633. Joan of Arc: Saviour of France (Part 2)

18:30Tom Holland:So it is possible for women who claim a kind of direct access to God to play a striking role in the affairs of Christendom. But against that, to repeat, there is an enormous risk in relying on such people. Because what if Joan is a fraud? What if she's been set up by the Burgundians? What if she's delusional? and even if her voices are real you know what if they are not from god what if they are from hell

19:03Dominic Sandbrook:yeah so the first thing to test i suppose is whether or not she is who she claims to be so for example is she a pusell she a maid so they actually get two women at court don't they to examine her and to see whether or not she is in fact a virgin and they say she is so that's good news that is good news so they've checked out her physical condition and now they have to check out her kind of moral and spiritual condition. This is called the Discretio Spirituum. And they send her off. Basically, they send her off for a viva, a PhD viva. They do.

19:36Tom Holland:Well, it's kind of like a debrief, I guess. So she's sent to Poitiers, not far from Chinon. And in Poitiers, there are all kinds of scholars and doctors from the University of Paris, which has always been the kind of the leading center of theology in Christendom. but lots of these scholars are refugees from the english and so poitier is their their kind of base and among the the scholars and doctors there and the prelates is the archbishop of rince who is charles's chancellor and so he puts himself at the head of the investigation into joan and they more than anyone even more than the king is alert to the risks so to quote um helen castor friend of the show author of a wonderful book on joan of arc female visionaries in the church's recent history had experienced their revelations when they were already under the care of a spiritual advisor.

20:27Tom Holland:So this was true of Catherine of Siena, a confessor perhaps who could testify to their morals and the nature of their claims. Joan, by contrast, had appeared alone apart from her escort of armed men. And rather than simply conveying a message from heaven, she, a teenage girl, wanted to lead the king's troops into battle. And so this does make her exceptional. Nothing really like Joan has been seen before. Right. To repeat, she's wearing male clothes and that she absolutely insists on wearing them. And then on top of that, there's the styling of these male clothes. They're not drab. Joan clearly is a bit of a fashionista.

21:04Tom Holland:She loves exactly the kind of expensive male clothing that moralists at the time are very down on. So this also is a cause of anxiety.

21:13Dominic Sandbrook:But the people in Poitiers say, no, she's okay. She has conversed with everyone publicly and privately, but no evil is found in her. Only goodness, humility, virginity, piety, integrity, and simplicity. I have to say they're making it sound absolutely awful. And her clothing, they say that's fine too, because actually Christ has kind of superseded Deuteronomy. And actually, Deuteronomy doesn't really apply to a woman who's been sent by God to lead men in war to recapture all day on from the English. So it's kind of fine.

21:46Tom Holland:Yeah. because basically the scholars too want to believe in it. You know, they're desperate to see the English thrown out. And also, of course, they know what the Dauphin wants. And so essentially they're serving it up to him. So this is their verdict, which they send back to the Dauphin. The king should not prevent Joan from going to Orléans with his soldiers, but should have her escorted there honorably, placing his faith in God. So essentially they're saying, you know, take a punt on it. Let's see what happens.

22:14Dominic Sandbrook:And this is the point when Joan dictates the letter that we began with to the English. Basically an ultimatum. I'm on my way. You'd better watch out.

22:23Tom Holland:Yeah. Although she doesn't at this point send it. She will send it later on. But it's there waiting to go. And so then from Poitiers, she rejoins the Dauphin who has moved from Chinon to Tor. Tor is on the Loire. and here in the full gaze of the court and therefore of France, the seal is set on her status as the potential redeemer of France. And this happens in three ways. First of all, she submits to an intimate inspection, this time by Yolande. There's a lot of inspections. Then there's a kind of mad pantomime at court where Joan arrives and she gets directed to a captain and told this is the Dauphin and then to someone who has just returned from Orléans and told, well, this is the Dauphin.

23:08Tom Holland:And she says, oh, no, no, no, it's not. And she goes up to the real Dauphin. But hold on, she's met the Dauphin, hasn't she? She has. So it's a pantomime. It's staged. It's clearly designed to illustrate both the inherent regality of the Dauphin and the ability of Joan to fathom it.

23:24Dominic Sandbrook:That's the maddest thing in this story so far. An identity parade when she's already met him.

23:29Tom Holland:No, it's not mad because it's a kind of pageant. It's a display making public to the court the role that both the king and Joan are going to play. And then something very weird and mysterious does happen, which is not normal at all. He asks Joan for a sign, convince me, reassure me that you have indeed come from God. And Joan gives it to him. But what this sign was remains veiled. It's not publicized. And in due course, Joan will be asked about it at her trial and she will talk about it. But we will come to that later on. Oh, my word. That's tantalizing. Isn't that exciting? It is tantalizing.

24:17Tom Holland:It's a complex issue. But I think it's clear that the sign is accepted by the Dauphin. The green light is given. Joan is ready to go to war. So it's now late April and as she rides off, she is a magnificent sight. So she is wearing a full suit of white armor that has been handmade for her by the king's own armorer. She has a new sword, which had been found behind the altar of the church at Fierbois, and which Joan later would say that her voices had said would be found there. So she had then sent messengers and they had discovered the sword. And the sword is very mysterious. It's covered with rust, which magically falls away as soon as it's touched.

25:02Tom Holland:And it reveals five crosses along the blade. And on the edge are inscribed the words Jisoo and Maria. This, of course, is absolutely part of medieval romance. It's very Lord of the Rings. Yeah. You know, sword that was broken kind of thing. A great hero has to have a magical sword. And Joan now has a magical sword.

25:24Dominic Sandbrook:And she's got a very nice banner as well. People often like a kind of magic banner, don't they? I mean, you say very nice.

25:29Tom Holland:This is a magnificent banner. So it's made out of white silk. It's covered in golden fleur de lis. Again, the words Jesu and Maria are stitched into it, and they appear alongside an image of Christ flanked by two angels. So it's a really splendid sight. She's on a black horse, which is a gift from the Duke of Alençon, who absolutely loves her. We've said that. He'd seen her practicing in the lists that Sheenor had been so impressed that he gave her the best charger that he had in his stables. And again, I mean, how Joan had made herself so proficient at horsemanship is a kind of puzzle. It's a mystery.

26:06Tom Holland:And she is at the head of an entire military retinue now. And this is led by the man who will serve her as her squire, a guy who's a very experienced soldier called Jean Dolan. and he's basically there not just to serve her but to look after her and protect her to make sure

26:24Dominic Sandbrook:she doesn't get captured and what's going on in orleans well this has been happening because the orleans has been besieged all this time so presumably the people there are getting increasingly desperate well the news from orleans is very grim the garrison is depleted uh the supplies are

26:39Tom Holland:running out both ammunition and food and people are starting to starve and so jones mission is to ride with a convoy of some 3 ,000 men that the Dauphin has scrabbled together. He's found ammunition. He's found food. He's put them in wagons. He's got a kind of herd of cattle. And Joni's going to accompany this train and hopefully get to Orléans and relieve the siege in that way. And so they set off. She's taking her role as God's messenger very seriously. so all prostitutes have been banished. There are priests singing hymns at the head of the convoy. Soldiers who are marching are urged to offer confession daily.

27:21Tom Holland:And I can see from your face, Dominic, that you were thinking this is not the way to build men's morale. No. But actually, it seems that it does. It seems to have inspired the men. And as they ride, their morale is palpably higher. Okay. Well, I'm glad I'm not in that army.

27:39Dominic Sandbrook:That's what I'll say.

27:40Tom Holland:Well, you know, horses for courses, Dominic. Yeah, of course. You know, this is the 15th century. They approach Orléans and they reach it on the evening of the 28th of April. But when they get there and Joan can see Orléans for the first time, she makes a terrible discovery because she and her fellow warriors and the wagon train are on the south side of the Loire and Orléans is on the north side of the Loire. And that is where the vast majority of the English are as well. and Joan feels that she has come to attack the English. So what's she doing on the wrong side of the river? How has this been allowed to happen?

28:17Tom Holland:Has she been deliberately deceived by the French captains?

28:22Dominic Sandbrook:Golly, what a cliffhanger. I can't contain myself. I'm so excited. Come back after the break and we'll find out what's gone wrong and why she's on the wrong side of that river. This episode is brought to you by Rocket Money. Tom, we often talk about how to organise our finances. I'm very conscious that I'm paying for a lot of mad subscriptions and there's one thing that we've talked about often on this show it's the thing that we probably hate more than any other and it's a hidden fee I would love to get my finances under control there are all these things piling up on our bank statements and I think I need to fix this problem I need to sort this out and to stop this I mean my finances are so chaotic that I need this app so I'll tell you what it is it's called Rocket Money it's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions it monitors your spending and it helps to lower your bills so that you can grow your savings.

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29:40Dominic Sandbrook:That's rocketmoney.com slash ishistory. rocketmoney.com slash ishistory. We're leaving today and entering a world of Mickey Mouse waving, princess meeting and greeting, lightsaber clashing, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror dropping, Banshee flying, Space Mountain launching, galaxy rewinding, What's the wonderful galaxy rewinding? Fireworks igniting. World of Other Worlds. For whatever you love, infinite worlds await at the most magical place on Earth.

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30:54Dominic Sandbrook:Welcome back to The Rest is History. Unbelievable tension. And of course, it's been mounting during the break. while those of you who are not members of the Restless History Club have been listening to the adverts. Now, while you've been listening to the adverts, Joan of Arc has been steaming with rage. It's the evening of the 28th of April, 1429. She's on the bank of the Loire, which is broader than it is now, fast-flowing river. On the other side, she can see Orléans and the English. She can see the citadel, the spires of the churches, the city walls. So, Tom, she can also see the ruins of a bridge, can't she?

31:27Dominic Sandbrook:And this is going to play a very important part in this story.

31:30Tom Holland:Yeah. So the arches have been demolished. So you've just got the kind of the pillars of the bridge. And this had connected the city to an Augustinian priory on the south bank and also to a great fortress called Les Turelles, which directly commanded the approaches, the roads from the south leading over the bridge into the city of Orléans. and the defenders of Orléans had demolished it for obvious reasons in the early days of the siege because the English had gathered on the south bank and had captured the citadel of Les Torelles and the Priory and Les Torelles is now the major English stronghold on the south bank so directly facing Orléans it's under the command of a guy called Sir William Glasdale who even though he is a knight, had begun his career as an archer, a very proficient and formidable warrior.

32:25Tom Holland:And he has turned Les Torelles into a kind of massive platform for artillery. And this artillery, it's firing across the Loire, it's battering the walls of Orléans on the north bank. And Glasdale is able to hurl abuse at the defenders of Orléans, kind of threatening them with, you know, he's going to slaughter the lot of them when he captures the city. He's a notorious figure. So there's Glasdale in Les Torelles, and it's a significant target. But Joan isn't really interested in it because she knows that the real action is on the north side. That's where the English have focused most of their efforts.

33:00Tom Holland:On the north side, they've got three fortresses along the length of the Loire, kind of blocking off attempts to relieve the city by the river. and they've also got a great screen of fortresses on the western side of the city that runs from Loire up to a great forest north of Orléans. So that basically is kind of blocking off access from there. Now on the eastern side of Orléans, things are open. So that is an opportunity perhaps for the French. And so this is what they decide that they will do. They decide that they will go up river, maybe six miles north of Orléans, and there they will make a crossing and they will then come back and they will try and get into Orléans that way because there aren't that many English siege works blocking them.

33:45Tom Holland:And the guy who comes up with this strategy is the guy who has been in command in Orléans and who has been rowed over to meet Joan and the relief force. And this is a very, very impressive man. He is called Jean, and he is also more impressively known as the bastard of Orléans.

34:04Dominic Sandbrook:And he's called this because he's the half-brother, the illegitimate half-brother of the Duke of Orléans, who's in captivity in England, isn't he? Yes. And this guy, the bastard, he's 27. He's very formidable. He's a serious person. He's a very experienced commander. He's the Dauphin's cousin. And actually, one reason for his prominence is that he's the last man standing of the House of Orléans, who's in a position to fight for the city of Orléans.

34:31Tom Holland:Yeah, and there's an incredible painting of him. People could look him up. It's such a realistic portrait. You look at it and you can absolutely imagine what he's like. Not the kind of person that you, I think, would want to get into an argument with, but also clearly very smart. but Joan, it has to be said, is not impressed. Despite the fact that the bastard of Orléans is the cousin of the king himself, she roundly bollocks him. Was it on your advice she demands that I've been brought here on this side of the river instead of going directly against Talbot and the English? And John Talbot is the most feared of all the English commanders.

35:11Tom Holland:And the bastard of Orléans, you know, he says, yeah, it's absolutely my decision. and Joan is very angry. She's very hurt. She says, I have brought you the best reinforcement that any soldier or city ever had, the support of the King of Heaven. And I think, Dominic, that at this point you can imagine the Bastard of Orléans pulling the kind of face that you even now are pulling. Not wrong.

35:33Dominic Sandbrook:But they have another council war the next morning, don't they? And once again, she starts ranting and raving about how she wants to go on to the attack straight away. She's very basable about it.

35:42Tom Holland:You know, let's just attack. But again, she's ignored because the priority is to get the supplies across to the city. And so the bastards plan that they will go up river. This is now everyone apart from Joan says, yes, this is a great idea. And so that's what they do. And so the plan is that they will go there and they will load the supplies onto barges and then the barges will go back and take the food to Orléans. But when they get there, absolute disaster. The current is obviously against the barges, but so too is the wind, which is very, very strong, almost gale force. and it's preventing the barges from reaching the French supply force.

36:16Tom Holland:So what does Joan do? She kneels down. She prays to God to change the course of the wind. And Dominic, miraculously, the wind changes.

36:27Dominic Sandbrook:Yeah, that is a miracle. I mean, winds never change otherwise, right?

36:30Tom Holland:The bastard of Orléans is convinced. And from this point on, he is persuaded that Joan has indeed been sent by God. So the supplies are loaded onto the barges. they're then sent back to Orléans. And 200 men at arms with Joan now cross the River Loire to the north bank, but not the rest of the expedition, not the rest of the 3 ,000 men. They instead turn around and head back to Blois, downriver from Orléans, which is their base. And the reason for this, and again, Joan is upset about this because she had imagined that these soldiers had been sent to take on the English. But this turns out not to have been the case at all.

37:12Tom Holland:So again, she's absolutely steaming. However, now she's on the North Bank, she is able to ride back the six miles and get to Orléans. Because as we said, there aren't really many English fortresses in the way. So the English have not been able to cut it off completely.

37:25Dominic Sandbrook:So they've left gaps in the East. They haven't got enough men. Yeah, and she's able to just ride straight in, basically, isn't she?

37:31Tom Holland:Yes. And so she makes a triumphant entry into the city. She's got her page preceding her, carrying her great silken banner. She's flanked on one side by the Bastard of Orléans, but also on the other by one of the most formidable of all the French captains, a guy known by the English and indeed by the French as La Hire, who is a man of very humble origins. He's lame because he had a spectacular accident when the chimney of a pub fell on his legs. Oh my God. It hasn't stopped him from forging a very impressive reputation for himself. And in fact, his name, Laia, seems to have come from the Latin, Irridae, the wrath of God, which is the nickname that the English give him.

38:15Tom Holland:Yeah, like the friend of the show, Lope de Aguirre. Yeah, he's a menacing figure as well. And there he is by the side of Joan. Joan, of course, is delighted by the reception she gets. You know, she's being cheered and saluted as the saviour of Orléans. But she knows that she still has lots to do, chief of which is persuading the Bastard of Orléans and Laïa that they should go on the offensive and attack the English. The Bastard and Laïa say, we can't because we haven't got enough men. We still haven't got enough men. And the people of Orléans, seeing Joan's escort, how few it is in number, only 200 men rather than the thousands they've been hoping for, they also, like Joan, are very downcast.

38:58Tom Holland:And despite their delight at getting food supplies and extra ammunition, they almost immediately plunge back into a deep despond. And there's a sense that barely hours after Joan has arrived, morale is, in a sense, even worse than it had been before Joan arrived. And Joan and the Bastard of Orleans respond to this crisis in their own distinctive ways. So Joan's approach is to send a letter to Talbot and the English commanders. And of course, she had already sent Talbot a letter, that letter, Dominic, that you read out at the beginning of the show. The Herald who had taken that letter had been held captive by Talbot, which is very poor form.

39:45Tom Holland:That's not the kind of thing that you should do with Heralds. And so Joan is very angry about this. and she in the second letter she demands that he release the herald that she give up the siege and that he and all the rest of the english retire from orleans and go back to england talbot when he gets this letter says all right i'm going to release the herald but he also sends joan a message with this herald saying you are a whore you should return to herding livestock. If you don't, you are going to be burned as a witch. And Joan, of course, is absolutely outraged by this. And so she climbs up onto the battlements overlooking the Loire and she shouts out to the English in L 'Eto 'Reille, the great fortress on the south side, telling them to surrender.

40:31Tom Holland:And they also reply with insults. And specifically, they say, well, why would we surrender to a whore and her pimps? You are all toast. So that's Joan's approach. Yeah. The Bastard of Orleans approach. He decides, actually, maybe Joan has a point. Maybe there is no point in just trying to kind of string the siege along. Maybe we really do have to stake everything on a single throw, because if we don't, then the city is going to fall. And so on the 1st of May, he leaves Orleans and he rides to Blois as fast as he possibly can. And when he gets there, he persuades all the various captains who were gathered there that they need to return with him to Orléans, because unless they do, then the city is definitely going to be lost.

41:17Tom Holland:And this time he decides he's not going to go along the south bank, he's going to go along the north bank, so directly towards the English siege positions where they're strongest. In other words, he basically has adopted Joan's plan. And this plan, of course, because the English siege lines are at their strongest, means that he is probably going to have to fight his way through. So on the 3rd of May, the bastard leaves Blois. He's got another huge train of wagons full of ammunition and food and stuff. And the following day, he approaches the English lines on the western flank of Orléans. They're kind of fortresses, siege positions, and so on.

41:53Tom Holland:Simultaneously, as he approaches the siege lines, a squad of 500 horsemen led by La Hyre and accompanied by Joan with her splendid banner, sally out from Orléans to meet them. they are, of course, absolutely expecting that the English will be there and that there will be a battle. But in the event, the English don't try to stop them. The Bastard of Orléans and his men are able to pass through the siege lines. They meet up with the horsemen led by Laire and accompanied by Joan. And together in a mood of absolute triumph, they head to Orléans, they enter the city and there they are. They haven't had to fight.

42:33Tom Holland:And the reason for this is basically because, and we've touched on it before, the English don't have quite enough men to make the investment of Orléans absolute. There are about 4 ,000 of them, and these 4 ,000 men have to occupy a series of fortresses that are scattered all around Orléans, including, of course, La Torelle on the South Bank. I have to say, Tom, it's really striking you make this point.

42:58Dominic Sandbrook:So the siege of Orléans, the relief of Orléans, is often seen as this sort of miraculous underdog victory. against all the odds. But actually, if there's only 4 ,000 English, I mean, when you think of all the battles we've done in the rest of this history, I'm not talking about the World Wars and so on, but I don't know, the Great Northern War or something. You know, these numbers are pretty small, aren't they? I mean, by the standards of some wars, this is a skirmish rather than a battle.

43:21Tom Holland:Not by the standards of the Hundred Years' War. I mean, 4 ,000 is a really substantial force, and it would certainly be a substantial force in a pitched battle. But all you know is a large city. So there just aren't quite enough. And also there is a kind of a backup force that had been stationed by the English for just such an eventuality, but the messengers don't reach it in time. And so that's a piece of luck. And the consequence of this is that basically the French numbers now match the English. The French now have about 4 ,000 men as well.

43:55Dominic Sandbrook:Yeah, and the English are fighting on foreign soil as well, so they've really got it all to do.

43:59Tom Holland:well but also they're scattered in all these fortresses whereas the french are concentrated in a single place and so this is you know this is a key moment and so now joan when she says to the bastard of orleans and lahir oh come on let's have a crack let's get on with it they say yeah fine okay let's and so that same afternoon that the bastard of orleans has arrived in orleans they decide to attack the softest english target available to them which is a very isolated fortress east of Orléans on the north bank. So basically there aren't any kind of other English soldiers ready to hand. The garrison in that fortress is on its own.

44:37Tom Holland:And so the French launch a full-scale attack against this fortress, and it falls after three hours of very hard fighting. The English, you'll be pleased to hear, put up a very good show.

44:47Dominic Sandbrook:Of course they do.

44:47Tom Holland:And this is Joan's first experience of battle. She doesn't actually fight herself. She never actually draws a sword. She never kills anyone. but she is absolutely in the battle line brandishing her banner urging the french on and at the end of the when the fortress has been captured blood is flowing you know she sees this for the first time and so she broods on it that evening i think and the next day she makes yet another call on the english to surrender so again she writes her third letter to them you men of england who have no right to this kingdom of france the king of heaven orders and commands you through me, Joan the Maid, to abandon your strongholds and go back to your own country.

45:29Tom Holland:If not, I will make a war cry that will be remembered forever. I am writing this to you for the third and last time. I will write no more. And she ties the letter to an arrow and has it fired into the English camp. And the response is the familiar one. Basically, piss off, you whore.

45:46Dominic Sandbrook:Yeah. Armagnac whore, they call her. Interesting. A reminder that there is an element of a civil war to this, as well as a war between the French and English, right? Burgundians and Armagnacs.

45:56Tom Holland:Yeah. So the English clearly are not going to withdraw. And so Joan and the French captains decide, well, we're going to continue attacking them. And so on dawn the next day, which is the 6th of May, Joan makes confession. She hears mass and then she joins hundreds of French soldiers who are clambering into boats, crossing the Loire in a great flotilla to an island in the middle of the river. and then from that island a pontoon is made out of the bridges and soldiers start crossing it onto the south bank and the goal of this operation is to flush the English out of the the great Augustinian priory and the tower of Les Turelles so that they will then be cleared pretty completely from the southern bank and Glasdale the the ex-archer the captain of Les Turelles will no longer be able to menace Orléans with his artillery.

46:55Dominic Sandbrook:Joan is on the southern bank, isn't she? She's with all her cronies. So there's the bastard. There's that bloke, Laire, the wrath of God. And there's a third guy. Now, I always think you should judge somebody by the company they keep. And this is a lord from Brittany. And he's got quite a reputation, hasn't he, for all kinds of activities. And he is called Gilles de Rey.

47:18Tom Holland:Well, at this point, Dominic, he has a reputation as a very proficient guerrilla leader. In due course, he will have a reputation for other things. We may come to that in due course. But at this point, his reputation, like that of the Bastard of Orléans and La Hire, is as a very proficient captain of men. And so these three men, with Joan, are leading the attack on the English positions in the Priory and les Togrel. Well, when the captains reach the Priory, they're right up against it. And they think, oh, actually, I don't know. I mean, this looks a bit quite a tough nut to crack. And they think, oh, maybe we should delay.

47:56Tom Holland:Maybe we should try and get some more reinforcements. But Joan, she's not having any of it. She says, we've got this. We're ready to do it. And L 'Ere agrees. And so the whole mass of the French forces gathered in front of the Priory, they surge towards the walls of the priory and they break over it. And even though the English fight bravely, the French are able to sweep them aside. They pile into the priory itself. The English withdraw and they retreat into the great tower of Les Torelles. And Joan, again, despite the fact that she has just trodden on the spike of a cow trap. So those are those kind of weapon, those kind of booby traps that they put to stop horses.

48:36Tom Holland:So she's limping, but she doesn't care about that. She's all for launching a massive attack, but she is in pain. And so she's kind of, they say, the captains say, well, look, I think you should maybe retreat, you know, go and have it tended to have a few plasters or whatever. And so she, Jane says, yeah, all right. And so she withdraws to the camp. But once she's gone, the remaining captains, they hold a council of war and they agree that they don't actually have the numbers to attack Le Torel. They may have taken the Priory, but Le Torel is just too formidable. you know it's the largest it's the most heavily defended fortress the english have and therefore it it would be insane to launch an attack against it that's fair enough but joan

49:17Dominic Sandbrook:doesn't like that does she because when she finds out about it that evening she goes absolutely ballistic and she says come on god wants us to do this what are you thinking you need to change

49:26Tom Holland:your mind yeah and she says the god you know you you captains you've conferred among yourselves but I, Joan, I have conferred with God. So the next morning, there's another council of war and Joan succeeds in changing their minds. They say, yeah, all right, okay, let's go for it. And to quote Huizinga, the great Dutch historian we quoted in the previous episode, it is clear, I think, that it's tempting to think this is kind of a lunatic approach. He's just kind of saying attack, attack, attack. But I think it does touch something deep in the hearts of the French captains. You know, they sense a kind of a quality of heroism to it.

50:10Tom Holland:So to quote Huesinger, her courage and her confidence, these are the most immediate elements of her nature and the ones that give the most tangible explanation of her success, a greatness that manifests itself in a superior, irresistible and infectious bravery. And I think that infectious bravery, the captains pick up on it. As a result, on the 7th of May, 1429, the fateful decision is taken to attack Les Torelles. And this is a decision that it maybe determines the course of the Hundred Years' War. So waves after waves of French attacks are launched on the great keep of Les Torelles. the goal is to bridge the ditch that surrounds the tower with brushwood and then to bring ladders to put them on the side of the walls and to climb up joan is with um uh an attack party there's a ladder she climbs up the ladder and as she does so she's hit in the neck by a crossbow bolt she's knocked backwards off the ladder and she drops her banner into the the mud that's being churned up by all the men at arms.

51:17Tom Holland:And so there's a great cheer goes up from the English. And obviously the morale of the French is pretty badly dented. Joan is led away. The French attack flags. The bastard of Orléans decides, well, I think this attack isn't going to work. We should call it off. We'll wait for the morning. We'll bring over artillery from Orléans. We've got all this ammunition. We'll have a crack again the next day. But Joan's squire, Jean Doulon, who is a big fan of Joan by this point. He picks up her banner. He begins climbing up the ladder, still brandishing it. War cries left, right and center. All the other soldiers see this.

51:58Tom Holland:They start following Joan up his ladder. They start putting up their own ladders. They're all piling up. And Joan, who is standing on the edge of the ditch, yelling encouragement, she urges the bastard, come on, we've got this, let's renew the attack. And the Bastard of Orléans is persuaded. And so the attack continues. And meanwhile, on the far side of the river, the townsmen of Orléans have got these great wooden planks, and they are laying these planks over the gap in the bridge that they demolished so that the arch is bridged. And their aim is to cross this kind of makeshift bridge and attack Laeterelle from the opposite side to the attack that's being launched by Joan and the Bastard of Orléans, so that effectively the English in the keep will be completely surrounded.

52:49Tom Holland:And the English defenders, recognising this, begin to panic. And their commander, this much feared, much hated, incredibly intimidating ex-archer, Sir William Glasdale, he loses his footing, he plummets into the river and of course he's weighed down by his armor and so he sinks to the bottom oh no that is the end of him and with the loss of their commander the english effectively give up and they are massacred by the victorious french 500 men in all are slaughtered and so by the evening the tower of laterale the priory both of them are in french hands and the victors rather than return to orleans by boats are able to return to the city across the wooden planks that have been laid across the river and of course you know there's an absolute mood of ecstasy bells are appealing crowds are cheering joan is the the heroine of the moment and what about the english

53:56Dominic Sandbrook:So the English back out in their siege, their encampments and whatnot. So you've got Suffolk and Talbot and Scales, all these kind of hard-bitten captains. And they're pretty downcast now, aren't they? Because they've lost a lot of men. They've lost their principal sort of forts for prosecuting the siege. They've also crucially lost control of the bridge and the river. So Orlean can now get supplies and reinforcements from the south. And basically, the game is up for them in Orlean, right?

54:26Tom Holland:Yeah. they've got no prospect of success and the english commanders recognize this obviously they're anxious to save face and so suffocq the guy who's in overall command um he draws his men up in formation essentially challenging the french to a pitched battle but of course you know i mean the french don't need to do it they came here to to relieve all you know they've relieved it so why would they risk um losing it all again by taking on the english bowmen so an hour passes the english give up they turn around and they start marching northwards away from orleans the siege is over

55:00Dominic Sandbrook:so the siege had lasted for six months but in four days um joan and the french have been able to relieve the city and to the dauphin and to those who support him this seems like you know she's delivered on her promises the miracle from god was foretold and it has duly arrived yeah i mean it

55:19Tom Holland:It absolutely strikes the Dauphin and everybody who supports him as a miracle. This victory seems to have come from nowhere. Soldiers whose morale was at rock bottom now seem possessed with an absolute confidence that God is on their side and that victory for them is inevitable. And they attribute this miracle to one person, to Joan the maid. and this is the news for instance that brought to christine de pesin the great poet in the abbey in seclusion in silence she's been so despondent it's it's what inspires her to start writing poetry again christine writes about joan the beauty of her life proves that she has been blessed with god's grace how clear this was at the siege of orleans it is my belief that never was a miracle more evident.

56:12Dominic Sandbrook:Crikey. Well, the story of Joan of Arc is, of course, not yet over because she has promised that she will lead the Dauphin to Rhin for his coronation and drive the English out of France. And we'll discover whether or not they do that. And we will also turn to the question that is now on the Englishman's minds. Is Joan really sent from God or is she, as the trial will prove, a witch? Now, if you're a member of the Rest is History Club, you can hear those episodes right now you don't need to wait if you'd like to join our club members and enjoy all the amazing benefits that they take great pleasure from every day then just head to the rest is history.com but we will be back to find out what happens next in this extraordinary story and to examine exactly what was going on in joan of arc's head so on that bombshell tom Merci et au revoir.

57:06Au revoir.

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