The Master of Horse: Jean d'Aulon.

Jean d'Aulon was detached from the Dauphin's service at Chinon and seconded to Jeanne. He accompanied her throughout her military career until her capture at Compiègne.

Born about 1390 at Fezensac, Jean married in 1415 to Michelette, daughter of Jean Juvenal des Ursins, former Provost of the Parisien merchant traders, becoming President of the Parliament in Exile at Poitiers. As his son in law Jean d'Aulon gravitated to the entourage of the Dauphin. In 1428 his wife died and he remarried Helene of Mauléon, Dame of Caudeval.

Jean d'Aulon took part in the rescue of Montargis in 1427, under the command of the Bastard of Orléans, during which he had four horses killed under him. He was known as a good man with a very experienced knowledge when Charles appointed him to become Jeanne's squire. He was captured at Camping at the same time as the Maid and was imprisoned with her in the castle of Clairoix.

Counsellor, Master of the Household and Chamberlain to the King, in 1454 he became Captain-Governor of the castle of Pierre-Scize which defended the northern approaches to Lyon, on the Saône. The following year he was made Seneschal of Beaucaire and of Nîmes. Jean d'Aulon died in September 1458.

 

Shield of arms. - An alder tree with 3 branches (maybe green on a field of gold) .

Crest. - An upright hand palm facing (a symbol of honesty and uprightness).

 

The Pages : Louis de Coutes et Raymond.

Jeanne was provided with two pages. One was Louis de Coutes, nicknamed Minguet, who belonged to Gaucourt as a page or servant-at-arm since the age of 11. Whilst at Chinon he looked after Joan's needs. One does not know with any great certainty the first name of Raymond who was her standard-bearer and who was killed during her attack on Paris.

The pages were young nobles destined to follow the procession of arms, to aspire to become a knight. Pages acceded to the state of squire about their 16th birthday. As pages they learnt the profession of arms under a knight or more often a lord or ally of their father, who they served equally well as kitchen staff, bedroom servants, waiters, servants of the squire, as well as servants-at-arms.

Born in 1414, Louis was the son of Jean also named Minguet de Coutes († c.1426), Lord of Fresnay-Le Gilmer, of La Gadelière and of Mitry, Chamberlain of the Duke of Orléans and captain of Châteaudun, and of Catherine Le Mercier, Lady of Noviont and of Rugles, from whom he had inherited his lands. Louis de Coutes accompanied Joan until the 23rd August 1429, the date when he quit the state of a page to become a squire. He became an advisor to the King in 1436. He married Guillemette of Vattetot and died about 1483. (Due to bad transcriptions he was for a long time known to historians as Louis de Contes, nicknamed Muguot).

As to Raymond, mentioned by this christian name alone by his comrade Minguet, we truly know nothing about him. Preserving the mystery of this young man who carried the Maid's standard his sign of a warrior, and who died at her side, killed in action whilst in the fullness of youth, his heart without doubt still full of the purity breathed into him by Jeanne.

Coat of arms of Louis de Coutes

Shield of arms. - Argent, a lion Sable with forked tail, armed and langued Gules, accompanied by 3 mullets Sable.

Crest. - A stag’s antler (perhaps Or),mantled Argent doubled Sable.

Nota. - The usual arms of the De Coutes family were: Or, a lion Sable with forked tail, armed and langued Gules.

 

 

 

The Heralds : Ambleville et Guyenne.

Joan was honoured with a quite extraordinary privilege of two heralds: Ambleville and Guyenne.

The term heralds of arms was used to describe in every general manner an intricate collection of "officers of arms" who, in the Middle Ages, played a particularly important role both in the field of heraldry and genealogy and in the military and political fields. In time of war they exercised a function of messenger for which they enjoyed a sort of diplomatic immunity. Their person as a result was sacred and inviolable.

Officers of arms were graded into three class types; after having learnt to ride they began their careers as pursuivants, after several years, they became heralds and after a further few years of service became king of arms (the senior grade). All heralds lost their surname for the benefit of a name either provincial or landed as a reward of a heraldic estate to remind them of their functions.

The heralds attached to Joan were probably pursuivants, because only Dukes, Counts and Viscounts had the right to have heralds, the king of arms was reserved for the King, Princes, and sovereign Duke. Barons and knights did not have pursuivants. Without doubt we will never know the true identities of these two men who had as surnames Ambleville and Guyenne.

Ambleville belonged perhaps to Julien des Essars, husband of Isabeau de Vendôme (2nd sister of Jean de Vendôme, vidame of Chartres, companion of the Maid) who was Lord of Ambleville in Vexin, member by alliance of a family of an exemplary faithfulness to Charles VII and to the Duke of Orleans.

As to Guyenne, he was without doubt part of the king’s household. It was however a provocation to carry this name by an officer of french-arms because the lordship of this province was claimed by the King of England, as a descendant of Eleanor of Aquitaine.

A herald of the beginning of the15th century : Claes Heynen
(† 1414) the said "Gelre",
herald of the Duke of Gueldre
(after his own design).

Heralds are sometimes represented like here holding in their hands chains. The precise meaning of these has been lost but may indicate that the bearer is neutral and cannot be taken prisoner as the chains are broken like troops protected by a white flag of truce in modern times.

The Clerics : Brother Pasquerel,
Nicolas de Vouthon and Mathelin Raoul.

Every military household included a chaplain. Joan whom one acquainted with piety was evidently unable to escape this ruling. It appears that she had two: Brother Pasquerel, an Augustinian monk, and a relative of her mother, Nicolas de Vouthon, a Cistercian. Another cleric, Mathelin Raoul or Rouel was her treasurer holding the accountants of the household.

Jean Pasquerel was reader at the Augustinian monastery of Tours. He had knowledge of Joan's mission when he was found for a pilgrimage at Le Puy-Notre-Dame (not Le Puy in Velay *) at the same time that Bertrand de Poulengy, Jean de Metz and a brother of Joan (not her mother *) who had gone to pray before the sash of the Virgin which was kept in the church of this locality 40 km from Chinon.

Brother Pasquerel became Joan's chaplain and accompanied her throughout her mission, until Compiègne. On asking of the Maid he had a banner made at Blois on which was displayed the Crucifixion. This banner was carried by a procession of priests and monks who preceded the army on its march to Orleans... Brother Pasquerel was present at all the battles in which Joan participated, her confessor and councillor, she called on when she was wounded.

* See "Jeanne d'Arc, mythes et réalités", pgs 65-67 (Edition L'Atelier de l'Archer, 1999), by Olivier BOUZY , assistant director of the *Joan of Arc's Center*, Orléans.

The banner of Friar Pasquerel
reconstructed by S. Gauthier for "La Mission de Jeanne d'Arc", Tome I, by Colonel de Liocourt (Nouvelles éditions latines, 1974)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pierre et Jean d'Arc alias "du Lys".

One maintains that Joan's brothers, Jean and Pierre, were attached to her military household. They were the 2nd and 3rd sons of Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Vouthon alias Romée.

The youngest, Jean du Lys, alias Little Jean, was named in 1452 Bailiff of Vermandois and Captain of Chartres. In 1457 he was made Captain of Vaucouleurs which he held for 10 years before his retirement. Jean d'Arc may be remained without posterity so he had no heir to become the parish priest of Domrémy.

The younger brother, Pierre, followed the Maid until Camping where he was captured with her. He was ruined after paying his ransom and ended his life in Orléans. The Duke of Orléans gave him the Ile-aux-Boeufs (a large island of pastureland that was situated on the Loire a little up river from Orleans). Charles VII bestowed upon him the perception of a right to collecting Tolls in the district of Chaumont. He became a knight of the Order of the Porcupine, created by Charles d'Orléans. He had a son curiously surnamed "The Maid" who died in 1501.  

Azure, a bow Or in fess accompanied with 3 arrows Or, 2 in saltire, 1 in pale, the pheons and plumes Argent (even a chief Argent, a lioncel Gules).