Joan of Arc

Who2 Biography: Joan of Arc, Military Leader / Saint

Born: 1412
Birthplace: Domrémy, France
Died: 30 May 1431 (burned at the stake)
Best Known As: The French heroine who was burned at the stake

Also known as The Maid of Orléans; in French, Jeanne D'Arc

A hero of the Hundred Years War, Joan of Arc remains a French national hero six centuries later. As a teenager she heard voices from on high urging her to save France from English domination. Despite being a young woman, she was placed at the head of an army; she attacked the English and forced them to retreat from Orléans. Later she was captured by the English, tried for heresy, and burned at the stake. In 1920 she was canonized by the Catholic Church.

Joan of Arc was the topic of the play Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw and the book Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain... She has been played in the movies by Ingrid Bergman and Milla Jovovich, among others... Another famous French maiden was Bernadette of Lourdes.

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5min Related Video: Joan of Arc

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Saint Joan of Arc

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(born c. 1412, Domrémy, Bar, Fr. — died May 30, 1431, Rouen; canonized May 16, 1920; feast day May 30) French military heroine. She was a peasant girl who from an early age believed she heard the voices of Sts. Michael, Catherine, and Margaret. When she was about 16, her voices began urging her to aid France's Dauphin (crown prince) and save France from the English attempt at conquest in the Hundred Years' War. Dressed in men's clothes, she visited the Dauphin and convinced him, his advisers, and the church authorities to support her. With her inspiring conviction, she rallied the French troops and raised the English siege of Orléans in 1429. She soon defeated the English again at Patay. The Dauphin was crowned king at Reims as Charles VII, with Joan beside him. Her siege of Paris was unsuccessful, and in 1430 she was captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English. Abandoned by Charles, she was turned over to the ecclesiastical court at Rouen, controlled by French clerics who supported the English, and tried for witchcraft and heresy (1431). She fiercely defended herself but finally recanted and was sentenced to life imprisonment; when she again asserted that she had been divinely inspired, she was burned at the stake. She was not canonized until 1920.

For more information on Saint Joan of Arc, visit Britannica.com.

Military History Companion: Joan of Arc

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Joan of Arc (c.1412-31) remains an enigmatic figure in the context of the Hundred Years War and of warrior women (see gender). The daughter of a prosperous tenant farmer of Domrémy in eastern France, she was fiercely patriotic. Inspired by voices she journeyed to Chinon where she persuaded Charles VII to let her accompany his army to raise the siege of Orléans. French success here and at the battle of Patay on 18 June 1429 led to Charles's coronation at Rheims on 17 July, serious blows to English power in France. Although mounted and armed it is unlikely that she was much involved in fighting, but was rather a source of religious inspiration as the bearer of the banner of Christ and the Virgin. Once crowned Charles soon distanced himself from her, afraid of the charge that he had gained his throne by diabolical means. She overreached herself in a failed attack on Paris and was subsequently captured by the Burgundians who sold her to the English. She was tried for heresy, admitted her fault, but then relapsed, being burned at Rouen on 31 May 1431. It was at the French-sponsored Process of Rehabilitation of 1456 that stories of her military prowess began to be advanced. Over succeeding centuries she became an icon for French national identity and was canonized in 1920 by a pope anxious to encourage the revival of Catholicism in France.

Bibliography

Warner, Marina, Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism (London, 1981)

— Anne Curry

Music Encyclopedia: Joan of Arc

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Subject of several works, including operas by Verdi (Giovanna d′arco) and Tchaikovsky (the Maid of orleans) and a dramatic oratorio by Honegger (Jeanne d′arc au bûcher).

Saints: Joan of Arc

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Joan of Arc (1412–31), virgin. Born at Domrémy (Champagne), the daughter of a peasant farmer, Joan was a pious girl brought up during the Hundred Years War: she was three years of age when the battle of Agincourt took place and only nine when Henry V of England and Charles VI of France died. After this the English armies under the duke of Bedford fought a successful campaign and took numerous fortified towns. Intelligent but illiterate, Joan first heard her famous voices when only fourteen; these she identified as belonging to Michael and the dubious Catherine of Alexandria and Margaret of Antioch; they told her to save France. At this time the military situation looked almost hopeless, and she had no success in persuading the commander of the French forces, but her voices persisted and gave her no rest. Her credibility was increased when some predictions and prophecy of further defeat were fulfilled. Eventually she was sent to the Dauphin (later Charles VII), who was impressed by her recognizing him in disguise and to whom she is said to have given some secret sign (never divulged) which attested the supernatural origin of her message. Theologians then gave her a searching examination for three weeks at Poitiers, found there was no reason for disapproval, and advised the Dauphin to make good use of her abilities.

She asked for troops to relieve Orléans; in April 1429 they left Blois with Joan riding at their head wearing white armour. Orléans was saved; English forts around it were captured; there can be no doubt that her presence and belief in her mission had enormously strengthened the morale of the troops. Her wound in the breast by an arrow enhanced rather than diminished her reputation. With the duke of Alençon she took part in a short campaign on the Loire which led to the victory of Patay. In July the Dauphin was crowned at Rheims with Joan standing at his side with her standard. This completed her mission; her voices had warned her that she would not live for very long. She found it impossible to withdraw at the moment of success, even though she was the object of suspicion, misunderstanding, and jealousy in the predominantly male world of the court, the army, and the Church.

An attack on Paris was a failure and an inactive winter was followed by her relief of Compiègne, then besieged by the Burgundians who were allies of the English. She led a sortie from the gates but was cut off from the main body of troops and captured. The duke of Burgundy imprisoned her; Charles made no attempt to save her; the Burgundians sold her to the English, who attributed her success to witchcraft and spells. She was imprisoned at Rouen and was tried for witchcraft and heresy by the court of the bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon, who carefully chose her judges. She was examined repeatedly, but made a spirited and shrewd defence single-handed. Inevitably her simple upbringing and ignorance of theological terms led her into mistakes. The judges declared that her visions were false and diabolical, and the summary of her statements was also condemned by the University of Paris. If she refused to recant, she would be handed over to the secular arm for punishment as a recalcitrant heretic. She was brought into the cemetery of St. Ouen and before a large crowd was intimidated into making some sort of recantation, the exact terms of which are a matter of dispute. Imprisoned once more, she resumed the male clothes which she had previously promised to abandon; after another visit from Cauchon she was declared a lapsed heretic, handed over to the secular arm, and burnt at the stake in the market-place at Rouen on 30 May. She died with fortitude, looking at a cross and calling on the name of Jesus. Her ashes were then thrown into the Seine.

About twenty years later, Joan's family asked for the case to be reopened: Callistus III appointed a commission which in 1456 quashed the verdict and declared her innocence. She was beatified by Pius X and canonized by Benedict XV in 1920. She is not venerated as a martyr but as a virgin who responded with complete integrity and courage to what she believed to be the revelation of God's will for her, and endured persecution and death with heroic fortitude. In England there has been considerable interest in her shown by the dedication of some churches in her honour, by the placing in Winchester cathedral of a statue of her opposite the splendid tomb of Cardinal Beaufort who took part in her condemnation, and in the play by G. B. Shaw and the study by V. Sackville-West. Interpretations of her character, governed by authors' presuppositions, have made her a patriot, a lesbian feminist, or even the first Protestant. What seems certain from the story of her condemnation is that neither the Burgundians nor the French nor the English authorities can be considered guiltless, nor can the Church in so far as it provided a legal framework for a political murder. It is to the credit of the Holy See that it carried through the process of rehabilitation to its ultimate conclusion. Her military importance has sometimes been exaggerated: the English reverses were also due to war-weariness, lack of financial support, incompetent leadership, and natural hazards such as disease; but there can be no denying Joan's immense success in boosting the morale of her compatriots. Her patriotic importance has continued to our own times and now she is France's second patron. Feast: 30 May.

Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.

P. Tisset and Y. Lanhers, Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (Société de l'Historie de France, 3 vols., 1960–71); Eng. tr. of the trial documents by J. P. Barrett, The Trial of Joan of Arc (1931); P. Doncoeur and Y. Lanhers, Documents et Recherches relatives à Jeanne la Pucelle (5 vols., 1952–61); studies by A. Lang (1908), G. Goyau (1920), A. B. Paine (1925), V. Sackville-West (1936), R. Pernoud (1954; Eng. tr. 1961), M. Warner (1980 and 1996)

Biography: Joan of Arc

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The French national heroine Joan of Arc (c. 1412-1431) led a troop of French soldiers and served as a temporary focus of French resistance to English occupation in the last phase of the Hundred Years War.

The life of Joan of Arc must be considered against the background of the later stages of the Hundred Years War (1339-1453). The war, which had begun in 1339 and continued intermittently till the 1380s, had caused severe hardship in France. In 1392 the insanity of the French king, Charles VI, had provided the opportunity for two aristocratic factions to struggle for control of the King and kingdom. The leader of one of these, John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, finally assumed control, and both factions appealed for help to England. Henry V of England invaded France on the Burgundian side in 1415 and inflicted a shattering defeat upon the French at Agincourt in the same year. The English and Burgundians entered Paris in 1418, and the murder of John the Fearless in 1419 strengthened Burgundian hatred for the Armagnac faction.

In 1420 Charles VI, Henry V, and Philip the Good of Burgundy agreed to the Treaty of Troyes, according to which Henry was to act as regent for the mad Charles VI, marry Charles's daughter, and inherit the throne of France on Charles's death. The treaty thus disinherited Charles VI's son, the Dauphin Charles (later Charles VII). Charles VI also implied that the Dauphin was illegitimate. In 1422 both Henry V and Charles VI died, leaving Henry VI, the infant son of Henry, as king of both kingdoms. Henry VI, through his regent, the Duke of Bedford, ruled uncontested in Normandy and the Île-deFrance. The Duke of Burgundy followed an independent policy in the territories he was assembling to the north and east of France. The Dauphin was reduced to holding the south of France, threatened with Anglo-Burgundian invasion, and taunted with the title "King of Bourges," from which city he ineffectively ruled what was left of his kingdom. He was in perpetual fear that the key city of Orléans, the gateway to his lands, might be captured by the English. In the autumn of 1428 the English laid siege to Orléans. Charles, dominated by the infamous favorite Georges de la Tremoille, naturally apathetic, and lacking in men and money, could do nothing. By the spring of 1429 the city appeared about to fall and with it the hopes of Charles VII.

Early Life

Joan was born to a peasant family in Domrémy, a small town near Vaucouleurs, the last town in the east still loyal to Charles VII. "As long as I lived at home," she said at her trial in 1431, "I worked at common tasks about the house, going but seldom afield with our sheep and other cattle. I learned to sew and spin: I fear no woman in Rouen at sewing and spinning."

Some time in 1425 Joan began to have visions - "When I was thirteen, I had a voice from God to help me govern myself." The voice was that of St. Michael, who, with St. Catherine and St. Margaret, "told me of the pitiful state of France, and told me that I must go to succor the King of France." Joan twice went to Robert de Baudricourt, the captain of Vaucouleurs, asking for an escort to Charles VII at Chinon. The third time she was granted an escort, and she set out in February 1429, arriving 11 days later at Chinon. She was immediately examined for orthodoxy and 2 days later was allowed to see the King.

A contemporary described her: "This Maid … has a virile bearing, speaks little, shows an admirable prudence in all her words. She has a pretty, woman's voice, eats little, drinks very little wine; she enjoys riding a horse and takes pleasure in fine arms, greatly likes the company of noble fighting men, detests numerous assemblies and meetings, readily sheds copious tears, has a cheerful face…" Joan appears to have been robust, with darkbrown hair, and, as one historian succinctly remarked, "in the excitement which raised her up from earth to heaven, she retained her solid common sense and a clear sense of reality." She was also persuasive. In April 1429 Charles VII sent her to Orléans as captain of a troop of men - not as leader of all his forces. With the Duke d'Alençon and Jean, the Bastard of Orléans (later Count of Dunois), Joan relieved the city, thus removing the greatest immediate threat to Charles and for the first time in his reign allowing him a military triumph.

Her Mission

Although Charles VII appears to have accepted Joan's mission - after having had her examined several times at Chinon and at the University of Poitiers - his attitude toward her, on the whole, is ambiguous. He followed her pressing advice to use the respite provided by the relief of Orléans to proceed to his coronation at Reims, thereby becoming king in the eyes of all men. After a series of victorious battles and sieges on the way, Charles VII was crowned at Reims on July 18, 1429. Joan was at his side and occupied a prominent place in the ceremonies following the coronation. From the spring of 1429 to the spring of 1430, Charles and his advisers wavered on the course of the war. The choices were those of negotiation, particularly with the Duke of Burgundy, or taking the military offensive against English positions, particularly Paris. Joan favored the second course, but an attack upon Paris in September 1429 failed, and Charles VII entered into a treaty with Burgundy that committed him to virtual inaction. From September 1429 to the early months of 1430, Joan appears to have been kept inactive by the royal court, finally moving to the defense of the town of Compiègne in May 1430. During a skirmish outside the town's walls against the Burgundians, Joan was cut off and captured. She was a rich prize. The Burgundians turned Joan over to the English, who prepared to try her for heresy. Charles VII could do nothing.

The Trial

Joan's trial was held in three parts. Technically it was an ecclesiastical trial for heresy, and Joan's judges were Pierre Cauchon, the bishop of Beauvais, and Jean Lemaitre, vicar of the inquisitor of France; both were aided by a large number of theologians and lawyers who sat as a kind of consulting and advising jury. From January to the end of March, the court investigated Joan's "case" and interrogated witnesses. The trial itself lasted from April to nearly the end of May and ended with Joan's abjuration. The trial was both an ecclesiastical one and a political one (because Joan was kept in an English prison rather than in that of the archbishop of Rouen and because the English continually intervened in the trial). Joan was charged with witchcraft and fraud, tested by being asked complicated theological questions, and finally condemned on the grounds of persisting in wearing male clothing, a technical offense against the authority of the Church. Joan's answers throughout the trial reveal her presence of mind, humility, wit, and good sense. Apparently Joan and her accusers differed about the nature of her abjuration, and 2 days after she signed it, she recanted. The third phase of her trial began on May 28. This time she was tried as a relapsed heretic, conviction of which meant "release" to the "secular arm" that is, she would be turned over to the English to be burned. Joan was convicted of being a relapsed heretic, and she was burned at the stake in the marketplace of Rouen on May 30, 1431.

Rehabilitation and Later Legend

From 1450 to 1456, first under the impetus of Charles VII, then under that of Joan's mother, and finally under that of the Inquisition, a reinvestigation of Joan's trial and condemnation was undertaken by ecclesiastical lawyers. On July 7, 1456, the commission declared Joan's trial null and void, thereby freeing Joan from the taint of heresy. The Joan of Arc legend, however, did not gather momentum, and then only intermittently, until the 17th century. The 19th and 20th centuries were really, as a historian has called them, "the centuries of the Maid." In spite of her legend, Joan was not canonized until May 16, 1920.

Further Reading

There is an immense literature about Joan of Arc, most of it fanciful and inaccurate. Some of it, however, is great literature in its own right: for example, George Bernard Shaw's play, Saint Joan, or Jules Michelet's Joan of Arc, translated by Albert Guerard (1957). There is no standard English or French biography which is entirely reliable. Therefore, the best source concerning Joan's career is the text of her trial and rehabilitation proceedings. Full texts were published by J. Quicherat in French. The choice English works have been built around extracts from these texts; the best of these is Regine Pernoud, Joan of Arc (1959; trans. 1964). A shorter work, consisting only of extracts from the trial materials, is Willard R. Trask, Joan of Arc: Self Portrait (1936). Joan's place in 15th-century France is described by Edouard Perroy, The Hundred Years War (1945; trans. 1951), and Alice Buchan, Joan of Arc and the Recovery of France (1948). A careful analysis of the sources concerning Joan and a brief description of her later reputation are in Charles W. Lightbody, The Judgements of Joan (1960).

Dictionary of Dance: Joan of Arc

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Ballet in three acts with choreography by Bourmeister, libretto by V. Pletneva, music by N. Peiko, and designs by V. Ryndin. Premiered 29 Dec. 1957 by the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre in Moscow with Bovt and Kuzmin. The ballet tells the story of Joan of Arc. Other choreographers who have based ballets on her life include S. Viganò (Milan, 1821) and Martha Graham (Seraphic Dialogue, New York, 1955).

French Literature Companion: La Pucelle

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Pucelle, La. Title of a notoriously bad epic about Jeanne d'Arc by Chapelain, and of a notorious mock-epic by Voltaire.

Spotlight: Joan of Arc

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From our Archives: Today's Highlights, May 30, 2005

Joan of Arc was burned at the stake as a heretic on this date in 1431. Committed to saving France from English domination, she became the leader of a French military force, and attacked the English, forcing them out of Orléans. She was captured by Burgundian troops and turned over to the English, who had her executed. In 1920 Joan of Arc was canonized by the Catholic Church.

Columbia Encyclopedia: Joan of Arc

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Joan of Arc, Fr. Jeanne D'Arc (zhän därk), 1412?-31, French saint and national heroine, called the Maid of Orléans; daughter of a farmer of Domrémy on the border of Champagne and Lorraine.

Inspiration and Leadership

At a young age she began to hear "voices"-those of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret. When she was about 16, the voices exhorted her to bear aid to the dauphin, later King Charles VII, then kept from the throne by the English in the Hundred Years War. Joan won the aid of Robert de Baudricourt, captain of the dauphin's forces in Vaucouleurs, in obtaining an interview with the dauphin. She made the journey in male attire, with six companions. Meeting the dauphin at Chinon castle, she conquered his skepticism as to her divine mission. She was examined by theologians at Poitiers, and afterward she was furnished with troops by Charles.

Her leadership provided spirit and morale more than military prowess. In May, 1429, she succeeded in raising the siege of Orléans, and in June she took other English posts on the Loire and defeated the English at Patay. After considerable persuasion the dauphin agreed to be crowned at Reims; Joan stood near him at his coronation. This was the pinnacle of her fortunes.

Capture and Martyrdom

In Sept., 1429, Joan unsuccessfully besieged Paris. The following spring she went to relieve Compiègne, but she was captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English, who were eager to destroy her influence by putting her to death. Charles VII made no attempt to secure her freedom. In order to escape responsibility, the English turned her over to the ecclesiastical court at Rouen. She was tried for heresy and witchcraft before Pierre Cauchon and other French clerics who supported the English.

Probably her most serious crime was the claim of direct inspiration from God; in the eyes of the court this refusal to accept the church hierarchy constituted heresy. Throughout the lengthy trial and imprisonment she bravely fought her inquisitors. Only at the end of the trial, when Joan was sentenced to be turned over to a secular court, did she recant. She was condemned to life imprisonment. Shortly afterward, however, she retracted her abjuration, was turned over to the secular court as a relapsed heretic, and was burned at the stake (May 30, 1431) in Rouen. Charles VII made tardy recognition of her services by a rehabilitation trial in 1456 that annulled the proceedings of the original trial.

Joan was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920 (feast: May 30). Her career lent itself to numerous legends, and she has been represented in many paintings and statues. In literature and music she appears notably, though not always accurately, in works by many eminent writers and composers.

Bibliography

Among her biographies, the best known is that of J. Michelet (tr. 1957). See also biographies by A. Lang (1908) and V. Sackville-West (1936); translations of the trial records by W. P. Barrett (1932 ed.) and W. S. Scott (1950); R. Pernoud, The Retrial of Joan of Arc (tr. 1955) and Joan of Arc by Herself and Her Witnesses (tr. 1966); C. W. Lightbody, The Judgements of Joan (1961); H. Guillemin, Joan, Maid of Orleans (1973); M. Gordon, Joan of Arc (2000).

Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia: St. Jeanne D'Arc

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(ca. 1412-1431)

Joan was born Jeanette, with the surname Arc or Romée, in the village of Domrémy, on the border of Champagne and Lorraine, on January 15, 1412. In documents of her time she is known as Jeanne.

She was taught to spin and sew but not to read or write, these accomplishments being unnecessary to people in her station of life. Her parents were devout, and she was brought up piously. Her nature was gentle, modest, and religious, but with no physical weakness or morbidity. On the contrary, she was exceptionally strong, as her later history shows.

At or about age 13 she began to experience what modern psychology calls "auditory hallucinations." In other words, she heard voices (usually accompanied by a bright light) when no visible person was present. This is a symptom that occasionally presages a mental disorder, but no insanity developed in Jeanne d'Arc. She was startled at first, but continuation of the experience led to familiarity and trust. The voices gave good counsel of a commonplace nature, for example, that she "must be a good girl and go often to church."

Soon, however, she began to have visions. She saw St. Michael, St. Catharine, and St. Margaret and was given instructions as to her mission. She eventually made her way to the dauphin, put herself at the head of 6,000 men, and advanced to the relief of Orleans, which was surrounded by the victorious English. After a fortnight of hard fighting the siege was raised and the enemy driven off. The tide of war turned, and in three months the dauphin was crowned king at Rheims as Charles VII.

At this point Jeanne felt that her mission was accomplished, but her wish to return to her family was overruled by the king and the archbishop. She took part in further fighting against the allied English and Burgundian forces, showing great bravery and tactical skill. In November 1430, however, in a desperate sally from Compiégne (which was besieged by the duke of Burgundy), she fell into the enemy's hands and was sold to the English and thrown into a dungeon at their headquarters in Rouen.

After a year's imprisonment she was brought to trial before the bishop of Beauvais in an ecclesiastical court. The charges were heresy and sorcery. Learned doctors of the church and subtle lawyers did their best to entangle the simple girl in their dialectical webs, but she showed remarkable power in keeping to her affirmations and avoiding heretical statements. "God has always been my Lord in all that I have done," she repeated.

But the trial was only a sham, for her fate was already decided. She was condemned to the stake. To the end she solemnly affirmed the reality of her "voices" and the truth of her depositions. Her last word, as the smoke and flame rolled round her, was "Jesus." Said an English soldier, awestruck by the manner of her passing, "We are lost; we have burned a saint." The idea was corroborated in popular opinion by events that followed, for speedy death (as if by Heaven's anger) overtook her judges and accusers. Inspired by her example and claims, and helped by dissension and weakening on the side of the enemy, the French took heart once more and the English were all but swept out of the country.

Jeanne's family was rewarded by ennoblement, under the name De Lys. Twenty-five years after her death, the pope acceded to a petition that the trial by which Jeanne was condemned should be reexamined. The judgment was reversed and her innocence was established and proclaimed.

The life of the Maid of Orleans presents a problem that orthodox science cannot solve. She was a simple peasant girl with no ambitions. She rebelled pathetically against her mission, saying, "I had far rather rest and spin by my mother's side, for this is no work of my choosing, but I must go and do it, for my Lord wills it." She cannot be dismissed on the "simple idiot" theory of Voltaire, for her genius in war and her aptitude in repartee undoubtedly prove exceptional mental powers, un-schooled though she was. She cannot be dismissed as a mere hysteric, for her health and strength were superb.

It is on record that a man of science said to an abbot, "Come to the Salpêtrière Hospital [the refuge for elderly, poor, and insane patients in Paris] and I will show you twenty Jeannes d'Arc." To which the abbot responded, "Has one of them given us back Alsace and Lorraine?"

Although Jeanne delivered France and her importance in history is great, it is arguable that her mission and her actions were the outcome of merely subjective hallucinations induced by the brooding of her religious and patriotic mind on the woes of her country. The army, being ignorant and superstitious, would have readily believed in the supernatural nature of her mission, resulting in great energy and valor—soldiers fight well when they feel that Providence is on their side. So goes the most common theory in explaining the facts surrounding the life of St. Joan. But it is not fully satisfactory.

How was it possible that this simple, untutored peasant girl could persuade not only the soldiers, but also the dauphin of France and the court of her divine appointment? How did she come to be given the command of an army? It seems improbable that a post of such responsibility and power would be given to an ignorant girl of 18 on the mere strength of her own claim to inspiration.

Although the materialistic school of historians conveniently ignores or belittles it, there is strong evidence to support the idea that Jeanne gave the dauphin some proof of her possession of supernormal faculties. In fact, the evidence is so strong that Andrew Lang, not known for unsupported statements, called it "unimpeachable." Among other curious things, Jeanne seems to have repeated to Charles the words of a prayer that he had said mentally, and she also made some kind of clairvoyant discovery of a sword hidden behind the altar of the Fierbois church. Johann Schiller's magnificent dramatic poem "Die Jungfrau von Orleans" (1801), although not historically correct in some details, is positive on these points concerning clairvoyance and mindreading.

There is also evidence that Jeanne was connected with fairies, which were also part of witchcraft beliefs. Not far from Domrémy was a tree called "the Fairies' Tree" beside a spring said to cure fevers. The wife of the local mayor stated that it had been said that "Jeanne received her mission at the tree of the fairy-ladies" and that St. Katharine and St. Margaret came and spoke to her at the spring beside the fairies' tree. During Jeanne's trial the fourth article of accusation was that Jeanne was not instructed in her youth in the primitive faith, but was imbued by certain old women in the use of witchcraft, divination, and other superstitious works or magic arts. Jeanne herself, according the accusation, had said she heard from her godmother and other people about visions and apparitions of fairies.

Moreover, Pierronne, a follower of Jeanne d'Arc, was burned at the stake as a witch. She stated on oath that God appeared to her in human form and spoke to her as a friend, and that he was clothed in a scarlet cap and a long white robe.

It has been suggested that the voices heard by Jeanne may have been those of human beings rather than Christian saints, and Jeanne herself stated, "Those of my party know well that the Voice had been sent to me from God, they have seen and known this Voice. My king and many others have also heard and seen the Voices which came to me…. I saw him [St. Michael] with my bodily eyes as well as I see you." Jeanne's references to "the King of Heaven" in the original Latin and French were translated with a Christian bias as "Our Lord," and "my Lord" was translated as "Our Saviour." The scholar Margaret A. Murray in her book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921) also suggests that if Jeanne was a member of a Dianic [witch] cult, the wearing of male clothing may have been for Jeanne an outward sign of that faith, hence the importance attached to it.

In another book, The God of the Witches (1931), Murray examines the tradition that Jeanne was not actually burned at the stake but survived for a number of years afterward. The Chronique de Metz states, "Then she was sent to the city of Rouen in Normandy, and there was placed on a scaffold and burned in a fire, so it was said, but since then was found to be the contrary." Some of the evidence for this view had been cited earlier by Andrew Lang in his essay "The False Jeanne d'Arc" in his book The Valet's Tragedy and Other Studies (1903).

The period between the trial at Rouen and the Trial of Rehabilitation (1452-56) is crucial. In 1436, five years after the Rouen trial, the herald-at-arms and Jeanne's brother Jean du Lys announced officially in Orleans that Jeanne was still alive. The city accounts record that on Sunday, August 6, Jean du Lys, brother of "Jehane la Pucelle" [Jeanne the Maid] was in Orleans with letters from his sister to the king. In July 1439 Jeanne's brothers were in Orleans with their sister, now married to the sieur des Armoises (or Harmoises), and the city council presented Jeanne des Armoises with 210 pounds "for the good that she did to the said town during the siege of 1429." Accounts are also recorded of the wine merchant and draper who supplied Jeanne with wine and clothing. Her own mother was in Orleans at the time. Moreover, the masses that had been celebrated in Orleans for the repose of Jeanne's soul were discontinued after her mother's visit.

It is not conclusive that this Jeanne was an impostor (as Andrew Lang believed), and it seems unlikely that many people in Orleans, including Jeanne's own brothers, could have been deceived. The riddle of conflicting evidence of burning at the stake or substantiated appearances years later has never been satisfactorily resolved. Many such questions remain unresolved, in spite of various books, mainly by French writers, dealing with the issue.

Early French books on the subject include La Survivance et le Mariage de Jeanne D'Arc, by Grillot de Givry and La Legende Detruite: Indications pour essayer de suivre l'histoire de Jeanne d'Arc, by Paraf-Javal (1929). More recently another French writer, Pierre de Sermoise, published Jeanne d'Arc et la Mandragore (1983), which has revived the claim that the veiled woman burned at the stake in the marketplace was a prisoner condemned to death as a witch, substituting for France's national heroine.

More speculative is the conclusion of American biologist Robert Greenblatt (reported in 1983) that Jeanne was really a man. It was also claimed that two midwives who had examined Jeanne to establish her virginity were astonished to find that she had not reached puberty. In 1994, Jeanne d'Arc's suit of armor was thought to have been discovered by a Parisian antiques dealer. Not only did the suit fit his 14-year-old daughter's body, but where it was damaged seemed to match where it was believed to be the saint was wounded. Even in the twenty-first century Jeanne d'Arc remains a popular subject for articles, books and a popular character for television programs and movies.

Sources:

Barstow, Anne Llewellyn. Joan of Arc: Heretic, Mystic, Shaman. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1986.

Marglis, Nadia. Joan of Arc in History, Literature, and Film: A Select Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing, 1990.

History Dictionary: Joan of Arc

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A French military leader of the fifteenth century, a national heroine who at the age of seventeen took up arms to establish the rightful king on the French throne. She claimed to have heard God speak to her in voices. These claims eventually led to her trial for heresy and her execution by burning at the stake. Joan of Arc is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

Wikipedia: Joan of Arc

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For other uses, see Joan of Arc (disambiguation).

Saint Joan of Arc
Painting, c.1485. Artist's interpretation; the only portrait for which she is known to have sat has not survived. (Centre Historique des Archives Nationales, Paris, AE II 2490)
Saint
Born	ca. 1412, Domrémy, France
Died	30 May 1431, Rouen, France (Then England)
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	18 April 1909, Notre Dame de Paris by Pope Pius X
Canonized	16 May 1920, St. Peter's Basilica, Rome by Pope Benedict XV
Feast	30 May
Patronage	France ; martyrs; captives; militants; people ridiculed for their piety; prisoners; soldiers; Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service; Women's Army Corps

Saint Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d'Arc;^[1] ca. 1412^[2] – 30 May 1431) is a national heroine of France and a Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, claiming divine guidance, and was indirectly responsible for the coronation of Charles VII. She was captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, tried by an ecclesiastical court, and burned at the stake when she was nineteen years old.^[3] Twenty-four years later, on the initiative of Charles VII, who could not afford being seen as having been brought to power with the aid of a condemned heretic, Pope Callixtus III reviewed the decision of the ecclesiastical court, found her innocent, and declared her a martyr.^[3] She was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920.^[2] She is, along with St. Denis, St. Martin of Tours, St. Louis IX, and St. Theresa of Lisieux, one of the patron saints of France.

Joan asserted that she had visions from God that told her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege at Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the dismissive attitude of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. Several more swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims and settled the disputed succession to the throne.

Joan of Arc has remained an important figure in Western culture. From Napoleon to the present, French politicians of all leanings have invoked her memory. Major writers and composers who have created works about her include Shakespeare (Henry VI, Part 1), Voltaire (La Pucelle d'Orléans), Schiller (Die Jungfrau von Orléans ), Verdi (Giovanna d'Arco), Tchaikovsky (Орлеанская дева), Mark Twain (Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc), Jean Anouilh (L'Alouette), Bertolt Brecht (Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe), George Bernard Shaw (Saint Joan), and Maxwell Anderson (Joan of Lorraine). Depictions of her continue in film, television, video games, song, and dance.

1 Background
2 Life
3 Clothing
4 Visions
5 Legacy
6 Rehabilitation
7 Hundred Years War
8 Alleged relics disproven
9 See also
10 Footnotes
11 References
12 Further reading
13 External links

Background

France at the outset of Joan of Arc's career. The dot that represents Paris is near the center of the Anglo-Burgundian-controlled region. Reims lies to the northeast of this area.

The historian Kelly DeVries describes the period preceding her appearance with, "If anything could have discouraged her, the state of France in 1429 should have." The Hundred Years' War had begun in 1337 as a succession dispute to the French throne with intermittent periods of relative peace. Nearly all the fighting had taken place in France, and the English use of chevauchée (similar to scorched earth) tactics had devastated the economy. The French population had not recovered from the Black Death of the previous century and its merchants were cut off from foreign markets. At the outset of her career, the English had almost achieved their goal of a dual monarchy under English control and the French army had won no major victory for a generation. In DeVries's words, "the kingdom of France was not even a shadow of its thirteenth-century prototype."^[4]

The French king at the time of Joan's birth, Charles VI, suffered bouts of insanity and was often unable to rule. The king's brother Duke Louis of Orléans and the king's cousin John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, quarreled over the regency of France and the guardianship of the royal children. This dispute escalated to accusations of an extramarital affair with Queen Isabeau of Bavaria and the kidnappings of the royal children. The matter climaxed when the Duke of Burgundy ordered the assassination of the Duke of Orléans in 1407.

The factions loyal to these two men became known as the Armagnacs and the Burgundians. The English king, Henry V, took advantage of this turmoil to invade France, winning a dramatic victory at Agincourt in 1415, and capturing northern French towns.^[5] The future French king, Charles VII, assumed the title of Dauphin as heir to the throne at the age of 14, after all four of his older brothers died.^[6] His first significant official act was to conclude a peace treaty with Burgundy in 1419. This ended in disaster when Armagnac partisans murdered John the Fearless during a meeting under Charles's guarantee of protection. The new duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, blamed Charles and entered into an alliance with the English. Large sections of France were conquered.^[7]

In 1420, Queen Isabeau of Bavaria concluded the Treaty of Troyes, which granted the French royal succession to Henry V and his heirs in preference to her son Charles. This agreement revived rumors about her supposed affair with the late duke of Orléans and raised fresh suspicions that the Dauphin was a royal bastard rather than the son of the king.^[8] Henry V and Charles VI died within two months of each other in 1422, leaving an infant, Henry VI of England, the nominal monarch of both kingdoms. Henry V's brother, John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, acted as regent.^[9]

By the beginning of 1429, nearly all of northern France and some parts of the southwest were under foreign control. The English ruled Paris, while the Burgundians controlled Reims. The latter city was important as the traditional site of French coronations and consecrations, especially since neither claimant to the throne of France had yet been crowned. The English had laid siege to Orléans, which was the only remaining loyal French city north of the Loire. Its strategic location along the river made it the last obstacle to an assault on the remainder of the French heartland. In the words of one modern historian, "On the fate of Orléans hung that of the entire kingdom."^[10] No one was optimistic that the city could long withstand the siege.^[11]

Life

Further information: Name of Joan of Arc

Her birthplace is now a museum. The village church where she attended Mass is on the right behind the trees.

Joan was the daughter of Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée^[12] in Domrémy, a village which was then in the duchy of Bar (later annexed to the province of Lorraine and renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle).^[13] Her parents owned about 50 acres (0.2 square kilometers) of land and her father supplemented his farming work with a minor position as a village official, collecting taxes and heading the local watch.^[14] They lived in an isolated patch of northeastern territory that remained loyal to the French crown despite being surrounded by Burgundian lands. Several local raids occurred during her childhood and on one occasion her village was burned.

Joan said she was about 19 at her trial, so she was born about 1412; she later testified that she experienced her first vision around 1424 at the age of 12 years when she was out alone in a field and heard voices. She had said she cried when they left as they were so beautiful. She would report that Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret told her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin to Reims for his coronation.^[15]

At the age of 16, she asked a kinsman, Durand Lassois, to bring her to nearby Vaucouleurs where she petitioned the garrison commander, Count Robert de Baudricourt, for permission to visit the royal French court at Chinon. Baudricourt's sarcastic response did not deter her.^[16] She returned the following January and gained support from two men of standing: Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy.^[17] Under their auspices, she gained a second interview where she made a remarkable prediction about a military reversal near Orléans.^[18]

Rise

Ruin of the great hall at Chinon where she met King Charles VII. The castle's only remaining intact tower has also become a museum dedicated to her.

Robert de Baudricourt granted her an escort to visit Chinon after news from the front confirmed her prediction. She made the journey through hostile Burgundian territory in male disguise.^[19] Upon arriving at the royal court she impressed Charles VII during a private conference. During this time Charles's mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon was financing a relief expedition to Orléans. Joan petitioned for permission to travel with the army and wear the equipment of a knight. She depended on donated items for her armor, horse, sword, banner, and entourage. Her armor was said to be white. Historian Stephen W. Richey explains her attraction as the only source of hope for a regime that was near collapse:

“

After years of one humiliating defeat after another, both the military and civil leadership of France were demoralized and discredited. When the Dauphin Charles granted Joan’s urgent request to be equipped for war and placed at the head of his army, his decision must have been based in large part on the knowledge that every orthodox, every rational, option had been tried and had failed. Only a regime in the final straits of desperation would pay any heed to an illiterate farm girl who claimed that the voice of God was instructing her to take charge of her country’s army and lead it to victory.^[20]

”

"King of England, and you, Duke of Bedford, who call yourself regent of the kingdom of France...settle your debt to the king of Heaven; return to the Maiden, who is envoy of the king of Heaven, the keys to all the good towns you took and violated in France."

Her Letter to the English, March–April 1429; Quicherat I, p. 240, trans. Wikipedia.

With Joan's arrival, she effectively turned the long standing Anglo-French conflict into a religious war^[21]. But this was not without its risks. Charles' advisers were worried that unless Joan's orthodoxy could be established beyond doubt, that she was not a heretic or a sorceress, Charles' enemies could easily make the claim that his kingdom was a gift from the Devil. To circumvent this possibility, the Dauphin ordered background inquiries and a theological examination at Poitiers to verify her morality. In April 1429, the commission of inquiry "declared her to be of irreproachable life, a good Christian, possessed of the virtues of humility, honesty and simplicity."^[21] The theologians at Poitiers did not pass judgement on her divine inspiration; rather, they informed the Dauphin that there was a 'favourable presumption' to be made on the divine nature of her mission. This was enough for Charles, but they then pushed the ball back in his court by stating that he had an obligation to put Joan to the test. 'To doubt or abandon her without suspicion of evil would be to repudiate the Holy Spirit and to become unworthy of God's aid', they declared.^[22] The test for the truth of her claims would be the raising of the siege of Orléans.

She arrived at the siege of Orléans on 29 April 1429, but Jean d'Orléans, the acting head of the Orléans ducal family, initially excluded her from war councils and failed to inform her when the army engaged the enemy.^[23] This did not prevent her from being present at most councils and battles. The extent of her actual military leadership is a subject of historical debate. Traditional historians such as Édouard Perroy conclude that she was a standard bearer whose primary effect was on morale.^[24] This type of analysis usually relies on the condemnation trial testimony, where she stated that she preferred her standard to her sword. Recent scholarship that focuses on the nullification trial testimony asserts that her fellow officers esteemed her as a skilled tactician and a successful strategist. Stephen W. Richey's opinion is one example: "She proceeded to lead the army in an astounding series of victories that reversed the tide of the war."^[19] In either case, historians agree that the army enjoyed remarkable success during her brief career.^[25]

The inner keep at Beaugency is one of the few surviving fortifications from Joan's battles. English defenders retreated to the tower at upper right after the French breached the town wall.

Leadership

She defied the cautious strategy that had characterized French leadership. During the five months of siege before her arrival, the defenders of Orléans had attempted only one aggressive move and that had ended in disaster. On 4 May the French attacked and captured the outlying fortress of Saint Loup, which she followed on 5 May with a march to a second fortress called Saint Jean le Blanc. Finding it deserted, this became a bloodless victory. The next day she opposed Jean d'Orleans at a war council where she demanded another assault on the enemy. D'Orleans ordered the city gates locked to prevent another battle, but she summoned the townsmen and common soldiers and forced the mayor to unlock a gate. With the aid of only one captain she rode out and captured the fortress of Saint Augustins. That evening she learned she had been excluded from a war council where the leaders had decided to wait for reinforcements before acting again. Disregarding this decision, she insisted on assaulting the main English stronghold called "les Tourelles" on 7 May.^[26] Contemporaries acknowledged her as the heroine of the engagement after she sustained an arrow wound to her neck but returned wounded to lead the final charge.^[27]

"...the Maiden lets you know that here, in eight days, she has chased the English out of all the places they held on the river Loire by attack or other means: they are dead or prisoners or discouraged in battle. Believe what you have heard about the earl of Suffolk, the lord la Pole and his brother, the lord Talbot, the lord Scales, and Sir Fastolf; many more knights and captains than these are defeated."

Her Letter to the citizens of Tournai, 25 June 1429; Quicherat V, pp. 125–126, trans. Wikipedia.

The sudden victory at Orléans led to many proposals for offensive action. The English expected an attempt to recapture Paris or an attack on Normandy. In the aftermath of the unexpected victory, she persuaded Charles VII to grant her co-command of the army with Duke John II of Alençon and gained royal permission for her plan to recapture nearby bridges along the Loire as a prelude to an advance on Reims and a coronation. Hers was a bold proposal because Reims was roughly twice as far away as Paris and deep in enemy territory.^[28]

Joanna d`Arc, fragment of famous painting by Jan Matejko of 1886

Notre-Dame de Reims, traditional site of French coronations. The structure had additional spires prior to a 1481 fire.

The army recovered Jargeau on 12 June, Meung-sur-Loire on 15 June, then Beaugency on 17 June. The Duke of Alençon agreed to all of Joan's decisions. Other commanders including Jean d'Orléans had been impressed with her performance at Orléans and became her supporters. Alençon credited her for saving his life at Jargeau, where she warned him of an imminent artillery attack.^[29] During the same battle she withstood a blow from a stone cannonball to her helmet as she climbed a scaling ladder. An expected English relief force arrived in the area on 18 June under the command of Sir John Fastolf. The battle at Patay might be compared to Agincourt in reverse. The French vanguard attacked before the English archers could finish defensive preparations. A rout ensued that devastated the main body of the English army and killed or captured most of its commanders. Fastolf escaped with a small band of soldiers and became the scapegoat for the English humiliation. The French suffered minimal losses.^[30]

The French army set out for Reims from Gien-sur-Loire on 29 June and accepted the conditional surrender of the Burgundian-held city of Auxerre on 3 July. Every other town in their path returned to French allegiance without resistance. Troyes, the site of the treaty that had tried to disinherit Charles VII, capitulated after a bloodless four-day siege.^[31] The army was in short supply of food by the time it reached Troyes. Edward Lucie-Smith cites this as an example of her luck: a wandering friar named Brother Richard had been preaching about the end of the world at Troyes and had convinced local residents to plant beans, a crop with an early harvest. The hungry army arrived as the beans ripened.^[32]

"Prince of Burgundy, I pray of you — I beg and humbly supplicate — that you make no more war with the holy kingdom of France. Withdraw your people swiftly from certain places and fortresses of this holy kingdom, and on behalf of the gentle king of France I say he is ready to make peace with you, by his honor."

"Her Letter to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, 17 July 1429; Quicherat V, pp. 126–127, trans. Wikipedia.

Reims opened its gates on 16 July. The coronation took place the following morning. Although Joan and the duke of Alençon urged a prompt march on Paris, the royal court pursued a negotiated truce with the duke of Burgundy. Duke Philip the Good broke the agreement, using it as a stalling tactic to reinforce the defense of Paris.^[33] The French army marched through towns near Paris during the interim and accepted more peaceful surrenders. The Duke of Bedford headed an English force and confronted the French army in a standoff on 15 August. The French assault at Paris ensued on 8 September. Despite a crossbow bolt wound to the leg, Joan continued directing the troops until the day's fighting ended. The following morning she received a royal order to withdraw. Most historians blame French grand chamberlain Georges de la Trémoille for the political blunders that followed the coronation.^[34] In October Joan successfully took Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier, receiving a noble status.

Capture

After minor action at La-Charité-sur-Loire in November and December, Joan went to Compiègne the following April to defend against an English and Burgundian siege. A reckless skirmish on 23 May 1430 led to her being captured. When she ordered a retreat, she assumed the place of honor as the last to leave the field. Burgundians surrounded the rear guard, she was unhorsed by an archer and initially refused to surrender.^[35]

"It is true that the king has made a truce with the duke of Burgundy for fifteen days and that the duke is to turn over the city of Paris at the end of fifteen days. Yet you should not marvel if I do not enter that city so quickly. I am not content with these truces and do not know if I will keep them, but if I hold them it will only be to guard the king's honor: no matter how much they abuse the royal blood, I will keep and maintain the royal army in case they make no peace at the end of those fifteen days."

"Her Letter to the citizens of Reims, 5 August 1429; Quicherat I, p. 246, trans. Wikipedia.

It was customary for a captive's family to ransom a prisoner of war. Unfortunately, Joan and her family lacked the financial resources. Many historians condemn King Charles VII for failing to intervene. She attempted several escapes, on one occasion jumping from her 70 foot (21 m) tower in Vermandois to the soft earth of a dry moat, after which she was moved to the Burgundian town of Arras. The English government eventually purchased her from Duke Philip of Burgundy. Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais, an English partisan, assumed a prominent role in these negotiations and her later trial.^[36]

Trial

Execution

Heresy was a capital crime only for a repeat offense. Joan agreed to wear women's clothes when she abjured. A few days later she was sexually assaulted in prison.^[47] She resumed male attire either as a defense against molestation or, in the testimony of Jean Massieu, because her dress had been stolen and she was left with nothing else to wear.^[48]

Eyewitnesses described the scene of the execution by burning on 30 May 1431. Tied to a tall pillar in the Vieux-Marche in Rouen, she asked two of the clergy, Fr Martin Ladvenu and Fr Isambart de la Pierre, to hold a crucifix before her. A peasant also constructed a small cross which she put in the front of her dress. After she expired, the English raked back the coals to expose her charred body so that no one could claim she had escaped alive, then burned the body twice more to reduce it to ashes and prevent any collection of relics. They cast her remains into the Seine.^[49] The executioner, Geoffroy Therage, later stated that he "...greatly feared to be damned."^[50]

Retrial

Main article: Retrial of Joan of Arc

A posthumous retrial opened after the war ended. Pope Callixtus III authorized this proceeding, also known as the "nullification trial", at the request of Inquisitor-General Jean Brehal and Joan's mother Isabelle Romée. The aim of the trial was to investigate whether the trial of condemnation and its verdict had been handled justly and according to canon law. Investigations started with an inquest by clergyman Guillaume Bouille. Brehal conducted an investigation in 1452. A formal appeal followed in November, 1455. The appellate process included clergy from throughout Europe and observed standard court procedure. A panel of theologians analyzed testimony from 115 witnesses. Brehal drew up his final summary in June, 1456, which describes Joan as a martyr and implicates the late Pierre Cauchon with heresy for having convicted an innocent woman in pursuit of a secular vendetta. The court declared her innocence on 7 July 1456.^[51]

Clothing

Further information: Cross-dressing, sexuality, and gender identity of Joan of Arc

Joan at the coronation of Charles VII, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1854), is typical of attempts to feminize her appearance. Note the long hair and the skirt around the armor.

Joan of Arc wore men's clothing between her departure from Vaucouleurs and her abjuration at Rouen.^[52] This raised theological questions in her own era and raised other questions in the twentieth century. The technical reason for her execution was a biblical clothing law.^[53] The nullification trial reversed the conviction in part because the condemnation proceeding had failed to consider the doctrinal exceptions to that stricture.

Doctrinally speaking, she was safe to disguise herself as a page during a journey through enemy territory and she was safe to wear armor during battle. The Chronique de la Pucelle states that it deterred molestation while she was camped in the field. Clergy who testified at her rehabilitation trial affirmed that she continued to wear male clothing in prison to deter molestation and rape.^[54] Preservation of chastity was another justifiable reason for crossdressing: her apparel would have slowed an assailant, and men would be less likely to think of her as a sex object in any case.^[55]

She referred the court to the Poitiers inquiry when questioned on the matter during her condemnation trial. The Poitiers record no longer survives but circumstances indicate the Poitiers clerics approved her practice. In other words, she had a mission to do a man's work so it was fitting that she dress the part.^[56] She also kept her hair cut short through her military campaigns and while in prison. Her supporters, such as the theologian Jean Gerson, defended her hairstyle, as did Inquisitor Brehal during the Rehabilitation trial.^[57]

Visions

Jeanne d' Arc, by Eugene Thirion (1876). Late 19th century images such as this often had political undertones because of French territorial cessions to Germany in 1871. (Chautou, Church of Notre Dame)

Joan of Arc's religious visions have interested many people. The consensus among scholars is that her faith was sincere. She identified Saint Margaret, Saint Catherine, and Saint Michael as the source of her revelations although there is some ambiguity as to which of several identically named saints she intended. Some Catholics regard her visions as divine inspiration.

Analysis of her visions is problematic since the main source of information on this topic is the condemnation trial transcript in which she defied customary courtroom procedure about a witness's oath and specifically refused to answer every question about her visions. She complained that a standard witness oath would conflict with an oath she had previously sworn to maintain confidentiality about meetings with her king. It remains unknown to what extent the surviving record may represent the fabrications of corrupt court officials or her own possible fabrications to protect state secrets.^[58] Some historians sidestep speculation about the visions by asserting that her belief in her calling is more relevant than questions about the visions' ultimate origin.^[59] Documents from her own era and historians prior to the twentieth century generally assume that she was both healthy and sane. A number of more recent scholars attempted to explain her visions in psychiatric or neurological terms. Potential diagnoses have included epilepsy, migraine, tuberculosis, and schizophrenia.^[60] None of the putative diagnoses have gained consensus support because, although hallucination and religious enthusiasm can be symptomatic of various syndromes, other characteristic symptoms conflict with other known facts of Joan's life. Two experts who analyze a temporal lobe tuberculoma hypothesis in the medical journal Neuropsychobiology express their misgivings this way:

"It is difficult to draw final conclusions, but it would seem unlikely that widespread tuberculosis, a serious disease, was present in this 'patient' whose life-style and activities would surely have been impossible had such a serious disease been present."^[61]

In response to another such theory alleging that she suffered from bovine tuberculosis as a result of drinking unpasteurized milk, historian Régine Pernoud wrote that if drinking unpasteurized milk could produce such potential benefits for the nation, then the French government should stop mandating the pasteurization of milk.^[62] Ralph Hoffman, professor of psychology at Yale University, points out that visionary and creative states including "hearing voices" are not necessarily signs of mental illness and names her religious inspiration as a possible exception although he offers no speculation as to alternative causes.^[63]

Among the specific challenges that potential diagnoses such as schizophrenia face is the slim likelihood that any person with such a disorder could gain favor in the court of King Charles VII. His own father, Charles VI, was popularly known as "Charles the Mad," and much of the political and military decline that France had suffered during his reign could be attributed to the power vacuum that his episodes of insanity had produced. The previous king had believed he was made of glass, a delusion no courtier had mistaken for a religious awakening. Fears that King Charles VII would manifest the same insanity may have factored into the attempt to disinherit him at Troyes. This stigma was so persistent that contemporaries of the next generation would attribute to inherited madness the breakdown that England's King Henry VI was to suffer in 1453: Henry VI was nephew to Charles VII and grandson to Charles VI. Upon her arrival at Chinon the royal counselor Jacques Gélu cautioned,

“

One should not lightly alter any policy because of conversation with a girl, a peasant... so susceptible to illusions; one should not make oneself ridiculous in the sight of foreign nations....

”

Contrary to modern stereotypes about the Middle Ages, the court of Charles VII was shrewd and skeptical on the subject of mental health.^[64]^[65]

Besides the physical rigor of her military career, which would seem to exclude many medical hypotheses, Joan of Arc displayed none of the cognitive impairment that can accompany some major mental illnesses when symptoms are present. She remained astute to the end of her life and rehabilitation trial testimony frequently marvels at her astuteness:

“

Often they [the judges] turned from one question to another, changing about, but, notwithstanding this, she answered prudently, and evinced a wonderful memory.^[66]

”

Her subtle replies under interrogation even forced the court to stop holding public sessions.^[42] If her visions had some medical or psychiatric origin then she would have been an exceptional case.

Legacy

Further information: Alternative historical interpretations of Joan of Arc, Cultural depictions of Joan of Arc, Canonization of Joan of Arc and Memory of Joan of Arc

Rehabilitation

Philippe-Alexandre Le Brun de Charmettes is the first historian who wrote Joan of Arc's complete history^[67] in 1817, in an attempt to restore her family fortunes from relapsed heretic name. His interest for Joan came at a time when France was still struggling to define its new identity after the Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. The national ethos was in search of non controversial heroes. A staunch prop to King and country, Joan of Arc was an acceptable symbol to the monarchists. As a patriot and the daughter of commoners, she was seen as one prototype of the low-born volunteers (the soldats de l'an II) who had victoriously fought for revolutionary France in 1802 and as such could be claimed by the Republicans. As a religious martyr, she was also popular in the powerful Catholic community. De Charmette's Orleanide, today largely forgotten, was another attempt to magnify the national ethos as writers like Virgil (the Aeneid), or Camoens (the Lusiad) had done for Rome and Portugal.

Hundred Years War

The Hundred Years' War continued for 22 years after her death. Charles VII succeeded in retaining legitimacy as king of France in spite of a rival coronation held for Henry VI in December 1431 on the boy's tenth birthday. Before England could rebuild its military leadership and longbow corps, lost during 1429, the country lost its alliance with Burgundy at the Treaty of Arras in 1435. The Duke of Bedford died the same year and Henry VI became the youngest king of England to rule without a regent; his weak leadership was probably the most important factor in ending the conflict. Kelly DeVries argues that Joan of Arc's aggressive use of artillery and frontal assaults influenced French tactics for the rest of the war.^[68]

Joan of Arc became a semi-legendary figure for the next four centuries. The main sources of information about her were chronicles. Five original manuscripts of her condemnation trial surfaced in old archives during the 19th century. Soon historians also located the complete records of her rehabilitation trial, which contained sworn testimony from 115 witnesses, and the original French notes for the Latin condemnation trial transcript. Various contemporary letters also emerged, three of which carry the signature "Jehanne" in the unsteady hand of a person learning to write.^[69] This unusual wealth of primary source material is one reason DeVries declares, "No person of the Middle Ages, male or female, has been the subject of more study".^[70]

Joan of Arc dictated her letters. Three of the surviving ones are signed.

Joan of Arc came from an obscure village and rose to prominence when she was barely more than a child, and she did so as an uneducated peasant. The French and English kings had justified the ongoing war through competing interpretations of the thousand-year-old Salic law. The conflict had been an inheritance feud between monarchs. She gave meaning to appeals such as that of squire Jean de Metz when he asked, "Must the king be driven from the kingdom; and are we to be English?"^[17] In the words of Stephen Richey, "She turned what had been a dry dynastic squabble that left the common people unmoved except for their own suffering into a passionately popular war of national liberation."^[19] Richey also expresses the breadth of her subsequent appeal:

"The people who came after her in the five centuries since her death tried to make everything of her: demonic fanatic, spiritual mystic, naive and tragically ill-used tool of the powerful, creator and icon of modern popular nationalism, adored heroine, saint. She insisted, even when threatened with torture and faced with death by fire, that she was guided by voices from God. Voices or no voices, her achievements leave anyone who knows her story shaking his head in amazed wonder."^[19]

In 1452, during the postwar investigation into her execution, the Church declared that a religious play in her honor at Orléans would qualify as a pilgrimage meriting an indulgence. She became a symbol of the Catholic League during the 16th century. Monsignor Félix Dupanloup, Bishop of Orléans from 1849 to 1878, led the effort for Joan's beatification, but did not live to see it come about.

Joan of Arc's beatification finally came in 1909 - directly following upon the passage of the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, at the time considered a major blow to the Catholic Church's position in French society. Her canonization followed on 16 May 1920. Her feast day is 30 May. As Saint Joan of Arc, she has become one of the most popular saints of the Roman Catholic Church.^[71]

Joan of Arc was not a feminist. She operated within a religious tradition that believed an exceptional person from any level of society might receive a divine calling. She expelled women from the French army and may have struck one stubborn camp follower with the flat of a sword.^[72]^[73] Nonetheless, some of her most significant aid came from women. King Charles VII's mother-in-law, Yolande of Aragon, confirmed Joan's virginity and financed her departure to Orléans. Joan of Luxembourg, aunt to the count of Luxembourg who held custody of her after Compiègne, alleviated her conditions of captivity and may have delayed her sale to the English. Finally, Anne of Burgundy, the duchess of Bedford and wife to the regent of England, declared Joan a virgin during pretrial inquiries.^[74] For technical reasons this prevented the court from charging her with witchcraft. Ultimately this provided part of the basis for her vindication and sainthood. From Christine de Pizan to the present, women have looked to her as a positive example of a brave and active female.^[75]

Flag of Charles de Gaulle's government in exile during World War II. The French Resistance used the cross of Lorraine as a symbolic reference to Joan of Arc.

Joan of Arc has been a political symbol in France since the time of Napoleon. Liberals emphasized her humble origins. Early conservatives stressed her support of the monarchy. Later conservatives recalled her nationalism. During World War II, both the Vichy Regime and the French Resistance used her image: Vichy propaganda remembered her campaign against the English with posters that showed British warplanes bombing Rouen and the ominous caption: "They Always Return to the Scene of Their Crimes." The resistance emphasized her fight against foreign occupation and her origins in the province of Lorraine, which had fallen under Nazi control.

Three separate vessels of the French Navy have been named after her, including a helicopter carrier currently in active service. At present the controversial French far-right political party Front National holds rallies at her statues, reproduces her likeness in party publications, and uses a tricolor flame partly symbolic of her martyrdom as its emblem. This party's opponents sometimes satirize its appropriation of her image.^[76] The French civic holiday in her honor is the second Sunday of May.

Traditionalist Catholics, in France and elsewhere, also use her as a symbol of inspiration, often comparing the 1988 excommunication of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (founder of the Society of St. Pius X and a dissident against the Vatican II reforms), to her excommunication.

Alleged relics disproven

In 1867, a jar was found in a Paris pharmacy with the inscription "Remains found under the stake of Joan of Arc, virgin of Orleans". They consisted of a charred human rib, carbonized wood, a piece of linen and a cat femur — explained as the practice of throwing black cats onto the pyre of witches. They are now in the Museum of Art and History in Chinon museum. In 2006, Philippe Charlier, a forensic scientist at Raymond Poincaré Hospital (Garches) was authorized to study the relics. Carbon-14 tests and spectrometry were performed, and the results^[77] show that the remains come from an Egyptian mummy from the sixth to the third century BC. The charred appearance comes from the embalming substances, not from combustion. Large amounts of pine pollen were also found, consistent with the presence of resin used in mummification and some unburned linen was found to be similar to that used to wrap mummies. The famous perfumers Guerlain and Jean Patou said that they could smell vanilla in the remains, also consistent with mummification. Apparently the mummy was part of the ingredients of Medieval pharmacopoeia and it was relabelled in a time of French nationalism.

Footnotes

Further information: Joan of Arc bibliography

^ Her name was written in a variety of ways, particularly prior to the mid-19th century. See Pernoud and Clin, pp. 220–221. She reportedly signed her name as "Jehanne" (see www.stjoan-center.com/Album/, parts 47 and 49; it is also noted in Pernoud and Clin).
^ ^a ^b Modern biographical summaries often assert a birthdate of 6 January for Joan. In fact, however, she could only estimate her own age. All of the rehabilitation-trial witnesses likewise estimated her age even though several of these people were her godmothers and godfathers. The 6 January claim is based on a single source: a letter from Lord Perceval de Boullainvilliers on 21 July 1429 (see Pernoud's Joan of Arc By Herself and Her Witnesses, p. 98: "Boulainvilliers tells of her birth in Domrémy, and it is he who gives us an exact date, which may be the true one, saying that she was born on the night of Epiphany, 6 January"). Boulainvilliers, however, was not from Domrémy. The event was probably not recorded. The practice of parish registers for non-noble births did not begin until several generations later.
^ ^a ^b Andrew Ward (2005) Joan of Arc at the Internet Movie Database
^ DeVries, pp. 27–28.
^ DeVries, pp. 15–19.
^ Pernoud and Clin, p. 167.
^ DeVries, p. 24.
^ Pernoud and Clin, pp. 188–189.
^ DeVries, pp. 24, 26.
^ Pernoud and Clin, p. 10.
^ DeVries, p. 28.
^ Jacques d'Arc (1380–1440) was a farmer in Domremy who held the post of doyen a local tax-collector and organiser of village defenses. He married Isabelle de Vouthon (1387–1468), called Romée, in 1405. Their other children were Jacquemin, Jean, Pierre and Catherine. Charles VII ennobled Jacques and Isabelle's family on 29 December 1429; the Chamber of Accounts registered the family's designation to nobility on 20 January 1430. The grant permitted the family to change their surname to du Lys.
^ Condemnation trial, p. 37.[1] (Accessed 23 March 2006)
^ Pernoud and Clin, p. 221.
^ Condemnation trial, pp. 58–59.[2] (Accessed 23 March 2006)
^ DeVries, pp. 37–40.
^ ^a ^b Nullification trial testimony of Jean de Metz.[3] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ Oliphant, ch. 2.[4] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Richey, p. 4.
^ Richey, "Joan of Arc: A Military Appreciation".[5] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ ^a ^b Vale, M.G.A., 'Charles VII', 1974, p. 55.
^ Vale, M.G.A., 'Charles VII', 1974, p. 56.
^ Histories and fictional works often refer to this man by other names. Some call him count of Dunois in reference to a title he received years after Joan's death. During her lifetime he preferred Bastard of Orléans, which his contemporaries understood as an honor because it described him as a first cousin of King Charles VII. That name often confuses modern readers because "bastard" has become a popular insult. "Jean d'Orleans" is less precise but not anachronistic. For a short biography see Pernoud and Clin, pp. 180–181.
^ Perroy, p. 283.
^ Pernoud and Clin, p. 230.
^ DeVries, pp. 74–83
^ Devout Catholics regard this as proof of her divine mission. At Chinon and Poitiers she had declared that she would give a sign at Orléans. The lifting of the siege gained her the support of prominent clergy such as the Archbishop of Embrun and theologian Jean Gerson, who both wrote supportive treatises immediately following this event.
^ DeVries, pp. 96–97.
^ Nullification trial testimony of Jean, Duke of Alençon.[6] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ DeVries, pp. 114–115.
^ DeVries, pp. 122–126.
^ Lucie-Smith, pp. 156–160.
^ DeVries, p. 134.
^ These range from mild associations of intrigue to scholarly invective. For an impassioned statement see Gower, ch. 4.[7] (Accessed 12 February 2006) Milder examples are Pernoud and Clin, pp. 78–80; DeVries, p. 135; and Oliphant, ch. 6.[8] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ DeVries, pp. 161–170.
^ "Joan of Arc, Saint." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Library Edition. 12 September 2007 <http://www.library.eb.com.ezproxy.ae.talonline.ca/eb/article-27055>.
^ Judges' investigations 9 January – 26 March, ordinary trial 26 March – 24 May, recantation 24 May, relapse trial 28–29 May.
^ The retrial verdict later affirmed that Cauchon had no right to try the case. See also Joan of Arc: Her Story, by Regine Pernoud and Marie-Veronique Clin, p. 108. The vice-inquisitor of France objected to the trial on jurisdictional grounds at its outset.
^ Nullification trial testimony of Father Nicholas Bailly.[9] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ Taylor, Craig, Joan of Arc: La Pucelle p. 137.
^ Condemnation trial, p. 52.[10] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ ^a ^b Pernoud and Clin, p. 112.
^ Shaw, "Saint Joan." Penguin Classics; Reissue edition (2001). ISBN 0-14-043791-6
^ Pernoud and Clin, p. 130.
^ Condemnation trial, pp. 314–316.[11] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ Condemnation trial, pp. 342–343.[12] (Accessed 12 February 2006) Also nullification trial testimony of Brother Pierre Migier, "As to the act of recantation, I know it was performed by her; it was in writing, and was about the length of a Pater Noster."[13] (Accessed 12 February 2006) In modern English this is better known as the Lord's Prayer, Latin and English text available here:[14] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ See Pernoud, p. 220, which quotes appellate testimony by Friar Martin Ladvenu and Friar Isambart de la Pierre.
^ Nullification trial testimony of Jean Massieu.[15] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ In February, 2006 a team of forensic scientists announced the beginning of a six-month study to assess bone and skin remains from a museum at Chinon and reputed to be those of the heroine. The study cannot provide a positive identification but could rule out some types of hoax through carbon dating and gender determination.[16] (Accessed 1 March 2006) An interim report released 17 December 2006 states that this is unlikely to have belonged to her.[17] (Accessed 17 December 2006)
^ Pernoud, p. 233.
^ Nullification trial sentence rehabilitation.[18] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ Condemnation trial, pp. 78–79.[19] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ Deuteronomy 22:5.[20] (Accessed 22 March 2006).
^ Nullification trial testimony of Guillaume de Manchon.[21] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ According to medieval clothing expert Adrien Harmand, she wore two layers of pants (trousers in British-English) attached to the doublet with 20 fastenings. The outer pants were made of a boot-like leather. "Jeanne d'Arc, son costume, son armure."[22](French) (Accessed 23 March 2006)
^ Condemnation trial, p. 78.[23] (Accessed 12 February 2006) Retrial testimony of Brother Seguin de Seguin, Professor of Theology at Poitiers, does not mention clothing directly, but constitutes a wholehearted endorsement of her piety.[24] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ Fraioli, "Joan of Arc: The Early Debate," p. 131.
^ Condemnation trial, pp. 36–37, 41–42, 48–49. (Accessed 1 September 2006)
^ In a parenthetical note to a military biography, DeVries asserts:

"The visions, or their veracity, are not in themselves important for this study. What is important, in fact what is key to Joan's history as a military leader, is that she (author's emphasis) believed that they came from God," p. 35.
^ Many of these hypotheses were devised by people whose expertise is in history rather than medicine. For a sampling of papers that passed peer review in medical journals, see ""I heard voices...": From semiology, a historical review, and a new hypothesis on the presumed epilepsy of Joan of Arc," d'Orsi G, Tinuper P, Epilepsy Behav. August, 2006; 9(1):152–7. Epub 2006 5 June[25] (idiopathic partial epilepsy with auditory features); "Joan of Arc," Foote-Smith E, Bayne L, Epilepsia. Nov-Dec, 1991; 32(6):810–5 (epilepsy); "Joan of Arc and DSM III," Henker FO, South Med J. December, 1984; 77(12):1488–90 (various psychiatric definitions);[26] "The schizophrenia of Joan of Arc," Allen C, Hist Med. Autumn–Winter 1975;6(3–4):4–9 (schizophrenia).[27] (Accessed 1 September 2006)
^ "A historical case of disseminated chronic tuberculosis," Nores JM, Yakovleff Y, Neuropsychobiology. 1995;32(2):79–80 (temporal lobe tuberculoma) (Accessed 1 September 2006)[28]
^ Pernoud, p. 275.
^ Hoffman, "Auditory Hallucinations: What's It Like Hearing Voices?" in HealthyPlace.com, 27 September 2003.[29] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ Pernoud and Clin, pp. 3, 169, 183.
^ Nullification trial testimony of Dame Marguerite de Touroulde, widow of a king's counselor: "I heard from those that brought her to the king that at first they thought she was mad, and intended to put her away in some ditch, but while on the way they felt moved to do everything according to her good pleasure."[30] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ Nullification trial testimony of Guillaume de Manchon.[31] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ Histoire de Jeanne d`Arc by P.A Le Brun de Charmettes-Tome1 Tome2 Tome3 Tome4
^ DeVries, pp. 179–180.
^ Pernoud and Clin, pp. 247–264.
^ DeVries in "Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc," edited by Bonnie Wheeler, p. 3.
^ She is the most requested saint profile at Catholic.org.[32] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ Contrary to popular myth, the primary role of camp followers was not prostitution. They performed support functions such as laundry, cooking, and hauling. Female camp followers were often the wives of soldiers. Some prostitution also took place. Byron C. Hacker and Margaret Vining, "The World of Camp and Train: Women's Changing Roles in Early Modern Armies".[33] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ The duke of Alençon reported seeing her break a sword against a camp follower at Saint Denis. Her page Louis de Contes described the event as happening near Chauteau-Thierry and insisted that it was only a verbal warning. Nullification trial testimony.[34] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ These tests, which her confessor describes as hymen investigations, are not reliable measures of virginity. However, they signified approval from matrons of the highest social rank at key moments of her life. Rehabilitation trial testimony of Jean Pasquerel.[35] (Accessed 12 March 2006)
^ English translation of Christine de Pizan's poem "La Ditie de Jeanne d'Arc" by L. Shopkow.[36] (Accessed 12 February 2006) Analysis of the poem by Professors Kennedy and Varty of Magdalen College, Oxford.[37] (Accessed 12 February 2006)
^ Front National publicity logos include the tricolor flame and reproductions of statues depicting her. The graphics forums at Étapes magazine include a variety of political posters from the 2002 presidential election.[38] (French) (Accessed 7 February 2006)
^ Declan Butler. Joan of Arc's relics exposed as forgery, Nature, 4 April 2007, doi:10.1038/446593a.

References

DeVries, Kelly (1999). Joan of Arc: A Military Leader. Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-1805-5. OCLC 42957383.
Lucie-Smith, Edward (1976). Joan of Arc. Bristol: Allen Lane. ISBN 0713908572.
Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret). Jeanne d'Arc: Her Life and Death. http://www.authorama.com/book/jeanne-d-arc.html.
Royal Intrigue: Crisis at the Court of Charles VI, 1392–1420. Richard C. Famiglietti. New York: AMS Press. 1987. ISBN 0-404-61439-6.

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Catholic Encyclopedia: Bl. Joan of Arc
The Jeanne d'Arc Centre biography and research.
Jeanne-darc.dk Various materials including a complete English translation of the rehabilitation trial transcript.
Joan of Arc in the First World War by B.J. Omanson, covers interest in Joan of Arc during the First World War.
Joan of Arc Museum in Rouen, France.
Britannica article on Joan of Arc
A Stirring Icon of Girl Power: A Father and a Daughter Follow the Trail of Joan of Arc, The Washington Post, Steve Hendrix, Oct. 12, 2008
Medieval Sourcebook: The Trial of Joan of Arc: The Trial of Jeanne d'Arc, Translated into English, From the Original Latin and French Documents, W. P. Barrett, Gotham House, Inc., 1932, fordham.edu
Joan of Arc - Maid of Heaven extensive biographical data.
St. Joan of Arc Center of Albuquerque, New Mexico; maintained by Virginia Frohlick.

Persondata
NAME	Joan of Arc
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Jeanne d'Arc (French)
SHORT DESCRIPTION	National heroine of France
DATE OF BIRTH	circa 1412
PLACE OF BIRTH	Domrémy-la-Pucelle, France
DATE OF DEATH	30 May 1431
PLACE OF DEATH	Rouen, France

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