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Joan of Arc

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Military People

   Joan of Arc
   Joan of Arc, c. 1485. The only known portrait for which she sat has not
   survived, so all depictions of her represent artistic license. (Centre
   Historique des Archives Nationales, Paris, AE II 2490)
   Saint
   Born c. 1412 in Domrémy, France
   Died 30 May 1431 in Rouen, France
   Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
   Beatified 18 April 1909, Notre Dame Cathedral by Pius X
   Canonized 16 May 1920, St. Peter's Basilica by Benedict XV
   Feast 30 May
   Patronage captives; France; martyrs; opponents of Church authorities;
   people ridiculed for their piety; prisoners; rape victims; soldiers;
   Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service; Women's Army Corps
   Prayer to St. Joan of Arc for Faith

   In the face of your enemies, in the face of harassment, ridicule, and
   doubt, you held firm in your faith. Even in your abandonment, alone and
   without friends, you held firm in your faith. Even as you faced your
   own mortality, you held firm in your faith. I pray that I may be as
   bold in my beliefs as you, St. Joan. I ask that you ride alongside me
   in my own battles. Help me be mindful that what is worthwhile can be
   won when I persist. Help me hold firm in my faith. Help me believe in
   my ability to act well and wisely. Amen.
   St. Joan of Arc
   Saints Portal

   Joan of Arc, also known as Jeanne d'Arc, (c. 1412 – 30 May 1431) was a
   national heroine of France and is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
   She asserted that she had visions from God which told her to recover
   her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War.
   The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege at Orléans as part
   of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the light
   regard of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days.
   Several more swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims
   and settled the disputed succession to the throne.

   The renewed French confidence outlasted her own brief career. She
   refused to leave the field when she was wounded during an attempt to
   recapture Paris that autumn. Hampered by court intrigues, she led only
   minor companies from then onward and fell prisoner at a skirmish near
   Compiègne the following spring. A politically motivated trial convicted
   her of heresy. The English regent John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of
   Bedford had her burnt at the stake in Rouen. She had been the heroine
   of her country at the age of seventeen and died at just nineteen. Some
   twenty-four years later Pope Callixtus III reopened the case and a new
   finding overturned the original conviction. Her piety to the end
   impressed the retrial court. Pope Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May
   1920.

   Joan of Arc has remained an important figure in Western culture. From
   Napoleon to the present, French politicians of all leanings have
   invoked her memory. Major writers and composers who have created works
   about her include Shakespeare, Voltaire, Schiller, Verdi, Tchaikovsky,
   Twain, Shaw, Brecht, Dreyer, and Honegger. Depictions of her continue
   in film, television, and song.

Background

   The historian Kelly DeVries describes the period preceding Joan of
   Arc's appearance with, "If anything could have discouraged her, the
   state of France in 1429 should have." The Hundred Years' War had begun
   in 1337 as a succession dispute to the French throne with intermittent
   periods of relative peace. Nearly all of the fighting had taken place
   in France and the English use of chevauchée tactics had devastated the
   French economy. The French population had not recovered from the black
   death of the previous century and its merchants were cut off from
   foreign markets. At the outset of Joan of Arc's career the English had
   almost achieved their goal of a dual monarchy under English control and
   the French army had won no major victory for a generation. In DeVries's
   words, "the kingdom of France was not even a shadow of its
   thirteenth-century prototype."

   Although the English nobility had spoken Norman French as their primary
   language for centuries after the Norman Conquest, this was no longer
   the case during Joan of Arc's lifetime. The English language had gained
   ascendancy in England during the fourteenth century. Notwithstanding
   Joan of Arc's claim of a divine mission and her enemies' claim that she
   proceeded instead from the devil, both she and her opponents were
   Catholic, and England would remain so until the following century when
   England split with Rome during the reign of Henry VIII.

   France at the outset of Joan of Arc's career. The dot that represents
   Paris is near the center of the Anglo-Burgundian region. Reims lies to
   its northeast.
   Enlarge
   France at the outset of Joan of Arc's career. The dot that represents
   Paris is near the centre of the Anglo-Burgundian region. Reims lies to
   its northeast.

   The French king at the time of Joan's birth, Charles VI, suffered bouts
   of insanity and was often unable to rule. The king's brother Duke Louis
   of Orléans and the king's cousin Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy
   quarreled over the regency of France and the guardianship of the royal
   children. This dispute escalated to accusations of an extramarital
   affair with Queen Isabeau of Bavaria and kidnappings of the royal
   children and culminated when the Duke of Burgundy ordered the
   assassination of the Duke of Orléans in 1407.

   The factions loyal to these two men became known as the Armagnacs and
   the Burgundians. The English king, Henry V, took advantage of this
   turmoil and invaded France, won a dramatic victory at Agincourt in
   1415, and proceeded to capture northern French towns. The future French
   king, Charles VII, assumed the title of dauphin as heir to the throne
   at the age of fourteen after all four of his older brothers had died.
   His first significant official act was to conclude a peace treaty with
   Burgundy in 1419. This ended in disaster when Armagnac partisans
   murdered John the Fearless during a meeting under Charles's guarantee
   of protection. The new Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, blamed
   Charles and entered into an alliance with the English. Large sections
   of France fell to conquest.

   In 1420 Queen Isabeau of Bavaria concluded the Treaty of Troyes, which
   granted the French royal succession to Henry V and his heirs in
   preference to her son Charles. This agreement revived rumors about her
   supposed affair with the late duke of Orléans and raised fresh
   suspicions that the dauphin was a royal bastard rather than the son of
   the king. Henry V and Charles VI died within two months of each other
   in 1422, leaving an infant, Henry VI of England, the nominal monarch of
   both kingdoms. Henry V's brother, John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of
   Bedford, acted as regent.

   By the beginning of 1429 nearly all of northern France and some parts
   of the southwest were under foreign control. The English ruled Paris
   and the Burgundians ruled Reims. The latter city was important as the
   traditional site of French coronations and consecrations, especially
   since neither claimant to the throne of France had been crowned. The
   English had laid siege to Orléans, which was the only remaining loyal
   French city north of the Loire. Its strategic location along the river
   made it the last obstacle to an assault on the remaining French
   heartland. In the words of one modern historian, "On the fate of
   Orléans hung that of the entire kingdom." No one was optimistic that
   the city could long withstand the siege.

Life

Childhood

   Joan of Arc's birthplace is now a museum. The village church where she
   worshipped is on the right behind several trees.
   Enlarge
   Joan of Arc's birthplace is now a museum. The village church where she
   worshipped is on the right behind several trees.

   Joan of Arc was born to Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée in Domrémy, a
   village which was then in the duchy of Bar (and later annexed to the
   province of Lorraine and renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle). Her parents owned
   about 50 acres (0.2 square kilometers) of land and her father
   supplemented his farming work with a minor position as a village
   official, collecting taxes and heading the local watch. They lived in
   an isolated patch of northeastern territory that remained loyal to the
   French crown despite being surrounded by Burgundian lands. Several
   local raids occurred during Joan of Arc's childhood and on one occasion
   her village was burned.

   Joan said she was about nineteen at her trial, so she was born about
   1412; she later testified that she experienced her first vision around
   1424. She would report that St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St.
   Margaret told her to drive out the English and bring the dauphin to
   Reims for his coronation.

   At the age of sixteen she asked a kinsman, Durand Lassois, to bring her
   to nearby Vaucouleurs where she petitioned the garrison commander,
   Count Robert de Baudricourt, for permission to visit the royal French
   court at Chinon. Baudricourt's sarcastic response did not deter her.
   She returned the following January and gained support from two men of
   standing: Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy. Under their auspices
   she gained a second interview where she made a remarkable prediction
   about a military reversal near Orléans.

Rise

   Ruin of the great hall at Chinon where Joan of Arc met King Charles
   VII. The castle's only remaining intact tower has also become a museum
   to Joan of Arc.
   Enlarge
   Ruin of the great hall at Chinon where Joan of Arc met King Charles
   VII. The castle's only remaining intact tower has also become a museum
   to Joan of Arc.

   Robert de Baudricourt granted Joan of Arc an escort to visit Chinon
   after news from the front confirmed her prediction. She made the
   journey through hostile Burgundian territory in male disguise. Upon
   arriving at the royal court she impressed Charles VII during a private
   conference. He then ordered background inquiries and a theological
   examination at Poitiers to verify her morality. During this time
   Charles's mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon was financing a relief
   expedition to Orléans. Joan of Arc petitioned for permission to travel
   with the army and wear the equipment of a knight. She depended on
   donations for her armor, horse, sword, banner, and entourage. Historian
   Stephen W. Richey explains her attraction as the only source of hope
   for a regime that was near collapse:

          "After years of one humiliating defeat after another, both the
          military and civil leadership of France were demoralized and
          discredited. When the Dauphin Charles granted Joan’s urgent
          request to be equipped for war and placed at the head of his
          army, his decision must have been based in large part on the
          knowledge that every orthodox, every rational, option had been
          tried and had failed. Only a regime in the final straits of
          desperation would pay any heed to an illiterate farm girl who
          claimed that voices from God were instructing her to take charge
          of her country’s army and lead it to victory."

   "King of England, and you, duke of Bedford, who call yourself regent of
   the kingdom of France...settle your debt to the king of Heaven; return
   to the Maiden, who is envoy of the king of Heaven, the keys to all the
   good towns you took and violated in France."
   Joan of Arc, Letter to the English, March - April 1429; Quicherat I, p.
   240, trans. Wikipedia.

   Joan of Arc arrived at the siege of Orléans on 29 April 1429, but Jean
   d'Orléans, the acting head of the Orléans ducal family, initially
   excluded her from war councils and failed to inform her when the army
   engaged the enemy. This did not prevent her from being present at most
   councils and battles. The extent of her actual military leadership is a
   subject of historical debate. Traditional historians such as Edouard
   Perroy conclude that she was a standard bearer whose primary effect was
   on morale. This type of analysis usually relies on the condemnation
   trial testimony, where Joan of Arc stated that she preferred her
   standard to her sword. Recent scholarship that focuses on the
   rehabilitation trial testimony asserts that her fellow officers
   esteemed her as a skilled tactician and a successful strategist.
   Stephen W. Richey's opinion is one example: "She proceeded to lead the
   army in an astounding series of victories that reversed the tide of the
   war." In either case, historians agree that the army enjoyed remarkable
   success during her brief career.

Leadership

   The inner keep at Beaugency is one of the few surviving fortifications
   from Joan of Arc's battles. English defenders retreated to the tower at
   upper right after the French breached the town wall.
   Enlarge
   The inner keep at Beaugency is one of the few surviving fortifications
   from Joan of Arc's battles. English defenders retreated to the tower at
   upper right after the French breached the town wall.

   Joan of Arc defied the cautious strategy that had characterized French
   leadership. During the five months of siege before her arrival the
   defenders of Orléans had attempted only one aggressive move and that
   had ended in disaster. On 4 May the French attacked and captured the
   outlying fortress of Saint Loup, which she followed on 5 May with a
   march to a second fortress called Saint Jean le Blanc. Finding it
   deserted, this became a bloodless victory. The next day she opposed
   Jean d'Orleans at a war council where she demanded another assault on
   the enemy. D'Orleans ordered the city gates locked to prevent another
   battle, but Joan of Arc summoned the townsmen and common soldiers and
   forced the mayor to unlock a gate. With the aid of only one captain she
   rode out and captured the fortress of Saint Augustins. That evening she
   learned she had been excluded from a war council where the leaders had
   decided to wait for reinforcements before acting again. Disregarding
   this decision, she insisted on assaulting the main English stronghold
   called "les Tourelles" on 7 May. Contemporaries acknowledged her as the
   hero of the engagement after she pulled an arrow from her own shoulder
   and returned wounded to lead the final charge.
   "...the Maiden lets you know that here, in eight days, she has chased
   the English out of all the places they held on the river Loire by
   attack or other means: they are dead or prisoners or discouraged in
   battle. Believe what you have heard about the earl of Suffolk, the lord
   la Pole and his brother, the lord Talbot, the lord Scales, and Sir
   Fastolf; many more knights and captains than these are defeated."
   Joan of Arc, Letter to the citizens of Tournai, 25 June 1429; Quicherat
   V, pp. 125-126, trans. Wikipedia.

   The sudden victory at Orléans led to many proposals for offensive
   action. The English expected an attempt to recapture Paris or an attack
   on Normandy. In the aftermath of the unexpected victory, she persuaded
   Charles VII to grant her co-command of the army with Duke John II of
   Alençon and gained royal permission for her plan to recapture nearby
   bridges along the Loire as a prelude to an advance on Reims and a
   coronation. Hers was a bold proposal because Reims was roughly twice as
   far away as Paris and deep in enemy territory.
   Reims cathedral, traditional site of French coronations. The structure
   had additional spires prior to a 1481 fire.
   Enlarge
   Reims cathedral, traditional site of French coronations. The structure
   had additional spires prior to a 1481 fire.

   The army recovered Jargeau on 12 June, Meung-sur-Loire on 15 June, then
   Beaugency on 17 June. The Duke of Alençon agreed to all of Joan of
   Arc's decisions. Other commanders including Jean d'Orléans had been
   impressed with her performance at Orléans and became her supporters.
   Alençon credited Joan for saving his life at Jargeau, where she warned
   him of an imminent artillery attack. During the same battle she
   withstood a blow from a stone cannonball to her helmet as she climbed a
   scaling ladder. An expected English relief force arrived in the area on
   18 June under the command of Sir John Fastolf. The battle at Patay
   might be compared to Agincourt in reverse. The French vanguard attacked
   before the English archers could finish defensive preparations. A rout
   ensued that devastated the main body of the English army and killed or
   captured most of its commanders. Fastolf escaped with a small band of
   soldiers and became the scapegoat for the English humiliation. The
   French suffered minimal losses.

   The French army set out for Reims from Gien-sur-Loire on 29 June and
   accepted the conditional surrender of the Burgundian-held city of
   Auxerre on 3 July. Every other town in their path returned to French
   allegiance without resistance. Troyes, the site of the treaty that had
   tried to disinherit Charles VII, capitulated after a bloodless four-day
   siege. The army was in short supply of food by the time it reached
   Troyes. Edward Lucie-Smith cites this as an example of why Joan of Arc
   was more lucky than skilled: a wandering friar named Brother Richard
   had been preaching about the end of the world at Troyes and had
   convinced local residents to plant beans, a crop with an early harvest.
   The hungry army arrived as the beans ripened.
   "Prince of Burgundy, I pray of you - I beg and humbly supplicate - that
   you make no more war with the holy kingdom of France. Withdraw your
   people swiftly from certain places and fortresses of this holy kingdom,
   and on behalf of the gentle king of France I say he is ready to make
   peace with you, by his honour."
   Joan of Arc, Letter to Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, 17 July 1429;
   Quicherat V, pp. 126-127, trans. Wikipedia.

   Reims opened its gates on 16 July. The coronation took place the
   following morning. Although Joan and the duke of Alençon urged a prompt
   march on Paris, the royal court pursued a negotiated truce with the
   duke of Burgundy. Duke Philip the Good broke the agreement, using it as
   a stalling tactic to reinforce the defense of Paris. The French army
   marched through towns near Paris during the interim and accepted more
   peaceful surrenders. The Duke of Bedford headed an English force and
   confronted the French army in a standoff on 15 August. The French
   assault at Paris ensued on 8 September. Despite a crossbow bolt wound
   to the leg, Joan of Arc continued directing the troops until the day's
   fighting ended. The following morning she received a royal order to
   withdraw. Most historians blame French grand chamberlain Georges de la
   Trémoille for the political blunders that followed the coronation.

Capture

   The structure in Rouen where she was imprisoned during her trial has
   become known as the Joan of Arc tower. During one of her escape
   attempts she leaped from a different tower, probably of similar
   construction.
   Enlarge
   The structure in Rouen where she was imprisoned during her trial has
   become known as the Joan of Arc tower. During one of her escape
   attempts she leaped from a different tower, probably of similar
   construction.

   After minor action at La-Charité-sur-Loire in November and December,
   Joan went to Compiègne the following April to defend against an English
   and Burgundian siege. A skirmish on 23 May 1430 led to her capture.
   When she ordered a retreat she assumed the place of honour as the last
   to leave the field. Burgundians surrounded the rear guard.
   "It is true that the king has made a truce with the duke of Burgundy
   for fifteen days and that the duke is to turn over the city of Paris at
   the end of fifteen days. Yet you should not marvel if I do not enter
   that city so quickly. I am not content with these truces and do not
   know if I will keep them, but if I hold them it will only be to guard
   the king's honour: no matter how much they abuse the royal blood, I
   will keep and maintain the royal army in case they make no peace at the
   end of those fifteen days."
   Joan of Arc, Letter to the citizens of Reims, 5 August 1429; Quicherat
   I, p. 246, trans. Wikipedia.

   It was customary for a captive's family to ransom a prisoner of war.
   Joan of Arc and her family lacked the financial resources. Many
   historians condemn Charles VII for failing to intervene. She attempted
   several escapes, on one occasion leaping from a seventy foot tower to
   the soft earth of a dry moat. The English government eventually
   purchased her from Duke Philip of Burgundy. Bishop Pierre Cauchon of
   Beauvais, an English partisan, assumed a prominent role in these
   negotiations and her later trial.

Trial

   Joan of Arc's trial for heresy was politically motivated. The Duke of
   Bedford claimed the throne of France for his nephew Henry VI. She had
   been responsible for the rival coronation so to condemn her was to
   undermine her king's legitimacy. Legal proceedings commenced on 9
   January 1431 at Rouen, the seat of the English occupation government.
   The procedure was irregular on a number of points.
   The cardinal of Winchester interrogates Joan of Arc. (By Gillot
   Saint-Èvre, Louvre, Paris, 1835)
   Enlarge
   The cardinal of Winchester interrogates Joan of Arc. (By Gillot
   Saint-Èvre, Louvre, Paris, 1835)

   To summarize some major problems, the jurisdiction of judge Bishop
   Cauchon was a legal fiction. He owed his appointment to his partisan
   support of the English government that financed the entire trial.
   Clerical notary Nicolas Bailly, commissioned to collect testimony
   against Joan of Arc, could find no adverse evidence. Without such
   evidence the court lacked grounds to initiate a trial. Opening a trial
   anyway, the court also violated ecclesiastical law in denying her right
   to a legal advisor.

   The trial record demonstrates her remarkable intellect. The
   transcript's most famous exchange is an exercise in subtlety. "Asked if
   she knew she was in God's grace, she answered: 'If I am not, may God
   put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.'" The question is a
   scholarly trap. Church doctrine held that no one could be certain of
   being in God's grace. If she had answered yes, then she would have
   convicted herself of heresy. If she had answered no, then she would
   have confessed her own guilt. Notary Boisguillaume would later testify
   that at the moment the court heard this reply, "Those who were
   interrogating her were stupefied." In the twentieth century George
   Bernard Shaw would find this dialogue so compelling that sections of
   his play Saint Joan are literal translations of the trial record.

   Several court functionaries later testified that significant portions
   of the transcript were altered in her disfavor. Many clerics served
   under compulsion, including the inquisitor, Jean LeMaitre, and a few
   even received death threats from the English. Under Inquisitorial
   guidelines, Joan should have been confined to an ecclesiastical prison
   under the supervision of female guards (i.e., nuns). Instead, the
   English kept her in a secular prison guarded by their own soldiers.
   Bishop Cauchon denied Joan's appeals to the Council of Basel and the
   pope, which should have stopped his proceeding.

   The twelve articles of accusation that summarize the court's finding
   contradict the already doctored court record. The illiterate defendant
   signed an abjuration document she did not understand under threat of
   immediate execution. The court substituted a different abjuration in
   the official record.

Execution

   A modern church in Joan of Arc's honor stands on the site of her
   execution in Rouen.
   Enlarge
   A modern church in Joan of Arc's honour stands on the site of her
   execution in Rouen.

   Heresy was a capital crime only for a repeat offense. Joan agreed to
   wear women's clothes when she abjured. A few days later she was
   subjected to a sexual assault in prison that may have gone as far as
   attempted rape. She resumed male attire either as a defense against
   molestation or, in the testimony of Jean Massieu, because her dress had
   been stolen and she was left with nothing else to wear.

   Eyewitnesses described the scene of the execution on 30 May 1431. Tied
   to a tall pillar, she asked two of the clergy, Martin Ladvenu and
   Isambart de la Pierre, to hold a crucifix before her. She repeatedly
   called out "in a loud voice the holy name of Jesus, and implored and
   invoked without ceasing the aid of the saints of Paradise." After she
   expired, the English raked back the coals to expose her charred body so
   that no one could claim she had escaped alive, then burned the body
   twice more to reduce it to ashes and prevent any collection of relics.
   They cast her remains into the Seine. The executioner, Geoffroy
   Therage, later stated that he "...greatly feared to be damned for he
   had burned a holy woman."

Retrial

   A posthumous retrial opened as the war ended. Pope Callixtus III
   authorized this proceeding, now known as the "rehabilitation trial", at
   the request of Inquisitor-General Jean Brehal and Joan of Arc's mother
   Isabelle Romée. Investigations started with an inquest by clergyman
   Guillaume Bouille. Brehal conducted an investigation in 1452. A formal
   appeal followed in November 1455. The appellate process included clergy
   from throughout Europe and observed standard court procedure. A panel
   of theologians analyzed testimony from 115 witnesses. Brehal drew up
   his final summary in June 1456, which describes Joan as a martyr and
   implicates the late Pierre Cauchon with heresy for having convicted an
   innocent woman in pursuit of a secular vendetta. The court declared her
   innocence on 7 July 1456.

Clothing

   Joan of Arc at the coronation of Charles VII, by Jean Auguste Dominique
   Ingres (1854), is typical of attempts to feminize her appearance. Note
   the long hair and the skirt around the armor.
   Enlarge
   Joan of Arc at the coronation of Charles VII, by Jean Auguste Dominique
   Ingres (1854), is typical of attempts to feminize her appearance. Note
   the long hair and the skirt around the armor.

   Joan of Arc wore men's clothing between her departure from Vaucouleurs
   and her abjuration at Rouen. This raised theological questions in her
   own era and raised other questions in the twentieth century. The
   technical reason for her execution was a biblical clothing law. The
   rehabilitation trial reversed the conviction in part because the
   condemnation proceeding had failed to consider the doctrinal exceptions
   to that stricture.

   Doctrinally speaking, she was safe to disguise herself as a page during
   a journey through enemy territory and she was safe to wear armor during
   battle. The Chronique de la Pucelle states that it deterred molestation
   while she was camped in the field. Clergy who testified at her
   rehabilitation trial affirmed that she continued to wear male clothing
   in prison to deter molestation and rape. Preservation of chastity was
   another justifiable reason for crossdressing: her apparel would have
   slowed an assailant.

   She referred the court to the Poitiers inquiry when questioned on the
   matter during her condemnation trial. The Poitiers record no longer
   survives but circumstances indicate the Poitiers clerics approved her
   practice. In other words, she had a mission to do a man's work so it
   was fitting that she dress the part. She also kept her hair cut short
   through her military campaigns and while in prison. Her supporters,
   such as the theologian Jean Gerson, defended her hairstyle, as did
   Inquisitor Brehal during the Rehabilitation trial.

   According to Francoise Meltzer, "The depictions of Joan of Arc tell us
   about the assumptions and gender prejudices of each succeeding era, but
   they tell us nothing about Joan's looks in themselves. They can be
   read, then, as a semiology of gender: how each succeeding culture
   imagines the figure whose charismatic courage, combined with the
   blurring of gender roles, makes her difficult to depict."

Visions

   Jeanne d' Arc, by Eugene Thirion (1876). Late nineteenth century images
   such as this often had political undertones because of French
   territorial cessions to Germany in 1871. (Chautou, Church of Notre
   Dame)
   Enlarge
   Jeanne d' Arc, by Eugene Thirion (1876). Late nineteenth century images
   such as this often had political undertones because of French
   territorial cessions to Germany in 1871. (Chautou, Church of Notre
   Dame)

   Joan of Arc's religious visions have interested many people. The
   consensus among scholars is that her faith was sincere. She identified
   St. Margaret, St. Catherine, and St. Michael as the source of her
   revelations although there is some ambiguity as to which of several
   identically named saints she intended. Devout Roman Catholics regard
   her visions as divine inspiration.

   Analysis of Joan of Arc's visions is open to evidentiary challenge. The
   only detailed source of information on this topic is the condemnation
   trial transcript in which she defied customary courtroom procedure
   about a witness's oath and specifically excluded testimony about her
   visions from any guarantee of honesty. She complained that a standard
   witness oath would conflict with an oath she had previously sworn to
   maintain confidentiality about meetings with her king. It remains
   unknown to what extent the surviving record may represent the
   fabrications of corrupt court officials or her own possible
   fabrications to protect state secrets. Some historians sidestep
   speculation about the visions by asserting that Joan of Arc's belief in
   her calling is more relevant than questions about the visions' ultimate
   origin.

   Documents from Joan of Arc's own era and historians prior to the
   twentieth century generally assume that Joan of Arc was both healthy
   and sane. A number of more recent scholars attempted to explain Joan of
   Arc's visions in psychiatric or neurological terms. Potential diagnoses
   have included epilepsy, migraine, tuberculosis, and schizophrenia. None
   of the putative diagnoses have gained consensus support because,
   although hallucination and religious enthusiasm can be symptomatic of
   various syndromes, other characteristic symptoms conflict with other
   known facts of Joan of Arc's life. Two experts who analyze a temporal
   lobe tuberculoma hypothesis in the medical journal Neuropsychobiology
   express their misgivings this way: "It is difficult to draw final
   conclusions, but it would seem unlikely that widespread tuberculosis, a
   serious disease, was present in this 'patient' whose life-style and
   activities would surely have been impossible had such a serious disease
   been present." Historian Régine Pernoud was sometimes sarcastic about
   speculative medical interpretations. In response to another such theory
   alleging that Joan of Arc suffered from bovine tuberculosis as a result
   of drinking unpasteurized milk, Pernoud wrote that if drinking
   unpasteurized milk can produce such potential benefits for the nation,
   then the French government should stop mandating the pasteurization of
   milk. Ralph Hoffman, professor of psychology at Yale University, points
   out that visionary and creative states including "hearing voices" are
   not necessarily signs of mental illness and names Joan of Arc's
   religious inspiration as a possible exception although he offers no
   speculation as to alternative causes.

   Among the specific challenges that potential diagnoses such as
   schizophrenia face is the slim likelihood that any person with such a
   disorder could gain favour in the court of Charles VII. This king's own
   father, Charles VI, was popularly known as "Charles the Mad," and much
   of the political and military decline that France had suffered during
   his reign could be attributed to the power vacuum that his episodes of
   insanity had produced. The previous king had believed he was made of
   glass, a delusion no courtier had mistaken for a religious awakening.
   Fears that Charles VII would manifest the same insanity may have
   factored into the attempt to disinherit him at Troyes. This stigma was
   so persistent that contemporaries of the next generation would
   attribute inherited madness to the breakdown that England's King Henry
   VI was to suffer in 1453: Henry VI was nephew to Charles VII and
   grandson to Charles VI. Upon Joan of Arc's arrival at Chinon the royal
   counselor Jacques Gélu cautioned, "One should not lightly alter any
   policy because of conversation with a girl, a peasant... so susceptible
   to illusions; one should not make oneself ridiculous in the sight of
   foreign nations...." Contrary to modern stereotypes about the Middle
   Ages, the court of Charles VII was shrewd and skeptical on the subject
   of mental health.

   Besides the physical rigor of her military career, which would seem to
   exclude many medical hypotheses, Joan of Arc displayed none of the
   intellectual decline that normally accompanies major mental illnesses.
   Joan of Arc remained astute to the end of her life and rehabilitation
   trial testimony frequently marvels at her intelligence. "Often they
   [the judges] turned from one question to another, changing about, but,
   notwithstanding this, she answered prudently, and evinced a wonderful
   memory." Her subtle replies under interrogation even forced the court
   to stop holding public sessions. If Joan of Arc's visions had some
   medical or psychiatric origin then she would have been an exceptional
   case.

Legacy

   Joan of Arc changed the fortunes of King Charles VII. By the end of his
   reign he had regained every English possession in France except for
   Calais and the Channel Islands. (Portrait by Jean Fouquet, tempera on
   wood, Louvre Museum, Paris, c. 1445)
   Enlarge
   Joan of Arc changed the fortunes of King Charles VII. By the end of his
   reign he had regained every English possession in France except for
   Calais and the Channel Islands. (Portrait by Jean Fouquet, tempera on
   wood, Louvre Museum, Paris, c. 1445)

   The Hundred Years' War continued for 22 years after Joan of Arc's
   death. Charles VII succeeded in retaining legitimacy as king of France
   in spite of a rival coronation held for Henry VI in December 1431 on
   the boy's tenth birthday. Before England could rebuild its military
   leadership and longbow corps lost during 1429, the country lost its
   alliance with Burgundy at the Treaty of Arras in 1435. The duke of
   Bedford died the same year and Henry VI became the youngest king of
   England to rule without a regent. That treaty and his weak leadership
   were probably the most important factors in ending the conflict. Kelly
   DeVries argues that Joan of Arc's aggressive use of artillery and
   frontal assaults influenced French tactics for the rest of the war.

   Joan of Arc became a semi-legendary figure for the next four centuries.
   The main sources of information about her were chronicles. Five
   original manuscripts of her condemnation trial surfaced in old archives
   during the nineteenth century. Soon historians also located the
   complete records of her rehabilitation trial, which contained sworn
   testimony from 115 witnesses, and the original French notes for the
   Latin condemnation trial transcript. Various contemporary letters also
   emerged, three of which carry the signature "Jehanne" in the unsteady
   hand of a person learning to write. This unusual wealth of primary
   source material is one reason DeVries declares, "No person of the
   Middle Ages, male or female, has been the subject of more study than
   Joan of Arc.
   Joan of Arc dictated her letters. Three of the surviving ones are
   signed.
   Enlarge
   Joan of Arc dictated her letters. Three of the surviving ones are
   signed.

   She came from an obscure village and rose to prominence when she was
   barely more than a child and she did so as an uneducated peasant.
   French and English kings had justified the ongoing war through
   competing interpretations of the thousand-year-old Salic law. The
   conflict had been an inheritance feud between monarchs. Joan of Arc
   gave meaning to appeals such as that of squire Jean de Metz when he
   asked, "Must the king be driven from the kingdom; and are we to be
   English?" In the words of Stephen Richey, "She turned what had been a
   dry dynastic squabble that left the common people unmoved except for
   their own suffering into a passionately popular war of national
   liberation." Richey also expresses the breadth of her subsequent
   appeal:

          The people who came after her in the five centuries since her
          death tried to make everything of her: demonic fanatic,
          spiritual mystic, naive and tragically ill-used tool of the
          powerful, creator and icon of modern popular nationalism, adored
          heroine, saint. She insisted, even when threatened with torture
          and faced with death by fire, that she was guided by voices from
          God. Voices or no voices, her achievements leave anyone who
          knows her story shaking his head in amazed wonder.

   In 1452, during the postwar investigation into her execution, the
   Church declared that a religious play in her honour at Orléans would
   qualify as a pilgrimage meriting an indulgence. Joan of Arc became a
   symbol of the Catholic League during the 16th century. Félix Dupanloup,
   bishop of Orléans from 1849 to 1878, led the effort for Joan's eventual
   beatification in 1909. Her canonization followed on 16 May 1920. Her
   feast day is 30 May. She has become one of the most popular saints of
   the Roman Catholic Church.

   Joan of Arc was not a feminist. She operated within a religious
   tradition that believed an exceptional person from any level of society
   might receive a divine calling. She expelled women from the French army
   and may have struck one stubborn camp follower with the flat of a
   sword. Nonetheless, some of her most significant aid came from women.
   Charles VII's mother-in-law, Yolande of Aragon, confirmed Joan's
   virginity and financed her departure to Orléans. Joan of Luxembourg,
   aunt to the count of Luxembourg who held Joan of Arc after Compiègne,
   alleviated Joan of Arc's conditions of captivity and may have delayed
   her sale to the English. Finally, Anne of Burgundy, the duchess of
   Bedford and wife to the regent of England, declared Joan a virgin
   during pretrial inquiries. For technical reasons this prevented the
   court from charging Joan with witchcraft. Ultimately this provided part
   of the basis for Joan's vindication and sainthood. From Christine de
   Pizan to the present, women have looked to Joan of Arc as a positive
   example of a brave and active female.
   Flag of Charles de Gaulle's government in exile during World War II.
   The French Resistance used the cross of Lorraine as a symbolic
   reference to Joan of Arc.
   Enlarge
   Flag of Charles de Gaulle's government in exile during World War II.
   The French Resistance used the cross of Lorraine as a symbolic
   reference to Joan of Arc.

   Joan of Arc has been a political symbol in France since the time of
   Napoleon. Liberals emphasized her humble origins. Early conservatives
   stressed her support of the monarchy. Later conservatives recalled her
   nationalism. During World War II, both the Vichy Regime and the French
   Resistance used her image: Vichy propaganda remembered her campaign
   against the English with posters that showed British warplanes bombing
   Rouen and the ominous caption: "They Always Return to the Scene of
   Their Crimes." The resistance emphasized her fight against foreign
   occupation and her origins in the province of Lorraine, which had
   fallen under Nazi control. Traditional Catholics, especially in France,
   also use her as a symbol of inspiration, often comparing the 1988
   excommunication of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (founder of the Society
   of St. Pius X and a dissident against the Vatican II reforms) to Joan
   of Arc's excommunication. Three separate vessels of the French Navy
   have been named after Joan of Arc, including a helicopter carrier
   currently in active service. At present the controversial French
   political party Front National holds rallies at her statues, reproduces
   her likeness in party publications, and uses a tricolor flame partly
   symbolic of her martyrdom as its emblem. This party's opponents
   sometimes satirize its appropriation of her image. The French civic
   holiday in her honour is the second Sunday of May.

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