PR - or "public relay", public relations - is nothing more than the organization of a positive image of someone or something. Formation of a positive image, that is. It is created by experienced PR people who know how to manage information. Moreover, behind these meaningful words, in fact, there are very common situations. That is, when a woman dyes her hair and lips - this is her own PR! A man is buying the third car in a row - also PR. Abramovich's 115-meter yacht and someone's gold or onyx toilet bowl - PR, PR and PR again! Well, in the history of mankind, PR is almost every second (if not the first) event.
Order from the republic, order from the king
And it so happened that at the end of the 19th century, the government of the Third French Republic, wishing to rely on the experience of past generations, instructed some of its writers to look for suitable subjects in the history of France. It should have been clear from the plots how good it is when democracy reigns in a country, and how bad it is when despotism flourishes in it. And when did despotism flourish most? Of course, in the Middle Ages! And now, looking into the dusty medieval tomes, the writers discovered something impressive. This was especially true of the bibliographic material dedicated to Joan of Arc, including songs and ballads written in her honor. Moreover, Jeanne's contemporaries were able to reproduce her life literally by day. But the more the writers studied all this, the more absurdities and obvious inconsistencies they found. And soon an amazing fact was revealed at all:most of all these chroniclers and troubadours glorifying the Virgin, it turns out, were in the service of King Charles VII and carried out his "social order"!
"Gray cardinal" Gilles de Rey
Where Joan of Arc actually came from - it was not possible to establish with certainty. Perhaps she really was a shepherdess from the village of Domremi. But there is a version that Jeanne was raised by the order of the Franciscans and was considered the illegitimate sister of Charles VII himself, who went crazy in early childhood. So, there was undoubtedly a girl, but she did not play the main role in the events.
The main one, although few people know about it, had a chance to play a completely different person - Baron Gilles de Rais, the representative of two old French surnames - Montmorency and Craon - and married to Catherine de Troir, who brought him two million livres of dowry. Thanks to his nobility and his wealth, de Re received a place in the suite of the Dauphin Charles, lent him money, and most importantly, he often helped with advice. However, it is one thing to give money to the Dauphin, and quite another to hope to get it from the king! However, this was exactly what Gilles de Rais hoped for, and since at that time the Hundred Years War was going on and the position of France was very difficult, it was then that one wonderful plan came to his mind. De Re came up with the idea of making Charles popular among the people, making him king, gathering a militia and driving the English out of the country,and in gratitude for this he should simply make the cunning baron rich! That is, Gilles de Rais tried to play the role of a “gray cardinal” under the Dauphine Charles, or, in the language of modern times, to become his image maker. And I must say that this role was quite successful for him, but only at first.
Promotional video:
Whoever is best informed wins
Meanwhile, a simple village girl just managed to get through to the Dauphin, who announced that the saints came to her and prophesied about a united France under the leadership of King Charles. And the most interesting thing in this story is the speed with which the whole of France learned about such a prospect. Just think what time it was - there is no telephone, no telegraph, not just a few literate people, but very few, and in addition, gangs of robbers roam all the roads. Who in such conditions would want to walk from one village to another like this, putting his life at mortal risk ?! Only one thing, namely the monastic cassock, allowed to move fearlessly along the French roads, because even the robbers, and they were afraid of God's wrath. And so the monks announced to the whole country that, they say, the Virgin finally appeared, who would save France,well, local priests immediately announced this in their cathedrals and parishes.
Then the troops of Jeanne and Gilles de Rais inflicted several sensitive defeats on the British, and the people, hearing about this, themselves rose up against the invaders. Naturally, all this was very beneficial for the church, otherwise it would hardly have become so zealous. As a result, just a year later, de Ré was made Marshal of France and Commander-in-Chief of the French Army, Dauphin Charles was crowned in Reims and only one - the Virgin Jeanne “was left with nothing. And then, when she tried to continue her ascetic activity, the monks again spread the news throughout the country, but this time that God turned away from Joan, but now the people have a new and legitimate leader - the king!
Another Jeanne and the ergot alkaloids
This is how Jeanne turned out to be unnecessary, but Baron de Re himself was not needed either, because Charles VII had to give a lot of money to him, meanwhile, as is well known, you take someone else's for a while, give yours and forever. Jeanne died, given to the British, but the baron soon found in her place "another Jeanne" - Jeanne d'Armoise, who also commanded a small detachment. But on the way to Paris, she was stopped by order of the king and taken to Parliament. There, the "new Jeanne" was sentenced to a pillory for imposture, in which she confessed, and was sent to her husband's estate. That is, this strange lady, it turns out, was also married, which did not prevent her, however, from leading a military detachment! However, after all these events, de Ré himself did not stay at court, but went to the remote castle of Tiffauge, where he lived in seclusion, communicating with alchemists and magicians,indulging in "scientific studies."
By the way, it is quite possible that all the “voices” that Jeanne d'Arc heard were the result of the fact that she was simply poured into her food (or during communion) with a decoction of ergot, a vegetable alkaloid that causes auditory and visual hallucinations. Or maybe she was sprinkled with ordinary hashish, which the Europeans met during the Crusades. In any case, the then alchemists simply could not have been unaware of all these drugs.
No man - no problem
Meanwhile, the Duke of Brittany, John V, posed for the lands of the disgraced Marshal of France, especially since the latter's loss of trust on the part of the king was obvious. There is no doubt also that the duke and the king agreed among themselves, because without the consent of the king, John himself would not have gotten involved in such a swindle. But Karl did not want to repay debts, and he did not interfere with the vile duke. Very soon, in all the markets of the surrounding cities, the bribed servants of the Baron de Re began to tell terrible stories about their master - about how he slaughtered kidnapped peasant children for his alchemy and magic.
As a result, on October 26, 1440, by the verdict of the court, Marshal Gilles de Laval, Baron de Ré was burned at the stake as a sorcerer. Moreover, everything worked out so well that even a few generations later, the locals still remembered this execution and frightened their young inaudibles with the name of de Re.
Pen and paper mean more than faith and devotion
Well, then, at the beginning of the 18th century, Charles Perrault came to these places, collecting folklore, and heard that distant story in which murdered wives took the place of children, and for some reason the villain-baron grew a blue beard. It is clear that such a story impressed the writer, and his readers ended up with a famous fairy tale. And only in 1992, on the initiative of another writer - the historian Gilbert Prutaud - a second trial was carried out, at which Gilles de Rais was finally acquitted, as in his time, but only much earlier, Joan of Arc was acquitted. The study of the surviving archives of the Inquisition has unequivocally shown that there were no tortured children at all, but the fact that King Charles VII was a treacherous and ungrateful person is undoubtedly!
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №45. Author: Vyacheslav Shpakovsky
