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Domrémy-la-Pucelle
A small village in France where Jehanne d'Arc was born circa 1412.
Through gleaming verdant valleys
Time flows backwards as you drive
The ancient roads and trails
Where history comes alive
A white horse calmly grazing
Upon fresh grass so green
Lifts high his head in wonder
At what he has just seen
I saw this horse and snapped the photo as we drove past. Thus our little ballad was inspired.
A peasant girl approaches him
Weighed down by France’s cares
And shining armor of a knight
That in her arms she bears
It sparkles through the morning mist
Like diamonds from a ring
The French await a hero now
For England is their King
In 1415, King Henry V of England defeated the French at Agincourt. He then married a French princess and was recognized as King of France.
The voice of Michael in her head
Defender of their land
Her visions come when bells are rung
She has to take a stand
Michael the Archangel was the patron saint of Domrémy. Joan also heard from Saint Margaret and Saint Catherine. She most often heard the voices when the church bells were rung.
Joan's destiny is calling
The world will know her name
She knows not what lies before her
First glory, then the flame
The last line is a hat tip to Randy Stonehill's incredible song (and album title) Between the Glory and the Flame.
Somehow she mounts the stallion white
French armies she will lead
And then she must locate the prince
A king is what they need
She leaves her little town so fair
Never will she return
The mission she embarks upon
She nevermore can spurn
Chinon is where she met the prince
The future they discussed
The siege of Orléans she’ll lift
His crown is then a must
Joan was 17 when she arrived at the Royal Court in Chinon and told Charles her plan.
She got a sword from Fierbois
The Hammer there had hid
And when she raised it in the air
Soldiers would do as bid
On 10 October 732, at the Battle of Tours, Charles Martel AKA The Hammer defeated invading Muslim forces threatening to overrun Europe. Legend held that his sword was hidden in the church at Fierbois until claimed by Joan 700 years later.
A convoy to relieve the siege
Left Blois one April day
She chose to let the English know
What God told her to say
"Begone, or I will make you go"
The maiden sends her terms
To English siege commanders there
Behind their earthen berms
"Who is this lass who orders us?
Are there no men to fight?
The feeble French must surely die
Defying English might"
The sixth of May is time to fight
The battle does begin
With Joan the Maiden in command
The French know they will win
An arrow strikes the maiden fair
The English do rejoice
The witch is dead and we will win
They shout with eager voice
Shedding her blood may slow Joan down
But stop her it can not
She left to pray and then pronounced
A victory God has wrought
Her banner it did touch the wall
Just as she had foretold
French soldiers charged the fortress strong
Now confident and bold
One thousand Englishmen lie dead
They did not heed her threat
The siege of Orléans is done
But she's not finished yet
The Dauphin must become a king
A Frenchman wear the crown
But kings of France can only reign
If crowned within one town
The Dauphin was the French title for the prince next in line to the throne.
So off to Reims the parties go
A prince and maiden knight
Where Clovis once baptized with oil
Laid claim to divine right
Clovis I was baptized from a vial of oil supposedly delivered directly from heaven via DoveEx (flown in to the Reims cathedral), thus establishing the divine right of kings in France.
In mid-July the group arrived
With not a day to waste
The consecration of the king
Must happen in that place
Then off to Paris Joan led on
For a September fight
A crossbow bolt did strike her leg
Disabling her til night
Joan remained wounded in a ditch near the walls until her men were able to rescue her after dark.
Despite her wound and soldiers lost
Joan never would retreat
But Charles would not press the fight
So she suffered a defeat
King Charles VII was now in command and thought he knew better than the one who made him king.
If Paris would not fall to her
God’s favor must be lost
Theologians’ harsh pronouncements
Came at a terrible cost
University of Paris theologians determined that Joan was out of God's will or she would have remained undefeated. Confidence in her greatly diminished.
One vict’ry and another loss
Her image suffered burn
Relieve the siege of Compiègne
And honor might return
Joan claimed a victory on the march
Arriving in mid-May
But when Margny she did attack
They captured her that day
Held in a castle tower tall
She jumped into the moat
But it was dry no water there
And she was badly hurt
The English paid her ransom fee
And moved her to Rouen
The charge was heresy of course
The trial could begin
"Are you in God's grace?" questioned one
A trap he laid for Joan
No one could be sure, so with yes
Her heresy she'd own
Roman Catholic dogma held that one could ever be sure if they were in God's grace, ignoring Biblical teaching on the matter and ensuring more control over the faithful masses.
2 Timothy 1:12 in the Catholic Douay-Rheims Edition: For which cause I also suffer these things: but I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed, and I am certain that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him, against that day.
But if she answered no instead
Her guilt it would be clear
The untrained peasant girl was doomed
They soon began to leer
Her answer took a shocking turn
When she replied with flair
"If I am not in grace, I hope
That God will put me there"
"And if in grace I do abide
May God then keep me there"
Stunned by the unexpected word
The men could only stare
They threatened her with torture tools
But she refused to bend
So several months to follow
She would in prison spend
A formal charge of heresy
Was read before the town
When Joan decided to submit
She signed with a frown
Under threat of execution, Joan decided to sign the document stating that she recanted from hearing voices, wearing men's clothing, or bearing arms.
She never would bear arms again
Nor men's clothing would she wear
But evil men they had a plan
Her treatment was not fair
Male clothing was provided her
Amid assaults you see
Joan felt she had no other way
To keep her purity
Apparently an English noble attempted to assault her, and her guards were all male.
Her promise she had broken
The jailers were irate
A relapse into heresy
Deserves a deadly fate
Breaking her promise meant she was eligible for execution.
Joan was asked about the visions
She'd abjured out of fear
Never again would she deny
The voices she did hear
She said the voices were upset that she had abjured, and she refused to betray them again.
This relapse it was enough
To sentence her to death
And only two days later
She drew her final breath
The English tied her to a pole
To execute by fire
She begged them for a cross to see
Flames rising ever higher
She kissed the cross and then watched it as she burned.
A quarter century later
With verdicts now o’erturned
Joan’s reputation has been saved
But life had still been burned
Joan's mother was still alive and got the satisfaction of her daughter's exoneration, but had still lost her daughter.
Questions remain as now we ponder
Her story ever will abide
A peasant girl who rescued France
Just nineteen when she died
What lessons can we learn today
From such a one as this?
There is more to life than comfort
True purpose brings us bliss
The morning sun burns through the fog
My eyes see clearly now
There is no rider on the horse
I imagined it somehow
by Randy Brandt
Written 21 Nov 2023
Updated 22 Nov 2023
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