The political constitution proclaimed by Saint Joan of Arc is as concise as it is fruitful. The essential point from which everything emanates is this: the true King of France is Jesus Christ. The visible and mortal king is but a lieutenant, a vassal king. He must govern in the name of the suzerain and according to the law of the suzerain.
Jesus Christ, by a free act of His will, intends that birth regularly designates the lieutenant king. It is the closest male heir of the previous king, as prescribed by Salic law. The suzerain intends to maintain this law, and by an act of His omnipotence, He will overturn everything that has been done to the detriment of this ordinance. This was to ratify the gigantic struggle sustained by our fathers in the Hundred Years' War, and to deprive the English of the fruit of their victories.
Birth designates the lieutenant king; it does not make him; it is the coronation that constitutes him. Until the coronation, the closest relative of the deceased king is only the presumptive heir to the crown; he does not possess it. It will only be given to him following the solemn homage rendered to the suzerain, the solemn oath to govern according to the law of the suzerain. Only on that day will he be invested and truly be king.
Nothing is easier than to show that this is the constitution which the Maid confirmed by miracle. It is her very program. She signified it to friends and enemies alike.
It falls from her lips from her very entrance onto the scene; it is the entrance onto the scene. Let us listen to a most respectable auricular witness, Bertrand de Poulengy, one of Joan's guides on the crossing from the borders of Lorraine to Chinon. After stating that he was present when Joan came for the first time to see Baudricourt, the king's lieutenant at Vaucouleurs, around the feast of the Ascension (May 13, 1428), the noble gentleman summarizes the young girl's words thus:
"I come on behalf of my Lord, she said. He wants you to tell the Dauphin to hold firm, not to engage in battle with his enemies, until mid-Lent, when my Lord will send him help."
Why this inaction? The heavenly envoy gives the reason: "for, added Joan, the kingdom does not belong to the Dauphin, it belongs to my Lord; however, my Lord wants the Dauphin to be made king, and to hold the kingdom in commendam. The Dauphin will be made king despite his enemies, and it is I who will lead him to receive his coronation. — And who is your Lord? asked Baudricourt. — My Lord is the King of Heaven."
It is impossible to be more explicit, and the entire constitution is found therein. The true suzerain in whose name everything will be accomplished is Joan's lord, Jesus Christ, our Lord of all. He is so truly the king that the vassal king, not yet having received investiture, is only the Dauphin, the king of the future, and the kingdom does not belong to him; he has only to stay in place, to hold firm, until the day when the suzerain tells him to come and take possession of the fief, according to the customary form.
That day will come; the Dauphin will be made king despite his enemies, for so wills the suzerain who watches over this most precious jewel of His crown as King of the Nations. The proof of His manifest intervention is that He will overthrow all obstacles by the weakest of instruments.
"It is I, said Joan, who will lead the Dauphin to receive his coronation,"
That is to say, who will do what everyone judges impossible.
The same program when she approaches him who, in her eyes, is only the Dauphin, the "King of Bourges" of the English. Here she is at last in that vast hall of the castle of Chinon, where Charles hides himself among the courtiers. She has recognized him and forced him to admit that he is the presumptive king. What does she immediately add?
"My name is Joan the Maid, and the King of Heaven commands you through me, that you will be anointed and crowned at Reims; and that you will be lieutenant of the King of Heaven who is King of France."
Then, at his request, the famous private audience takes place where, while the courtiers are gathered at the far end of the apartment, the Maid, as a sign of her mission, reveals to the prince secrets that only he and God could know.
The conversation ends with these words:
"I tell you again on behalf of my Lord, that you are the true heir of France and the son of the king; and He sends me to lead you to Reims, to receive your anointing and your crown there, if you wish it."
The political constitution of France is again entirely present here. Not only is the kingship of Jesus Christ proclaimed in express terms, but it gives life to everything, and everything emanates from it. Charles is only to be the lieutenant, the *locum tenens*.
The designation to the lieutenancy by birth, the Salic law, receives here the most magnificent confirmation. We are historically certain of the subject of the revealed secrets, to which the last words, moreover, make such a manifest allusion. It was a very beautiful prayer inspired in Charles by the suspicion—which too well justified the conduct of an unworthy mother—the suspicion he had conceived regarding the legitimacy of his birth.
This prayer, repeated several times, was something the prince had a duty not to reveal. By manifesting it, by specifying the multiple circumstances in which it had sprung from the heart of the unfortunate Charles, the shepherdess proved that Heaven spoke through her voice. Now, it spoke to confirm the Salic law, and to assure the prince that he should benefit from its application. The question of law was divinely resolved by the miracle which guaranteed the question of fact. The seal of prophecy was set upon both.
Henri Martin is right to say that the revelation of the secrets "is one of the capital points in the history of the Maid". The miracle of events was going to further confirm what was already confirmed by this manifestly divine revelation.
In the eyes of the revealer, the son of the deceased king is not yet the lieutenant king; he will be: *eris locum tenens*; in the meantime, he is the "gentle Dauphin". It is not without reason that she accompanies the consecrated name designating the presumptive heir with this word "gentle"; she manifestly uses it in its primitive and etymological sense, where it signifies the man of race, and here, the man of the chosen race, of the race predestined to the crown; so that "gentle Dauphin" can be translated as presumptive heir by race, by birth.
The proud letter to the English is entirely inspired by the same thoughts and the same principles. Jesus Christ is presented there as taking up the cause of His kingdom of France, and expelling the invader. We find phrases such as these:
"Do right by the King of Heaven. Give back to the Maid, who is sent here by God, the King of Heaven, the keys of all the good towns you have taken and violated in France."
And also:
"I am sent here by God, the King of Heaven, to drive you out of all France."
The Salic law is expressed there in terms no less energetic. Speaking of herself in the third person, the Maid writes:
"She is come here to reclaim the royal blood."
And also this phrase so full of meaning:
"Do not persist in your opinion; for you will not hold the kingdom of France from the King of Heaven, God, the son of Holy Mary: but King Charles, the true heir, will hold it; for God, the King of Heaven wills it; and it has been revealed to him by the Maid."
The God-Man, the son of Holy Mary, Sovereign of France; the care with which He watches over this jewel of His crown as King of the Nations; the positive and free act by which He wills to maintain the law of heredity; the revelation of the secrets, a sign of His will: all this is contained in these three lines.
Strong in the divine power that invests her, Joan says boldly to the English:
"Believe firmly that the King of Heaven will send more strength to the Maid and to her good men-at-arms than you could bring against her in all assaults; and in the clashes, it will be seen who has the better right from the King of Heaven."
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In the letter to the English, Jesus Christ, through the weak instrument He has chosen, speaks as a warrior king, resolved to drive out the foreign invader and to restore the unjustly dispossessed vassal. This is the threat.
The tone is entirely different in the letter to the inhabitants of Troyes and to the Duke of Burgundy. The Anglo-Burgundians are strayed subjects who must be brought back. Joan makes heard the voice of the peacemaking king who wishes to restore order disturbed in His states.
Here is the letter to the inhabitants of Troyes. The threat disappears, covered as it is by words of affection, promises of pardon, victory, and peace.
JESUS MARY.
"Very dear and good friends, if it please you: lords, burgesses, and inhabitants of the town of Troyes, Joan the Maid commands and makes known to you, on behalf of the King of Heaven, her rightful and sovereign lord, in whose royal service she is each day, that you render true obedience and recognition to the gentle king of France, who will very shortly be at Reims and at Paris, come what may, and in his good towns of the holy kingdom, with the aid of King Jesus.
Loyal Frenchmen, come to meet King Charles, and let there be no failing; and have no fear for your persons, nor for your goods, if you do so. And if you do not do so, I promise and assure you on your lives, that we will enter, with God's aid, into all the good towns that ought to belong to the holy kingdom, and there we will make a good and firm peace, come what may. God commends you: may God be your guardian."
JEHANNE.
Source: Jeanne d’Arc sur les Autels – Père Ayroles – 1883