Shakespeare's Kings (68 page)

The
boy
King,
meanwhile,
was
growing
up
fast.
On
the
last
day
of April
1425,
at
the
age
of
three
and
a
half,
he
opened
Parliament
and then
rode
through
London
in
triumph,
being
'judged
of
all
men
to have
the
very
image,
lively
portraiture
and
lovely
countenance
of
his famous
father';
and
on
6
November
1429,
St
Leonard's
Day,
he
was crowned
at
Westminster.
The
ritual
seems
to
have
been
impressive enough,
as
was
the
banquet
that
followed;
but
none
of
the
principal witnesses
saw
it
as
being
much
more
than
a
necessary
preli
minary
to the
infinitely
more
important
ceremony
that
was
becoming
ever
more imperative:
Henry's
coronation
in
France,
where
the
situation
had
once again
been
transformed
-
this
time
by
a
girl
of
seventeen.

The
story
of
Joan
of
Arc
has
been
told
too
often
in
the
past
for
anything but
a
short
summary
to
be
necessary
here;
but
her
curious
appearances in
King Henry VI Part I
make
some
reference
to
her
essential.
Born
of peasant
stock
at
Domremy
in
Lorraine,
she
first
heard
her
Voices'
at the
age
of
thirteen;
and
four
years
later,
in
the
early
spring
of
1429,
she left
her
home
village
-
first
for
the
neighbouring
fortress
of
Vaucouleurs and
thence,
against
formidable
opposition,
for
the
Dauphin's
court
at Chinon.
On
8
March,
having
been
instantly
identified
by
her
as
he
hid among
a
group
of
courtiers,
he
granted
her
an
audience,
in
the
course of
which
she
informed
him
of
her
divine
mission:
to
raise
the
siege
of Orleans
and
to
escort
Charles
to
his
true
coronation
at
Rheims.
Still unconvinced,
he
sent
her
to
Poitiers
for
examination
by
a
body
of senior
ecclesiastics;
only
after
they
had
given
her
their
unqualified approval
did
he
dispatch
her
to
Orleans.

Orleans
had
been
under
siege
since
the
previous
October
by
an English
army
initially
under
the
command
of
Thomas
Montagu,
Earl of
Salisbury,
who
had
recently
returned
to
France
with
a
private
army of
2,700
men
raised
at
his
own
expense.
(Bedford,
who
had
had
his doubts
about
the
wisdom
of
the
operation
-
though
he
had
not
forbidden it
-
had
remained
at
his
headquarters
at
Chartres.)
In
November, however,
Salisbury
had
been
killed
by
a
French
cannon
ball
as
he
stood at
a
window;
his
place
had
been
taken
by
two
joint
commanders, William
de
la
Pole,
Earl
of
Suffolk,
and
John
Talbot,
Earl
of
Shrewsbury, who
had
determined
to
starve
out
the
city.
The
winter
that
followed had
not
been
uneventful.
An
armed
convoy
of
provisions
led
by
Sir John
Fastolf
had
been
attacked
on
12
February
by
4,000
French
and Scots.
The
assailants
had
been
repelled,
but
not
before
their
cannon had
shattered
the
supply
casks,
which
had
spewed
vast
quantities
of salted
fish
all
over
the
field.
Shortly
after
this
'
Battle
of
the
Herrings' the
defenders
of
Orleans,
now
running
seriously
short
of
food,
suggested the
surrender
of
the
city
to
the
Duke
of
Burgundy,
who
had
joined the
siege
with
an
army
of his
own;
Bedford
not
unnaturally
refused,
¹
but
Burgundy
took
grave
offence
and
immediately
withdrew
with
all his
men.

It
was
at
this
point,
or
very
soon
afterwards,
that
Joan
arrived
in
the city.
Her
appearance
put
new
spirit
into
the
citizens,
and
on
4
May
the counter-attack
began.
She
herself,
though
wounded
in
the
neck
by
an arrow,
refused
to
leave
the
battle
till
it
was
won.
A
day
or
two
later
the English
were
in
full
retreat,
the
French
in
pursuit.
Suffolk
was
taken prisoner
during
fierce
street
fighting
in
the
nearby
village
of
Jargeau,

1. 'The Regent answered the dukes ambassadors, that it was not honorable nor yet consonaunte to reason, that the kyng of England should beate the bushe and the duke of Burgoyne should haue the birdes' (Hall, 147).

Talbot
a
few
days
later
at
Patay.
Joan,
now
believed
on
all
sides
to
be invincible,
met
Charles
at
Tours
and
pressed
him
no
longer
to
delay his
second
coronation
at
Rheims
-
where,
by
long
and
hallowed tradition,
all
French
Kings
were
crowned.
This
ceremony
took
place, in
her
presence,
on
17
July
1429.
Her
work
done,
her
voices
now
silent, her
mission
accomplished,
she
longed
to
return
to
her
village,
and
had she
been
allowed
to
do
so
it
might
well
have
saved
her
life;
but
the people
refused
to
let
her
go
and
she
bowed,
disastrously,
to
their
will, urging
Charles
to
march
on
Paris.
He
did
so
in
September,
but
his attempt
to
capture
it
was
unsuccessful
and
Joan
was
wounded
for
the second
time.