We often hear it said and repeated that Jeanne D’Arc was from Lorraine. This is false, and true at the same time! Probably born in 1412, in the southern part of Domrémy, a small village located between the towns of Neufchâteau and Vaucouleurs, she was officially subject to the Duke of Bar. But the Duke of Bar, at the time, was a vassal of King France! At least for its land located on the left bank of the Meuse. The rest of the village, to the north, was at the time of the châtellenie of Vaucouleurs, which directly belonged to the Kingdom of France. In the south, on the other hand, Neufchâteau is an enclave of the Duchy of Lorraine.
Born in Domrémy, therefore on the left bank of the Meuse, Jeanne had every reason to be French, or to put it better, Barroise. So why do we persist in wanting to make Joan of Arc a Lorraine? Perhaps the fault lies with François Villon, the earthy poet of the end of the Middle Ages who, in his Ballad of the ladies of the past, quotes us “Jehanne, the good Lorraine, that Anglois brusléré in Rouen”. Perhaps.
Still, it is in Domrémy, a small village in the Vosges department, so in the present Lorraine region (hated to be the Grand-Est) that the Maid was born. His birthplace, in Domrémy, is an astonishing monument. Built in stone, it has only three rooms in which lived, at the beginning of the XVth century, Joan, her parents, Jacques d’Arc and Isabelle Rommée, as well as her brothers and sister: Jacquemin, Catherine, Jean and Pierre. The residence, quite opulent for the time, continues to attract tourists who are often surprised, in front of the fireplace and the lintel in accolade decorated with the coat of arms that Charles VII will grant to the Arc family, to find here a certain luxury, a certain pageantry.
If some historians in need of sensationalism have been able to affirm that Joan of Arc, as the adulterous daughter of Isabeau of Bavaria and of the Duke of Orleans, would not have been born in Domrémy but would have only been entrusted there to the care of a brave plowman, it is there, however, in the delightful Valley of the Meuse, that she will grow up and receive a very pious education. The trial that the Maid underwent in Rouen is formal: Jeanne spent her days spinning and, on Sundays, she used to go to the chapel of Bermont, near Greux, to pray devoutly. It is certainly during one of her wanderings that Jeanne will hear, at a place called Bois Chenu, the famous voices ordering her to go kick the English out of a France which they had occupied then for more than half a century, a large half. Outsmarting parental authority, the young girl manages to meet the Lord of Vaucouleurs Robert de Baudricourt who, after having sent her to graze for the first time, ends up granting her an escort. On February 25, 1429, she was in Chinon, where she managed to convince the presumed heir to the throne of France to entrust her with an army. The latter, who no longer has much to lose, gives Joan the command of a few soldiers led by a troop of brave knights, with whom she manages, on May 8, 1429, to free Orleans. A month later, she defeated the English at Patay. The way is now clear to go to Reims, where she attends the coronation of Charles VII. But Jeanne does not stop there. She besieges Paris, where she is wounded by a crossbow bolt. First failure. Jeanne then fell back towards Picardy. On May 23, 1430, while she was trying to free Compiègne from the Burgundians, she was captured by her last, who sold her, a few months later, to the English.
It is the beginning of the passion according to Joan of Arc. Imprisoned in Rouen, accused of heresy, she undergoes a battery of questions to which she answers by showing a certain sense of repartee. Unfortunately for her, her good will is not enough. Deemed to be a “relapse”, that is to say relapsed into her past mistakes, Joan of Arc is finally taken to the Place du Vieux Marché, where she is burnt alive. We are then May 30, 1431.
But the story does not end there ! Just five years after the stake, a young woman appears in the vicinity of Metz and claims to be Joan of Arc, escaped from the ordeal. The young lady marries Robert des Armoises, a penniless lord of Lorraine who had felt the good fortune there, runs the adventures, before being finally unmasked by Charles VII in person, a few years later.
Rehabilitated from the middle of the 15th centuryth century, Joan of Arc will arouse, throughout the modern era, a certain mistrust, even indifference. In the XIXth century, the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine once again propels it to the fore. If she knew how to kick the English out of France, perhaps she will be able, through her intercession, to ensure that the Germans abandon the lost provinces? Suddenly, we pray to her, we worship her. Beatified in 1909, she ended up being canonized in 1920. Saint Joan of Arc! What an amazing story, after all … But a story written in two parts. There is that of Joan who, from 1412 to 1431, takes us from the Meuse Valley to the stake in Rouen, passing through Chinon, Orléans and Reims. And then there is the second story, the one that begins in 1431, which continues with the rehabilitation process, with canonization and which continues to be written, even today.
In any case, all these stories that revolve around Joan of Arc whisper to us and remind us, like the voices of Bois Chenu, that it is there, in Domrémy, on the banks of a Meuse that the poet describes as sleeping, that it is here, yes, in a modest stone house, that it all began.
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