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Burgundy, and supported by the queen, Isabeau, whose daughter Catherine had married king Henry V of England, were waging bitter war against the Armagnacs (see note p. 4-21). The Burgundians at first had remained neutral. But when their leader, the duke of Burgundy, was murdered at the hands of a supporter of the Dauphin (Charles VII, the natural heir to the throne, and uncrowned king), the Burgundian faction, which held Paris, sided with the English.

The Dauphin was supported by the Armagnacs. His court was at Burges. Being a man of weak character, and surrounded by traitors, he was helpless. He was forced to stand idly by and see his kingdom slowly dissolve.

In September 1428 the English laid siege to Orleans, the chief city of the valley of the Loire. It is at this time that Joan of Arc, a simple peasant girl, to be known later as the Maid of Orleans, appeared before the Dauphin and succeeded in convincing him of her divine mission. This mission was: to raise the siege of Orleans and to crown the Dauphin at Rheims. The Dauphin placed the devout maid at the head of his army with the title of commander in chief.

charles VII .... l'héritier. The Dauphin. See Historical note (above).

Reims. Rheims, chief city of the department of Marne. Charles VII was crowned here in 1429.

les trentes femmes. A reference to an attack on the castle of Amiens in the twelfth century. Amiens. Formerly the capital of Picardy; now in the department of Somme.

Notes 85

Jeanne Hachette. A celebrated French heroine. When her native city, Beauvais, was besieged by Charles the Bold in 1472, Jeanne knocked down with a hatchet (whence her name) the standard bearer of the Burgundians.

hussites. The Hussites were followers of John Hus (or Huss), a celebrated religious reformer. He was born in Bohemia, and burned at the stake as a heretic (1415).

Conecta. Thomas Conecta was a carmélite friar and noted preacher of Brittany. For violent denunciations against the dissolute clergy he was burned at Rome in 1434. The monastic order of Carmelites was founded in 1207; it was a mendicant order. Courtrai. A city in western Belgium.

Arras (pronounce the s). The capital town of the department of Pas-de-Calais. It was formerly noted for its wonderful tapestry, beautiful cathedral, and hôtel de ville, destroyed by the Germans in 1917.

Marie d'Avignon. This French woman, who claimed to be inspired, declared that France was being ruined by a woman (see note p. 9-7), and would be restored by an armed virgin from the Lorraine border.

Xaintrailles (or SaintraillesJ. A Gascon, one of the famous captains of the Dauphin's army. He served with Joan of Arc.

stigmates. Stigmatization is the name applied to the impression on certain individuals of the stigmata or marks similar to the wounds made on the body of Christ during his agony on the cross. The great majority of cases noted are religious. It is generally believed that stigmata is only a neurotic phenomenon in hysterical individuals.

La Lorraine. Lorraine has always been on the border between Germany and France. In 1871 part of it (German Lorraine) was ceded to Germany, with Metz as the capital city. At the close of the World War, in 1919, the lost provinces of Lorraine and Alsace were restored to France.

Le grand Guise. Henry I, duke of Guise, was the most celebrated of this powerful family, a branch of the house of Lorraine. It was he who after a brilliant career as a soldier was the chief author of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew. Later he attempted to gain possession of the crown of Henry III, but was assassinated by the king (1588).

Callot. Jacques Callot, a French painter and engraver, was a native of Nancy (1592-1635).

Vosges. A chain of mountains in Eastern France lying between the Moselle river and the Rhine.

Carlovingiens. The Carlovingian dynasty ruled in France from its founder Pépin le Bref to Louis V (751- 987), The name is derived from Charlemagne.

Notes 87

LuxEuiL. A village in the department of Haute- Saône, noted for its monastery founded in the sixth century. Remiremont. A town in the department of Vosges. Its abbey was founded in 910.

saint-empire. The Holy Empire founded by Charlemagne (800-911).

royauté de femme. Note the omission of the definite article when the noun is to be translated adjectively.

Champagne. Champaign, a former French province. Consult map.

Dom-Remy (or Domremy-la-Pucelle). A village in the department of Vosges, birth place of Joan of Arc. See map.

devait, was to; was destined to.

Meuse. A river in Eastern France, rising in the department of Haute-Marne. It flows north through Belgium and Holland.

Toul. A town in the department of Meurthe-et- Moselle. It was once an independent bishopric.

P. 3-17 Langres. A town in the department of Haute-Marne.

Saint-Remy. An ancient church in Rheims, founded in 852, and rebuilt in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Provence. An ancient French province situated in the extreme south-eastern part of France. It was united to France in 1487.

entre I4E1 roi et le duc. The king of France and the duke of Burgundy.

Joinville. A celebrated French historian (1224- 1317).

Vaucouleurs. A village in the department of Meuse. See map.

les Joinville. That is, the Joinville family. Names of families are usually invariable in the plural. Compare, however, Les Gruises, Les Bourbons, and other well known historical families.

P. 4-10 route d' Allemagne, road to Germany.

Notes 89

Neufchâteau. A village in the department of

Vosges.

Les Armagnacs. Armagnac was formerly a portion of Gascony, now included in the department of Gers. The inhabitants of this district were on the side of the duke of Orleans, who supported the Dauphin. There was many a fierce struggle between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians during the reign of Charles VI and Charles VII of France.

le deviennent, become so.

Dorothée de Goethe. Goethe, the celebrated German poet, author of Faust, Herman und Dorothea, etc. (1749- 1832).

Romée. From having made a pilgrimage to Rome, Joan's mother received the usual surname of Romée. The connection is obvious.

Saint Jean. Michelet (in a footnote) calls our attention to the probable importance of the name Jean (John), the most spiritual of the twelve disciples, in the mystical and spiritual development of character throughout the Middle Ages with families favoring this name.

P. 5-27 sut, learned.

voyait, ivas accustomed to see. Note the force here of the imprefect tense.

Les fées. The belief in fairies, hobgoblins, etc., was general in the Middle Ages. In Celtic folk-lore the fairies were called the "little people" who were supposed to haunt the forests and streams. They could not be saved because they had no soul; thus they stood in great fear of all that has to do with the Christian church.

P. 8-10 Les Écossais du pays bas. The Scotch Lowlanders.

Gédéon. One of the judges of the Hebrews. See Judges VI.

judith. A Jewish heroine who saved the city of Bethubia.

la femme écraserait le serpent. See Genesis 3-15.

sainte Marguerite, avec saint Michel, etc. Joan of Arc was no doubt very well acquainted with a mass of saints' legends. The most celebrated collection is known as the Legenda aurea sanctorum. Saint Margaret was a virgin martyred at Antioch about 275.