With all this it does not seem that Joan had any definite rank
or command in the royal armies. Christine de Pisan, it is true,
speaks of her as being the recognized chief-
Est principale chevetaine"—
but it does not appear that her position had any other warrant than the moral influence which her prodigious exploits and the belief in her divine mission afforded. Charles's gratitude gave her a handsome establishment. She was magnificently attired, noble damsels were assigned to her service, with a maître d'hotel, pages, and valets; she had five war-horses, with seven or more roadsters, and at the time of her capture she had in her hands ten or twelve thousand francs, which, as she told her judges, was little enough to carry on war with. Shortly after his coronation, Charles, at her request, granted to Domremy and Greux the privilege of exemption from all taxes, a favor which was respected until the Revolution; and in December, 1429, he spontaneously ennobled her family and all their posterity, giving them as arms on a field azure two fleurs-de-lis or, traversed by a sword, and authorizing them to bear the name of Du Lis—in all a slender return for the priceless service rendered, and affording to her judges another count in the indictment on her trial.[1]
- ↑ Görres, pp. 241–2, 273.—Procès, p. 482.—Buchon, pp. 513-4.—Dynteri Chron. Duc. Brabant. Lib. VI. ch. 235. In the register of taxes every year was written opposite the names of Domremy and Greux, "Neant, la Pucelie." The grant of nobility to her family had the very unusual clause that it passed by the female as well as the male descendants, who were thus all exempt from taxation. As matrimonial alliances extended among the rich bourgeoisie this exemption spread so far that in 1614 the
Ne des grands faits du temps passé :
Moysès en qui Dieu afflus
Mit graces et vertus assez;
Il tira sans estre lassez
Le peuple Israël hors d'Egypte;
Par miracle ainsi repassez
Nous as de mal, pucelle eslite."
Buchon, p. 542.
