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Perhaps no woman has left more of a mark on history than Joan of Arc. Though she only lived to Age Nineteen and has been dead for over five centuries, every grammar school student around the world knows her name, and that she was burned at the stake by the English.
Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII.
She was captured by the Burgundians,
transferred to the English in exchange for money, put on trial by the
pro-English Bishop of Beauvais for charges of "insubordination and
heterodoxy," and burned at the stake as a heretic when she was 19 years old.
Background
France at the outset of Joan of Arc's career. The dot that represents
Paris is near the centre of the Anglo-Burgundian-controlled region.
Reims lies to the northeast of this area.
Twenty-five years after the execution, an Inquisitorial court authorized by Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, pronounced her innocent and declared her a martyr
Joan of Arc was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920. She is – along with St. Denis, St. Martin of Tours, St. Louis IX, and St. Theresa of Lisieux – one of the patron saints of France.
Joan said that she had visions from God that instructed her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame
the dismissive attitude of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in
only nine days.
Several more swift victories led to Charles VII's
coronation at Reims and settled the disputed succession to the throne.
To the present day, Joan of Arc has remained a significant figure in Western culture. From Napoleon onward, French politicians of all leanings have invoked her memory.
Famous writers and composers have created works about her.
Joan said she was about 19 at her trial, so she must have been born
around the year 1412. She later testified that she experienced her first
vision around 1424 at the age of 12 years, when she was out alone in a
field and saw visions of figures she identified as Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret,
who told her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin to Reims
for his coronation. She said she cried when they left, as they were so
beautiful.[19]
At the age of 16, she asked a kinsman, Durand Lassois, to bring her to nearby Vaucouleurs where she petitioned the garrison commander, Count Robert de Baudricourt, for permission to visit the royal French court at Chinon.
Baudricourt's sarcastic response did not deter her.She returned the following January and gained support from two men of standing: Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy. Under their auspices, she gained a second meeting where she made a remarkable prediction about a military reversal near Orléans.
Robert de Baudricourt granted her an escort to visit Chinon after
news from the front confirmed her prediction. She made the journey
through hostile Burgundian territory in male disguise.
Upon arriving at the Royal Court she impressed Charles VII during a
private conference. During this time Charles's mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon was financing a relief expedition to Orléans.
Joan asked for permission to travel with the army and wear the
equipment of a knight. She depended on donated items for her armor,
horse, sword, banner, and other items utilized by her entourage.
Historian Stephen W. Richey explains her attraction to the Royal Court
by pointing out that they may have viewed her as the only source of hope
for a regime that was near collapse:
| After years of one humiliating defeat after another, both the military and civil leadership of France were demoralized and discredited. When the Dauphin Charles granted Joan’s urgent request to be equipped for war and placed at the head of his army, his decision must have been based in large part on the knowledge that every orthodox, every rational, option had been tried and had failed. Only a regime in the final straits of desperation would pay any heed to an illiterate farm girl who claimed that the voice of God was instructing her to take charge of her country’s army and lead it to victory. |
Upon her arrival, Joan effectively turned the longstanding Anglo-French conflict into a religious war.] But this course of action was not without its risks. Charles' advisers
were worried that unless Joan's orthodoxy could be established beyond
doubt – that she was not a heretic or a sorceress – Charles' enemies
could easily make the claim that his kingdom was a gift from the Devil.
To circumvent this possibility, the Dauphin ordered background inquiries
and a theological examination at Poitiers to verify her morality. In April 1429, the commission of inquiry
"declared her to be of irreproachable life, a good Christian, possessed
of the virtues of humility, honesty and simplicity."
The theologians at Poitiers did not pass judgment on her divine
inspiration; rather, they informed the Dauphin that there was a
'favorable presumption' to be made on the divine nature of her mission.
This was enough for Charles, but they put the ball back in his court by
stating that he had an obligation to put Joan to the test.
'To doubt or
abandon her without suspicion of evil would be to repudiate the Holy Spirit and to become unworthy of God's aid', they declared The test for the truth of her claims would be the raising of the siege of Orléans.
She arrived at the siege of Orléans on 29 April 1429, but Jean d'Orléans, the acting head of the Orléans ducal family, initially excluded her from war councils and failed to inform her when the army engaged the enemy.
This did not prevent her from being present at most councils and
battles. The extent of her actual military leadership is a subject of
historical debate. Traditional historians such as Édouard Perroy
conclude that she was a standard bearer whose primary effect was on
morale.
This type of analysis usually relies on the condemnation trial
testimony, where she stated that she preferred her standard to her
sword. Recent scholarship that focuses on the nullification trial
testimony asserts that the army's commanders esteemed her as a skilled
tactician and a successful strategist. Stephen W. Richey's opinion is
one example: "She proceeded to lead the army in an astounding series of victories that reversed the tide of the war." In either case, historians agree that the army enjoyed remarkable success during her brief career.