Joan of Arc

(1412-1431)

   national heroine, saint

   Called the Maid of orleans, who united the nation at the most crucial hour and turned the hundred years' war in France's favor, Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) was born to a peasant family in Domrémy, Lorraine. According to her testimony, when she was 13 she heard celestial voices (st. Michael, st. Catherine, st. Margaret), sometimes also accompanied by visions, which exhorted her to help the dauphin, later charles vii, king of France. In 1428, when the English were about to capture orléans (see hundred years' war), Joan convinced the dauphin (who had not yet been crowned king because of internal strife and the English claim to the throne) that she had a divine mission to save France. A commission of theologians approved her claims, and she was given troops to command. Dressed in armor and carrying the white fleur-de-lys banner, she led the French to a decisive victory over the English at Patay and then took Auxerre, Troyes, and Châlons, thus opening the way to Reims. At the subsequent coronation of the dauphin (1429) at Reims, she was given the place of honor beside the king. Although Joan had unified the French behind Charles, and had put an end to English dreams of hegemony over France, Charles opposed any further campaigns against the English. Thus, it was without royal support that Joan, in 1430, led a military operation against the English at Compiègne, near Paris and was wounded. she was captured by Burgundian soldiers, who sold her to their English allies. she then was turned over to an ecclesiastical court at Rouen to be tried for sorcery and heresy. she defended herself with courage and simplicity as the court, during 14 months of interrogation, accused her of wrongdoing in wearing masculine dress and of heresy. Condemned to death, she confessed, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. shortly after, she abjured her confession and also resumed masculine dress. she was condemned again and, on May 30, 1431, was burned at the stake. In 1456 however, her case was reinvestigated by the church and she was pronounced innocent. in 1909, she was beatified and, in 1920, canonized. A symbol of French nationalism, especially in modern times and during the 20th-century world wars, Joan of Arc has also been widely depicted in literature, art, music, and film (voltaire, Schiller, rude, Twain, Audiberti, péguy, Dreyer, DeMille, Preminger, Rossellini, Bresson, Rivette, Shaw, Verdi, claudel, and honegger).

   See also xaintrailles, jean poton.