LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Joan of Arc: Duke Louis
built 190 days ago
Joan of Arc defied the cautious strategy that had characterized French leadership. During the five months of siege before her arrival the defenders of Orléans had attempted only one aggressive move and that had ended in disaster. On 4 May the French attacked and captured the outlying fortress of Saint Loup, which she followed on 5 May with a march to a second fortress called Saint Jean le Blanc. Finding it deserted, this became a bloodless victory. The next day she opposed Jean d'Orleans at a war council where she demanded another assault on the enemy. D'Orleans ordered the city gates locked to prevent another battle, but Joan of Arc summoned the townsmen and common soldiers and forced the mayor to unlock a gate.
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The first order of business was a preliminary inquiry into Joan's character and habits. An examination as to Joan's virginity was conducted sometime prior to January 13, overseen by the Duchess of Bedford (the wife of John, Duke of Bedford, and regent in France of the boy-king Henry VI of England). At the same time, representatives of Pierre Cauchon, the Bishop of Beauvais and the man who would preside over the Trial, were sent to Domremy and vicinity to inquire further into Joan's life, her habits, and virtue, with several witnesses being interviewed.
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In May, 1428, her voices told Joan to go to the King of France and help him re-conquer his kingdom torn by years of war between France and England, in what came to be know as the Hundred Years War. For at that time the English king was after the throne of France, and the Duke of Burgundy, the chief rival of the French king, was siding with him and gobbling up evermore French territory.
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Louis de Conte, a man from the French village of Domremy, shares personal memories of his childhood friend, Jehanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc). As de Conte explains early in the text, he was one few taught how to read and write as a child, and these important skills enabled him to travel with Joan after she claimed she was given a mission from divine sources, and to serve as her secretary.
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The principal aim of Joan's mission was ... attained, and some authorities assert that it was now her wish to return home, but that she was detained with the army against her will. The evidence is to some extent conflicting, and it is probable that Joan herself did not always speak in the same tone. Probably she saw clearly how much might have been done to bring about the speedy expulsion of the English from French soil, but on the other hand she was constantly oppressed by the apathy of the king and his advisers, and by the suicidal policy, which snatched at every diplomatic bait, thrown out by the Duke of Burgundy.
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