This battle was ever afterward called the Battle of Herrings, because great part of the convoy consisted of herrings and other articles of food suitable to Lent. King Charles, on hearing the event, was sick at heart, seeing that the state of his affairs was becoming worse and worse. This battle of Rouvroy was fought on the night of the first Sunday in Lent, about three hours after midnight. The English lost only one man of note, called Bresanteau, nephew to sir Simon Morbier, provost of Paris.
On the part of the English were that day made knights, Galloy d'Aunoy, lord d'Orville, the great Raoulin, and Louis de Luxu, a Savoyard. The army of the English might have consisted of about seventeen hundred combatants of tried courage, without including common men; and the French, as I have said, were from three to four thousand at least. The lord de Châteaubrun and some others were knighted at the same time with Charles de Bourbon. Only one prisoner was made that day, and he was a Scotsman.
FOOTNOTES:
[19] Q. If not sir John Fastolfe.
A MAIDEN, NAMED JOAN, WAITS ON KING CHARLES AT CHINON, WHERE HE RESIDED.—THE KING RETAINS HER IN HIS SERVICE.
In the course of this year, a young girl called Joan, about twenty years old, and dressed like a man, came to Charles king of France at Chinon. She was born in the town of Droimy, on the borders of Burgundy and Lorraine not far from Vaucouleurs, and had been for some time hostler and chambermaid to an inn, and had shown much courage in riding horses to water, and in other feats unusual for young girls to do.
She was instructed how to act, and sent to the king by sir Robert de Baudricourt, knight, governor of Vaucouleurs, who supplied her with horses and from four to six men as an escort. She called herself a Maiden inspired by the Divine Grace, and said that she was sent to restore king Charles to his kingdom, whence he had been unjustly driven, and was now reduced to so deplorable a state.