Saint Joan - Segment I
George Bernard Shaw's
Saint Joan
(Segment I)
Please watch this video:
Topics:
The Hundred Years' War
Charles VII of France
Joan of Arc
The Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War is the modern term for a series of
conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the
Kingdom of England, against the House of Valois, rulers of the Kingdom of
France, for control of the Kingdom of France.
After the Norman Conquest, the kings of England were vassals
of the kings of France for their possessions in France. The French kings had
endeavored, over the centuries, to reduce these possessions, to the effect that
only Gascony was left to the English. The confiscation or threat of
confiscating this duchy had been part of French policy to check the growth of
English power, particularly whenever the English were at war with the Kingdom
of Scotland, an ally of France.
Through his mother, Isabella of France, Edward III of
England was the grandson of Philip IV of France and nephew of Charles IV of
France, the last king of the senior line of the House of Capet. In 1316, a
principle was established denying women succession to the French throne. When
Charles IV died in 1328, Isabella, unable to claim the French throne for
herself, claimed it for her son. The French rejected the claim, maintaining
that Isabella could not transmit a right that she did not possess. For about
nine years (1328–1337), the English had accepted the Valois succession to the
French throne. But the interference of the French king, Philip VI, in Edward
III's war against Scotland led Edward III to reassert his claim to the French
throne. Several overwhelming English victories in the war—especially at Crecy,
Poitiers, and Agincourt—raised the prospects of an ultimate English triumph.
However, the greater resources of the French monarchy precluded a complete
conquest. Starting in 1429, decisive French victories at Patay, Formigny, and
Castillon concluded the war in favour of France, with England permanently
losing most of its major possessions on the continent.
Historians commonly divide the war into three phases separated by truces: the Edwardian Era War (1337–1360); the Caroline War (1369–1389); and the Lancastrian War (1415–1453). Contemporary conflicts in neighbouring areas, which were directly related to this conflict, included the War of the Breton Succession (1341–1364), the Castilian Civil War (1366–1369), the War of the Two Peters (1356–1375) in Aragon, and the 1383–85 Crisis in Portugal.
Later historians invented the term "Hundred Years'
War" as a periodization to encompass all of these events, thus constructing the longest
military conflict in history.
Significance and Impact of the War:
The war owes its historical significance to multiple
factors. By its end, feudal armies had been largely replaced by professional
troops, and aristocratic dominance had yielded to a democratisation of the
manpower and weapons of armies. Although primarily a dynastic conflict, the war
gave impetus to ideas of French and English nationalism. The wider introduction
of weapons and tactics supplanted the feudal armies where heavy cavalry had
dominated. The war precipitated the creation of the first standing armies in
Western Europe since the time of the Western Roman Empire, composed largely of
commoners and thus helping to change their role in warfare. Civil wars, deadly
epidemics, famines, and bandit free-companies of mercenaries reduced the
population drastically in France. With respect to the belligerents, English
political forces over time came to oppose the costly venture. The dissatisfaction
of English nobles, resulting from the loss of their continental landholdings,
became a factor leading to the civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses
(1455–1487). Shorn of its continental possessions, England was left with the
sense of being an island nation, which profoundly affected its outlook and
development for more than 500 years.
In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII
inherited the throne of France under desperate circumstances. Forces of the
Kingdom of England and the Duchy of Burgundy occupied Guyenne and northern
France, including Paris, the most populous city, and Reims, the city in which
the French kings were traditionally crowned. In addition, his father Charles VI
the Mad had disinherited him in 1420 and recognized Henry V of England and his
heirs as the legitimate successors of the French crown instead. At the same time,
a civil war raged in France between the Armagnacs (supporters of the House of
Valois) and the Burgundian party (supporters of the House of Valois-Burgundy
allied to the English).
With his court removed to Bourges, south of the Loire River,
Charles was disparagingly called the “King of Bourges”, because the area around
this city was one of the few remaining regions left to him. However, his
political and military position improved dramatically with the emergence of
Joan of Arc as a spiritual leader in France. Joan of Arc and other charismatic
figures led French troops to lift the siege of Orleans, as well as other
strategic cities on the Loire river, and to crush the English at the battle of
Patay. With the local English troops dispersed, the people of Reims switched
allegiance and opened their gates, which enabled the coronation of Charles VII
in 1429 at Reims Cathedral. This long-awaited event boosted French morale as
hostilities with England resumed. Following the battle of Castillon in 1453,
the French had expelled the English from all their continental possessions
except for the Pale of Calais.
Joan of Arc (6 January c. 1412 – 30 May 1431), nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years' War, and was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint. Joan said she received visions of the Archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria instructing her to support Charles VII and recover France from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent Joan to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence after the siege was lifted only nine days later. Several additional swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims. This long-awaited event boosted French morale and paved the way for the final French victory.
On 23 May 1430, she was captured at Compiègne by the Burgundian faction, which was allied with the English. She was later handed over to the English and put on trial by the pro-English Bishop of Beauvais Pierre Cauchon on a variety of charges. After Cauchon declared her guilty she was burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, dying at about nineteen years of age.
In 1456, an inquisitorial court authorized by Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, debunked the charges against her, pronounced her innocent, and declared her a martyr. In the 16th century she became a symbol of the Catholic League, and in 1803 she was declared a national symbol of France by the decision of Napoleon Bonaparte. She was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920.
Prepared by Jacob Eapen Kunnath
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