about her, and despite this - or perhaps precisely because of this, the disputes around her fate not only do not subside, but, on the contrary, flare up with increasing force.
The official life story of the Virgin of Orleans has existed since the time of the French Revolution and is detailed in school textbooks. Jeanne d'Arc was born in the village of Domrémie, in Lorraine, in the family of the farmer Jacques d'Arc (Jacques or Jacquot d'Arc, about 1375-1431) and his wife Isabelle (Isabelle d'Arc, née Isabelle Romee de Vouthon, 1377- 1458) around 1412.
Image of Joan of Arc, painted between 1450 and 1500.
It was a difficult time for France. For more than seventy years, the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) had been going on, and during this time the French managed to lose most of the kingdom's territory. In 1413, an uprising broke out in Paris. In 1415, the British landed in Normandy with an army under the command of a talented military leader - the young King Henry V (Henry V, 1387-1422). In the fall of 1415, the famous Battle of Agincourt took place, as a result of which the entire flower of the French aristocracy was captured. A civil war broke out in the country between the Burgundians and Armagnacs, while the British conquered one territory after another. In 1420, a peace treaty was even concluded in Troyes, according to which the French throne was succeeded by the English king Henry V. But in 1422 he died suddenly, and a new round began in the Hundred Years War.
At the age of 13, Jeanne began "visions" - she heard "voices", talked to the saints who urged her to go to save France. The girl believed with all her heart in her unusual destiny. The saints that appeared to her hinted at a well-known prophecy, according to which one woman destroyed France, and another woman, a virgin, would save the country.
The plowman's poor daughter at the age of 17 leaves her father's house, gets to Chinon, where the young king Charles VII (Charles VII, 1403-1461) was at that time, tells him about his mission. He, believing her, gives her a detachment of knights under her command. This is how Jeanne's career begins. She will have battles, victories, the liberation of Orleans, after which she will receive the nickname Maid of Orleans. Then - captivity, charges, interrogations and death at the stake in 1431. Everything seems to be simple and clear.
However, for several decades, the official version has been systematically disputed by some historians, mainly French, pointing to certain incomprehensible moments in Jeanne's biography. Why do the chroniclers hesitate about the date of the execution of the virgin? President Hainaut, superintendent in the state of Queen Maria Leshchinskaya (1685-1770), who had access to French chronicles, names the date of execution on June 14, 1431. The English chroniclers William Caxton (1422-1491) and Polydore Vergil (1470-1555) claim that the execution took place in February 1432.
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Doubting the veracity of the official biography of Joan of Arc, historians were divided into two directions: bastardism and survenism.
The ideologist of the first movement was Robert Ambelain, a freemason of a very high degree of initiation. He drew attention to the fact that the honors given to the Maid of Orleans at the French court did not in any way correspond to her official status, set out in the traditional biography. So, for example, Jeanne was given a whole retinue; she was allowed her own banner; she was dressed in expensive knightly armor with golden spurs; the size of the ransom for her corresponded to the ransom for a person of royal blood. Moreover, the coat of arms of the Virgin of Orleans has the same colors and symbols as on the coat of arms of Charles VII. Isn't it too much for a simple peasant woman? Was Jeanne really royal blood?
Ambelain's guess was confirmed in 1934, when the historian E. Schneider discovered in the archives of the Vatican the interrogation protocols of the Maid of Orleans. Among them is the report of two Franciscan monks who interviewed the inhabitants of the village of Domréme, where Joan of Arc was allegedly born. All of them unanimously argued that the heroine of France was not a peasant at all, and no one other than the daughter of Isabella of Bavaria and her husband's brother Louis Orleans. In editions of the book "Stories of the Royal House" until the middle of the 18th century, there is evidence that Isabella and Louis on November 10, 1407, a girl named Jeanne was indeed born. In later editions, this child suddenly changed not only the name, but also the gender. Girl Jeanne for some reason became a boy Philip. Obviously, The History of the House of the King was edited by the Bourbons soso that there could be no doubts about the veracity of the official biography of the heroine of France.
Thus, most likely Joan of Arc really was a special royal blood, and not a rootless peasant woman, and was the sister of Charles VII and the English Queen Catherine. Henry VI Lancaster, respectively, her nephew.
In such a situation, the question arises: could such close relatives stubbornly insist during the trial of the Maid of Orleans on her burning, as follows from the official biography of Jeanne '
It is here that the survenists take over the baton from the bastardists, who openly say: the heroine of France was not burned. However, they point to obvious inconsistencies in the official version.
First, Jeanne was executed without a secular court verdict, which was completely unacceptable at that time.
Secondly, there is no direct evidence that it was the Virgin of Orleans who was erected on the fire: the face of the executed was covered with a cap. The execution took place "behind closed doors" - only British soldiers were present.
Moreover, the official date of Jeanne's execution turns out to be more than conditional. Different documents indicate four different dates: May 30, June 14, July 6, 1431, and February 1432.
Jeanne's strange and dizzying career itself raises a lot of doubts. Medieval society was strictly estate and hierarchical. Each in it was assigned a place among the Oratores - those who pray; Bellatores - those who fight, or Aratores - those who plow. Noble boys from the age of seven prepared to become knights, and the peasants were treated like animals. How could it happen that a commoner was given a detachment of knights under the command? How could the knights, raised by warriors from birth, agree to be commanded by a peasant woman? What were the responses to the poor peasant girl who stands at the gates of the royal residence and demands a meeting with the king in order to tell him about her "voices"?
Jeanne in Chinon was received by the mother-in-law of the king, Yolande d'Aragon, duchess d'Anjou, 1379-1442), the wife of Charles VII, Mary of Anjou (Marie d'Anjou, 1404-1463) and the king himself. She was brought to the court at the expense of the treasury, accompanied by an armed escort, which consisted of knights, squires, and a royal messenger. Many nobles had to wait more than one day for an audience with the king, and the "peasant woman" was allowed to see him almost immediately.
The Bulletin of the Society of Archeology and the Lorraine Museum of History reports that "in January 1429, on the castle square in Nancy, Jeanne took part on horseback in a tournament with a spear in the presence of the nobility and people of Lorraine." If we consider that the battle in tournaments was possible only for the nobility, that shields with the coats of arms of the fighting were exhibited around the lists, then the appearance of a peasant woman on it does not fit into any framework of that society. In addition, the length of the spear reached several meters, and only specially trained nobles could wield it. At the same tournament, she impressed everyone with her horse riding skills, as well as her knowledge of the games accepted among the nobility - kenten, the ring game. She was so amazed that the Duke of Lorraine gave her a magnificent horse.
"Joan of Arc at the coronation of Charles VII" 1854. Artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.
During the coronation of Charles in Reims, only the standard of Jeanne (white, strewn with golden lilies) was unfurled in the choir stalls of the cathedral. Jeanne had her own court staff, including a maid of honor, a butler, a page, a chaplain, secretaries, and a stable of twelve horses.
The accounts of the accolades given to her on various occasions seem to contradict the assumption of her plebeian origins. Probably Robert Ambelain (1907-1997) - a famous French writer who became famous for his connections with modern secret societies of the Masonic and Martinist persuasion - was the first who decided to associate her nickname "Orleans", under which she appears, for example, in Voltaire's poem "The Virgin of Orleans" (La Pucelle d'Orleans), with another famous "Orleans" - the Orleans Bastard (Le Batard d'Orleans, 1403-1468).
Orleans Bastard, or Jean Dunois, was the illegitimate son of the Duke Louis of Orleans (Louis de France, Duc d'Orleans, 1372-1407) and Mariette d'Enghien. In his book "Dramas and Secrets of History" ("Drames et secrets de l'histoire, 1306-1643"), published in Paris in 1980 and translated into Russian in 1993, Ambelain argues that it is precisely the dynasty of Orleans that indicates the nickname of the warrior.
Then the ease with which Jeanne was received at court, and the honors that she received, and the fact that she took part in knightly tournaments and commanded knights, is explainable.
So, Jeanne's father was the Duke Louis of Orleans, which the representatives of the dynasty also knew about (supporters of this version claim that in this case, Jeanne d'Arc was born in 1407). Jeanne's rich wardrobe was paid for by the Duke Charles d'Orleans (1394-1465), and Bastard of Orleans, referring to her, called her "Noble Lady". But who, then, is Jeanne's mother? Following Ambelain, Etienne Weil-Reynal (Etienne Weil-Reynal) and Gerard Pem (Gerard Pesme) believe that, most likely, this is Isabeau de Baviere (Isabeau de Baviere, 1371-1435), wife of Charles VI, mother of Charles VII. She was the mistress of Louis Orleans for many years.
Charles VI, nicknamed the Mad (Charles VI le Fou, 1368-1422) could not stand the sight of his wife. She lived separately at the Barbet Palace, where Louis was a frequent visitor. He was called the father of at least two of Isabella's children - Jean (born in 1398) and Karl (born in 1402). Jeanne's birth took place in this very palace, and she was immediately sent to the nurse Isabella de Vouton. It is also understandable why the child had to be hidden. It was necessary to protect the girl, since her father, Louis Orleans, was killed by contract killers just a few days after Jeanne was born.
Here, again, one can single out a fact that refutes the prevailing opinion that Jeanne was just a peasant. The daughter of a man named Jacques d'Arc and a woman named Isabella de Vouton simply has to be a noblewoman - the prefix "de" in the surname betrays noble origin. Representatives of the d'Arc family were in the royal service even before the birth of Jeanne. That is why this family was chosen to educate Jeanne.
How else can you substantiate the statement about her noble origin? The coat of arms that Charles VII gave her. The royal charter says: "On the second day of June 1429 … the lord the king, having learned about the exploits of Jeanne the Virgin and the victories won for the glory of God, endowed … the coat of arms named Jeanne …". According to the description of Jean Jacoby in the book "Nobility and the coat of arms of Jeanne d'Arc" ("La noblesse et les armes de Jeanne d'Arc". Paris, 1937), the coat of arms was "a shield with an azure field, in which two golden lilies and a silver sword with a golden hilt, point upward, topped with a golden crown. " Golden lilies were considered the flower of France, in other words, a symbol of "princes and princesses of the blood", which is also confirmed by the open golden crown on the coat of arms of Jeanne. The king does not even stutter about giving Jeanne a title of nobility, which means that she already has it. With his coat of arms, he makes it clear that he considers Jeanne a princess of royal blood.
If we consider everything said to be true, then Jeanne will have to be recognized as the half-sister of the King of France Charles VII, the half-sister of the dukes of the Orleans dynasty - Charles and Jean Dunois, the half-sister of the Queen of England Catherine de Valois (Catherine de Valois, 1401-1437), sister of Charles VII, aunt King Henry VI of England (Henry VI, 1421-1471). In these circumstances, it seems inconceivable to have Joan be executed at the stake at Rouen in 1431.
It was impossible to burn a girl of such a high origin on charges of witchcraft. The question of why this performance was needed is too complicated, and is the topic of a separate article.
Now we are talking about something else, about the life of Jeanne after … her official execution. To understand how Jeanne was able to avoid execution, it is worth referring to the description of this sad action: “On the square of the Old Market (in Rouen), 800 English soldiers forced the people to make room … finally, a detachment of 120 people appeared … They surrounded a woman, covered with a … chin … . According to historiographers, Jeanne's height was about 160 cm. Considering the double ring of soldiers around her, the cap on her face, it is not possible to say with certainty what kind of woman she was.
Joan of Arc at the siege of Orleans. 1429 g.
Doubts that d'Arc was burned become practically proven when you consider that she is not mentioned in the books of those executed by the Inquisition. In other words, it turns out: the secular authorities have nothing to do with the burning of Jeanne, since they did not pass a sentence on her, and the Inquisition also had nothing to do with it, since, according to the documents, she did not execute her. Thus, the burning of the Maid of Orleans simply did not happen!
In an effort to confirm their guesses, revisionist historians were able to find documents from which it is clear: five years after the alleged execution in Lorraine, a woman appeared, identified by many as Joan of Arc. Among those were fellow generals and King Charles himself. On November 7, 1436, this person married the Comte de Armoise. Moreover, in 1438-39 she took part in the hostilities in Aquitaine. A year later she went to Orleans, where she met in Charles VII. Finally, Jeanne d'Arc, married to de Armoise, left military and political affairs in 1440. The heroine left for the Zholny castle, where she lived until her death in 1449. She died under mysterious circumstances, a little before she was 42 years old.
The real story of Joan of Arc raises many questions, and the main one is: why did the closest relatives put her on trial, achieved execution, and then, apparently, saved her by staging an execution?
It turns out that the answer to this question must be sought in events that occurred long before the birth of the Maid of Orleans herself.
As you know, the first rulers of France were the Merovingians. They were related to the dynasty of the Aymerings of the Septiman, originating from some Jewish princes. From the Aymerings family were brothers Gottfried of Bouillon and Baldwin of Flanders. They became the organizers of the crusades. In 1099, the brothers created a knightly order, the Priory of Saint Zion, with the aim of restoring the Merovingian dynasty in Western Europe and especially in France. As a subsidiary of the Zion Order, the Order of the Knights Templar was established in 1118. But soon tensions begin between the orders, and they become independent, nevertheless maintaining strong ties with each other.
After the fall of the Crusader state in Palestine, both orders moved to Europe. The Zionists settled in Orleans, and the Templars settled in Paris, who turned out to be so resourceful businessmen that they entangled the whole of Europe with a financial web. Here it was almost impossible to find a monarch who did not owe the Templars a significant amount of money. Needless to say, in a situation like this, they determined policy in Europe. This could not please the Zion people, who wanted to run everything themselves. In 1307, they finally broke off relations with the Templars and began to provide them with increased opposition. It was the members of the Priory of Saint Zion who inspired the French King Philip IV the Fair to defeat the Templar Order. In 1314, the grandmaster Jacques de Molay, the prior of Normandy Geoffroy de Charnet and other important functionaries of the order were executed. However, the Templars were not completely destroyed,they went underground and managed to save their myriad treasury by ferrying it in 18 galleys to England. Moreover, they did not forgive either France or the Zionists for the defeat of their organization and began to take revenge.
A few months after the execution of de Molay, the offenders of the Templars Philip the Handsome and Pope Clement V died under mysterious circumstances. Then all the male descendants of Philip went to the other world. As a result, a struggle for power began in France between the Valois dynasty and the English kings, who wanted to seize the French throne. In the end, Valois prevailed. But incited by the Templars, the English king Edward III, who had given consent to the accession to the throne of the Valois dynasty, retracted his words. This was the reason for the Hundred Years War. In fact, it was unleashed by the Templars who had gone underground. They, burning with revenge on France, financed the British army from the order treasury they had taken out.
Obviously, the Zion people knew perfectly well the background of the Hundred Years War and tried to oppose the Templar underground.
The fighting went on with varying success, but for a whole century France was subjected to ruin by the British and the Burgundians who joined them, whose dukes were related to the last master of the Knights Templar.
At the final stage of the Hundred Years War, France needed a national hero more than ever. It seems that the preparation of such was undertaken by the grandmaster of the Priory of Holy Zion from 1418 to 1480, Rene of Anjou. Apparently, being the illegitimate daughter of royalty, Joan of Arc was brought up in the village of Domrémy, which, being part of the order lands of the Zion people in Lorraine, was under their strict supervision. The idea to make her a hero-liberator came to the grandmaster in the late twenties of the 15th century. It is precisely established that the first meeting of Jeanne and Rene of Anjou took place in the winter of 1429, and literally a few months later rumors spread around the country about a Lorraine peasant woman, to whom the Savior himself appeared and predicted the liberation of France from the invaders. The Zionist propaganda machine and Charles VII quickly made her a national heroine, an instrument of a just war of liberation in the hands of the Lord. If you look closely, it is easy to see that the troops led by the Maid of Orleans fought no better than the French rati, led by other military leaders. This is once again confirmed by her capture at the Battle of Compiegne.
When Jeanne was in the hands of the Burgundians, the question arose before her close relatives on both sides of the front: how to save a woman, because hardly her brother, Charles VII, and her sister, Queen Catherine of England, wanted her dead. Only the Templars who had gone underground insisted on the execution of the heroine. The French could not buy it from the Burgundian duke, who, being a descendant of Jacques de Molay, simply did not make a deal with them. Therefore, her sister, the English Queen Catherine, took up the salvation of Jeanne. She easily ransomed a relative from the Burgundians, but she simply could not let go. If she did this, the underground Templars would, at best, deprive the English army of funding, and at worst, would easily send the British queen to the next world, as they did with Philip the Fair.
To get around all these obstacles, Catherine started a fake trial and a fake execution of Joan of Arc. In fact, the Maid of Orleans was released. The swindle of the English queen was revealed only after a few years, and the Templars in 1449 reached Joan; in any case, this is indicated by the mysterious circumstances of her death. The Templars did not go to an open conflict with Catherine then, since England continued for four more years with their money to regularly torment France, which they hated. Catherine's son, Henry VI, had to settle accounts with the behind-the-scenes puppeteers. It is possible that it was at the suggestion of the Templars that the War of the White and Scarlet Roses broke out in the British kingdom, during which the son of Catherine was deposed in 1461, and six months after a short restoration, in April 1471, he again lost power.was taken into custody and killed under mysterious circumstances in the Tower of London.
The opinion that another woman was burned instead of Jeanne was shared by many chroniclers and famous persons, both Jeanne's contemporaries and those who lived later. One of the chronicles stored in the British Museum literally says the following: “In the end, they ordered to burn it in front of all the people. Or some other woman like her. " And the rector of the Cathedral of St. Thibault in Metz writes five years after the execution: “In the city of Rouen … she was erected on a fire and burned. So they say, but since then it has been proven otherwise."
Even more convinced that the Maid of Orleans was not burned, the materials of the trial. Back in the 16th century, Advocate General Charles du Lee drew attention to the fact that in the documents and minutes of the interrogation of the virgin there is no death sentence and an official act certifying the execution of the sentence.
But if the Maid of Orleans was not burned at the stake, then what is her future fate?
In 1436, five years after the fire in Rouen, a record appears in the documents of the noble des Armoise family: "The noble Robert des Armoises was married to Jeanne du Lys, a virgin of France … November 7, 1436". The surname du Lys was borne by the sons of Jeanne's official father.
And in the summer of 1439 the Maid of Orleans herself came to the city she had liberated. She now bore her husband's surname, des Armoise. She was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd of townspeople, in which there were many people who had seen her earlier. Another noteworthy entry appeared in the register of the city about the payment of a large sum of money to Jeanne des Armoise - 210 livres "for the good service rendered to the city during the siege." The heroine was recognized by those who knew her well four years ago - her sister and brothers, Marshal of France Gilles de Rais (1404–1440), Jean Dunois and many others.
Jeanne died in late summer - early autumn 1449 - it was this period that documents testifying to her death date from. Only after that her “brothers” (meaning the sons of Jacques d'Arc) and her official mother (Isabella de Vouton) began to be called “brothers of the late Jeanne the Virgin” and “Isabella, mother of the deceased Virgin”.
This is what one of the most common alternative versions of the origin of the heroine of the Hundred Years War looks like today.
Another version says that Joan of Arc is Marguerite de Chandiver, the illegitimate daughter of King Charles VI and his last mistress, Odette de Chandiver (Odette (Odinette) de Champdivers, 1385 / 89-1424 / 25). The king raised his daughter as a warrior for self-defense, since his two sons in the struggle for the throne were destroyed by the supporters of the Duke Louis of Orleans. And since Charles VII was an illegitimate son and could not claim the throne, they needed a performance about "the intervention of God's forces."
This is how the myth of the virgin who will save the country is born. This role was played by Marguerite de Chandiver. Later, the image of Joan of Arc and Marguerite, and Charles VII began to interfere - the constant supremacy of a woman over the army was unnecessary. Therefore, a plan was developed for the disappearance of Jeanne. Instead of Marguerite de Chandiver, a completely different woman was burned at the stake. And Marguerite-Jeanne lived a long life and was buried in the basilica of the Notre-Dame-de-Clery temple near Orleans.
But both versions we mentioned are similar in one thing: Jeanne's life is much more complicated and interesting than they are trying to inspire us from school.
Official science does not recognize the arguments of supporters of alternative versions. But one way or another, the question of the origin of Joan of Arc remains open: it is not at all easy to brush aside the facts about her noble origin.
Elena Ankudinova