Joan of Arc's Letter To Charles VII
About Catherine de La Rochelle
Early December 1429
Joan wrote a letter to Charles VII around December of 1429, advising him about a professed prophetess named Catherine de La Rochelle who promised to restore the King's treasury. Joan had consulted her Voices and even spent the night with Catherine de La Rochelle so as to ascertain her legitimacy and ultimately came to the conclusion that she was a fraud. At her trail Joan stated that she wrote to Charles VII that she would tell him what to do about Catherine when she next saw him.
March 3, 1431 Joan talking about Catherine de La Rochelle:
"She said to me that there came to her a white lady, dressed in cloth of gold who told her to go to the good towns, and that the King would give her heralds and trumpets, to summon whomsoever would have gold, silver, or hidden treasure, so that they might bring it at once ; and that those who did not do it, and who had such things hidden, she would know well and would know how to find the treasures, and that this would be to pay my soldiers.
I told her that she should go back to her husband, and take care of her household and feed her children. And to know the truth of it I spoke to St. Margaret or St. Catherine, who told me that all concerning this Catherine was foolishness and nothing to it at all. I wrote to the King that I would tell what he should do about it, and when I came to him I told him that it was all folly, and there was nothing to the case of this Catherine."
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