Joan of Arc

The story

A country girl

Joan was born around 1412 at Domrémy, a village in Lorraine, in north-eastern France, into a family of well-off peasants. She could neither read nor write. She helped her parents in the fields, spun wool and went to Mass. It was a time of war: the Hundred Years' War between France and England had lasted for almost a century, and her village was attacked several times by bands of soldiers.

The situation of France was desperate. King Charles VI, who was mentally ill, had died in 1422, and the Treaty of Troyes had given the crown to the King of England. His son, the Dauphin Charles, had been disinherited and had not even been crowned. The English and their Burgundian allies controlled Paris and the north. In 1428 the English began to besiege Orléans, an important town on the Loire: if it fell, the whole south would be at risk.

The voices

Joan said later that, at thirteen, she had begun to hear voices, accompanied by a light, and that they were the archangel Michael and Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret. They told her to go to the help of the Dauphin and to see that he was crowned king. At first she told nobody. Then, in 1428, at sixteen, she asked to be taken to the captain of Vaucouleurs, Robert de Baudricourt, who sent her away with scorn. She came back, insisted, and in the end he gave her an escort of men.

Dressed as a man to travel safely, she crossed for eleven days a country full of enemies and reached Chinon, in February 1429, where the Dauphin was. Charles tested her, hiding among the courtiers: according to tradition Joan recognised him at once. Theologians and learned men questioned her at Poitiers to check that she was not a witch or mad, and judged her sincere.

Joan had her hair cut at ear level, like the young men of the time, and was called “the Maid” (in French “la Pucelle”), that is, the girl, because she was unmarried. She did not fight with a sword, but carried the banner and urged on the soldiers; she said she had never killed anyone.

Orléans and Reims

Joan asked for armour and a white banner with the names of Jesus and Mary. With the army she reached Orléans at the end of April 1429. Within a few days the French, heartened by her presence, attacked the English forts around the town. Joan was wounded by an arrow in the shoulder, but went back to the fight. On 8 May the English lifted the siege.

In the following months other victories followed, such as Patay, in June, and on 17 July 1429 Charles VII was crowned king in Reims Cathedral, with Joan beside him. Then she tried to take Paris, but was wounded and the attack failed. At this point the king, who preferred to negotiate with Burgundy, stopped supporting her.

The trial and the stake

In May 1430, at Compiègne, Joan was captured by the Burgundians, who sold her to the English for ten thousand pounds. She was taken to Rouen, where a church court, led by Bishop Pierre Cauchon, a man loyal to the English, tried her for heresy. For months they questioned her, with cunning questions about her voices and her wearing men's clothes. Joan answered promptly, without letting herself be trapped.

On 30 May 1431, aged about nineteen, she was condemned and burned alive in the Old Market Square of Rouen. Some years later, in 1450, King Charles VII had the inquiry reopened: in 1456 a new trial declared the sentence void and cleared her name. In 1909 the Church declared her blessed, and on 16 May 1920 a saint.