Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc was a young peasant girl in medieval France who believed that God had chosen her to lead France to victory in its long-running war with England. She was born as Jeanne d'Arc in 1412, the daughter of a tenant farmer named Jacques d'Arc from the hamlet of Domrémy in northern France. She received no formal education and could not read or write, but her pious mother, Isabelle Romée, instilled in her a deep love for the Catholic Church and its teachings. She was 13 when she began to hear voices, which she determined had been sent by God to give her a mission of overwhelming importance: to save France by expelling its enemies and to install Charles as its rightful king. As part of this divine mission, Joan took a vow of chastity.

It was in May 1428 that Joan made her way to Vaucouleurs, a nearby stronghold of those loyal to Charles. Initially rejected by the local magistrate, she persisted, attracting a small band of followers who believed her claims to be the virgin who (according to a popular prophecy) was destined to save France.

When the magistrate finally relented, Joan cropped her hair and dressed in men’s clothes to make the 11-day journey across enemy territory to Chinon, the site of the crown prince’s palace. Joan promised Charles she would see him crowned king at Reims, the traditional site of French royal investiture, and despite having no military training, she asked him to give her an army to lead to the besieged city of Orléans.

Despite the opposition from his advisors and councillors, Charles granted her request, and Joan set off for Orléans in March 1429, dressed in white armour and riding a white horse. After sending a defiant letter to the enemy, Joan led several French assaults against them, driving the Anglo-Burgundians from their bastion and forcing their retreat across the Loire River.

This miraculous victory bolstered Joan’s reputation, and the news of it spread far and wide among French forces. She and her followers escorted Charles across enemy territory to Reims, taking towns that resisted by force and enabling his coronation as King Charles VII in July 1429.

Joan wanted to continue her progress and retake Paris, but Charles wavered. People in his court had doubts about Joan and worried that her success would give her, a mere girl, too much power. The Anglo-Burgundians were able to fortify their positions in Paris and turn back an attack led by Joan in September.

In the spring of 1430, Charles ordered Joan to confront a Burgundian assault on Compiégne. During the assault she was thrown from her horse and taken captive.

Joan was put on trial and ordered to answer some 70 charges against her, including witchcraft, heresy, and dressing like a man. The Anglo-Burgundians were aiming to get rid of the young leader as well as discredit Charles, who owed his coronation to her.

In attempting to distance himself from an accused heretic and witch, Charles made no attempt to help Joan or negotiate her release. After a year in captivity and under threat of death, Joan signed a confession denying that she had ever received divine guidance. Some days later, however, she defied orders by again dressing in men’s clothes, and this time she was sentenced to death. On the morning of May 30, 1431, at the age of 19, Joan was taken to the old marketplace of Rouen and burned at the stake. While this horrendous act put an end to her life, it only increased her legend.

Twenty years after her death, a new trial was ordered by Charles VII that cleared her name. Even before Pope Benedict XV canonised her in 1920, Joan of Arc had attained mythic stature, inspiring numerous works of art and literature over the centuries.

Source:

www.history.com