Note 351 — Chapter X · Gothic Art in Normandy[314]

Boisguillaume, second clerk of the Rouen court in 1431, Manchon’s assistant, testified before the three inquests for Jeanne’s rehabilitation. He drew attention to the fact that all who had been culpable of the Maid’s death had come to a swift or shameful end. Estivet was found dead in a gutter at the gates of Rouen; Loyseleur, the false confessor, was struck down suddenly; Cauchon expired ignominiously. “I call you to judgment before God for what you have done,” rang out Jeanne’s words to these unworthy churchmen on her last day. Nicolas Midi, of the Paris Parliament, who drew up the odious twelve accusations, and who sermonized Jeanne in the Old Market, was stricken with leprosy. A year after the execution died the young Duchess of Bedford, who had inflicted a gross outrage on Jeanne, and her death detached from the English cause her brother, the Duke of Burgundy. Her husband, John of Lancaster, regent-duke, brother of Henry V, died in full youth, three years later, and was buried in Rouen Cathedral. His nephew, Henry VI, was dispossessed of his English crown, imprisoned, and murdered.