Joan of Arc (born c.1412 CE- May 30, 1431) has inspired and perplexed millions since her death at the hands of the English in 1431. The humble 16-year-old peasant girl who rallied the French to victory at Orléans (as it was under English siege for months) has inspired painters, novelists, poets, and filmmakers. Joan of Arc was a famous Frenchwoman and has often times been described as ‘Jesus Christ with a sword‘.
During the Hundred Years’ War, she led the French to victory against the English, bringing the pernicious struggle to a finish and putting an end to a horrific chapter in European history. Her bravery and gallantry to save France, however, did not end with her capture. She was sentenced as a heretic and was ruthlessly executed after being captured by the Anglo-Burgundians (a group of French people that sided with the English in the 15th century) and sold her to her bloodthirsty enemy: the English and then the world saw the horrific death of Joan of Arc.
Here are 11 intriguing facts about Joan of Arc:
1. Life and Death of Joan of Arc: Biography
Joan was a brave leader and a national heroine although she never attended school and couldn’t read or write. She was the daughter of a prosperous peasant couple in Domremy-Greux, southeast of Paris. Joan’s family was deeply religious. When she was about 12 years old, she had a vision and heard voices she subsequently recognised as Saints: Archangel Michael, Catherine of Alexandria, and Margaret of Antioch. She resolved to take action against the voices when she was 16 years old. Her mission was a double one, to raise the siege of Orleans, and to conduct Charles to his coronation at Rheims.
Joan requested that a town official accompany her to Charles’s court to request authorization to head an army. Joan returned as she refused to give up despite the official’s laughter. She continued to hear voices and made unusual predictions, such as the French loss at the Battle of Rouvray near Orleans (when they were thought to be the stronger side).
Robert de Baudricourt refused Joan’s request, but after seeing that she was gaining the approval of villagers, in 1429 he relented and gave her a horse and an escort of several soldiers. Joan received the backing of certain local officials as her prophecies came true. She soon was transferred to the royal court in the city of Chinon.
She used to tell that a saint instructed her to lead the French in a war against the English to reclaim her nation from the English tyranny. She also was commanded to escort dauphin Charles of Valois, (the eldest child of France’s last monarch), to Rheims to recover the crown and make him the rightful king.
2. Why French Forces Needed Joan of Arc?
Joan is a patron saint of France, known for her involvement in the siege of Orléans against English forces and her insistence on the crowning of Charles VII (the new French King) during the Hundred Years’ War. She became a military leader who transcended gender boundaries and was seen as quite chivalrous to save France, she claimed to be operating under heavenly guidance.
Initially wary about such a young child, Charles had her questioned by church personnel. Charles purposely hid among the nobles when Joan of Arc entered the hall to welcome him. Yet, the 16-year-old immediately recognised him. During a brief private conversation, Charles said that he believed Joan of Arc’s divine mission because she had imparted to him a personal secret that no one else could know. She won him over and he finally let her command an army.
She had cut her hair and dressed up in men’s clothes to avoid being recognised on her 11-day journey across the territory to Chinon (the site of Charles’s court). She disguised herself as a knight and carried a flag rather than a weapon.
Joan and her visions became the talk of the town. The inhabitants of Orleans cheered and celebrated her arrival, believing that God would deliver them from English oppression. Joan accompanied her soldiers battled valiantly, and despite being wounded by an arrow between the neck and shoulder while holding her banner in the trench on the south bank of the river, but later returned to encourage the final assault that took the fortress.
She did not surrender. Joan continued to serve in the thick of battle. The English finally fled from Orleans after some severe combat, and Joan’s army had gained a major victory.
3. Why is Joan of Arc Called ‘of Arc’?
Her father’s name was Jacques Darc, and she was named Jehanne (Joan) after her godmothers, Jehanne Royer, Jehanne de Viteau, and Jehanne ‘the wife of Mayor Aubery’. Therefore she was Jehanne Darc, afterwards d’Arc, which means ‘of Arc’ in English.
4. Capturing and The Trial of Joan of Arc
After seeing the prince crowned King Charles VII, Joan was captured by Anglo-Burgundian forces. She was turned over to church officials who insisted she is tried as a heretic.
Before the trial commenced, Joan of Arc was held captive in the Tower of Beaurevoir, from where she tried to escape a couple of times but all her attempts went in vain and she also got herself injured. Her questioning began on February 20, 1431. Joan of arc held herself with dignity and proceeded with repartee. Joan of Arc faced over 70 allegations, the most serious of which were witchcraft and heresy. According to scholars, the allegations of heresy were more politically driven than spiritually motivated.
Joan was seized by Burgundians who were associated with the English in May 1430 and sold to the English for a considerable sum of money. She was put on trial by an ecclesiastical court in Rouen presided over by Bishop Pierre Cauchon, an English supporter, writes historian Kelly DeVries. “Joan became a prize of war”.
Joan could not be executed as a “repentant heretic” until she repudiated her abjuration. Joan had to agree to stop wearing men’s attire as a condition of the abjuration. She was dressed and her head was shaved. Yet she was not free. She was returned to her prison cell, where she was mistreated. The English captors attempted to rape her, but she was turned down for mass and thereby she again had reasons for wearing men’s clothing.
5. King Charles VII and Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc was given a suit of “white armour” by Charles VII while she prepared for the battle.
Charles VII inherited the French throne under desperate circumstances i.e in the midst of the Hundred Years war.
Charles VII: The king did not come to Joan’s help because he did not want to jeopardise his freshly reclaimed throne, and she was burnt at the stake in 1431 when she was just 19 years old. She was a Catholic saint (Saint Joan) in 1920 after being officially exonerated of her crimes 20 years later.
6. Joan of Arc: Accused of Witchcraft and Heresy
Female visionaries weren’t uncommon in France but it didn’t suggest that many people took them seriously. Joan was alleged to be talking with the devil.
Joan of Arc provided no replies that could be considered heresy after being grilled for hours by Cauchon and the other members of the tribunal. Her first trial exemplifies how the allegation of heresy may be used to stifle women whose leadership endangered the male-dominated status quo of the Church and society at the time.
The prosecution attempted to trap her by questioning if she knew if she was in God’s favour. Nobody could tell if they were in God’s grace, according to church teaching. A “Yes” response would be contrary to recognised belief, while a “No” response may have been used against her as an admission of wrongdoing.
The executioner of Joan had confessed to his friends and family that he feared he was eternally damned for burning a holy woman.
She was afterwards considered a martyr. Joan of Arc’s death and sacrifice instilled great courage in the French, and she immediately became a symbol of national pride that has survived until the present day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S4aIAvQFnQ
7. Sentenced a Brutal Death Due to Cross Dressing
Even at the time, heresy was only a capital punishment for a second offence. When Joan refused, she consented to wear women’s clothing. She was sexually assaulted in prison a few days later, possibly by an English lord. She returned to wearing men’s clothes either as a protection against molestation or, according to Massieu’s evidence because her dress had been taken and she had nothing else to wear.
The prosecution was unable to produce a sufficient case on any of the other grounds, therefore it was the sole felony she was convicted of (as opposed to “charged with”). To achieve their purpose, they had to resort to a dodgy legal tactic: they tricked/coerced her into signing a commitment never to command armies or wear men’s clothes again, and then forced her back into men’s clothes.
Joan was placed on trial for speaking to the devil and also the English deemed her guilty of cross-dressing as a man and burned her alive at the stake.
When Joan learned about her execution technique, she was distressed, urging her jailers that she would rather be decapitated than burnt, but no one listened.
8. Divine Voices or Delusions?
Joan stated that the voices she heard were from angels and saints, through whom God spoke to her. She recognised the saints as Saint Archangel Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret, all important French saints Joan had learned about through church statuary and her mother’s rigorous religious training.
While she was first frightened to tell others about them—she never mentioned them to the Domremy priests despite being often at confessional—she claimed to talk to these saints and hear their voices routinely. Joan stated that they always conversed in French. While she was first terrified of the conversation in French. While she was first terrified of the voices, she soon came to grips with them, even claiming to be able to call them at will. These voices must have had an increasing role.
Joan’s “voices” have been variously interpreted. From all accounts, it is exceedingly doubtful that she merely made up a claim of hearing voices for the sake of theatricality and attention. Some others think she was hearing heavenly orders from saints and angels.
Some have proposed that the voices were hallucinations that Joan mistook for saints and angels. According to these readings, the messages Joan heard were ones she had created unconsciously and were now communicating to her conscious mind through images and voices.
Joan’s voices were always clearer when she was alone, which might explain why she became increasingly separated from companions as she grew older, preferring to spend time alone. Joan first received basic and brief notes, but these grew longer and more comprehensive with time. She may have even been able to converse with the voices in the end. All of this reflects current models of hallucination development seen by psychologists.
Trauma typically triggers such hallucinations, and 1425 was a particularly trying year for Domremy and Joan. The burning of Domremy in 1425 may have served to focus Joan’s thoughts on the conflict and offer the purpose of ending the war to her.
Yet the voices made Joan hellbent to free her country from the English and to help dauphin, Charles.
9. From a Heretic to Saint Joan of Arc
After Joan’s death, Joan’s mother, Isabella Romée, petitioned Pope Callixtus III for a nullification Trial (1455) to demonstrate that Joan had been wrongfully convicted of heresy and tried without even an advocate or any witnesses in her favour. Many people testified during Joan’s trial, proclaiming her saintliness.
The church declared Joan innocent of any heresy against the Catholic Church after her guilty conviction in her Condemnation Trial in 1431 was deemed unlawful and null and void. On May 16, 1920, Pope Benedict XV canonised her. In June of that year, the French Parliament declared a national holiday in Joan’s honour.
“The rehabilitation trial began on 7 November 1455 at Notre Dame Cathedral when Joan’s mother publicly delivered a formal request for her daughter’s rehabilitation and ended on 7 July 1456 at Rouen Cathedral, having heard from about 115 witnesses. The court found that the original trial was unjust and deceitful”.
St. Joan of Arc’s Church Standing in the square now, the first thing that strikes you is the contemporary church constructed in her honour. With its 1970s construction, the Church of St Joan of Arc nearly appears out of place, yet its significance justifies it. Its roof is meant to be represented by the flames.
10. Why was Joan of Arc Inspirational?
Many in the French army were motivated by Joan’s faith to believe in themselves and their ability to drive the English out of France. The French were in desperate need of hope, She stoked the flames of faith in her countrymen’s hearts. News spread, hope was sparked, and soon people rushed to her, gathered behind her banner, and began fighting, winning battles, and reclaiming French cities.
Joan taught her soldiers the path of righteousness and to live by faith. With no military training, she attained momentous victory over the English.
Joan of Arc utilized her captivating leadership to help France construct its nation-state. Her first essential leadership characteristic was a “strong sense of goal.” Joan of Arc was on a mission, which might have been a calling from a higher force. Despite the dangers she endured throughout her life, she was determined to end English dominance over her beloved nation.
Joan of Arc’s gilded bronze statue is in Philadelphia, courtesy of the Society for Public Art. She was a valuable symbol of disobedience that had to be destroyed. Her life ended in treachery and physical and emotional suffering.
11. What Happened to Her Body?
Joan was burnt to death after being bound to a plaster column. When the flames consumed her, she yelled forth her last words, a prayer: “Jesus! Jesus!“.
Once Joan of Arc died as a result of smoke inhalation, the cardinal ordered that her body be burnt a second and third time until only ashes remained. Joan’s remains were dumped into the river.
12. Literature Immortalising Joan of Arc
She appears in Shakespeare’s ‘Henry VI‘.
Shortly after Joan’s canonization, G.B. Shaw fictionalized Joan of Arc and wrote a play titled ‘Saint Joan’, which was first performed in 1923. Shaw provided an exhaustive historical background in his preface of the play.
Mark Twain’s ‘Saint Joan of Arc‘ published in Harpers Monthly Magazine, described Joan of Arc as “easily and by far the most extraordinary person the human race has ever produced.
She is the subject of ‘Voltaire’s La Pucelle‘ a tragedy by Schiller.
Conclusion
On May 30, 1431, an uneducated peasant girl from the small, simple hamlet of Domremy in Northeastern France was burned to death but she became a symbol of national consciousness (French). This small young lady was Saint Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc in French). The death of Joan of Arc was tragic but her legacy will live on. “Women identify with her; men admire her courage. She challenges us in fundamental ways. Despite the fact that more than 500 years have passed since she lived, her issues of mysticism, calling, identity, trust and betrayal, conflict and focus are our issues still” (Joan of Arc: God’s Warrior by Barbara Beckwith).
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