Saint Joan of Arc (c. 1412-1431), also known as the Maid of Orleans, was a French patriot and martyr who challenged English military rule in France during the Hundred Years’ War.
Born into a peasant family in Domremy, France, Joan at the age of 13 or 14 began to hear the voices of Saint Michael, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, telling her to rescue France from English domination in the Hundred Years’ War. which was then and liberate the French city of Orleans from the English who were besieging it.
She was taken to see the Dauphin (the eldest son of the King of France and direct heir to the throne) Charles, who would be the future King Charles VII of France, at Chinon Castle in the Loire Valley. Charles was initially skeptical and had Joan examined by a group of theologians and clergymen at Poitiers, who became convinced of Joan’s sincerity and orthodoxy.
Charles then sent Joan with a small force to Orleans, where she joined the French army opposing the English forces. Wearing white armor and flying her own standard, Joan led a series of successful assaults against the English. On May 8, 1429, he forced the English to lift the siege and leave.
Joan now called for Charles the Dauphin to be crowned in Reims Cathedral, a move she believed would give Charles more authority and restore a sense of national unity to the downtrodden and war-weary French people.
Joan accompanied Charles and an army of 12,000 through English-held territory, with the French army clearing the territory of the English to make way for Charles and his party. Charles was then crowned in Reims Cathedral on July 17, 1429 as King Charles VII of France.
In April 1430, Joan and a small group of soldiers went to Compiegne, which was then besieged by the Burgundians, but on May 25 she was captured and sold to the English by John of Luxemburg for 10,000 crowns. The English were very happy to have Joan in her hands as she was becoming an impediment to their military advances in France.
Unfortunately for Joan, after her capture, Charles VII made no attempt to negotiate with her captors or offer a ransom payment.
In January 1431 she was tried in a court constituted by the English in Rouen. She was originally accused of witchcraft and heresy; however, the trial itself was only for heresy, and moreover, it was conducted with various irregularities.
Joan was found guilty and burned at the stake in the Old Market of Rouen on May 30, 1431.
Twenty-five years after his trial and execution, Pope Calixtus III established a new formal trial (known as the Rehabilitation Trial). The result was that Juana’s trial in 1431 was declared irregular, that is, Juana was exonerated by the Church. (Some commentators have suggested that this development was simply to strengthen the validity of Charles VII’s coronation against any challenge.)
Joan was canonized in 1920. She is now known as Saint Joan of Arc.
Saint Joan of Arc remains a French national heroine. Certainly her actions blocked the English advance south of the Loire in her time and her military victories and the coronation she promoted gave the French new strength in the Hundred Years’ War while demoralizing their English enemies. .
But the meaning of Joan’s life and death goes further and has been explored by many literary historians and writers over the years, including the playwrights Schiller, Shaw, Peguy and Brecht.
