OR 1C SKETCHES. 



ami who listened to the ministrations of the priest, received the 



i-.uu.-iit .from him, and announced hurxclf ready to H ub- 



:!.. \w.l ..I' li.-il. At ninu o'clock in the morning she 



was carried away in the hangman's cart to the market-place of 



whore had been already laid the funeral pyre on which 



th \.nm_: \i.-tim was to bo Bacrifiocd. The Bishop of Beau- 



vais, Cardinal Beaufort, and several other prelates, with tho 



.1 military commander*, were there, and a vast crowd had 



come out to see " the Maid of Orleans " die. 



In tin- << ntro of the market-place, about tho pot where now 

 stands a fountain surmounted by a figure of Jeanno Dare, the 

 stake was reared, and around it wore piled tho fagots. Soldiers 

 guarded the place of execution. Tho ceremonial of death was 

 .in that beautiful May morning by a sermon in which the 

 crime of heresy was vehemently denounced, then tho sentence 

 pronounced by tho shepherds of the flock on tho ewo lamb 

 liem was published, and tho signal was given to proclaim 

 the last act of the tragedy. A soldier's staff was broken and 

 formed into a rough cross which "the Maid "clasped to her 

 breast. She was then bound to the stake, the fagots were 

 livhted. the fire leaped up around her, and after Buffering the 

 ntrony indispensable to death by burning, her spirit returned to 

 '10 crave it. The English cardinal watched the whole 

 proeecrlin<rs with unmoved face, and when his victim's life was 

 beyond his reach he ordered her ashes and bones to be 

 gathered np and to bo cast into the Seine. 



Was it really heresy for which this poor girl suffered ? Osten- 

 sibly it was, but had Jeanne's heresy stood alone, it would scarcely 

 have provoked the interference of potentates like those who 

 " did her to death." Upon her head, when bound to the stake, 

 they fastened a cap on which was written her accusation, " re- 

 lapsed heretic, apostate, idolatress," but they did not write the 

 true cause of their unholy zeal in setting the church's law in 

 motion against her, that cause being tho crushing defeat Jeanne 

 Dare had inflicted upon tho English political influence in the 

 country. But how came the English in the country at all ? 

 Was it by way of revenge for the conquest by William tho 

 Norman, or did it spring out of some after-born political 

 entanglements ? 



The claim of tho English kings to bo kings also of Franco 

 began to bo seriously mooted when Edward III. was Prince of 

 Wales, and when ho came to the throne, tho question-was taken 

 up with ardour when once he was aroused from the lethargy 

 which in the earlier days of his reign seemed to be the fore- 

 runner of an inglorious era. In 1337, ten years after he had 

 been on tho throne, Edward lacked occupation, and manifesting 

 a desire to let his energies find vent in true Plontagenet fashion, 

 listened to tho advice and remonstrance of some of those about 

 him, who urged him to assert his right to tho crown of France. 

 The way in which he claimed was almost too barefaced to be 

 written down ; and while it is certain that fow of those who 

 fought on his side so valiantly and well, knew the real merits 

 of the case, it is likely that ho himself was not very expert in 

 tracing his genealogy. Those who had motives of their own for 

 the war, and who hoped to win fortune and rank for themselves 

 out of it, told him he hod a righteous cause, and he, gladly con- 

 vinced, believed them. It was the custom in France, borrowed 

 from tho Salian Franks, who had become absorbed in the nation, 

 to exclude women from the succession to tho throne, and when a 

 woman camo in the direct line of succession her place was taken 

 by the male heir nearest related to tho late king. This custom 

 had been sanctioned by the approve : of several hundred years, 

 during which time no one who founded his title through a female 

 had mounted the throne. When Philip the Fair died in 131 1, 

 he was succeeded by his son, Louis the Stubborn, who died 

 without male issue, and Louis's brother, Philip the Long, suc- 

 ceeded him, being himself followed in 1322 by his younger 

 brother, Charles tho Fair. 



Philip the Long hod died without issue, \nd on the birth of 

 a daughter to Louis the Stubborn, tho estates of France decreed 

 her exclusion, and the exclusion of all females in future. 

 Charles the Fair's only child was a daughter, and with Charles 

 was extinct the direct malo line of Philip the Fair. Philip's 

 fourth child was a daughter, Isabella, married to Edward II. of 

 England, and it was taken for granted that the law of exclusion 

 which applied to Louis the Stubborn's daughter, married to 

 Charles, King of Navarre,- and which applied to the daughter 

 of Charles the Fair, applied also to Isabella, their aunt. So 



thoroughly did thU opinion prevail, that when Philip of Valok, 

 nephew of Philip the Fair, claimed the throne on the death of 

 hw hut malo cousin, his claim wa allowed M reasonable and 

 unquestionable by the whole nation, and no on* ao much an 

 thought of a chum being made on behalf of Isabella by her 

 ton. Tho exact position of affairs may be beet seen from the 

 annexed diagram. 

 Charlmof 

 ValoU-younger brother to Philip tho Fair. 



CbarieBthe 

 Fair. 



1 

 A il..iii.-h'< r. 



Isatelk, married 



to drard II. 



of England. 



LouU the Philip the 

 Stubborn. Long 

 | UK-'l. 



A daugh- 

 ter, mar- 

 ried to the 

 Kin? of 

 Nararre. 

 Philip of 

 Valois. 



Not only did Philip take undisturbed possession of the throne, 

 but, as a matter of course, he summoned King Edward to do 

 homage to him, as his liege lord, for the province of G-uienne. 

 which belonged to Edwr.rd as feudal tenant of the French king. 

 Edward obeyed, rendered homage, and thus virtually acknow- 

 ledged Philip's right to be king. But he did BO only because it 

 was not convenient to have a quarrel on his hands at the time. 

 He had a Scotch war to fight, troublesome subjects at home to 

 curb, and there was a plentiful lack of that sinew of war 

 money without which it is useless to back even the strongest 

 claim. When these troubles were over he listened to the sug- 

 gestions of Robert of Artois, a renegade French nobleman, who. 

 having been treated badly by Philip the Fair, took an ignoble 

 revenge by giving his services to the foes of his country. 

 Edward looked about for allies before launching forth on a 

 great war with France, and he secured the friendship of tho 

 Counts of Flanders, Brabant, Nomnr, Gneldres, and Hainault, 

 and the powerful assistance of the rich citizens of Ghent, repre- 

 sented by the brewer, Jacob van Artevelde. Having gained 

 these allies, and coaxed Parliament to give a large supply 

 in aid of the war, Edward proceeded to pick a quarrel. He 

 complained that Philip had helped the Scots in the late war 

 between Scotland and England, and that he still protected the 

 Scotch king, a personal enemy of his. Finally, he renounced 

 his homage, and defied the French king, who, knowing tb*t 

 the contest must come, buckled to with a will, determined to 

 suffer anything rather than admit Edward's claim to the French 

 crown. 



At first matters did not go happily ; the English king, who 

 elected to attack from the side of Flanders, had great difficulty 

 in keeping his allies together ; and though he did advance with 

 50,000 men into French territory, he did not fight, and return- 

 ing into Flanders, disbanded many of his troops. Charges to 

 the extent of JJ300,000 had been incurred ; the money given bv 

 Parliament, and that raised by pawning the crown jewels and 

 the personal effects of the king, was all gone, and not a foot 

 of French land had been won. The Parliament, in the king's 

 absence, refused supply except on the condition of redress of 

 grievances, and it seemed as if the royal expedition after the 

 French crown must end in an inglorious fiasco. Suddenly 

 Edward appeared in London, wrung a heavy grant out of the 

 Parliament, and proceeded to fit out a fresh force against 

 Philip, notwithstanding that tho Parliament told him it owed 

 him no allegiance as King of France, and that if won, Franco 

 must ever remain a separate part of the kingdom. 



On June 24, 1340, Edward's fleet, well manned and sound, 

 came up, off Sluys, with the French fleet of four hundred sail, 

 which Philip had prepared to intercept Edward's army in its 

 descent on tho coast A bloody battle ensued. The English 

 were the better sailors, and manoeuvred so as to take every 

 advantage of the enemy, who lost the greater part of their 

 ships and upwards of 25,000 men. This crushing victory, 

 of which Edward was not prepared at the moment to take 

 advantage, fixed an unbridgeable gulf between the good- 

 will of the two nations. National prejudice, national hatred 

 had their birth in it, and from the battle of Sluys dates the 

 dreadful animus which existed down to quite recent times 

 between tho English and Frencb. From the same event, how* 



