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Understandably,
first person accounts of the Burgundian and English participants in the
conflict are far less favorable. The Journal d'un Bourgeois was
based on a diary kept by the author, a clerk of the University of Paris.
It is an account of the war from inside the city. The 'Bourgeois', who
hated Joan, says that she threatened to kill all the inhabitants if Paris
did not surrender. He was stunned by her sacrilegious assault on Paris
on the Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin, led by a "creature in
the form of a woman whom they call the Maid. What it was, God knows.
Enguerrand
De Monstrelet is responsible for the most important Burgundian chronicle
of the war, written around 1440. He witnessed the interview between Joan
and the Duke of Burgundy after her capture - although he claims not to
remember what they said. His account is far from nonpartisan; he says
that Robert de Baudricourt had advised her how to act, and he attributes
her military victories to the efforts of experienced and brave captains.
At the same time, he refrains from criticizing her as violently as the
Bourgeois, and he barely comments on her trial
and execution, probably because his account was written after Burgundy
and Charles VII had made peace.
The
Chroniques de France, or Chronicles of St. Denis, were drawn
up annually from 1122 to record the important events of the year. This
is the earliest printed version of the chronicles and one of the first
books printed in French.
The English translation (at left) printed at the Grabhorn Press contains
reproductions of the woodcuts from the next edition (1493). The chronicler,
appointed by the king, was partial to Joan and the royal cause. Joan is
portrayed as pious as well as brave and expert in war. The Chronicles
include the story that the dauphin attempted to deceive Joan about his
identity, as a test, but that she knew him at first sight.
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