THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR 529 many a breast as well as in the pure bosom of the peasant maid of Domremy. Joan had other qualities of leadership. She was not an ordinary visionary, but natural, self- possessed, and apt at repartee despite her lack of education. Her life was pure and noble, she was genuinely religious, she inspired respect in the rough soldiers, and enforced strict discipline and order throughout the camp. Although she endured many hardships and wore armor like a man, she remained womanly and in battle carried a banner in order not to kill any one. Yet she spoke out boldly her opinion in the king's councils of war, and was the most aggressive of his commanders. Where there was the most danger, there was her banner. Charles VII was still too sluggish or cautious to keep pace with her impetuosity for long. He hesitated about attacking Paris until it was too late, and then withdrew to Fate of Bourges again. Joan went off to relieve Com- J oan piegne from the Burgundians. She was captured and tried at Rouen, the English headquarters in France, by a large ecclesiastical court under English influence in an effort to prove her a witch or at least a heretic. The trial was unfair and she was unfairly dealt with in prison. She was con- demned as a heretic and burned at the stake only two years after her relief of Orleans. The English had hoped to justify themselves and to throw discredit upon her by this course, but the result was just the opposite. Charles VII made no move to save her at the time, but twenty-four years later the pope ordered a retrial of her case and her name was cleared of all suspicion of heresy. In 1909 occurred her beatification by the Roman Catholic Church. After their execution of Joan, the English won no more victories. In 1435 the Duke of Bedford died, and thereafter there was dissension and lack of capable military The E j ish leadership among Henry VFs advisers and gen- are driven erals. In 1435, too, the Duke of Burgundy aban- rom doned the English alliance and made the Treaty of Arras with Charles VII, from whom he received territorial and other concessions. The next year the French king reentered
