ABSTRACT

About five o' clock on the afternoon of Tuesday, February 22, 1429, Joan of Arc and an escort of six men left Vaucouleurs by the Porte de France. Eleven days later, having crossed unhindered a territory filled with potential ambushes, they arrived at Chinon almost as the noon Angelus was ringing. At Charles VII command, priests assembled arid tried to interrogate her, and the favorable responses they received from Joan clashed with the opinion of the nobles whose influence reinforced the king's own hesitation about receiving her. When Joan entered the great hall of the castle, she believed "that there were at least three hundred knights and fifty torches." Her arrival, minutely regulated, unexpectedly took place theatrically in front of a crowd of spectators. Ever since 1429, people have asked about the sign Joan brought to the king so that he would no longer doubt the mission of the ambassador from heaven.