Clement or him who is called Benedict; and in whom we should
believe, either in secret or under reservation or by public
pronouncement: for we shall all be ready to work the will
and the pleasure of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yours in all things,

COUNT D'ARMAGNAC."[1690]

[Footnote 1690: _Ibid._, pp. 245, 246.]

He who wrote thus, calling Jeanne his very dear lady, recommending
himself humbly to her, not in self-abasement, but merely, as we should
say to-day, out of courtesy, was one of the greater vassals of the
crown.

She had never seen this baron, and doubtless she had never heard of
him. Jean IV, son of that Constable of France who had been killed in
1418, was the cruellest man in the kingdom. At that time he was
between thirty-three and thirty-four years of age. He held both
Armagnacs, the Black and the White, the country of the Four Valleys,
the counties of Pardiac, of Fesenzac, Astarac, La Lomagne, and
l'Ile-Jourdain. After the Count of Foix he was the most powerful noble
of Gascony.[1691]

[Footnote 1691: A. Longnon, _Les limites de la France et l'etendue de la
domination anglaise a l'epoque de la mission de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris,
1875, in 8vo. Vallet de Viriville, in _Nouvelle biographie generale_,
iii, col. 255, 257.]

While his name was among those of the adherents of the King and while
it was used to designate those who were hostile to the English and
Burgundians, Jean IV himself was neither French nor English, but
simply Gascon. He called himself count by the grace of God, but he was
ever ready to acknowledge himself the King's vassal when it was a
question of receiving gifts from that suzerain, who might not always
be able to afford himself new gaiters, but who must perforce spend
large sums on his great vassals. Meanwhile Jean IV showed
consideration to the English, protected an adventurer in the Regent's
pay, and gave appointments in his household to men wearing the red
cross. He was as violent and treacherous as any of his retainers.
Having unlawfully seized the Marshal de Severac, he exacted from him
the cession of all his goods and then had him strangled.[1692]

[Footnote 1692: _Chronique de Mathieu d'Escouchy_, vol. i, p. 68, and
proofs and illustrations, pp. 126, 128, 139, 140. Dom Vaissette,
_Histoire generale du Languedoc_, vol. iv, pp. 469, 470. De Beaucourt,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 151. Vallet de Viriville, in
_Nouvelle biographie generale_, 186