Yolande of Aragon // The Woman That Won the Hundred Years War Part 3

The last time we checked in with our favourite powerhouse Yolande of Aragon, it was 1423 and after four years in the South, she had returned to France to deal with the embarrassingly shitty shenanigans in Paris. These shitty shenanigans had resulted in the crowning of the infant King of England as the new King of France alienating the rightful heir to the throne Charles (who in arguably the best decision of his life, decided he would do well to listen to his Yolande for the foreseeable future) while a mysterious prophecy of a virgin girl from Lorraine being the saviour of France was beginning to grab everyone’s attention. We start off this post in 1425 and the situation in those two years had not massively changed; Charles as inconsistent and indecisive as ever was refusing to go on the offensive against the English having been spooked by his previous series of losses. Yolande who as regent of Anjou was feeling significant anxiety at how close the English were to her lands, was unimpressed by both her son in law’s indecisiveness which must have infuriated her and his appalling judge of character. You see, it was pretty easy to win Charles over. He was easy to manipulate and men like Georges de la Tremoille found it easy to win his favour. Now de la Tremoille, as I’m sure you’ve guessed would turn out to be the next thorn in Yolande’s side. Having taken control of her son in law’s de facto government (she regularly chaired his council and had filled his government with men that a) she could trust, b) she considered loyal and c) who wouldn’t screw things up like some of the men Charles found himself inclined to grow close to), she was working hard to defeat the English and secure Charles his rightful place on the throne. Unfortunately Charles himself became an obstacle to those goals as did Tremoille who was “corrupt, cunning and enthusiastically self serving” [1] and much to Yolande’s chagrin “flattered Charles and played upon his vices and insecurities, encouraging inaction. He was especially masterful at detecting weakness in others and exploiting conflict to his own advantage” [2]. The latter of those traits would become particularly significant as de la Tremoille’s growing influence rankled Yolande leading to a series of quarrels between Charles and Yolande which culminated in the summer of 1427 with the latter abruptly quitting her role as de-facto chair of his council and retiring from court to her castle at Samur. That left Georges de la Tremoille with almost complete control over Charles and his court and if you thought things had been bad for Charles, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

For a good year or so Yolande monitored the situation from afar however the increasingly aggressive actions of the English military and the way Charles basically sat on his arse and did nothing in response, enraged her so much that she decided to put a stop to all the shenanigans and stage a coup. Normally a woman of patience and diplomacy, she evidently felt she didn’t have the time to waste. The future of France was at stake and if Charles wasn’t willing to step up, then she would. In February 1428 she staged a small get-together at her castle in Samur with a carefully selected group of attendees. You see, Yolande was not the only one that had clashed with de la Tremoille and quarrelled with Charles; Arthur de Richemont (the constable), the Count of Pardiac and the Duke of Clermont were just two former advisors of Charles’ who had left the court in the aftermath of de la Tremoille’s emergence as Charles’ de facto chief minister. They offered their support to Yolande who came up with a plan, mobilised her troops and by summer was ready to act. In June the three men sent a letter to the king asking that he summon the Estates General (a representative assembly made up of the three estates i.e clergy, aristocracy and the commoners) in order to deliberate the direction of the increasingly disastrous war. They did grovel slightly telling Charles that they wished to reconcile with him despite everything. They also however stipulated that whatever decisions came from the meeting, did actually have to be implemented rather than just ignored and to ensure that that happened, they wanted none other than “the Queen of Sicily and those whom she was pleased to designate for the task be responsible for ensuring the execution” [3]. In other words Yolande had a proven track record of getting shit done and they knew her guiding hand would be vital. Now Charles let’s be honest, was in no position to refuse. The English terrified the pants off of him, he was losing advisors left right and centre and the army that Yolande had under her control could easily have taken over the government, had he not agreed to their demands. He then made the very good, very smart decision to summon the Estates General and reconcile with his mother in law who in turn immediately donated 500,000 francs to Charles’ war effort, just to smooth over the reconciliation. Charles it was said was very was chuffed with the gift (unsurprising considering how broke he was) and upon the meeting of the Estates General, Yolande was given back her old authority within the royal council, this time with two new powerful advisors the Duke of Alençon and the Count of Vendôme on her side. In the months that followed England became an even bigger pain in the behind with non-stop propaganda emphasising the lineage of Henry VI emphasising that he was a direct descendant of Louis IX who as Nancy Goldstone points out was pretty adored by everyone “from the lowest peasant to the most exalted aristocrat” [4] whilst they implied that Charles was not his father’s son a reference to the old rumour that his mother Isabeau had, had an affair with her own brother in law the Duke of Orleans. I’d just to point out that Charles was born in 1402 whilst rumours about Isabeau and Orleans didn’t start making the rounds until 1405. Not only that but based on his birthdate, Charles was conceived at a time when his father was newly recovered from a mental health episode and thus likely once again sharing a bed with his wife (we know this from the chronicles of the Monk of Saint Denis). Charles didn’t react well to this propaganda and egged on by Tremoille (as big a problem as ever) he began to seriously consider the possibility of fleeing the country to avoid capture or death, even going as far as to ask God for his opinion during prayer. The thing is, God was not the only one listening. Servants heard it all too and many of them owing their positions to Yolande and her family, repeated it all to her. At this point it had been over a year since the French had made any decisive move, and in that time Charles had proven his indecisiveness and weak willed nature tenfold by refusing to take military action and waiting on what he called the word of God. Yolande had literally given the boy an army and he wasn’t willing to use it despite the fact the English were dangerously close to invading. I cannot even begin to imagine how pissed off she must have been! Yolande though, was not one to wallow in self pity and she came to conclusion that if Charles wanted the word of God, than that was exactly what she would give him.

Now I haven’t mentioned Joan of Arc much because this isn’t a story about Joan of Arc; she does however have an interesting part to play in this story and 1428/1429 is where she makes her arrival in the orbit of Yolande of Aragon. You see Joan of Arc’s claims of prophetic visions about the war were beginning to garner attention, both good and bad and in either December 1428 or January 1429 she asked a cousin of hers to take her to the town of Vaucouleurs; the reason for this impromptu trip was to approach the town’s garrison commander Robert de Baudricourt. Baudricourt was the person who could get her access to the royal court at Chinon. She’d already approached him once before and he’d blown her off. This time however things were different; for starters the situation with England was even more DIRE than before and secondly Joan was a woman with increased confidence, a result of both the growing attention she was getting and the fact that she was now fully convinced that she was the virgin in her visions (the prophesy in her visions was that “France will be lost by a woman and restored by a virgin from Lorraine”; the woman that had lost France was a reference to Isabeau of Bavaria). Baudricourt agreed to help Joan not by taking her to the royal court but by mentioning her and her visions to his overlord who just happened to be….. *drumroll please* Rene of Anjou, Yolande’s second son (and probable favourite child). What followed was a weird series of tests designed probably by Baudricourt and Rene to work out whether Joan was legit. One test included Joan being summoned by Rene’s ailing uncle the Duke of Lorraine who wished to consult her on his illness; whether this was genuine or not we don’t know but it gave Rene a chance to see her up close. Reports from the time acknowledge the Duke’s son as being present for the meeting between the Duke and Joan yet we know that the Duke didn’t have a son. Rene however was his heir so it’s likely the chroniclers were referencing him. Although some historians have suggested that Baudricourt came to the conclusion to take Joan to meet Charles and Yolande himself, it’s extremely unlikely. He wasn’t a high enough rank to make that decision and Rene’s involvement in the meeting highly suggests he played a key role. Rene would throughout his life, prove himself to be his mother’s son and had inherited some of her political brilliance; he evidently came to the conclusion that Joan was genuine and at some point informed his mother of her existence. Yolande thus then gave her blessing for Baudricourt to bring Joan to Charles. When Joan returned to Vaucouleurs after her pilgrimage to Lorraine, Baudricourt was waiting for her and despite having turned her away twice, he immediately told the teenage girl it was time for her to finally meet with royalty.

Joan’s arrival at court was perhaps not the welcoming she was hoping for. The court was bitterly divided and the faction headed by Tremoille was vehemently against Joan having any contact with Charles, in fact it was said to be Tremoille that convinced Charles to send emissaries to interrogate her. His main issue with Joan was simple; her arrival at Chinon had been engineered by Yolande and they considered it a political ploy with the sole intent of securing Yolande political supremacy; Yolande, her advisors and her family were after all the ones encouraging Charles to meet with Joan and listen to her. The thing is, Yolande knew Charles better than Tremoille did. She knew how superstitious he was, and how susceptible he would be to the words of the clearly charismatic Joan. Rene no doubt had given his appraisal of Joan to his mother and whatever he said clearly convinced Yolande that the teenage girl from Lorraine was the thing that they all needed to prompt Charles into action. Whether Yolande actually believed Joan or not is irrelevant (part of me thinks Yolande comes across as almost a little too pragmatic to really buy into it but who knows), the fact of the matter is that, Yolande knew that Joan was a political tool that the major demoralised French could and should wield. After the meeting, Charles’ advisors, particularly those who were rivals of Yolande’s, demanded a series of examinations to guarantee that Joan was a) not a schismatic or heretic and b) a virgin, per the prophecy. To guarantee the first she was sent to Poitiers where “at least eighteen churchmen interrogated Joan. Regnault de Chartres [the Archbishop of Reims] presided and the questioners included the inquisitor of Toulouse, at least three Dominicans, bishops, professors of theology and canon lawyers” [5]. To guarantee the the second she was forced to endure a physical examination to prove she was indeed a virgin, an awful indignity I wouldn’t wish on anyone; “Joan was thus handed over to the Queen of Sicily [Yolande of Aragon] and to certain ladies with her. Two other women are named by Joan’s confessor Jean Pasquerel: the lady of Gaucourt and the lady of Tréves, both members of the Queen’s household” [6]. As expected the examinations went in Joan’s favour and preparations for the Siege of Orleans began with her involvement adding “a religious fervour into the campaign which seems to have enthused Charles” [7]. Once again our girl Yolande had managed to get shit done and twist a series of complicated, unfortunate circumstances to suit her. Iconic, if you ask me.

Now I’m not going to explain the entirety of the Siege of Orleans, for multiple reasons; a) I’m not hugely into warfare and strategy when it comes to history, I personally prefer the scheming in the background, b) this is about Yolande and she obviously wasn’t there in the thick of battle and c) there is so much material on the Siege, I mean its the main event in pretty much every book on Joan of Arc which as I’ve previously noted there are many of. So if you’re interested in the battle, go read one of those! The siege would go on to be a major watershed moment in the Hundred Years War however the eternally-optimistic English didn’t consider themselves completely defeated just yet. Although they had lost Orleans, they still controlled key areas in the region. After the siege Joan immediately called for Charles to march on Reims however the French commanders balked at the idea and knew they could do no such thing until the French had been removed from key positions along the Loire (for those wondering why – Reims is in Champagne which back then was Burgundian-occupied territory and the Burgundians were still at this point backing the English) . For all of her claims of prophecies, Joan was still just a young woman who had never fought in a battle before and had no military experience. Charles wisely listened to his commanders instead and it would take almost two months for him to finally march to Reims, with his army having defeated the English in a number of small sieges and battles that culminated in the French winning control of the Loire. Charles and his side were also helped by the fact that a significant number of nobles who had defected from his side (including the Duke of Brittany) came crawling back and abandoned their alliances with the English and Burgundians. He finally reached Reims and was crowned on the 17th July 1429. Interestingly his wife Marie aka Yolande’s daughter was not crowned with him nor is there any evidence she was ever officially crowned (queen consorts being crowned only became a French tradition with Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1137 and out of the 22 queens since, 14 had been given coronations). Not only was Marie not crowned but she wasn’t actually there!!! And neither was Yolande. I have to say I was very surprised when I first find that she was absent because let’s honest here the coronation was basically happening because of her. I mean it was as much her victory as it was Charles’. The reason for her absence is that it’s believed Marie was pregnant at the time and thus it was deemed too dangerous to have her travel, despite the fact that it’s believed Charles wanted her there. Yolande decided to stay with her daughter however made sure that she was kept aware of all the goings on; not only was her favourite son Rene of Anjou present but a number of her household were there and amazingly reports of the day that were sent to Yolande and Marie still survive. In one, the author writes, “Our Queens and most dread Ladies…May it please you to know that yesterday the King arrived in this town of Reims where he found complete and full obedience. Today he was anointed and crowned and the beautiful mystery was striking to behold because it was as solemn and compromised of all the accoutrements that are essential to such a ceremony, as if it had been in full preparation for a year” [8]. I’d just like to point out that the word dread in this context means ‘regard with great reverence or awe’ nor dread as in something to fear. Now in the aftermath of the Siege of Orleans and the coronation, the French tried to entice the Burgundian’s to return to their side and abandon the English; pretty much everyone seemed to think a truce with the Burgundians was a good plan; the king thought so, his advisors thought so and even Yolande (not exactly a member of the Burgundian Fan Club) thought so too. Everyone was finally on the same page….everyone except Joan who became increasingly independent and instead wrote to the citizens of Reims, “I am not at all content with truces like these, and I don’t know if I will hold to them: if I do so it will only be in order to protect the king’s honour” [9]. Now that ladies and gentlemen is disobeying the king and that unfortunately is what we like to call treason. Suddenly the uber religious virgin girl from Lorraine and her strong willed nature was no longer a weapon Yolande and the French crown could wield but rather a problem to get rid of. The English seemed to also recognise the importance of the Burgundians and made moves to keep the Duke of Burgundy on Team England with the Duke of Bedford even going as far as to marry the Duke of Burgundy’s sister to ensure the alliance. Although the Burgundian’s were scheming behind closed doors, they publicly pretended to consider the possibility of reconciling with Charles, with Charles and the Duke agreeing to a fifteen day truce in which negotiations took place. Eventually after the fifteen days were up, Charles’ old reluctance to fight began to creep back in and he refused to act despite the insistence of Joan who was beyond eager to march on Paris. Charles’ indecisiveness and reluctance to swiftly act gave the English much needed time to sort themselves out and by the end of July, the English had fortified Paris to prevent a siege and had brought in reinforcements in the shape of a new army. A small clash between Charles and his troops and a portion of that army on August 15th sent Charles running back to Compiegne. Joan and the Duke of Alençon were determined to convince the King to act and Charles eventually agreed. A not so great decision as it would turn out (we have no idea what Yolande thought of the idea, she was with her daughter and thus not privy to Charles’ decision making process). Why was it such a bad idea you ask? Well Paris was HUGE, basically the biggest city in Europe at this point and was majorly fortified. It was 10x harder to take than Orleans and I think both Joan and Alençon underestimated the task ahead of them. Especially as the majority of the Parisians in power were staunch Burgundians and thus unlikely to yield to Charles. The people of Orleans loved their king, the people of Paris did not. What followed was a battle that would more appropriately be described as a DISASTER. A disaster that severely shook Charles who was understandably upset at the fact that Joan aka a Messenger from God had lost. In the grand scheme of things you don’t really expect Messengers from God to lose. All those that had backed Joan found themselves distanced from the king who reverted to old habits relying on the likes of de la Tremoille who managed (as all snakes do) to slither his way back into favour. Joan was then sent away from the king, paid off and her family ennobled with Charles hoping this would be the last he would hear of the “Virgin Girl from Lorraine”. Unsurprisingly that was not the case and Joan decided to strike out on her owns with the troops that like her were eager for war. A number of small skirmishes between Joan and her band of soldiers and English/Burgundians troops on the road to Compiege took place; some of which she lost, some of which she won. At Compiegne she was warned not to fight. Joan, ignored the advice and decided to fight the Burgundian’s anyway. She ended up leaving Compiegne in chains as a prisoner of the English. Now Yolande at this point was not living at court, she had retired to Samur and was dealing with her sons causing chaos; her eldest Louis was fighting in Italy whilst Rene was now acting as a commander for Charles. With both sons at war, she had to be frugal with her money and so she did not offer to pay a ransom for Joan. I don’t think to be honest she would have even if she thought the English would accept the ransom. Joan had become increasingly independent and had almost directly disobeyed the King. She was becoming a liability and so Yolande did not act to save her. Having said that I don’t think anyone expected Joan to suffer the fate she did; there were rules of chivalry and codes of conduct when countries held political prisoners. The Duke of Orleans for example had been held by the English for decades at this point; whilst he probably wasn’t comfortable in prison, he certainly didn’t end up being burned to death.

The trial of Joan went on for over a year; whilst the English were laying the groundwork for her despicable execution, Charles and his court were actually being fairly productive; Charles had been severely pissed off by the Burgundian’s behaviour which had resulted in him being more aggressive than ever. He chose to attack places under Burgundian control and a number of victories including one led by Yolande’s son Rene put the French in a good political position. Yolande remained through most of that year away from court; at this point she had one son fighting in Italy, one son fighting the English, a daughter that was now the confirmed Queen of France and the mother of the heir to the throne and another son Charles of Anjou who 1430 became a member of court and who promptly found himself in the inner circle of the king and his sister the Queen, with whom he was very close. Yolande’s old adversary de la Tremoille was unhappy at having another Anjou to deal with and so promptly tried to keep Yolande’s son out of all political goings on. To weaken Yolande and her side further, he even went as far as to convince the King to marry the Duke of Brittany’s daughter Isabelle to the Count of Laval a close friend and ally of Arthur de Richemont. The problem with that was that Isabelle was already engaged to Yolande’s eldest son Louis who as previously mentioned was in Italy and thus unable to claim his fiancee in person. De la Tremoille hoped that the engagement would cause a feud between Yolande and de Richemont who together had been able to limit de la Tremoille’s influence. With them at each other’s throats de la Tremoille would have been able to take advantage and secure his authority. To say that Yolande was unhappy about the situation is an understatement, in fact Charles’ biographer G du Fresne de Beaucourt wrote that she “became violently angry and it almost came to a declaration of war” [10]. Yolande was nothing if not a fierce mama bear and she considered the engagement a severe insult to her eldest son. No one seemed to escape her wrath not even both her son and son-in-law, the latter of whom tried to smooth over the situation by offering the Duke of Brittany’s son to her youngest daughter as a husband. Another way De la Tremoille continued to piss off Yolande and her family was by encouraging the King’s infidelity; Yolande unsurprisingly was not a happy bunny at her son in law cheating on her daughter, regardless of the fact he was the king. In July 1431 just six weeks after the burning of Joan of Arc, Yolande faced yet another disaster; her second son Rene was captured by the Duke of Burgundy. Now luckily for Yolande and Rene, the Duke of Burgundy was at this point beginning to tire of his English alliance; this was for one reason and one reason only. Money. You see the Duke of Burgundy had made a huge amount of money over the years with the English paying them exorbitant amounts to keep him on side. That money evidently was beginning to wane and the English were suddenly less inclined to give in to his demands. He also had a new chancellor who had managed to find legal loop holes to get out of his English alliance. The Duke of Burgundy and his chancellor met with Rene in February 1432 and seemed to come to some sort of agreement to ensure Rene’s release; two of his sons were to take his place as hostages, his eldest daughter was to become engaged to the Duke of Burgundy’s son and he had to pay upfront a total of 20,000 gold pieces. Whilst negotiating with the Duke, Rene became aware of the faltering relationship between the Burgundians and the English and upon his return to France he promptly took that information back to his mother. Literally the first thing he did was go to Samur to see Yolande not his wife and children who remained in Nancy. Yolande being the smart cookie she was recognised that the Duke of Burgundy was signalling that he was willing to consider ditching the English; more importantly she realised he was signalling this to her and not to de la Tremoille because he like her, mistrusted de la Tremoille. I mean everyone across Europe knew that Yolande disliked de la Tremoille. Everyone also knew that Duke of Burgundy shared this opinion as did the constable of France Arthur de Richemont who remained Yolande’s protégée despite de la Tremoille’s attempts to ruin their alliance. Tremoille if you recall had also been responsible for expelling Arthur from court a number of years earlier and had allegedly attempted to assassinate him. Arthur was unsurprisingly keen to reciprocate. Throughout 1432 de la Tremoille increasingly acted against Yolande with medievalist Edouard Perroy writing that his only “one thought was to overthrow Richemont and get rid of the Queen of Sicily, Queen Marie of Anjou and her brother Charles of Maine” [11]. In November 1432 the Duke of Bedford’s wife Anne aka the Duke of Burgundy’s sister died and by April he had remarried without consulting Burgundy. The death and subsequent remarriage revealed to the world the fracturing relationship between the English and Burgundians and combined with de la Tremoille undermining several of France’s leading military commanders in their skirmishes with English troops, Yolande and Richemont finally acted. In June 1433 several men (all of whom were in Yolande’s service) entered de la Tremoille’s chambers and abducted him at knife-point. He was held prisoner before being released for ransom on the condition that he agreed to absent himself from court forever and hand over several castles. He died over a decade later. Charles was initially deeply unhappy and blamed Richemont however Yolande’s daughter Marie managed to soothe her husband’s temper (she did this providing evidence of and detailing some of de la Tremoille’s corruption and questionable financial transactions which undeniably angered Charles and endeared him to Yolande’s faction once more). The fall of La Tremoille meant that finally the household of Charles was now completely and utterly loyal to Yolande and her house.

With Yolande and Richemont back in charge, reconciliation with the Burgundian’s once again became the goal of the French regime and the French managed to score a major win by enticing the Holy Roman Empire to enter the fray. The prospect of having to fight both the French and the Holy Roman Empire was not a pleasant one to the Duke of Burgundy who promptly agreed to conduct a series of negotiations with the French. The negotiations would turn out to be a success and culminated in the Congress of Arras in August 1435. It was a huge affair with pretty much everyone of importance present; everyone except Yolande who remained in Samur but who kept a close eye on proceedings; her treasurer was one of the main French diplomats and she also sent a number of representatives to defend her families interests. On September 21st 1435 the Duke of Burgundy signed a document later known as the Treaty of Arras which recognised Charles as the rightful King of France and ordered every “city, town, village, castle, fortress, military unit, vassal and government official in territories loyal to the Duke of Burgundy, whether high or low, rich or poor, rural or urban, peasant or aristocrat” [12] to pledge allegiance to him. It is super important however to note that as point the Duke of Burgundy still had Yolande’s son Rene hostage. You see the Duke of Burgundy had released him previously but a series of convoluted circumstances surrounding the Holy Roman Empire acknowledging Rene as the Duke of Lorraine instead of the Duke of Burgundy led to the latter taking Rene hostage once more. The death of Yolande’s eldest son Louis in November of 1434 meant that Rene was now not only the Duke of Lorraine and Bar but also the King of Sicily, Duke of Anjou & Maine and Count of Provence and that all of sudden made him a hostage worth infinitely more than before. The Duke of Burgundy holding her son hostage may have been why Yolande was absent from Charles’ grand entrance into Paris. Yolande and her daughter in law Isabelle would work tirelessly to secure Rene’s release; Isabelle became lieutenant governor of Sicily and in impressive fashion established herself as ruler of the kingdom in her husband’s place, becoming a popular figure. Meanwhile Yolande took charge in France where in Rene and Isabelle’s absence, mercenaries were beginning to terrorise the public. In March 1436 the bishops of Metz and Verdun appealed to Yolande for military aid, demonstrating as A Lecoy de la March observed “a confidence in her abilities second only to God” [13]. Yolande instructed Charles to contribute troops to defending her son’s land which he did.

Meanwhile she continued to heap tons of pressure not only on the Duke of Burgundy but she also ordered her family (including the King of France) and the Catholic Church (including the Pope himself and most of the most senior members of the church) to do the same. In February Rene and the Duke of Burgundy signed another treaty to guarantee Rene’s release; he was forced to pay a fortune however he got in freedom in return. Recognising Yolande’s importance, the Duke of Burgundy also insisted she sign it. In the aftermath she and her youngest son Charles retained their places as the King of France’s closest advisors and she was vital in the events of 1438-1439. You see in 1866 Auguste Vallet published a previously unpublished & unedited document which he claimed had been written in 1434 and was addressed to Isabeau of Bavaria (Charles’ biological mother who if you remember had screwed him over completely and had been living basically under house arrest at the Hôtel Saint-Pol in Paris ever since). The problem was Vallet’s assertion that the letter was addressed to Isabeau of Bavaria is that is kind of wasn’t; in fact the letter is addressed to Madame Regente and includes the following passage “Tres excellente puissante princesse, et nostre tres redoubtee dame, mere de nostre souverain seigneur roy, en laquelle il est nous tou subjiez avons Esperance d’estre relevee la ruyne desolacion du royaume, qui a este depuis aucun temps ença, et encores est” [14]. For those that don’t speak French it reads “Most excellent and powerful princess, and our most revered lady, mother of our sovereign lord the king in whom all our hope to be relieved of the ruin [and desolation] has been bound for some time and to whom it is still bound”. Because it’s addressed to the King’s mother Vallet immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was addressed to Isabeau however Isabeau had not acted as a mother to Charles for a number of years (that last known communication between them had been in 1419 prior to the signing of the Treaty of Troyes). Not only that but the letter beseeches the mother in question to act politically. Isabeau had been persona non grata in French politics for over a decade by 1434. She was politically irrelevant and had no influence over anyone of any importance. In fact she died less than a year later. For those reasons it’s likely the document was instead meant for none other than Yolande; as Zita Eva Rohr points out in her piece, there is ample evidence of Charles referring to her as his mother. The letter or Advis as it’s known references a number of reforms that the writer thinks should be enacted (views shared by the likes of Alain Chartier an ambassador and humanist thinker who was secretary to both Charles and Yolande); interestingly many of those reforms were undertaken by Charles and Yolande in the latter 1430’s and some historians have suggested that they were potentially based on measures previously put in place by Yolande’s ancestors in Aragon with Zita Eva Rohr writing, “in Aragon, Yolande’s natal home, the centralisation of military, fiscal and regal authority had been initiated by Peter the Great in the thirteenth century. To her such a system might have seemed obvious: tried and true rather than a freshly minted French innovation” [15]. These reforms were put into place following the Estates General of 1439 which Charles convened in the summer in Orleans. This was the first and last time he convened the Estates and the events were presided over by Yolande aka the mother in law every king dreams of. The reforms were wide and included measures regarding army reform, policing and taxation, measures basically to help the kingdom in it’s recovery from decades of being torn apart. The Estates were the last major event that Yolande was involved in; she retired not long after to her estates in Angers and Samur; she evidently retained her significant influence afterwards though with historians being fairly sure that she played a significant role in choosing the Bishop of Angers in 1439 (it’s believed the man who got the post had at one point been her secretary). She also from 1439 until her death in 1442 raised her granddaughter Margaret of Anjou (daughter of her son Rene and his wife Isabella of Lorraine). Yes that Margaret of Anjou aka Queen Consort of England, de-facto regent of England, prominent figure in the War of the Roses and the woman who was described by William Shakespeare as the “She-wolf of France, but worse than wolves of France, Whose tongue more poisons than the adder’s tooth! How ill-beseeming is it in thy sex, To triumph, like an Amazonian trull, Upon their woes whom fortune captivates” [16]. Truly her grandmother’s granddaughter. Margaret becoming Queen of England was not yet an option in 1439, Yolande favoured a marriage to Frederick III Holy Roman Emperor and prepared Margaret for such a marriage, introducing her granddaughter to Frederick’s ambassadors not long before her death in November 1442.

Her son Louis III Duke of Anjou referred to her as his “formidable lady (metuendissima) and venerable mother (genetrix reverendissima)” [17], whilst her grandson Louis XI later recalled that she had “a man’s heart in a woman’s body” and Jehanne d’Orliac in her 1933 book on Yolande (sadly one of the only biographies written about her) stated that Yolande was “the pivot for all important events in France for forty-two years”. Yolande was an absolute powerhouse, a legend in her own time and a woman who has unfortunately been forgotten by history despite the important role she played. I mean imagine if the English had won the Hundred Years War. How different would Europe be today? I have no idea. But what I do know is that Yolande of Aragon deserves so much better than to be a footnote in the story of Charles VII or Joan of Arc. She deserves to be the star of the show and I hope one day a tv show or film puts her front and centre where she belongs!

I’m so sorry this post took so long to get up but I have a few interesting posts that will hopefully be up before the end of the year! See you soon

Alexandra x

“

References

[1]. Nancy Goldstone, “The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc”, (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011), p. 98.

[2] Nancy Goldstone, “The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc”, (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011), p. 98.

[3] Nancy Goldstone, “The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc”, (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011) p. 102

[4] Nancy Goldstone, “The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc”, (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011) p. 103

[5] Larissa Juliet Taylor, “Joan of Arc, The Church and the Papacy 1429-1920” in The Catholic Historical Review, Vol 98 No.2, (April 2012), p. 218-219.

[6] Gareth Williams, “Manipulation and the Maid: Joan of Arc and the Siege of Orleans”, in Medieval Warfare, Vol 4 No. 2, (2014), p. 26.

[7] Gareth Williams, “Manipulation and the Maid: Joan of Arc and the Siege of Orleans”, in Medieval Warfare, Vol 4, No.2, (2014), p. 26.

[8]. Nancy Goldstone, “The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc”, (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011) p. 145.

[9]. Jules Quicherat, “Proces de condemnation et de rehabilitation de Jeanne d’Arc dite La Pucelle” V: 140, (Paris, 1849), qtd in Larissa Juliet Taylor, “Joan of Arc, The Church and the Papacy 1429-1920” in the Catholic Historical Review, Vol 98, No.2, (April 2012), p. 223.

[10] Nancy Goldstone, “The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc”, (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011) p. 192.

[11] Nancy Goldstone, “The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc”, (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011) p. 202.

[12] Nancy Goldstone, “The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc”, (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011) p. 212.

[13]. Nancy Goldstone, “The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc”, (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011) p. 220.

[14]. J.P Boudet & E. Sene “L’Avis a Yolande d’Aragon: un miroir au prince du temps de Charles VII” in Cahiers de Recherches Medievales ed Humanistes” ed by F. Lauchaud & L. Scordia, Vol 24, (2012) p. 67, qtd in Zita Eva Rohr in “The Practise of Political Motherhood in Late Medieval France: Yolande of Aragon Bonne-Mere of France”, in The Image and Perception of Monarchy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed by Sean McGlynn & Elena Woodacre , (Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), p. 41.

[15] Zita Eva Rohr in “The Practise of Political Motherhood in Late Medieval France: Yolande of Aragon Bonne-Mere of France”, in The Image and Perception of Monarchy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed by Sean McGlynn & Elena Woodacre , (Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), p. 45.

[16] William Shakespeare, “Henry VI: Part 3”, Act 1, Scene 4, (London, 1591).

[17] Zita Eva Rohr in “The Practise of Political Motherhood in Late Medieval France: Yolande of Aragon Bonne-Mere of France”, in The Image and Perception of Monarchy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed by Sean McGlynn & Elena Woodacre , (Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), p. 46.