Although the Eastern European Great Plains remained a chaotic battleground, the conflicts in Eastern Europe failed to capture the attention of most Christian nations, especially those in Western Europe, until the end of May of this year.
This was because another major event in Western Europe completely drew the gaze of all Western European countries.
That event was the public burning at the stake of a young woman named Joan of Arc by the Kingdom of England. Behind this execution lay a war between England and France that had lasted for nearly a hundred years.
This war, in any timeline, would later be known by people as the Hundred Years' War.
The Hundred Years' War began with the childless death of Charles IV of the Capetian dynasty.
After his death, Philip, Count of Valois, a branch of the Capetian family, who became Philip VI, inherited the throne of France.
However, Edward III of the Plantagenet dynasty of the Kingdom of England denied the legitimacy of his succession, believing that as Charles IV's nephew, he had a greater right to inherit the French throne than Philip VI.
Additionally, Philip VI's insistence on confiscating English territories on the continent exacerbated the already poor relationship between the two sides.
Finally, in April 1337, Edward III launched a war of succession to claim the French throne, and the Hundred Years' War erupted.
During this period, England often held the advantage; for example, in 1360, after the first phase of the Hundred Years' War ended, France ceded large territories in Southern France and Normandy to England.
Nevertheless, both sides were still more or less evenly matched, and as a result, when the second phase of the war began in 1369, they also signed various truce agreements at certain times.
But no matter what, England never gave up its claim to the French throne.
By 1399, Henry of the Lancaster family, a branch of the Plantagenet family, usurped the throne and became Henry IV.
His ambitious son, Henry V, upon ascending the throne in 1413, did not limit his gaze to the British Isles but also turned his attention to the Western European continent.
In 1415, taking advantage of the civil war between the Armagnac and Burgundian factions within France, Henry V once again used the claim to the throne as a pretext to dispatch troops to France, initiating the third phase of the Hundred Years' War.
In October of the same year, the Battle of Agincourt broke out, and the originally superior French knights were completely routed by the well-trained English longbowmen.
The French casualty list was described by later historians as "reading like a roll-call of a generation of military and political leaders."
The significant reduction in French high-ranking officials also exacerbated Valois's military failures.
Although King Charles VI of France and King Henry V of England both died in 1422, this did not change France's strategic decline.
By 1428, the French King, or rather, the self-proclaimed French King Charles VII—well, it would be more appropriate to call him Dauphin Charles at the time, as he hadn't yet been crowned in Reims—had already lost important cities including Paris and Reims.
With the English siege of Orléans beginning in October of the same year, the fate of Valois, and indeed all of France, seemed to be drawing to a close.
But fate is always so elusive, like the words of Croesus advising Cyrus: "Human fortunes are ever revolving on a wheel."
In the spring of 1429, a young woman named Jeanne d'Arc, or Joan of Arc, born in the village of Domrémy in the Lorraine region, went to meet Dauphin Charles.
She claimed to have been "personally taught by angels," also referred to as "divine revelation from God," and that she was there to help the Dauphin officially ascend the throne and expel the English forces.
In his desperation at the time, the exhausted Dauphin Charles ultimately chose to place his hope in vague miracles.
He granted Joan of Arc military authority, sending this young woman to Orléans to fight for France, and for his throne and country.
This appointment also shaped her brief yet brilliant life.
Upon arriving in Orléans at the end of April of the same year, Joan of Arc, with her innate tactical ability and courage to inspire the entire army, repelled the English forces besieging Orléans in less than a month, lifting the siege that had lasted for over half a year.
She then led the French army to continuously advance into the occupied territories, reclaiming large areas of lost land within more than a year.
And Dauphin Charles, shortly after she recaptured Paris, was officially crowned King Charles VII of France in the capital, Paris, at the end of July 1429.
But heroes are always unfortunate.
At the end of May 1430, due to the city of Compiègne's fear of a surprise English attack, it refused entry to Joan of Arc's rearguard, leading to her capture shortly thereafter by the Burgundian army, an ally of England.
After a series of twists and turns, she was subjected to an absolutely unjust religious trial in Rouen in early January 1431, at a special ecclesiastical court established for her by the English.
At the same time, on the Eastern European Great Plains, Theodoro was taking a strategic breather, hoping to seize the village of Henichesk at the opportune moment and then deliver a surprise blow to the southern part of the Crimean Khanate.
Meanwhile, at the Rouen ecclesiastical court, which opened concurrently, facing the English plot, the young woman Joan of Arc did not sit idly by.
Instead, her quick wit and intelligence repeatedly left her enemies dumbfounded; for example, when the inquisitor asked her, "Do you believe you are in God's grace?" she replied, "If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God keep me there."
But her quick wit was of no avail against malicious framing, because this religious trial was, in essence, a political judgment by the English.
Under the active manipulation of the English, the largely illiterate Joan of Arc was ultimately deceived by her enemies into signing a public abjuration and was sentenced to death.
Even if she had been literate, the English would have found other ways to force her execution.
Later English people often propagated that the French, led by King Charles VII, all sat idly by during this period, ignoring everything that happened, using this to mock the French.
In reality, this is completely wrong.
From the moment Joan of Arc was captured, Charles VII tried to organize several relief armies to save her, but the English and Burgundians were very vigilant in guarding Joan of Arc, causing all the French King's military efforts to fail.
After military rescue failed, Charles VII tried to negotiate with the Burgundians to ransom Joan of Arc, but they extorted him, demanding more than a year's worth of French military expenses.
Charles VII's small court at the time simply could not raise this sum within six months.
And shortly after he began to save money, Joan of Arc was handed over to the English, making it impossible to ransom her back.
Even though the French King lost hope of ransoming Joan of Arc, the French generals did not give up; for example, Marshal Gilles de Rais launched several suicidal rescue attempts to bring back Joan of Arc, until her ultimate death.
But no matter how hard they tried, the young woman's life would, like fireworks, meet its end after a brilliant display.
On May 30, 1431, in the Old Market Square of Rouen, Joan of Arc was tied to the stake.
Her golden hair was stirred by the gentle breeze of the day, and her clear blue eyes were filled with complex emotions, difficult to simply categorize.
Was it unyielding steadfastness, or nostalgia for her parents, hometown, and past life, or perhaps guilt towards those who had placed great hope in her, or a combination of all these?
She prayed incessantly and asked a nearby priest to allow her to hold a small crucifix.
After gripping a small wooden crucifix tightly in her hand, she tried her best to force a smile onto her still-beautiful face, thanking him for his kindness to her, a dying person, and then continued her prayers.
Finally, the fire was lit.
"Forgive, forgive, may the Lord forgive all this, forgive our sins…" Just as the fire was lit, her prayer reached this point.
The execution by fire was very brief, ending after a few minutes.
During this time, the young woman did not cry or beg for mercy, only a continuous, then intermittent, and finally silent prayer.
After the execution, English soldiers poked through the charred wood, exposing the blackened corpse, to prove to the crowd that she was indeed dead.
Then they burned the corpse again, lest anyone try to collect her ashes.
After doing this, they threw the remains, which weren't even ashes, into the Seine River, completely erasing the young woman's remnants from the world.
What were the thoughts of the onlookers? It is unknown.
But one young man was furious about it.
He could not believe that his liege lord and King would agree to such an unjust and hypocritical judgment and actually carry it out.
At the same time, he hated his own cowardice for not daring to stand up for his beliefs and morals.
"This saint should not have died in such a tragic way.
And such a lord, such a country, is not worth serving!
My title and even my fief, consider them my gift to you, my hateful cousin.
But one day, I will surely return to tell you, and all of you, and even my current self, how mistaken and despicable you are!"
This young man, who witnessed the entire execution, finally left the scene in anger, intending to leave Britain, where he was born and raised, and travel to the distant East to fight for his own beliefs.
This young man was Dungar de Laporte, the posthumous son left in Munster by the young Earl of Suffolk, Michael de la Pole, who died in the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 on the English side.