Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc (ca. 1412 – 30 May 1431) was a French peasant girl who, while still a teenager, and in obedience to what she asserted to be a command from God, led her nation's armies to several spectacular military victories which turned the tide in the Hundred Years' War at a time when the French cause was tottering on the brink of collapse. Soon thereafter, she was captured and tried by an English-backed Church court which convicted her of heresy and had her burnt at the stake.

Still later, after the Hundred Years' War was over, she was posthumously exonerated by a Papal commission which not only reversed the verdict, but denied the legality of the original trial. As a result of her life and deeds, she became a French national heroine and, in 1920, was canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

Background

Since 1337, the French and English had been locked in a protracted war, punctuated by intermittent periods of tense peace, known to history as the Hundred Years' War. The fighting had left the French economy devastated and the French themselves divided into factions known as the Armagnacs and the Burgundians.

In 1420, the Burgundians and the English entered into the Treaty of Troyes, in which Charles VII, the heir to the French throne, was disinherited and the French royal succession was granted to King Henry V of England's heir. In 1422, Henry V died leaving an infant son as heir to both the English and French thrones.

In the Fall of 1428, the English who, with their Burgundian allies, already controlled nearly all of northern France and some parts of the southwest, laid seige to Orléans, the only remaining loyal French city north of the Loire. The fall of Orléans was imminently expected, removing the last obstacle to an assault on the remaining French heartland. This was the situation when Joan of Arc first stepped onto the stage of world history.

Life

Childhood

Joan of Arc was one of five children (3 brothers and 2 sisters) born to Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée in Domrémy, then a small village on the banks of the River Meuse in northeastern France. The village, which remained loyal to the French crown, was in an area of patchwork loyalties surrounded by Burgundian lands. Several local raids occurred during Joan of Arc's childhood and on one occasion her village was burned.

Her parents were prosperous peasants who 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.

Joan herself had an outwardly normal, unremarkable childhood. She experienced a religious upbringing from her devout mother and was noted for being of a good nature, simple and pious. She spent her time engaged in typical activities for girls of that time and place - spinning, weaving, and tending or watching over the animals.

One other noteworthy event from Joan's childhood occured when she was hailed to Toul to answer a breach of promise case in re marriage. The judge dismissed the case against her, ruling that Joan had in fact not made such a promise. The outcome of this case disappointed her parents who would have preferred to see her married. But Joan was acting in obedience to a higher calling.

Divine calling

According to Joan's testimony at her Trial in Rouen, sometime in the Summer of her thirteenth year (which would be in 1424 or possibly 1425), an event occured which was to be the harbinger of one of the most remarkable sequence of events in recorded history. For it was then that Joan, in her father's garden, first heard the voices which set in motion her subsequent journey and activity and which later figured so prominently in the minds of her contemporaries and also of modern students of history.

Initially frightened by the experience, she soon learned to her satisfaction that the voice was that of an angel and had been sent to her from God. Before long, she had identified that voice as that of St. Michael who told Joan that she should expect further visits from St. Catherine, and St. Margaret and that they would provide her with guidance and counsel.

By 1428, this guidance and counsel had coalesced to, among other matters concerned with good character and the like, telling her to go the the King's court to, in her words, "raise the siege of Orléans and lead the Dauphin to Reims to be crowned and annointed".

The Road to Orleans

Before going to the King's court at Chinon, Joan, at the behest of her voices, had to first to go to Vaucouleurs in order to gain an escort from the captain of that garrison town, Robert de Baudricourt. So in the Spring of 1428, she left Domremy in secret, accompanied by a kinsman, Durand Lassois, for Vaucouleurs. Her petition to Sir Robert was rebuffed and she returned to Domremy.

She returned the following January and gained support from two men of standing: Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy. Under their auspices she was granted a second interview with Baudricourt at which time she gained his support. Several days later, Joan left Vaucouleurs with an escort of 6 men for Chinon to meet with the Dauphin.

Travelling much of the time at night and in male attire to avoid detection, Joan arrived at the King's castle in Chinon in early March of 1429.

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.

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.

Military successes

Joan's position in the French forces at Orléans was viewed with mixed feelings by her fellow commanders. Many regarded her very lightly, others were hostile. In the week following her arrival at Orleans, a number of heated discussions took place regarding military plans and tactics with Joan always opting for a very aggressive military approach in contrast to previous French tactics.

Following some preliminary engagements wherein some of the smaller English fortifications were captured, a French force led by Joan assaulted and captured the English position in front of the stronghold of Les Tourelles, leaving the English garrison in the Tourelles isolated.

In opposition to the other military commanders who wanted to wait for reinforcements before undertaking further action, Joan prepared for a direct assault on the fortress the next day (May 7). After an entire day of fighting, with the assault having to be renewed in the evening, the fortresss was taken with all its defenders either killed or captured. The following day, the English forces in the remaining forts abandoned the field and the siege of Orléans was over.

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.

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.

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

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 honor as the last to leave the field. Burgundians surrounded the rear guard.

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 and execution

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.

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.

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.

Aftermath

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 also 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.

Modern perspectives

Clothing

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."

Legacy

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 and Honegger. Depictions of her continue in film, television, and song.

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.

In 1452, during the postwar investigation into her execution, the Church declared that a religious play in her honor 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.

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 honor is the second Sunday of May.

Further reading

• Kelly DeVries, Joan of Arc: a Military Leader. Sutton Publishing Ltd, Great Britain, 1999. ISBN 0-7509-1805-5.
• Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc, edited by Bonnie Wheeler and Charles T. Wood. Garland Publishing, Inc, New York and London, 1996. ISBN 0-8153-3664-0.
• Régine Pernoud, Joan of Arc, by Herself and Her Witnesses. Scarborough House, Lanham, MD, 1994. ISBN 0-8128-1260-3.
• Régine Pernoud and Marie Veronique-Clin, Joan of Arc: Her Story (revised and translated by Jeremy Duquesnay Adams and edited by Bonnie Wheeler). St. Martins Press, New York, 1998. ISBN 0-312-21442-1.
• Stephen Richey, Joan of Arc: the Warrior Saint. Praeger Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0275981037.
• Marina Warner, Joan of Arc, the Image of Female Heroism. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1981. ISBN 0-520-22464-7.

See also

• Joan of Arc's voices
• Cultural depictions of Joan of Arc
• Joan of Arc bibliography
• Joan of Arc facts and trivia
• Canonization of Joan of Arc

Internet resources

• The text of the condemnation trial
• International Joan of Arc Society (Bonnie Wheeler, Director)
• Catholic Encyclopedia entry for St. Joan of Arc.
• The Jeanne d'Arc Centre biography and research.
• Jeanne-darc.dk Various materials including a complete English translation of the rehabilitation trial transcript.
• Joan of Arc Archive by Allen Williamson. Includes a biography, translations, and other original research.
• Joan of Arc in the First World War by B.J. Omanson, covers interest in Joan of Arc during the First World War.
• Joan of Arc Museum in Rouen, France.
• Journal of Joan of Arc Studies Academic journal.
• St. Joan of Arc Center of Albuquerque, New Mexico, maintained by Virginia Frohlick.