2020 丨 1420 A.D.: Joan of Arc vs. The Hundred Years' War between England and France

(Script Writer: Liu Tonghua Video Coordinator: Liu Fangyuan)

Review of the previous issue

Summary for this issue

Britain wins more with less

The fate of the new couple began a month ago, that is, on May 21, 1420, the English army came to the city of Troyes and coerced the King to sign the Treaty of Troyes. According to the terms of the treaty, the English king not only won himself a young and beautiful French princess, but also modified the order of succession to the French throne, deposed the bride's 17-year-old brother Charles as prince, and agreed that when his father-in-law Charles VI died, he and his heirs would inherit the French throne, and Britain and France would unite into a country that shared the same king.

The most common metaphor for the state in the Middle Ages was the "bodypolitic," which likened the king to the head in the body. The poet and moralist of the time, John Goyle, wrote: "If the head is sick, then the body will not be healthy." If there is no reign of a king of high character, then the people are disordered and immoral. "When it comes to rulers, England and France are in stark contrast. Henry V was confident, strategic, and popular, while Charles VI was already insane, in power, unsuccessful, and unpopular, leaving the country in disarray.

The great writer Shakespeare once described in the play Henry V how Henry V was morale-boosting before the Battle of Agincourt, "We, a few, the lucky few, we, are a team of brothers - because today he is bleeding with me, he is my good brother; no matter how humble and lowly he is, this day will bring him the status of a gentleman." ”

Co-lord of Britain and France

Two years later, two kings of England and France died, and the British declared the under-one-year-old baby born to the daughter of Henry V and Charles VI as the Co-Lord of England and France, Henry VI, with Henry V's brother, the Duke of Bedford, as regent. Crown Prince Charles (Henry V's brother-in-law, later King Charles VII of France) was expelled from the heart of the kingdom. The England-Burgundy Confederation controlled nearly half of the Kingdom of France, from the Counts of Flanders in the north to the Dukedom of Gascony in the south, to the Brittany border in the west and to the west bank of the Meuse in the east.

A strong garrison policy gave the English a firm grip on the Duchy of Normandy. "The flag of England flies over Rouen, the capital of Normandy, and over the three holiest cities in France, namely, Reims, the place where the King of France was crowned, Paris, the ruling capital of the King of France, and Saint-Denis, where the King of France is buried."

The most important thing for the young lord to succeed to the throne is to stabilize the rule and consolidate the royal power, which requires the recognition and support of the people. As early as the 1620s, Henry VI's uncle, the Duke of Bedford, ordered a genealogical map of Henry VI's descent from the monarchs of England and France to be hung at Notre Dame Cathedral, and he also ordered people to mass-produce and promote it throughout France. Later, due to the damage of a visiting priest, the British side ordered someone to draw a copy of the royal genealogy map.

In the middle of this genealogical diagram is a large teardrop-like background decorated with a number of small irises. At the center was King Louis IX of France, who vigorously promoted justice, currency, and the Reformation, and under his Capetian dynasty, the kingship became increasingly centralized. Below Louis IX was his descendants Philip III and Philip IV, and further down were philip IV's four sons and daughters: Louis X, Philip V, Charles IV, and Isabella, who were the last generation of the Capetian dynasty.

At the same time, on either side of the genealogy chart are two other families. On the left is the Capetianvarois family, who ruled France after the end of the Capetian dynasty. On the right is the Plantagenet family of England, where Philip IV's daughter Isabella married King Edward II of England in 1308, and Isabella's bloodline has been passed down to Henry V ever since.

At the bottom of this genealogical diagram, Catherine, daughter of Charles VI, married Henry V, representing the heirs of their respective royal families. Their children were at the bottom of the genealogical chart, and Henry VI sat majestically on the throne, and the angel flew down and put two crowns on his head, meaning the co-lord of England and France.

The message of this picture is very clear that Henry VI succeeded to the throne of France by his blood and not by the military conquest of his father, King Henry V. Henry VI appears at the end of the spectrum and "implies that he himself is a source of unity rather than division."

It can be seen that the purpose of the British side is very clear, to gain popular support by publicizing the legitimacy of Henry VI's succession to the throne, and thus to consolidate the occupation of France. This is because in the conception of the time, blood orthodoxy was the main source of kingship in medieval Europe.

France regains lost ground

In addition to Henry VI, who had the legal right to inherit was his uncle, the former Crown Prince Charles. When both sides have the condition of blood, military victory becomes the key to the struggle for the throne. Charles, who had fled to the south, declared himself Charles VII, but because of the lack of money and soldiers, he did not seem to have confidence in victory.

In October 1428, the British began to advance towards Orléans, and soon surrounded the gateway to the south. If the city was lost, the south risked falling, so the Battle of Orleans became the key to Charles VII's victory. While Charles was struggling to resist, a peasant girl named Joan of Arc claimed to have heard the call of the saints and had come to save France by the orders of God, and she traveled day and night to Shignon to pay tribute to Charles. When Joan of Arc arrives, Charlie has no hope for him, and in order to test Joan of Arc, Charlie's courtiers ask her to identify Charlie, who has never met in the crowd, but she recognizes it at a glance, and Charlie exclaims magic. At this time, Orleans was in danger, and after Joan of Arc took the initiative to ask for help, the desperate Charles ordered him to lead his army to break the siege.

In that era of symbolism and signs, Joan of Arc cut off her long hair and put on white armor, as if a holy angel had descended on the world, she had boosted the morale of the army, and the originally negative and pessimistic soldiers had ignited patriotism. After several days of fighting, Joan of Arc, who had no experience in military command, actually broke through Orleans, which had been surrounded by the British for 209 days. Joan of Arc then took advantage of the victory to pursue.

However, Joan of Arc's prestige grew and his merits were high, and he was suspected and later sentenced to death as a witch who "dressed as a man" and "seduced the public". Joan of Arc's tragic death evoked the national consciousness of the French. In 1453, the French army was defeated by the British army, and by this time, all the lost land except for Calais had been recovered.

"The long war has nurtured a strong national consciousness, and thereafter any attempt to unite the two countries to wear a king or to occupy territory on the map of another country is doomed to failure." From this point of view, in this protracted war, England ended in defeat, lost all its territory on the European continent, and could no longer intervene in the affairs of other countries across the English Channel, and finally "withdrew from Europe".

As a victorious power, France preserved its territory, defined the rough border for the first time, laid the foundation for the unification of the country, and finally ended with national unity and the strengthening of royal power. More importantly, the Hundred Years' War made the English and French more acutely aware of the national differences between them, and "from then on they could only act according to the principles of nationality and territory, thus setting the direction for the nation-state". The unity of the kingdom and the self-reliance of the nation were important foundations for the pioneering development of Britain and France in the period of social transformation in Western Europe.

(The chief writer of this column is Bu Xianqun, and the author of this issue is Sun Xiaojiao, School of History and Culture, Shandong Normal University)

Chinese and foreign memorabilia

China

1420 AD

Emperor Ming Chengzu Zhu Di officially announced the relocation of the capital to Beijing, with Nanjing as the capital.

1422 AD

Zhu Di marched north, defeating the Mongol Tatars of Arutai and Wuliangha.

1425 AD

Emperor Akihito died suddenly, and Crown Prince Zhu Zhanji returned to Beijing from Nanjing, that is, the emperor's throne.

1429 AD

The imperial court ordered Shandong to dredge the old river north of Jining for more than one hundred and twenty miles.

West

France and England concluded the Treaty of Troyes, and the King married the daughter of the King of France and became the heir to the French throne.

Henry V of England died and was succeeded by his son Henry VI before he was one year old (until 1461).

1424 AD

Turkey occupied all of Byzantine territory except Constantinople.

The French Joan of Arc led peasant patriots to relieve the siege of Orléans. King Charles VII was crowned in Reims.