Joan of Arc 1412-1431

Joan was born in the Champagne district of France, northeast of Paris. Tradition holds that she was a shepherd girl but in now seems more likely that she was the daughter of a well-to-do farming family.

In 1415, when Joan was three, Henry V of England won a shattering victory over the French at the battle of Agincourt and gained control over France north of the Loire river. Since the 11th century, there had been a dispute between the English and the French about who was the rightful monarch of these lands. In 1428, the English, allied with the Duke of Burgundy, laid siege to the city of Orleans. The King of France appeared powerless to save the city.

From the age of 13, Joan began to receive devine visions that convinced her she was destined to save France from the English. She refused an offer of marriage and pledged herself to perpetual virginity. Against her parents wishes, she revealed her visions to Charles VII, the uncrowned French king. She told Charles, "I have come to raise the siege of Orleans and to aid you to recover your kingdom. After I have raised the siege, I will conduct you to Reims to be consecrated." Convinced of her piety and sincerity, Charles accepted her services.

Joan was strongly built and soon showed that she could wear armor, ride war horses, and use a jousting lance as well or better than most men. Wearing distinctive white armor, Joan lead a column of soldiers to relieve Orleans. In a series of battles in which Joan was twice wounded, she forced the English to retreat in disgrace. Following her success at Orleans, Joan lead French forces in a series of victories that lead to the recapture of Reims. There, as Joan had predicted Charles was crowned King of France.

Continuing to engage the English on the Battlefield, Joan was captured by Burgundian forces and, for the price of 10,000 crowns, turned over to the English. The English put her on trial claiming that her visions had foully sullied the honor of God. Interestingly, the English were also upset by Joan's mode of dress. Letters written in the English king's name (he was nine years old) said "It is notorious that a woman who insisted on being called Joan the Maid, discarding the garb and vestiture of the female sex, an act repugnant and forbidden by all law, a deed contrary to Divine law and abhorrent to God, put on and wore men's garments and likewise armed herself as a man." Joan's mode of dress played an important part in her trial. She was convicted by the English as a heretic and, in 1431, was burned at the stake.