Joan of Arc

Who was she?

Considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years' War, and
was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint.
Joan of Arc, a peasant girl living in medieval France, believed that God had chosen her to lead France to
victory in its long-running war with England. With no military training, Joan convinced the embattled
crown prince Charles of Valois to allow her to lead a French army to the besieged city of Orlans, where it
achieved a momentous victory over the English and their French allies, the Burgundians.
Joan was captured by Anglo-Burgundian forces, tried for witchcraft and heresy and burned at the stake in
1431, at the age of 19.

When did she become involved?

Joan sees with the clarity of passionate faith that if Charles can fight his way to Reims to be consecrated,
France will have a king again. This becomes her mission. But first she must reach Charles himself. Dressed
in a man's clothes, with six male companions, she travels for eleven days to Chinon, arriving in February
1429. It is two more days before her request to see Charles VII is granted.
Accordingly, after a commission of doctors had reported that they had found in her nothing of evil or
contrary to the Catholic faith, and a council of matrons had reported on her chastity, she was permitted
to set forth with an army of 4,000 or 5,000 men designed for the relief of Orleans.
Joan succeeded in entering Orleans on the 29th of April 1429, and through the vigorous and unremitting
sallies of the French the English gradually became so discouraged that on the 8th of May they raised the
siege. It is admitted that her extraordinary pluck and sense of leadership were responsible for this result.
In a single week (June 12 to 19), by the capture of Jargeau and Beaugency, followed by the great victory
of Patay, where Talbot was taken prisoner, the English were driven beyond the Loire.
Joan attempted to take control of Paris but was wounded. After this, a truce was signed with the Duke of
Burgundy to keep a temporary peace between France and England.

What happened to her?

At the conclusion of the truce, Joan had another vision that she would be taken prisoner. This prediction
came true when she was captured on May 24, 1430, defending a town against an English attack.
On May 24, 1431, Joan's sentence was read. After her trial at the ecclesiastic hands of the Bishop Pierre
Cauchon, Joan was to be turned over to the secular power of the Burgundians and English. Joan begged
for an appeal to Pope, but her judges refused. Afraid of what would happen to her in English and
Burgundian hands, Joan relented and signed an abjuration in which she admitted her crimes.
Joan of Arc was 19 when the English burnt her at the stake in Rouen on 30 May, 1431.