Joan’s Final Warning to English in Orleans
After Joan of Arc arrived in Orleans she continued to try to warn the English besieging the town to leave with two more letters (Joan first warned the English in a letter on March 22, 1429). Joan sent a letter to Lord Talbot, the English leader in Orleans, that was later described by the “Bastard of Orleans” at her trial of rehabilitation as follows:
"She did in fact address to the English a letter, written in her mother tongue, to raise the siege or, if they refused, to attack them so strongly they would be forced to retire. This letter was addressed to my Lord Talbot. And I affirm that from that hour, while formerly the English with two hundred of theirs could put to flight a thousand of ours, it required only four or five hundred of our soldiers to combat all the power of the English, and we were so successful with the enemy that they no longer dared to leave their strongholds and bastilles."
Joan then had a letter shot into the fort Les Tourelles on May 5, 1429 that contained her final warning:
"You, men of England, who have no right in the kingdom of France, the King of Heaven sends word to you, and commands by me, Joan the Maid, that you leave your fortresses and return to your own country. Otherwise I will produce a clash of arms to be eternally remembered. This is the third and last time I will write to you, and I will not write to you any more.
Jesus+Maria
Joan the Maid
This Article by Ben D. Kennedy was originally posted at http://saint-joan-of-arc.blogspot.com
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