Joan of Arc. The girl who saved France.

My first run in with the ‘Maid of Orleans’ was in my younger years, around the age of ten. I’d finally convinced my mom to let me watch the movie that we’d bought earlier that day (on VHS may I add) and I couldn’t be more excited! I finally got to find out about the girl who saved France. The tomboy that I wanted to be like… This only lasted for the first ten minutes before I ran crying to my mom because someone got killed and I couldn’t hack it… Yes, I am a complete chicken when it comes to gory films, even now. However, this never stopped my interest in Joan of Arc and now in the first blog (in hopefully a long line) I will be discussing Jeanne d’Arc, the Patron Saint of France.

Jeanne d’Arc was born in Domrémy (known now as Domrémy-la-Pucelle today) France, in 1412. Yes, Joan was just a small town girl living in a lonely world; her father, Jaques d’Arc (the spelling is debated) was a farmer, and her mother, Isabelle Romee, taught her more domestic tasks; Joan was an excellent seamstress and she even boasted about it in the final months of her life. During Joan’s younger years the French were battling a brutally long war with the English.

The Hundred Years War was the war that plagued the French and the English on and off from 1337 to 1453. The conflict began due to the status of the duchy of Guyenne in France, even though France belonged to the English Kings, the French still had most control over it, but, the English Kings wanted to own the country singularly and it continued when the relatives of the last Capetian (the French dynasty ruling till 1328) came forward to challenge the English Kings when they tried to claim the French throne. In 1360, King John of France unwillingly had to sign and accept the Treaty of Calais, this meant that the duchy of Guyenne had independence over nearly a third of France. Then the war started again when Charles V (son of King John) began to retake the land the duchy owned. Then there was a brief hiatus and that leads us into the year 1415.

It’s 1415 and the Hundred Years’ War was igniting again, the English King, Henry V decided he wasn’t content with ruling over the land he already claimed, and invaded northern France. So, the war began, and Henry V succeeded at Agincourt and this lead the Burgundians to join the English.

In Joan’s childhood, the English were not only victorious at Agincourt, but also conquered Normandy, which took a year (1417-1418). Henry V wasn’t done there however, he began attempting to have himself crowned as the future French King with the Treaty of Troyes in 1420. Even though Henry was winning battles, politically he was failing, even with the support of the dukes.

The French monarchy was beginning to change in 1417, that was why Henry was trying to make himself King. Charles VI (otherwise known as the “Beloved King” and the “Mad King”) had ruled over France for 42 years! He got the name “Mad King” from his many mad moments, for example; One year he went around claiming to be St. George. Another year he completely forgot his name and his wife, and the next year he believed he was made of glass and wouldn’t let anyone touch him in case he broke. Unfortunately for Charles, his mother had left to go to Paris and cozied up with John the Fearless, otherwise known as the Duke of Burgundy, and by 1418 the Burgundians controlled the capital under King Henry V. While the Burgundians occupied there, Charles VII (the younger brother of Charles VI and heir to the throne) made himself the head of the Armagnac Party (the rivals of the Burgundians) at only age 15 and had become the regent for the King who was growing more mentally ill. Charles VII tried to conduct a pact of friendship with the Duke in 1419, but during another meeting in Montereau, the Duke was killed by Charles political party the Armagnac, while he was in Charles’ presence. Then, the Duke’s successor, Philip the Good began a truce with the English, but left the Armagnacs out. This sealed the Anglo-Burgundian coalition.

Henry V’s treaty of Troyes had worked, and in 1420 he was recognized as the heir to the French throne, but, of course, Charles VII wasn’t going to let the English King win. Charles had supporters, and the Armagnacs also included the “party of the king”, which supported the rightful King to the French throne. Administration was set up in the Poitiers and Bourges regions, which was all of France up to the Loire River, except for Guyenne. In 1422 Charles got married, had a few drinks and then continued the war and occupied La Charite, putting a further dent in the Burgundian territory.

Charles VII began his rule over France on October 21^st 1422. Charles VI had messed up France financially and Charles VII had to sort it out. His army was dealt a blow at Verneuil in August 1424, and he attempted to reconcile once again with the Duke of Burgundy, but the murder of John the Fearless was still raw for the other party. But, he was still a long way from becoming King.

So, now after that brief interlude of a very tiring war, we go back to Domrémy and Joan. Domrémy was a poor village and most of the citizens there were devoted to Charles VII; the surrounding villages weren’t so unified in opinion with these residents and they supported the Burgundians. Nothing came of this until la-pucille began her journey to the King.

So what set Joan of Arc apart from the other peasant girls in her village? Well, at the age of thirteen (in 1425), she started hearing voices; voices of St. Michael, St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Margaret of Antioch. “she declared that at the age of thirteen she had a voice from God to help her and guide her. And the first time she was much afraid. And this voice came towards noon, in summer, in her father’s garden: and the said Jeanne had [not] fasted on the preceding day. She heard the voice on her right, in the direction of the church; and she seldom heard it without a light.” When asked what the voices said, she replied “Asked what instruction this voice gave her for the salvation of her soul: she said it taught her to be good and to go to church often; and it told her that she must come to France.”

Joan was convinced the visions were asking her to go to Charles and ask his permission to take the English out of France and let the rightful King take the throne.

In 1428 Joan began her journey to Vaucouleurs. When she got there she needed to speak to Robert De Baudricourt (who was basically the army’s leader). Baudricourt, of course, didn’t believe Joan and refused her a meeting with Charles [I mean, of course he wouldn’t, this was a time when witches were the focus of every woman with a dream]. Joan wouldn’t let that prevent her from fulfilling her mission. She returned home, but came back in 1429. Joan was the leader they needed, and the villagers could see that, and in turn the villagers respect of la-pucelle lead Baudricourt to give Joan a horse and an escort of soldiers to take her to the Dauphin. Joan was resourceful and knew that if she was to survive the trip, she couldn’t be a damsel in distress. She cropped her hair and put on men’s clothes to prevent men along the way taking advantage of her. Thus began her 11-day trek across Anglo-Burgundian terrain to Chinon, Charles’ court.

As anyone would be if a girl claimed she was speaking to Saints, Charles didn’t quite know how he felt about the girl from Dempremy. So, to test the young girls wits and devotion to the Dauphin, he hid among his courtiers in plain clothes to see if she could spot him… She did, of course and quickly informed him about her plan to fight the English and get Charles crowned King. To get Charles on her side, she privately repeated the solemn prayer that Charles made to God to save France, that nobody could know but him. Due to the nature of her plan, and her visions, she was interrogated by church authorities, while one of Charles’ relatives, Jean, duc d’Alencon, who quite liked Joan. Then she was taken away to Poitiers for a few weeks, and questioned further. Everything went according to plan, and Joan was granted some power. She began to dictate letters that would be sent to English. Joan was finally able to begin her mission properly. Charles gave Joan a military household with several men, Jean d’Aulon was her squire and her 2 brothers, Jean and Pierre joined her. Joan was so respected she even had her portrait painted which included Christ in Judgement and a banner bearing Jesus’ name.

This all happened when Joan was 17-years-old. Unlike my 17^th year on this planet, Joan was doing something productive and not just sitting listening to Coldplay and playing videogames.

On April 27^th 1429 Joan and several hundred men set out on their journey for Orléans. Orléans had been occupied by Anglo-Burgundian forces since 1428. Between May 4^th and May 7^th 1429, the French, along with Joan, took back Orléans . The battle took place after Joan (who was resting) supposedly jumped up from her bed and announced that they had to battle the English. The first day they were successful, the next day she addressed another of her letters of defiance for the Anglo-Burgundian tribe and on the morning of May 6^th she ventured over the river to the south bank and charged towards another fort. Joan had scared the English so much over her reign of the French army, that the English immediately evacuated to try and defend a better position; this didn’t last long and Joan attacked them before they managed to escape and took it from their grasp. Finally, on May 7^th the French moved toward the fort of Les Tourelles. It was in this battle when Joan got injured, but you can be sure that she returned to the fight as quickly as she could. This determination gave the French fighters the inspiration to fight on through until the English were defeated. On May 8^th, the final day of the battle, the English were retreating; but, Sunday is the day of rest, a day of prayer. Joan refused to allow the French to chase after them.

After the battle with the English, Joan left for Orléans on the 9^th of May and went on her journey to meet Charles at Tours. Charles accepted Joan, but didn’t trust her. He knew she had won that battle for the future King, but he wouldn’t listen to all the advice she was giving her. He had trusted advisors that told him differently, the young Joan, however had won the King to-be’s favor. La-Pucelle’s plan was to clear the English from the towns near the Loire River. Joan and a guy she knew called the Duc d’Alencon managed to take a town and a bridge and the castle Beaugency.

The fight was far from over for our girl, Joan. The next she saw the English was at Patay on June 18^th 1429, and she led the soldiers to an amazing victory. The English army had to go back home. Paris, however, was still under Anglo-Burgundian control Joan wanted to take advantage, but her and the commanders decided to go and join Charles. Joan was trying to persuade Charles to go to Reims so he could be declared king. The king was undecided and took a long walk back through towns they had conquered; with enough persuasion, Charles finally listened.

While the future king wrote letters summoning people to his coronation, Joan was writing her own letters. One of these letters she was writing happened to challenge Philip the Good (if you remember from earlier that was the new Duke of Burgundy). Joan was such a badass infact, that she wrote to all the townsfolk of Troyes, promising them pardon if they bowed to their new king. The townspeople, like many in la-pucelle’s story, didn’t trust her. So, they sent a friar (if I could I would make a joke about friar tuck, but alas, that is a different story), the friar was their too access her and talk to her. He thought she was wonderful and appreciated Joan’s mission, unfortunately, the villagers stayed loyal to the English. The King wasn’t happy with this outcome and told Joan to lead an attack against the town; of course, the villagers surrendered before morning. They then took Châlons; they gave the keys of the town to the Dauphine. Charles and Joan’s crew had a reputation now, and by the time they reached Reims, the gates were opened up to them. La-pucelle’s visions had all come true, she’d finished her mission. Charles was crowned Charles VII on 17^th July 1429. Joan overlooked, proudly with her banner next to the altar. She wrote to the duke of Burgundy to withdraw and make peace.

The King had now decided against retaking Paris, which didn’t sit well with Joan as the towns next door would have been at the clemency of the Anglo-Burgundians and the English back then were not known for being understanding or compassionate. Joan wrote to the Reims on 5^th of August, trying to ease them into a sense of security, she said that the duke had made a 2-week truce with the King. On August 6^th, the English stopped the Kings army from crossing the Seine at Bray; Joan and the commanders were all breathing a sigh of relief. Joan was becoming the saint the French peasants needed.

La-pucelle was growing restless and she wanted to take Paris. Parisians had already begun to organize their defenses by the 26^th of August. The day after Charles arrived on the 7^th of September, they launched an attack. Joan took her podium on the earthworks and urged them to surrender to their new King. Joan did this all while injured and carried on encouraging her soldiers until it got too much and they had to abandon the battle.

Joan followed Charles after he went back to the Louire. On September 22^nd, when the army and Joan reached Gien, the army was pulled apart and disbanded. Joan went to Bourges with the King, and was always remembered by the villagers in coming years as kind and generous to the poor. Joan again was leading battles for the King but, late supplies forced withdrawals from battle.

Joan was back at the Kings side and the King finally saw how much she had done for him and France, he made the whole of her family nobles. Things were taking a turn for the worst though. The townsfolk of Soissons refused Joan, an archbishop and the comte de Vendôme. The archbishop and the comte returned south of the Marne and Seine river; Joan did not. She returned to her friend in Compiègne. This was where it got really bad for la-pucille.

On my 22^nd 1430 John of Luxenberg had taken over the city where her friends stayed. She couldn’t sit by and leave them without aid. Joan carried on to Compiègne. The next day Joan took some Burgundians out of the equation but the French were flanked by the English and they had to retreat. Joan stayed to protect the rear guard while they were crossing the Oise river; here, she was thrown of her horse and injured.

Now, this is where we come to the part of Joan, the patron Saint of France’s story that is the hardest bit to tell.

La-pucelle was captured trying to protect that guard. She knew she would not win this fight, so herself and her brother Pierre and her closest friend Jean d’Aulon, were taken to Margny; here they were introduced face-to-face with the duke of Burgundy. When the people of Reims were told about Joan’s capture, the archbishop, Renaud de Chartres (the same archbishop who she refused to go back with earlier that month) blamed her of snubbing counsel and acting willfully. Charles sadly didn’t try to save her.

John of Luxembourg kept Joan and Jean d’Aulon in his castle. Joan tried to escape but he sent her to a different castle. In this castle, rumor has it she was treated well, but this wasn’t enough. Joan tried to escape by jumping from the top of the tower. Whether it was escape she wanted or to commit suicide, it’s unclear, but she wasn’t badly hurt luckily. When she recovered from the fall she was sent to the town Arras.

People were beginning to hear of her capture. News had travelled to Paris by May 25^th 1430. When it hit Paris, the theology faculty of the university of Paris, asked the duke to turn her over so she could be judged. The duke eventually agreed, but only if they paid him 10,000 Francs. Charles had still made no effort by this point. He didn’t know what to do. Joan may have been a witch for all he knew; for all he believed. By the 3^rd of January 1431, la-pucelle had been given to the care of the bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon, where she spent her time in the castle of Bouvreuil. The earl of Warwick (English earl) occupied the castle. Even though Joan’s offences were common knowledge, because they concerned faith she had to be tried before theologists at the university of Paris. It was the theologists that said they should be tried as a heretic. Her views weren’t orthodox (technically) and they claimed “she was no friend of the church militant on Earth” and she was supposedly threatening hierarchy.

The trial began January 13^th 1431 the trial of Jeanne d’Arc was starting. Statements that had been taken were read before the bishop and his assessors; the statements were to fully put to the test. Joan was to be summoned before the judges on February 21^st. Joan, being the Catholic girl she was, asked permission to go to mass before the trial. Joan’s faith however, did not affect the decision made about this request though, and she was denied her wish because of the amount of crimes and the nature of crimes she was being charged with, one of these included an attempted suicide after jumping in the moat earlier and her charge of witchcraft (but ironically, for her to be charged with witchcraft, the accusers had to believe in magic, which, is against their religion) and possibly the most ridiculous charge against her was that of dressing like a man. Joan was sworn in to tell the truth. La-pucelle always refused to tell the judges what she said to Charles and she was forbidden to leave prison, but Joan being the girl she was, did mention that she was morally free to try to escape. Guards had to remain with her in the cell, she was constantly chained to a wooden block, or put in irons and for a month she was interrogated on and off. The King made no attempt to help Joan, being scared about what the repercussions would be.

When Joans trial began, it took two-days for her to explain and for the judges to go through her 70 charges. Joan had been quite evasive about certain things though and her reasoning for this was because she “knew” God was going to save her and she didn’t believe that she had to answer when she already knew why she did what she did. In March her 70 charges were dropped to 2 charges and these were sent to Rouen and Paris theologians.  

Just after the trial, Joan fell ill. Convinced she was dying, Joan asked to go to confession and receive Holy communion, but her main wish was to be buried on church ground. They would not give her an answer but kept asking her questions, in May they began threatening torture if she didn’t start expanding on her answers. The maid refused.

The end had come. On May 24^th Joan was taken out of prison and taken to the Cemetery of the Church of Saint-Ouen, where her sentence was read aloud. Joan tried to appeal to the pope, but she was interrupted and ignored. Joan panicked, she knew things weren’t going her way, so she bravely said she would do everything the church asked of her. She signed the form of abjuration and was condemned to live in prison for the rest of her life.

After Joan had been incarcerated, she was ordered to put on women’s clothes. Only 3 days later she was back in men’s clothes saying that she preferred these to women’s. This was classes as a relapse and her sentence was reassessed. 39 Judges and judges put her life in the secular official’s hands on May 29^th 1431. 

The next day at another trial, the executioner grabbed her and took her to the stake. Then we come to the saddest part of our story. Joan was burnt at the stake on May 30^th at the age of 19. She died hoping the Lord would save her.

Charles VII revocked Joans sentence and annulled it in 1456 and on May 16^th 1920 Pope Benedic XV made her a saint and later that year on June 24^th the French Parliament decreed a yearly feast for La-Pucelle.

So there you have it. The extraordinary story of an extraordinary young woman.

Return of the Dead Famous

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References: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Joan-of-Arc/Character-and-importance https://www.livescience.com/38288-joan-of-arc.html https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/saint-joan-of-arc https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-VII-king-of-France https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/hundred-years-war https://www.burgundy-tourism.com/discover/famous-burgundians Joan of Arc A Military Leader – Kelly Devries

Disclaimer – I’m sorry if I have spelt some French words wrong, my French is not as good as it should be considering I studied it for 4 years.