nate intellect to rapidly acquire the moves of a battlefield chess master.
Joan’s ability to forcefully articulate what had to be done in the crisis of war was one of her great leadership attributes. Her stated conviction that God was guiding her had a hard-edged practicality to it that she expressed in a powerful way. She understood perfectly that God’s guidance was not to be confused with God’s doing the work. Before the Dauphin Charles gave his final approval for Joan to place herself at the head of the army, he had her questioned by a panel of learned clerics in Poitiers to ascertain whether she was, as she claimed, the virtuous instrument of God’s will or a deceitful force of evil. Seguin Seguin was a professor of theology who was on the panel at Poitiers. Years later, he gave his testimony at the retrial. He stated that one of the examining clerics at Poitiers had said to Joan that if God wanted to deliver the people of France from their troubles, there was no need of soldiers. Joan replied "In God’s name, the soldiers will fight and God will give them the victory." This answer pleased the assembled clerics.82 D’Alençon testified that he had had his doubts about the haste with which Joan ordered the assault on Jargeau. She gently reproved him with the words "Do not have doubts.... Act, and God will act."83 Joan’s understanding that God’s guidance had to be coupled with human deeds provided fodder for her cutting wit. D’Alençon described one of the many times when the army leadership was divided over whether or not to attack immediately. Urging the bolder course as always, Joan "said that if she were not sure that God was conducting their campaign, she would rather keep her sheep than expose herself to dangers like these."84 Joan’s ability to forcefully express the view that God was on the side of the French but that the French had to earn God’s help by their own exertion was yet one more aspect of her character that enabled her to pull the army along behind her.
The informal and ad hoc "committee" nature of the French military high command worked to Joan’s advantage. In a system such as that, forceful eloquence and strong character counted for more in councils of war than formal factors of rank and position.85 Joan’s era was a time when people of all social classes, even high-ranking military leaders sitting in war councils, were marked by intense religious faith. Joan’s apparent direct connection to God, seemingly confirmed by her unexpected yet repeated victories, must have added immensely to her power to persuade.86 Her gift for simple but powerful rhetoric only magnified what her cohorts wanted to believe was her divine authority. Even those few members of Joan’s war councils who lacked faith themselves must have known that it was the religious faith that the masses of soldiers had in her mission that empowered the army to fight so well. Such non-believers as existed in French councils of war would still have feared to tamper with a proven formula for victory. Time after time, Joan took full advantage of all these factors to alternately plead, cajole, argue, exhort -- and inspire --her nominal superiors to adopt her preferred course of action.
Beyond her intellect that enabled her to quickly acquire rudimentary skills of command, beyond her incredible force of will that empowered her to surmount all obstacles, Joan had innate qualities about her that made thousands of armed men want to follow her. The military has always been a man’s subculture regardless of the era and locale in question. Yet Joan, a young woman, was able to force her way into the boys-only club of the French military of her day and then to make that club her own. How did she manage to overturn the established order of military culture?
Men in military elites are jealously protective of their own elite status. They construct a daunting series of tests, both formal and informal, that anyone wishing to join their number must pass. In this, the warrior nobility of medieval France was a military elite like any other in history. Joan’s ability to j