Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc was born to Jacques d’Arc and Isabelle Romée at Domrémy in the Vosges of northeast France. She is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years’ War. Joan claimed to have received visions of the archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria instructing her to support Charles VII. Her death in 1431 led to her being declared a martyr by Pope Callixtus III, who beatified her in 1909 and canonized her as a Catholic saint in 1920.

About Joan of Arc in brief

Summary Joan of ArcJoan of Arc was born to Jacques d’Arc and Isabelle Romée at Domrémy in the Vosges of northeast France. She is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years’ War. Joan claimed to have received visions of the archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria instructing her to support Charles VII. She was burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, dying at about nineteen years of age. In 1803 she was declared a national symbol of France by the decision of Napoleon Bonaparte. Joan of Arc is one of the nine secondary patron saints of France, along with Saint Denis, Saint Martin of Tours, Saint Louis, Saint Michael,Saint Rémi, Saint Petronilla, Saint Radegund and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Her death in 1431 led to her being declared a martyr by Pope Callixtus III, who beatified her in 1909 and canonized her as a Catholic saint in 1920. She has remained a popular figure in literature, painting, sculpture, and other cultural works since the time of her death, and many famous writers, playwrights, filmmakers, artists, and composers have created, and continue to create, cultural depictions of her. Her life story is told in the novel The Maid of Orléans by Jean-Baptiste Lamarque and in the film The Maid, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jean-Yves Le Bois, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The novel is based on the life of Joan, who was captured by the English at Compiègne on 23 May 1430 and put on trial by the pro-English bishop Pierre Cauchon on a variety of charges. In 1456, an inquisitorial court examined the trial, debunked the charges against her, pronounced her innocent, and declared her a martyr. Joan’s death led to the French victory at Castillon in 1453, paving the way for Charles VII’s consecration at Reims in 1455. The French king had not regained its former size since the Black Death of the mid-14th century, and its merchants were isolated from foreign markets. The English had nearly achieved their goal of a dual monarchy under English control and the French army had not achieved any major victories for a generation. The Hundred Years’s War had begun in 1337 as an inheritance dispute over the French throne, interspersed with occasional periods of relative peace. The conflict climaxed with the assassination of the Duke ofOrléans in 1407 on the orders of theuke of Burgundy. The young Charles of Orlemans succeeded his father as duke and was placed in the custody of his father-in-law, the Count of Armagnac. The future king assumed the title of Dauphin—the heir to the throne—at the age of 14, after all four of his older brothers had died.