town of Bordeaux was alone in regretting the English, whose
departure spelt its ruin. It revolted in 1452; and then after
considerable difficulty was reconquered once and for all.

King Charles, henceforth rich and victorious, now desired to efface
the stain inflicted on his reputation by the sentence of 1431. He
wanted to prove to the whole world that it was no witch who had
conducted him to his coronation. He was now eager to appeal against
the condemnation of the Maid. But this condemnation had been
pronounced by the church, and the Pope alone could order it to be
cancelled. The King hoped to bring the Pope to do this, although he
knew it would not be easy. In the March of 1450, he proceeded to a
preliminary inquiry;[2699] and matters remained in that position until
the arrival in France of Cardinal d'Estouteville, the legate of the
Holy See. Pope Nicolas had sent him to negotiate with the King of
France a peace with England and a crusade against the Turks. Cardinal
d'Estouteville, who belonged to a Norman family, was just the man to
discover the weak points in Jeanne's trial. In order to curry favour
with Charles, he, as legate, set on foot a new inquiry at Rouen, with
the assistance of Jean Brehal, of the order of preaching friars, the
Inquisitor of the Faith in the kingdom of France. But the Pope did not
approve of the legate's intervention;[2700] and for three years the
revision was not proceeded with. Nicolas V would not allow it to be
thought that the sacred tribunal of the most holy Inquisition was
fallible and had even once pronounced an unjust sentence. And there
existed at Rome a stronger reason for not interfering with the trial
of 1431: the French demanded revision; the English were opposed to it;
and the Pope did not wish to annoy the English, for they were then
just as good and even better Catholics than the French.[2701]

[Footnote 2699: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 1, 22.]

[Footnote 2700: _Gallia Christiana_, vol. iii, col. 1129 and vol. xi,
col. 90. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. v, p. 219. Le
P. Ayroles, _La Pucelle devant l'eglise de son temps_, ch. vi.]

[Footnote 2701: De Beaurepaire, _Les etats de Normandie sous la
domination anglaise_, pp. 185, 188.]

In order to relieve the Pope from embarrassment and set him at his
ease, the government of Charles VII invented an expedient: the King
was not to appear in the suit; his place was to be taken by the family
of the Maid. Jeanne's mothe