Saint Joan of Arc (1412–1431), also known as the Maid of Orleans, is a national heroine in France. Her feast day, 30th May, is a French national holiday. Joan of Arc was a peasant girl who inspired the French army to win a great victory against the English at Orleans, in 1429, during the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453). She was later captured by the English, and eventually burned to death at the stake for heresy (breaking religious law). She was not yet 20 years old. In 1920, centuries after her death, Joan was made a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. She has inspired writers, artists and composers down the centuries, and remains one of the most popular of all the Catholic saints today.

Wars and disputes

Joan (Jeanne in French) was born in 1412 in a small village called Domrémy, on the border of eastern France. At that time there was a long-running series of disputes between the French and the English over the French crown. The fighting had been going on from time to time since around 1337, and is now known as the Hundred Years' War. As young Joan was growing up, the situation was complicated by internal disputes within France. The French king Charles VI was often unable to rule because of his bouts of insanity.

English invasion

In 1415, the English king Henry V took advantage of the chaos in France to invade and defeat the French army at Agincourt. Burgundy entered into an alliance with the English, and together they conquered large parts of northern France. In 1420, Charles VI’s wife Isabeau signed a treaty (agreement) that made the English king Henry V heir to the French throne, and disinherited her own son, the dauphin. Both Charles VI and Henry V died in 1422. The dauphin attempted to assert his right to the French throne and be crowned Charles VII, but Reims, where French monarchs were traditionally crowned, was in the hands of his enemies, the Burgundians and the English. Charles was forced to move his court south
to Chinon.

Visions

The village where Joan was brought up remained loyal to Charles, despite being firmly in Burgundian territory. In around 1424, Joan began to experience visions. She identified her visions as St Michael, St Catherine and St Margaret, and they told her to go to the dauphin. Guided by their voices, Joan went to Vaucouleurs, the nearest town that was loyal to the dauphin, to ask the captain of the garrison there to take her to Charles. Eventually, she managed to convince him to allow her to make the dangerous journey across enemy territory to the dauphin’s court in Chinon in 1429.

The siege of Orléans

After several weeks of questioning, Charles finally agreed to allow Joan to lead a campaign to free Orléans, which was then under siege by English troops. Joan became the symbolic leader of the French army—an inspiring presence for the troops. Joan’s forces started to attack the English, who had almost completely surrounded Orléans. Eventually the English began to retreat. Joan herself was wounded by an arrow in the battle but returned to the fight to encourage her troops. Her determination paid off when the siege of Orléans was broken on 8th May 1429.

To Reims

Joan now urged Charles to march on to Reims, still deep within enemy territory, for his coronation. Along the way, the dauphin’s forces fought the English, before the decisive battle at Patay, on 18th June, where the English suffered a devastating defeat. Despite delays and indecision on the part of the dauphin, the royal army finally entered Reims on 16th July, and Charles was crowned king the following day. Despite these victories, Charles VII did not have control of all of his kingdom, much of which still lay in the hands of the English and the Duke of Burgundy. Joan was convinced of the need to take the city of Paris, but Charles ordered a retreat to the Loire Valley, where he disbanded his army for the winter.

Capture

In spring 1430, forces of the Duke of Burgundy began once again to attack towns that had been taken in the previous year by Charles. Joan took some troops with her to one of these towns, Compiègne, to help the townspeople. Here she fell from her horse during a retreat and was unable to remount. She was captured and taken to the Duke of Burgundy, who imprisoned her.

Joan tried several times to escape from captivity in the Duke of Burgundy’s castles. Eventually she succeeded in jumping from a tall tower and landed in the soft earth of the moat below. But she was recaptured and sold to the English as a prisoner. The English put her on trial as a heretic—someone whose beliefs did not fit in with the accepted beliefs of the day. They were suspicious of her visions, and her claim to speak directly to God through the voices she heard. By charging Joan with heresy, the English hoped to undermine the claim of Charles VII to the French throne.

Death of Joan

Joan’s trial took place in Rouen, where the chief inquisitor was the Bishop of Beauvais, a supporter of the English. Joan was held in terrible conditions, threatened and questioned relentlessly. Finally she was sentenced to death. On 30th May 1431, at the age of 19, she was burned at the stake as a heretic.

Around 20 years later, Charles VII ordered an enquiry into Joan’s trial. In 1456, a Church court decided that Joan had been convicted illegally, and declared her innocent.