Opposition: Joan of Arc, Maid of Orleans

Novels, poems, plays and movies have been written about Joan.  Her life and her claims to divine guidance have been dissected from every angle, as has her military contribution to the history of her country.  Believe in her or not, though, in her own time she was considered by her English, Burgundian and French enemies as a force to be reckoned with.

Joan or Jeanne, c 1412-1431, was born in the village of Domremy, in the French province of Bar.  Bar was located in the historic area of Lorraine.  Jeanne's family were peasants, but they didn't live in squalor.  Her father was a farmer who sometimes served in various village functions.  Her mother was a respected woman of the community who had possibly taken a pilgrimage to Rome at some point.  At this point in the progress of the Hundred Years War, matters had come to a bloody stalemate.  Charles VI of France had suffered from periodic bouts of insanity, leaving his kingdom in disarray when he died.  His son, technically Charles VII, had yet to be crown.  Conditions in the Kingdom were so unsafe that he dared not venture to Reims, the traditional city for the coronation.  Domremy was loyal to the Crown.  However, the surrounding areas were under Burgundian control.  The Duke of Burgundy, a powerful and independent nobleman, was an ally and probably in the pay of the English.  Bands of Burgundian raiders swept the countryside with fire and sword, terrorizing the inhabitants.  The citizens of Domremy had had to flee more than once and the village was partially burned on one occasion.

Still, Jeanne managed to have a somewhat normal childhood.  She learned household chores such as spinning from her mother, roamed the countryside with her brothers and her friends, and focused her life on the Church.  The only thing remarkable about her was her piety.  According to her, when she was 13, she began receiving visions of St. Michael, almost as popular a military saint as St. George, St. Margaret of Antioch and St. Catherine of Alexandria.  The visions revealed to her that she was to go to the aid of the young king so that he could be crowned.  At the age of 16, she asked a relative to take her to the nearby garrison town of Vaucouleurs to request the garrison commander, Robert de Baudricourt, to give her a military escort to Charles' court at the former Plantagenet castle of Chinon.  Baudricourt brusquely dismissed her, but a year later, Jeanne was back.  This time, with the help of two of Baudricourt's men, she revealed to him the details of a battle then taking place at Rouvray, near Orleans.  Astonished and just a bit fearful, Baudricourt gave her the escort.  For her own safety, Jeanne dressed in male clothing, something that would come back to haunt her later.

Arriving at Chinon, she surprised Charles himself by approaching him directly as though she already knew him on sight.  In the days before any type of mass media, she wouldn't have recognized him or been able to pick him out in a crowd.  Charles was sufficiently impressed after speaking with her that he allowed her to accompany reinforcements headed to the city of Orleans, which was under siege by the English.  She wore armor and accompanied the army, bearing a standard instead of a sword.  She always maintained that she never killed anyone by her own hand.  Sources differ as to how much influence she had on military decisions.  The armies she rode with were always commanded by noblemen, such as the Duke of Alencon.  Alencon later stated that he did take her advice on several occasions, believing that she was divinely inspired.  At this point, the French wee desperate for inspiration from any source and in need of morale.  Jeanne provided both in abundance.

Jeanne arrived at Orleans in April, 1429.  Initially excluded from war councils, she continued to urge French commanders for a direct assault on the town.  This occurred on May 7, 1429, though Jeanne was wounded in the neck.  The English withdraw from Orleans and the siege was lifted.  Jeanne was at the crest of her popularity.  Jeanne accompanied the royal army as it liberated other French towns in the area, on a buildup to bring Charles VII to Reims for his coronation.  On July 16, 1429, she rode into Reims on July 16, 1429, and the coronation took place in the cathedral the next day.  As a sign of honor, she was allowed to stand beside the altar, wearing her armor and bearing her standard. 

Following Reims, there were several setbacks, including the prolonged siege of Paris, where Jeanne took a crossbow bolt to the leg.  However, on December 29, 1429, Charles VII enobled Jeanne's family.  At her request, he relieved Domremy and another nearby village of royal taxation.  These two villages wouldn't pay taxes again until the French Revolution centuries later.  A temporary put an end to fighting over the next several months.  On May 23, 1430, she was captured while besieging the town of Compeigne.  She was initially confined at Beaurevoir Castle, but after several escape attempts, she was removed to Arras, a Burgundian stronghold.  Eventually, the English paid over 10,000 livres to deliver Jeanne into their custody.  She was technically in the custody of the Duke of Bedford, himself a Plantagenet of the House of Lancaster. The English wanted to demoralize the French by proving that Jeanne was a witch and that the French victories while she was with the Royal Army were the work of the devil. 

She was eventually moved to Rouen for trial.  Contrary to popular belief, Charles VII did make efforts to save her.  Several attacks on Rouen were beaten back.  However, Charles was in a delicate spot.  If Jeanne was proved out to be a witch, as she inevitably would be, his claim to his crown and to the legitimacy of his possession would be called into question.  Jeanne's trial was a lengthy process.  However, under several days of questioning, she held up and refuted each charge against her.  She was not allowed an attorney, or to present any witnesses or evidence in her own behalf, or cross-examine any witnesses against her.  It goes to show how valuable a propaganda tool she was for both sides that the English went to the trouble of proving her guilty. 

A sticking point against her was her constant use of male clothing.  This served a practical purpose, to make it more difficult and off-putting for her guards to assault her.  Under church rules of the time, she should have been under the custody of nuns.  Eventually, worn down by the constant accusations and questioning, she agreed to wear a dress.  She had no sooner begun wearing women's clothing then, according to her, a "great English lord" had entered her chamber and taken her by force.  She once again resumed male clothing.  This was considered a relapse into heresy and she was condemned to death.  On May 30, 1431, she was taken to the public square of Rouen and burned at the stake.  The English executioners burned the remains again, to leave as little physical trace as possible, although one remarked that, "we've burned a saint."

The war ground on for 22 years, but ultimately the English were force to cede all their French possession except for Calais.  in 1452, her family successful petitioned for a retrial, which the church allowed.  Testimony was collected from dozens of witnesses, from people who had known Jeanne back in Domremy, to soldiers who had fought with her, and even nobles who had encountered her during her short career.  In 1456, she was declared innocent and the charges against her reversed.  She was beautified in 1909 and canonized a saint in 1920.  She is and remains the national heroine of France.