JOAN OF ARC By Alicia Smith MIDDLE AGES JOAN OF ARC By Alicia Smith

Family & Childhood Joan was the daughter of Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée. 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.

Family & Childhood As the daughter of a farmer, she grew up herding cattle and sheep, and helping in the fields during the harvest. She did not go to school and never learned to read or to write. Like most peasants in her time, Joan was religious and spent much time praying to the statues of saints that stood around the church in her village.

100 years war This series of wars was brought about, in part, by the opposing claims to the French throne that were pursued by king Henry VI of England and Charles, the son of the late Valois king of France, Charles VI. Henry, aided by the Duke of Burgundy, who’s father [John the Fearless] had been assassinated in 1419 by the minions of Charles, led an English army bent on the conquest of France.

100 years war By 1427, five years after his Father’s death, Charles had still not been crowned king.  This fact caused a large number of Frenchmen to be cynical about his cause. Reims, the ancient place for crowning French kings, was in the hands of the English and Charles’ treasury was in dire straights.

Her Religious Visions By the age of 13 she was having religious visions and was hearing what she believed to be the voices of saints.  Initially, she kept these experiences to herself. The Voice came to her towards noon. It was summer time; she was in her father's garden. She heard the Voice on her right, and afterwards she seldom heard it without a light which came from the same side and was usually very brilliant. After she had heard the Voice three times, she understood it came from God and knew it was Michael the Archangel, the protector of France, who came to her and with him the hosts of heaven.

Her Religious Visions The Voice admonished her "to govern herself well and to go to church often", and from the beginning she was told that she must "go to France". But, when St. Catherine and St. Margaret told her that God had chosen her to help Charles VII to drive the English out of France, she told her parents about the visions.  Her father refused to let her go to Charles.

Going to see the King (Dauphin) In 1428, Joan’s visions continued, and her friends [who believed she was really divinely inspired] obtained a horse and boy’s clothing for her and accompanied her to the military commander at Vaucouleurs, Robert de Baudricourt.  Baudricourt did not take her seriously and she returned home. In January, 1429, Joan again went to Vaucoulers where this time she was able to gain the confidence of Capitan Baudricourt.  He provided her with an escort of six men at arms to take her to the king at Chinon in the Loire Valley.  She left Vaucoulers, for Chinon on about February 13, dressed as a man.  She, and her escort, traveled 11 days, across enemy held land, before reaching the Dauphin. the Dauphin decided to test her and had one of his courtiers pretend to be king. However, Joan [who had never seen Charles] ignored the courtier and went directly to Charles. After months of questioning Joan, and because the position of Charles VII was so desperate, he was willing to listen to her. Because Charles’ religious advisors believed Jeanne, Charles gave her a suit of white armor, a banner and the supposed command of troops. The banner Charles had made for her, to carry into battle, had a figure of the Virgin with a shield and two angels supporting the arms of France on one side.

Going to war 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 she 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 heroine of the engagement after she sustained an arrow wound to her neck but returned wounded to lead the final charge.

Capture by English 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 reckless skirmish on 23 May 1430 led to her being captured. When she ordered a retreat, she assumed the place of honor as the last to leave the field. Burgundians surrounded the rear guard, she was unhorsed by an archer and initially refused to surrender. She was captured at Compiègne by the Burgundians and was imprisoned at Beaurevoir [which is between Cambrai and St. Quentin in the present day département of Aisne in the region of Picardy]. The Burgundians, under John of Luxembourg, latter sold her, for 10000 Francs, to the English. Charles VII made absolutely no effort to rescue or ransom her. She was tried by the English for witchcraft and heresy and was condemned to death by a tribunal of French clergy, headed by the bishop of Beauvais, who were sympathetic to the English. On January 3, 1431, she was handed over to the bishop and on February 21 her trial began.  Although in chains, and under constant threat of torture, Joan continued to maintain her innocence over the many months of the trial.  Finally, faced with being burned at the stake, Joan did recant and confess her ‘guilt’.  The tribunal then commuted her sentence to life in prison.  However, this enraged the English, who turned her over to the civil authorities to be burned. 

Death Sentence 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 sexually assaulted in prison. 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 by burning on 30 May 1431. 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.