Click2FamousTrials - Joan of Arc - Chapter 6

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>JOAN OF ARC</p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 6 - FRANCE NEEDS A LEADER</b></font></p> </font> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">Trying to bolster their claim to the French throne by adding more territory, the English broke the Treaty of Troyes. They invaded central France and, on October 12, 1428, began the <a ; target="_blank" href="http://www.mairie-bonsecours.fr/jeanne_arc/img_jda/siege_orleans.jpg"><b>siege of Orleans</b></a>, only eighty miles south of Paris. If the English took the city of <a href="http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/maps/1429france.jpg" ; target="_blank"><b>Orleans</b></a>, they would soon control all of southern France. Even this <a ; target="_blank" href="http://www.camping-fr.com/html/centre.htm"><b>modern map</b></a> of the Loire Valley shows the important strategic location of Orleans.</p> <p align="justify">France had already lost control of its territory north of the Loire (in northern France). The English occupied this area thanks to the help of the Burgundians (French people who had a separate state within France). This map shows where <a ; target="_blank" href="http://www.smu.edu/ijas/maps/map1.html"><b>Burgundy</b></a> was located at the time of Joan of Arc. </p> <p align="justify"> Philip of Burgundy favored an alliance with England, not France. Charles, the dauphin, knew he could not count on the Burgundians to keep France for the French. Neither could the dauphin count on the French people themselves who had barely resisted English advances and who believed the English were invincible. These pictures, from Froissart's chronicles, depict the <a href="http://www.bnf.fr/enluminures/images/jpeg/i3_0021.jpg" ; target="_blank"><b>battle</b></a> and the <a href="http://www.bnf.fr/enluminures/images/jpeg/i3_0083.jpg" ; target="_blank"><b>negotiations</b></a> between France and England at Amiens. The town was ultimately lost to the English. By the spring of 1429, the situation looked hopeless for Charles and his countrymen.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="joanof_arc_ch5.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="joanof_arc_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="joanof_arc_ch7.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>