Also known as the Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc led a short, but remarkable life. Though born in humble circumstances, Joan was compelled by religious calling assume a unique role in history. During the later stages of the Hundred Years War, Joan led a French army against the English who were holding the city of Orleans under siege. Her astounding military success and support of Charles VII’s claim to the thrown led to his coronation in 1429. Joan was later captured by Burgundian forces on the battlefield and sold to the British; the British executed her for heresy in Rouen in 1431.
Joan was born around the year 1412 to Jacques d’Arc and his wife Isabelle Romee in the village of Domremy located in northeastern France. Her parents possessed fifty acres of land and Joan helped them by tending to the care of animals and the household. At the age of twelve, Joan experienced her first vision; while out in a field she said she was visited by three saints who told her to drive the English from France and deliver the dauphin to be crowned in Rheims.
Over the next few years, Joan received other saintly and angelic visions. At age sixteen, she persuaded a family member to take her to meet the garrison commander of Vaucouleurs. He sent her away, but she returned months later. While there, she made an amazing prediction about a military reversal near the front. When her prediction came to pass, she was granted an escort to the court of the dauphin, Charles VII. Her visions, predictions, and manner so impressed Charles that he made her a captain and sent her to Orleans.
Joan famously dressed in military fashion and adopted more aggressive tactics than the French had been used to during their last century of warfare. In short, the French were victorious at Orleans and Joan eventually escorted Charles VII to his coronation. In 1430, however, Joan was captured on her way to help defend the city of Compiegne by Burgundian forces. The Burgundians turned her over to the English. The English accused her of heresy and her trial began in 1430. She was condemned and sentenced to death. In 1431, at the age of nineteen, she was burned at the stake.
Joan of Arc was instrumental to the French during the last segment of the Hundred Years War. After her death, Joan’s mother and the Inquisitor General requested a posthumous retrial at which Joan was declared innocent. In 1920, the Roman Catholic Church declared Joan a saint. She remains one of the most famous women of history.