One of the most fascinating discoveries I had the pleasure of making while translating Gabriel Hanotaux’s Jeanne d’Arc, (Edition Hachette, 1911) has been the constant revelations he made to the strategy of the Anglo-Burgundian policy; that is to say, the references to the alliances between the Duke of Burgundy and the “Lotharingian Empire”, which the Duke Philip the Good was determined to reconstruct for his own benefit; however, an axiomatic intervention from Heaven thwarted the full realization of such an evil plan…
As a former Foreign Affairs Minister of the French Government, Gabriel Hanotaux knew perfectly well that in the wake of the Sudanese Fashoda incident and its resulting 1904 Alliance Cordiale between France and the United Kingdom, the British were preparing France for a new war against Germany. This means that the 1911 publication of JEANNE D’ARC was a very timely event bringing the French people together in the spirit of Joan of Arc in an attempt to steer France away from war.
However, the French oligarchy did not see fit to welcome this book with great enthusiasm because of its previous commitment with England. The publication of this book was very untimely for the so-called “Alliance Cordiale.” The British-French “friendship” could not afford to be troubled by an historian who was digging up the truth about the Lotharingian Empire out from under the feet of Perfidious Albion. The present report will tell you why.
