OOC: Sorry, I got excited with the possibilities. I should have tried to be more realistic.
OOC: No problem; you pushed a good bit of fleshing-out into TTL.
IC: Yeah, I've seen those maps too. They always really exasperate me, considering how England's been completely self-governing for the last three hundred years and even had its own foreign ministry for most of them. Now that I think about it, you could almost call the Lethell-Owen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Owen_(theologian) pair an English version of Joan of Arc in spirit.
(OOC: Yes, ATL cousins of Speaker Lenthall and Cromwell's chaplain Owen.) It's interesting to contrast how they focused on the condition of the common people and ended up letting the French line keep the crown, with how Joan didn't focus on anything save Charles's crown except when giving her own home village a tax exemption.
And oh yes - I didn't mean to deny that Joan gave Charles confidence. If it wasn't for her, he'd have stayed in the south being blown around by every wind of faction until someone decided it'd be in their best interests to make peace with the English. I still think she meant her letter, though: remember how she advised her brother against serving in the conquest of England? Sure, it might've been for personal reasons, but I think that and the letter together mean she was sincere. As for the "blessed France the firstborn" quote - I hesitate to read
anything from her late madness back into any earlier period. Early on, she was only calling herself "daughter of God" in terms any Christian could've used, and that most rarely; later, she was claiming to be God's only messenger and "firstborn of the children" in words that could've better applied to Christ! (Just read the devil's advocate's charges at her canonization hearing.) At the beginning, it's pretty clear she only wore men's clothes for personal safety; on her deathbed, it's said she cursed everyone who wore skirts. Sure, the Abbess of Saint Michael's Maidens might've lied about Joan's last words, but remember that it was in-character enough for the majority of people to believe it...!