Front matter

People of the first volume

The names that the narrative cannot do without, from Domrémy to the cathedral. Volume II will need a longer list.

• The Maid · c. 1412 – 1431

  Joan (Jehanne la Pucelle)

  Labourer’s daughter of Domrémy. Said she was sent by God, through Saints Michael, Catherine, and Margaret, to raise the siege of Orléans and to have Charles anointed at Reims. Both things were done by 17 July 1429.

• Dauphin, then King of France · 1403 – 1461

  Charles VII

  Disinherited by the Treaty of Troyes (1420). Unanointed until Reims. Cautious, indebted, and split between factions. Joan’s ‘gentle king.’

• Joan’s mother

  Isabelle Romée

  Taught her daughter her prayers. Came to Reims. In 1456, aged, she petitioned for the nullification of the Rouen process.

• Joan’s father

  Jacques d’Arc

  Peasant of standing at Domrémy. Dreamed his daughter would go with soldiers and said he would rather drown her. Came to Reims.

• Captain of Vaucouleurs

  Robert de Baudricourt

  Charles’s man on the Meuse frontier. Refused Joan twice, then furnished the escort to Chinon in February 1429.

• Escort

  Jean de Metz (de Novelonpont)

  Man-at-arms of Vaucouleurs. First soldier to promise to take her to the king. Rode with her, and later testified at the nullification.

• Escort

  Bertrand de Poulengy

  The other sword of the February ride. Swore to her conduct on the night roads.

• Queen of Sicily, Charles’s mother-in-law · 1381 – 1442

  Yolande of Aragon

  The court mind most willing to use unusual instruments. Angevin interest, war on the Loire, patron of the Maid’s chance.

• Court favorite

  Georges de La Trémoille

  Power at Chinon. Preferred delay, Burgundian calculation, and his own position to a peasant’s march on Reims.

• Bastard of Orléans · 1402 – 1468

  Jean, Count of Dunois

  Practical commander of the Orléans interest. Met the convoy, took Joan into the city, and became her most important military witness.

• Prince of the blood · 1409 – 1476

  Jean, Duke of Alençon

  Recently ransomed. Met her at Chinon, fought at Jargeau and Patay, and remembered her with a soldier’s precision in 1456.

• Captain

  Étienne de Vignolles (La Hire)

  Hard professional of the Loire war. Confessed when she made him, fought when she moved, and stands for the captains she did not replace but redirected.

• Joan’s master of household

  Jean d’Aulon

  Appointed at Tours. Present at Orléans and after. Dry, loyal, and under oath one of the best eyes we have.

• Regent of France for Henry VI · 1389 – 1435

  John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford

  The competent English ruler of the north. Addressed in Joan’s letter of 22 March. Could not intercept the Reims march after Patay.

• English captain · 1387 – 1453

  John Talbot

  Named in the March letter. Fought the siege of Orléans and was captured at Patay.

• Captain of the Tourelles

  William Glasdale

  Traded insults with Joan from the broken bridge. Drowned in the Loire on 7 May 1429 when the Tourelles fell.

• English captain

  Sir John Fastolf

  Victor of the Day of the Herrings (12 February 1429); escaped Patay and was slandered for it. A long shadow in English memory.

• Duke of Burgundy · 1396 – 1467

  Philip the Good

  The balance of the war. Ally of England by the murder at Montereau and by interest. Absent from Reims. Joan wrote to him the day of the anointing.

• Archbishop of Reims

  Regnault de Chartres

  Preached caution, officiated at the coronation, and never quite forgave the instrument God had used to get him into his own cathedral.

• Poet · c. 1364 – c. 1430

  Christine de Pizan

  In July 1429 she wrote the Ditié de Jehanne d’Arc, the first great contemporary reading of the Maid, while the Maid was still in the field.