Chapter One
Of War and Occupation
(1412-1423)
* * *
The tiny village of Domrémy, in eastern France, seems hardly to have
changed in the last six centuries. At the beginning of the fifteenth
century it held fewer than two hundred people living in small houses, from
which they went out to work as farmers and vintners. Although on the
frontier of the duchy of Lorraine, Domrémy was ruled by and loyal to the
kingdom of France. Perched on the left bank of the River Meuse, the
village had been mostly spared the ravages of the Black Death, but not its
widespread economic effects or the depredations of mercenaries on both
sides of the Hundred Years’ War, that series of skirmishes great and small
between England and France. When the royal purse or residual idealism was
lacking to encourage soldiers, men outfitted with little more than bow and
arrow simply roamed through the countryside, pillaging, raping, purloining
livestock and generally terrorizing the locals, who otherwise peacefully
herded their flocks and tilled the soil.
The medieval tradition of serfdom had mostly disappeared; instead of owing
their labors and lives to a vassal or lord, French peasants in places like
the Meuse Valley could become as affluent as aristocrats: they had
property to which they paid cash rent to a local seigneur, but they
enjoyed the benefits of ownership and could increase their landholdings.
In 1400 Jacques d’Arc was an enterprising, respected landowner in Domrémy;
by 1423 he was also the local doyen, bearing both the honor and
responsibility of collecting village taxes and supervising the defense of
citizens and livestock in times of assault. He was born about 1375 in
Ceffonds, twenty miles west of Domrémy, but some historians theorize that
his parents must have lived in Arc-en-Barrois, farther south. Their
argument is based on the assumption that this location explains d’Arc,
indicating the place from which Jacques came-a nom d’origine, often given
to notable or honored citizens. But if Jacques had indeed hailed from
Arc-en-Barrois, the local Latin manuscripts (the first to mention the
family) would have identified him as “Jacques de Arco,” in the
contemporary style of patronymics. Further complicating matters is the
fact that before the invention of printing in 1440 spelling was not
standardized, and so the family name appears variously as Darc, Dars, Day,
Darx, Dare, Tarc, Tart or Dart.
After living in Domrémy several years, Jacques had what might be called
middle-class status. He owned about fifty acres of farmland and pasture on
the edge of the village as well as cattle, sheep and a furnished home. The
house was typical, with a slate roof resting on wooden beams, a
hard-packed dirt floor inside, and a few rooms, some of them with a small
window; year-round, the place tended to be damp and fetid. A single
fireplace, in the main room just inside the front door, was used for
warmth and cooking; here too the family dined and the parents slept. Water
had to be hauled up from the river, and of course there was nothing like a
bathroom: instead, people found all kinds of uses for the backyard. A
wooden staircase led to an attic used for storing grain. At that time the
d’Arc house would have been considered almost luxurious.
The small home was sufficient to accommodate a few pilgrims (without fee)
or merchants (for a modest fee) who stopped in the village on their way to
more prestigious towns. According to witnesses, visitors were treated with
legendary kindness and warmth by Jacques’s wife, Isabelle Romée, who had
come from Vouthon, four miles from Domrémy; her second name was commonly
conferred on those who had completed a religious pilgrimage to Rome. For
centuries, such a pious journey had indicated profound devotion: traveling
to sacred sites-to Rome, for example, where the apostles Peter and Paul
were believed to have been martyred-was difficult, expensive and unsafe in
any season. Women, even in the company of clergy, were easy targets of
brigands, rapists and highwaymen.
At home, Isabelle’s primary task was to raise her children as good
Christians and to see that they knew their prayers. She and Jacques had
three boys and two girls: Jacques or Jacquemin; Jehan or Jean; Pierre or
Pierrelot; Jehanne or Jeanne; and Catherine. Jean and Pierre appear later
in the story; of Jacques and Catherine almost nothing is known except that
the latter married at about the age of sixteen and died soon after.
The name Jehanne is rooted in the late Latin Johanna, the feminine of
Johannes, or John; in English the name takes many forms, among them Joan,
Jean, Joanne or Jane. Jehanne was often (and eventually always) written as
Jeanne, which was how the name was and is pronounced (the h being silent).
“In my country,” she said, referring to her region, “people called me
Jeannette [the affectionate diminutive for Jeanne], but they called me
Jeanne when I came into France,” which meant, at the time, the central
part of the kingdom, where the royal court could be found and the monarch
resided.
As for her established name in history, chroniclers and poets of her time
(and she herself) never referred to “Joan of Arc.” The appellation
“Johanna Darc” was first used twenty-five years after her death, at the
trial striking down the validity of the court that sentenced and condemned
her. The first accounts in English simply translated what was considered
to be her father’s nom d’origine, and so she was identified as Joan of
Arc. The use of surnames was unusual at the time, but had she assumed or
been given one, it would very likely have been, as was the custom, her
mother’s, Romée. For her part, things were much simpler: Joan referred to
herself as simply “the Maid.”
(Continues…)
Excerpted from Joan
by Donald Spoto
Copyright © 2007 by Donald Spoto.
Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
HarperSanFrancisco
Copyright © 2007
Donald Spoto
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-06-081517-2
