Joan of Arc

Student: Dragan Diana Florentina

Grade: X A

Joan of Arc or in French Jeanne d'Arc, was born in 1412. She was a French peasant
girl who led the French army against the English during the Hundred Years' War.
She is also called the Maid of Orleans. She is a French national heroine and patron
saint. When Joan was about 13 years old she began to hear voices which some
believe were those of Saint Catherine, Saint Margaret, and Saint Michael. The
voices gave her the mission of liberating France from English domination. She
kept the messages secret for about 5 years, and only in 1429 did she leave her
home in Domremy, Champagne, and travel with an escort to the court of the
dauphin which was supposedly to be that of King Charles VII. The Treaty of
Troyes of 1420 was had deprived King Charles of his rights as heir to the French
throne. At that time the English were besieging Orleans. After a group of
theologians tested her, Charles was persuaded to reassemble his troops and place
them under Joan's command in an expedition to relieve the city. In 8 days during
May 1429, she lifted the siege that had lain on Orleans for 8 months. In June 1429,
Joan and her troops were able to free the French and consequently king Charles
was coronated.
After Charles became king, he and Joan disagreed on the future regarding the
English and their allies and the Burgundians. Charles VII wanted to negotiate
territorial boundaries but Joan wanted to continue fighting. Joan of arc lost some
battles and was consequently captured in the spring of 1430. She was captured at
Compiengne. The town of Compiengne was guarded by a wall and a moat with a
drawbridge being the only access into the town. Joan remained fighting outside the
city walls while the drawbridge was withdrawn so as to protect the city and the
people. So while most of the townspeople were safely inside the walls of
Compiegne, Joan remained outside the walls, fighting and losing the battle. She
was captured by the Burgundians on May 24, 1430. The Burgundians sold Joan of
Arc to the English. Joan was ultimately taken to the English-controlled town of
Rouen where she was shackled to the wall of a dungeon. The English had lost
more than their pride because a nineteen-year-old girl had defeated a number of its
armies. So the only possible explanation they could come up with was that Joan of
Arc was a witch. Hence Joan was accused of witchcraft and would therefore have
to stand a trial for heresy.
The English turned Joan over to the Church. Many charges were brought against
Joan in addition to the charges of sorcery, heresy and witchcraft. Joan was also
tried for the offense of wearing men's clothing and armor, which at that time was
considered an offense against the Church. The Bishop of Beauvis, Pierre Cauchon
was one of the main accusers. Cauchon's ultimate objective was to become a
Cardinal of the Catholic Church and saw Joan of Arc and her trial as the way to
help him achieving his ambition. Cauchon's and the Inquisitor of France, Jean
Lemaitre, would judge Joan. This was unjust because Joan's accuser was also her
judge. Joan's natural rights were also violated because she was not allowed to have
a lawyer to represent her. Cauchon wanted Joan to confess to the accusations put
forth by him and plead guilty. If this were achieved then it would prove that it was
sorcery that put the dauphin on the throne. This meant that if the dauphin became
Charles VII because of heresy, the English could once again make a claim for the
throne of France and restart the wars and claim the lost land back. Cauchon had
hoped she would break and confess but she did not.
Joan's trial began on Wednesday, February 21, 1431. After three weeks of cross-
examination, Cauchon began to worry about his lack of evidence against Joan. She
did not confess to any of her accusations. Cauchon needing more evidence turned
to a method of cross-questioning and using Joan's answers came up twelve separate
charges against her. Cauchon claimed that those charges were based on answers
from Joan's own mouth. Joan, who could neither read nor write, could only
respond to questions that were verbally put to her. After all the evidence was
presented against her, Joan was asked to sign a "statement of faults" or
"confession." Joan stood firm and resisted sighing the confession. Consequently on
May 9, 1431, Joan was taken to a torture chamber in the bishop's castle. She was
made aware of the terrible instruments of pain and was threatened to be a victim of
them. However her captors never physically harmed her. She still did not agree to
sigh the confession so on May 23rd, Joan was taken to the cemetery at the Abbey
where the bishop created a scenario that she was going to be burnt at the stake. It
was just an act just to frighten Joan whose greatest fear was of being burned alive.
However all the efforts were futile and the confession was not achieved. Cauchon
then deceived her by reading a short version of the confession. It stated that if she
signed it, she would agree never to carry arms, wear soldier's clothes, or cut her
hair short. Cauchon then read the sentence of the court: Death by burning at the
stake. Cauchon took advantage of Joan's inability to read and verify the eight-line
confession before she signed it, had Joan been represented by a lawyer, she would
have discovered Cauchon's treachery and would never have signed the substituted
statement. Joan was not turned over to the church, as she was told she would be.
Instead, was imprisoned in an English castle. Joan wore only women's clothing, as
she had agreed, following her confession. However, Cauchon and the English were
not finished with their treachery and she was framed. One morning, soon after she
had signed the statement of faults, Joan could not find the clothing she had taken
off the night before. Unknown to her, the three English guards had removed all her
clothes while Joan slept. Only the forbidden clothes, her soldier's clothes were left
in her cell. Joan pleaded for her permitted clothes. The guards would not allow her
to leave her bed until she was dressed and neither gave Joan her proper clothing.
Consequently she put on her armor. She failed to realize how perilous it was for
her to wear soldier's clothes. Joan was charged as a relapsed heretic and was
convicted. Cauchon did not want the responsibility of executing Joan, so he turned
Joan over to the state. Her punishment would be death by burning at the stake in
the marketplace of Rouen. Charles VII was ungrateful and did not even try to
rescue her. Due to confusion at the scene, it is questionable whether the sentence of
death was actually pronounced before the soldiers set the fire. This was another
violation of minimal due process. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake on May 30,
1431 at the age of nineteen. Twenty-five years latter in 1456 a second trail was
held and she was pronounced innocent. She was also beatified in 1909 and latter
canonized by Pope Benedict XV in 1920.