Joan of Arc
The Maid of Orléans · c. 1412 CE, Domrémy, Duchy of Bar (modern France) - 1431 CE, Rouen, France (burned at the stake)
An illiterate peasant girl who claimed divine visions led her to lift the English siege of Orléans and crown the French king at Reims, turning the tide of the Hundred Years' War. Captured, tried for heresy, and burned at the stake at nineteen, she was later rehabilitated and canonized as one of the patron saints of France.
Life and legacy
Joan was born around 1412 in Domrémy, a small village in northeastern France, during the darkest period of the Hundred Years' War. By the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, England and its Burgundian allies controlled most of northern France, including Paris. The Dauphin Charles, the uncrowned French heir, held only a diminished realm south of the Loire. France appeared on the verge of extinction as an independent kingdom.
At the age of thirteen, Joan began hearing voices she identified as Saints Michael, Catherine, and Margaret, commanding her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin to Reims for his coronation. In 1429, after persistent effort, she convinced a local garrison commander to escort her to the Dauphin's court at Chinon. Despite the improbability of her claims, she was granted an audience with Charles and subjected to theological examination at Poitiers, which found nothing heretical in her mission. She was given armor, a banner, and a small military escort.
Joan arrived at Orléans in late April 1429 and within nine days helped lift the English siege that had lasted seven months. Her presence electrified the demoralized French troops. She was wounded by an arrow in the chest during the assault on the fortress of Les Tourelles but continued to lead from the front. After Orléans, she pushed north through the Loire Valley, winning engagements at Jargeau, Meung-sur-Loire, Beaugency, and the decisive Battle of Patay, where the English field army was destroyed. On July 17, 1429, the Dauphin was crowned King Charles VII at Reims Cathedral, with Joan standing at his side bearing her banner.
Joan's military fortunes declined after the coronation. An assault on Paris in September 1429 failed, and in May 1430, she was captured by Burgundian forces at Compiègne and sold to the English. Charles VII made no effort to ransom her. She was put on trial for heresy in Rouen, a court presided over by Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, who was allied with the English. The trial records, which survive in extraordinary detail, reveal Joan's remarkable intelligence and composure under hostile questioning. Asked if she knew she was in God's grace, she replied, "If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me."
Joan was convicted and burned at the stake in the marketplace of Rouen on May 30, 1431. She was nineteen years old. Twenty-five years later, at the request of her family and with the support of Charles VII, a retrial declared her innocent and a martyr. She was beatified in 1909 and canonized by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. Joan of Arc remains one of the most extraordinary figures in Western history, a teenage peasant girl who altered the course of the Hundred Years' War and became an enduring symbol of courage, faith, and French national identity.
Key accomplishments
- Lifted the English siege of Orléans in May 1429, turning the tide of the Hundred Years' War
- Led French forces to victory at Patay, destroying the English field army
- Escorted the Dauphin to Reims for his coronation as King Charles VII on July 17, 1429
- Displayed extraordinary composure and intelligence during her heresy trial at Rouen
- Canonized in 1920 as a patron saint of France
Quotes
If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.
Trial transcript, Rouen, 1431 (in response to being asked if she was in God's grace)
I was born to do this.
Attributed, from trial testimony at Rouen, 1431