Jeanne de Preuilly

Jeanne de Preuilly (born before 1413 – died 1455), also known as the Dame de Gaucourt (Lady of Gaucourt) through her marriage to Raoul de Gaucourt, was a French noblewoman and lady-in-waiting. She is historically noted as one of the two women appointed to examine Joan of Arc at Chinon in 1429 to verify her gender and virginity.

Biography One of five sisters, she was the younger daughter of Gilles de Preuilly and Marguerite de Naillac. She was born before 1413, as her father was killed in November 1411 during the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War at the bridge of Saint-Cloud.

Between 1420 and 1430, she married Raoul de Gaucourt, a prominent counselor and First Chamberlain to King Charles VII. Her husband was a veteran soldier and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. Jeanne served in the household of Yolande of Aragon, the King's mother-in-law, as a lady-in-waiting. She died in 1455.

The "Lady of Gaucourt" mentioned is Jeanne de Preuilly, and the "Lady of Trèves" was Jeanne de Mortemer, wife of Robert Le Maçon, Lord of Trèves. This physical examination was a crucial step in the medieval process to ensure that Joan was not a witch or a fraud, as it was believed that the Devil could not have a "pact" with a virgin. Jeanne de Preuilly is likely one of the two ladies depicted escorting Joan of Arc in the illumination on folio 55v of Martial d'Auvergne's Vigiles du roi Charles VII (c. 1484).

Issue Jeanne and Raoul de Gaucourt had four children:

Charles de Gaucourt (died 1482), Lieutenant General and Governor of Paris. Jean de Gaucourt (died 1468), Bishop and Duke of Laon and a Peer of France. Raoul de Gaucourt, Lord of Luzarches. Marie de Gaucourt (died c. 1464–1469), maid of honor to Queen Marie of Anjou, who married Charles de Tournon in 1456 and later René Cossa, Lord of Marignane.

Heraldry