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Summary
Gloucester arrives at the Tower of London with his blue-clad servants. One of his men knocks on the gates, but the warders inside refuse to let him in. Angered that he, as Lord Protector, would be barred entrance, Gloucester orders his men to storm the gates. From inside the Tower, Woodville explains that Winchester has ordered him to forbid entrance to this nobleman. Winchester and his men enter, distinguished by their tawny-colored coats, and the bishop confirms his refusal to submit to Gloucester. The two men curse each other, then all their men draw their swords and begin fighting. Gloucester’s blue coats beat Winchester’s tawny coats just as the Mayor of London and his officers enter the scene.
The Mayor demands that they stop fighting and explain themselves. Gloucester says Winchester has shut everyone out of the Tower, but Winchester accuses Gloucester of wanting to gain access to the artillery housed there in order to overthrow the young king and usurp the throne. The two groups resume fighting, and the Mayor stops them again, commanding them to disarm or face execution. Winchester and Gloucester agree to obey the law and voice their disagreement in another venue. The Mayor expresses amazement at the lords’ appetite for conflict and violence.
Meanwhile, in Orléans, the Master Gunner orders his son to watch a nearby tower, which he has heard the English lords use as a lookout over Orléans to plan their assault. The Gunner has aimed a piece of artillery at the tower should the lords reappear there, and he leaves his son to watch.
Salisbury, Talbot, Gargrave, and Glasdale stand on turrets overlooking Orléans. Salisbury asks how Talbot escaped the French jail, and Talbot explains how Bedford ransomed him by exchanging him for a French nobleman that had been taken prisoner. Talbot narrates his time with the French, who were so frightened of him that they had armed guards aim their arrows at him even while he slept. As the soldiers look out over Orléans and plan their attack, the tower suddenly convulses in explosions, and Salisbury and Gargrave fall—the former wounded, the latter dead. A messenger then enters to tell of a French attack, led by Joan la Pucelle. Salisbury groans, so Talbot orders him conveyed to his tent while he deals with the French.
Talbot attacks the French and drives them back, then Joan forces Talbot’s army into retreat. Talbot cannot understand how a woman could be defeating his troops. Joan enters the scene again, and he challenges her to a fight. Her strength amazes him, but she leaves before their fight has concluded, saying his time to die has not yet come. She returns to her troops in Orléans, and Talbot urges his men onto another skirmish, but he orders their retreat when it becomes obvious that they cannot win. Talbot exits in shame.
Joan calls for French flags to be flown from the towers of Orléans, for she has freed the city from the English siege, as promised. Charles honor Joan with a banquet for her remarkable leadership, though he irritates his noblemen by giving her all the credit for the victory.
Analysis
The street brawl between Gloucester and Winchester is represented by the contrast of two colors: the blue and the tawny shades of the men’s uniforms. This foreshadows the imminent turn of events when all the nobles in the royal court come to divide themselves up by color. The forthcoming discord between those who support the white rose (the symbol of the house of York, represented by Richard Plantagenet) and those who support the red rose (the symbol of the house of Lancaster, represented by Lord Somerset) will mark the beginning of the Wars of the Roses. The disagreements in this scene stem from these men’s political schemes to gain personal power. Both worry that the other plots against him, yet neither has much of a case against the other.
Talbot’s return to the battle seems the result of bad planning on the part of the French. Having once captured the most dangerous man in the English army, why do they free him, and for a man whom Talbot claims is a lesser lord? It seems that old codes of warfare, involving honorable pacts to fight fairly, still hold sway in some portions of this war. The men in charge have not yet become entirely bloodthirsty and mercenary. That said, Joan’s arrival on the scene serves to intensify the war, as if to suggest that the gentlemanly ways of past wars will soon be abandoned.
Joan’s counteroffensive against the English forces begins with a sneak attack on the leaders, who have gathered at what they believe to be a secret lookout point. Yet as we have just learned in the previous scene, the Master Gunner of Orléans has discovered their lookout and communicated their location to his superiors. This instance of French espionage then leads directly to the mortal wounding of Salisbury, a figure whose impressive military record is second only to Talbot’s. In his grief, Talbot exclaims that Salisbury once declared thirteen victories in a row and that, having been trained personally by Henry V, he was always a terror in the field. Talbot sees his men’s failure to make headway against the French in the battle at Orléans as a sign of their failure to honor the fierce reputation of this great man. The loss of Salisbury is thus linked to the shame of losing the city.
As with other physical conflicts in the play, the battle between Joan’s forces and Talbot’s troops is described in stage directions. The group fight shifts offstage, so the audience doesn’t directly witness the English defeat. Instead, the French victory is rendered more symbolically by Joan’s impressive defeat of Talbot. Once again, she has proven herself against a man, and seemingly without breaking a proverbial sweat. His defeat at the hands of a woman leaves Talbot reeling and confused, which only contributes further to the humiliation of the English defeat. In his failure to comprehend her victory, he curses her as a “devil’s dam” (1.7.5) and a “witch” (6). She is clearly a formidable foe, and Charles knows it as well as Talbot. In the final scene of act 1, he lavishly praises her for her victory, while his nobles, offended that their king should attribute the military success to her alone, remain somewhat reserved.
