Joan of Arc (January 6, 1412 - May 30, 1431), Jeanne d'Arc and Jehanne la Pucelle in French, also called the Maid of Orléans, is a national heroine of France and saint of the Catholic Church. During the Hundred Years' War she led the French against the English and was ultimately captured and executed.

Contents

1 Life 2 Retrial 3 Effect 4 Joan of Arc in pop culture 5 External links 6 See also

Life

Jehanne Darc (or "d'Arc'") was born in Domremy (a village which is now in Lorraine, but was then a part of the Duchy of Barre - a part of France whose Duke was nevertheless pro-Anglo-Burgundian in loyalty) to a peasant family during the Hundred Years' War between France and England. The northern parts of France were occupied by the English, who were allied with the Burgundians. France had not had a crowned king since the death of Charles VI in 1422. Although Charles VI had left an heir, the Dauphin Charles, the crown of France had instead passed to the infant King Henry VI of England. This was the result of the Treaty of Troyes signed by Charles VI and England's Henry V in 1420 in an attempt to end the Hundred Years' War and a repetition of the tremendous loss of life that had occurred at the Battle of Agincourt. According to the terms of the treaty, Henry was married to Catherine, daughter of Charles VI; upon Charles' death, the crown would pass to their issue, uniting the two kingdoms. This essentially removed the Dauphin from the line of succession, but was opposed by many French nobles.

Jeanne claimed to hear the voices of Saint Michael the Archangel, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret telling her to free France and return the Dauphin to the throne. As a 16 year old girl, she travelled to a nearby town and asked to join the Dauphin's forces. She was rejected but returned one year later, and was then allowed to visit the dauphin Charles at Chinon. Wearing men's clothes (which she would do from then on for the rest of her life), she travelled to Chinon. She was able to pick out Charles, who had hidden himself among his courtiers, and told him about her mission. After having her interrogated by church authorities, he agreed to her plan of freeing Orléans, which was under siege by the English.

Her brothers joined her, and she was equipped with armor and a white banner with the fleur-de-lis and the words "Jesus" and "Mary" on it. With her piety, confidence, and enthusiasm, she boosted the morale of the troops. She began the campaign to raise the siege of Orléans on April 29, 1429. After this celebrated victory May 9, she became known as the Maid of Orléans (there was a legend that a Maid would deliver France; Joan used this to convince both her men and the English that she was, indeed, "the Maid.") In the following weeks Joan captured Jargeau, Meung-sur-Loire, and Beaugency, defeating an English army at Patay on June 18, inflicting over 2,000 casualties for the loss of just three French. After accepting the surrender of the city of Troyes, she persuaded Charles to go to Reims; he was crowned Charles VII there in her presence on July 17, 1429.

The key to Joan's stunning success, perhaps, lies in her innate understanding of leadership. She insisted that her men conduct themselves in a manner becoming professional soldiers: no swearing or lewd behavior, and she demanded they attend church services. In short, she set an example for them to follow. The men, by all accounts, loved her, and thought her a saint.

Jeanne tried to convince the king to win back Paris from the Burgundians, but he hesitated. Later, Jeanne did lead an attack on Paris, but it had to be abandoned. In an effort to free another town, Compiègne, she was captured on May 24, 1430 by the Burgundians. Efforts were made to ransom or trade for her, but to no avail. She tried to escape twice (the second time by jumping from a tower 20 meters tall) and was eventually sold to Pierre Cauchon, the Bishop of Beauvais who was allied with the English. Surviving documents record payments made by the English government to cover the costs of obtaining Joan and rewarding many of the judges who took part in her trial.

Jeanne was accused of heresy and put on trial by a hand-picked gathering of clergy at an English-run Inquisition in Rouen on February 21, 1431. Her insistence of direct communication with God through voices was interpreted as communication with demons, and disobedience to the Church. Her "suicide attempt" of jumping from the tower as well as her cross-dressing were also cited in the trial. In the trial, she claimed never having killed anybody, she only carried the standard during battles (indeed, there are numerous accounts of her sparing the lives of prisoners). She was made to promise to stop dressing as a man. Against the standard process rules, she was denied an appeal to the Pope, and was kept in a prison guarded by English soldiers instead of the bishopric prison that the rules mandated. Possibly to protect herself, she dressed again as a man, hence she was considered a relapse , falling again in the sin.

When she was shown the torture instruments, she said that she intended to retract everything she would admit under torture. Her judges decided against torture. After the University of Paris was consulted and confirmed her guilt, she was convicted and turned over to the secular arm for execution.

In an apparent effort to save her life, she recanted and signed a statement admitting that she had lied about the voices and accepting the authority of the church. Two days later however, she retracted that admission. On May 30, 1431, while being burned to death at Rouen, she repeatedly shouted "Jesus". After she had died, the flames were put out and her partly charred body was shown to the crowd, in order to prove that she was indeed a woman. Then the body was completely burned. Heretics at the time could not receive a Christian burial, and Joan's remains were cast into the Seine River.

"Of the love or hatred God has for the English, I know nothing, but I do know that they will all be thrown out of France, except those who die there."

- Joan of Arc at her trial (15 March 1431)

Retrial

After Charles gained Rouen, a second trial, decreed by Pope Callixtus III after a petition by Jeanne d'Arc's family, resulted in nullification of her conviction on July 7, 1456. The Inquisitor and the other appellate judges denounced Cauchon, who had masterminded the first trial, and described Joan as a martyr, paving the way for her eventual beatification in 1909. Jeanne was formally canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic church on May 16, 1920; her feast day is the second Sunday in May.

Effect

The figure of Jeanne d'Arc has fascinated writers throughout the ages. The best known plays, offering widely differing interpretations of her life, were written by Shakespeare (Henry VI), George Bernard Shaw (Saint Joan), Friedrich Schiller (Die Jungfrau von Orleans), Jean Anouilh (L'Alouette) and Bertolt Brecht (Saint Joan of the Stockyards). Samuel Clemens wrote a fictional biography of Joan of Arc under the pen-name of Sieur Louis de Conte, forgoing his usual pen name of Mark Twain. During World War II, both the Vichy Regime and the French resistance used the image of Jeanne: the Vichy regime took her as a symbol of national pride and emphasized her peasant origin and anti-English warrior spirit; the resistance countered by reminding people that Jeanne was born in Lorraine (now lost to the Germans) and that she had fought for liberation of the country. To this day the right-wing French party Front National still uses the image of Jeanne as a symbol of French nationalism .

Joan of Arc in pop culture

• Joan of Arc was featured in the 1989 movie Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
• A 1928 film, "La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc" (The Passion of Joan of Arc), was made by Carl Theodor Dreyer, based upon transcripts of her trial.
• Joan of Arc was the subject of Luc Besson's 1999 movie "" ("Joan of Arc" outside the U.S.A.), starring Milla Jovovich as Joan of Arc.
• A "clone" of Joan of Arc appeared in the traditionally animated television show Clone High.
• The name of the television show Joan of Arcadia, in which a girl about Joan's supposed age speaks to God and uses the influence to do good deeds around her community, was derived from 'Joan of Arc', and the content is partly inspired thereby.
• Joan of Arc is the name of an indie rock band from Chicago, Illinois.
• The Smiths' song Bigmouth Strikes Again includes the line 'And now I know how Joan of Arc felt, as the flames rose to her Roman nose and her Walkman started to melt'.
• Garbage's song Vow includes the line "You burned me out but I'm back at your door, like Joan of Arc coming back for more".
• Catatonia's song Post Script includes the line "Joan of Arc, come kiss my art, leave a charcoal mark. There's so much more to solitary refinement."

External links

• Archive of 500 pages concerning Joan of Arc by Allen Williamson: Joan of Arc Archive.
• A reconstructed portrait of Joan of Arc by Marco Bakker: Reportret: Joan of Arc.
• Center of devotion to Saint Joan of Arc by Virginia Frohlick: Saint Joan of Arc Center.
• Facts on Joan of Arc from Catholic Online Saints: Joan of Arc.
• Online Joan of Arc resource by Patrick Price: JoanNet.
• Encyclopedia entry on Joan of Arc in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
• Films on Joan of Arc: IMDb film search.
• A fictional biography of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain: Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, volume 1 and volume 2.
• Collection of reproductions regarding Joan of Arc, from the Histoire de Jeanne D'Arc by Marcel Poullin 1890: Joan of Arc - Jehanne la Pucelle, Maid of Orléans.
• Collection of images and historical narrative: Joan of Arc, In Pictures and Text.
• Timeline with a few links: Jeanne d'Arc.
• Scrolling timeline: Jeanne d'Arc.
• Short biographies of Joan of Arc (text only):
  • Jeanne d'Arc, Sainte (Joan of Arc);
  • Biography of Joan of Arc;
  • Saint Joan of Arc, Virgin—1412-1431.

See also

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about: Joan of Arc

• Timeline of women's participation in warfare
• Saints
• French history