Who Was Joan of Arc?

Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d’Arc) was born around January 6, 1412, in the small village of Domrémy, on the border between the Duchy of Bar and the Kingdom of France. She died on May 30, 1431, in Rouen.

She was a peasant girl, later a military commander, later a condemned heretic, and finally a saint. Today she is a patron saint of France and one of the most studied women in medieval history.

Her life is exceptionally well-documented for a medieval peasant because both her condemnation trial and her rehabilitation trial left extensive transcripts.

Early Life

Joan was the youngest of five children in a relatively prosperous peasant family. Her father, Jacques d’Arc, held the position of village dean, a local official responsible for collecting taxes and organizing defense.

Domrémy was vulnerable. During the Hundred Years’ War, villages could change hands quickly. Joan’s village was loyal to the Armagnac faction supporting Charles VII, surrounded by Burgundian territory. Villagers, including Joan’s family, had to abandon their homes at least once under threat of raids.

She was not taught to read or write, which was typical. Her mother, Isabelle Romée, a deeply pious woman, taught her prayers and the Catholic faith. Contemporary testimony describes Joan as hardworking, skilled in sewing, and known for her piety and charity.

France During the Hundred Years’ War

To understand Joan, you must understand the war. The Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) was a long struggle between England and France over the French throne.

By 1420, France was shattered. King Charles VI, who suffered periods of insanity, disinherited his own son under the Treaty of Troyes. The treaty recognized King Henry V of England as heir to France and regent. When both Henry V and Charles VI died in 1422, the infant Henry VI of England was proclaimed king of both realms.

The Dauphin, Charles, the disinherited son, controlled only a small territory around Bourges. Many called him the “King of Bourges.” His claim was dismissed by many as illegitimate. English forces under John, Duke of Bedford, held Paris and northern France with Burgundian support.

The Visions That Changed Her Life

According to her own testimony during her trial, Joan began hearing voices at age 13, around 1425. She said the voices came from St. Michael the Archangel, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. Margaret of Antioch.

It is important to distinguish three layers here:

• Joan’s testimony: She stated the voices were sent by God to guide her to save France and see Charles crowned.
• Contemporary belief: In medieval France, divine visions and mystical experiences were widely accepted as possible.
• Modern interpretations: Historians continue to debate. Some scholars focus on the religious context; others have proposed medical or psychological explanations. There is limited historical evidence to definitively prove any single modern diagnosis, and the Catholic Church considers her experiences as part of her sanctity.

By 1428, she said the voices became insistent: she must go to the Dauphin and expel the English. She also took a private vow of chastity.

Meeting Charles VII

In May 1428, Joan asked her relative Robert de Baudricourt, commander of the nearby fortress of Vaucouleurs, to take her to Charles. He refused and mocked her. She persisted.

On her second attempt in January 1429, after a prophecy about a maid from Lorraine circulated, Baudricourt relented. He gave her an escort and a horse. She cut her hair, dressed in men’s riding clothes for practicality and safety, and made an 11-day journey through enemy territory to Chinon, where Charles was residing.

Charles was cautious. He had advisors question her and had her examined by clergy at Poitiers and by women who confirmed her virginity. According to surviving accounts, she impressed him in a private audience, reportedly revealing information she could not have known — though details of that conversation remain unknown.

Convinced of her orthodoxy and sincerity, Charles gave her a place in a relief army being sent to Orléans. She was about 17 years old.

The Siege of Orléans

Orléans was the key. The city on the Loire River had been besieged by the English since October 12, 1428. If it fell, the English would have a gateway to southern France and Charles’s cause would likely collapse.

The English had not fully encircled the city but had built a ring of fortified outposts called bastilles that blocked supplies. The defenders were exhausted after seven months.

Joan arrived on April 29, 1429, entering from the eastern side with a convoy of supplies while French feints distracted the English on the west. Her arrival itself boosted morale. The citizens and soldiers saw it as fulfillment of prophecy.

How a 17-Year-Old Led an Army

Joan held no formal military rank. Her role was unique. According to commanders like Jean d’Alençon and Jean de Dunois, the Bastard of Orléans, she did not devise complex tactics but provided strategic clarity and moral force.

She urged aggressive action where commanders favored caution. She carried her own banner, which bore the words “Jesus Maria” and images of God and angels, and insisted on leading assaults rather than directing from the rear.

On May 4, the French took the bastille of Saint-Loup. On May 6-7, they assaulted Les Augustins and Les Tourelles. Joan was wounded by an arrow between the neck and shoulder on May 7 but returned to the fight after dressing the wound.

“In all she did, except in affairs of war, she was a very simple young girl; but for warlike things bearing the lance, assembling an army, ordering military operations, directing artillery, she was most skillful.” — Jean, Duke of Alençon, comrade-in-arms, testimony at rehabilitation trial

On May 8, 1429, the English, demoralized and short of supplies, abandoned the siege. They had held it for seven months. Joan had broken it in nine days.

Military Leadership and Strategy

After Orléans, Joan pushed for rapid advance. Over the next five weeks, the French Loire Campaign achieved stunning successes: Jargeau (June 12), Meung-sur-Loire (June 15), and Patay (June 18), where English commander Sir John Talbot was captured.

Her strategy was simple and effective: maintain momentum, attack aggressively, and use artillery innovatively. Modern historians note that her greatest impact may have been psychological — she shattered the myth of English invincibility that had persisted since Agincourt in 1415.

Her story is often compared to other historical figures who used symbolism to mobilize people, which you can explore further in our feature on how insult became symbol in modern movements.

Coronation of Charles VII

Joan insisted Charles must be crowned at Reims, the traditional site of French coronations, deep in enemy territory. The march was a political masterstroke — a coronation would legitimize his claim.

The Loire victories cleared the way. The city of Reims surrendered without a fight. On July 17, 1429, Charles VII was crowned in Reims Cathedral, with Joan standing beside him holding her banner.

Capture by the Burgundians

After the coronation, Charles’s political caution returned. He pursued truces. Joan wanted to press on to Paris, which failed in September 1429.

On May 23, 1430, while defending Compiègne against a Burgundian siege, Joan was pulled from her horse outside the town gates and captured by Burgundian forces under John of Luxembourg.

The Burgundians, allied with England, sold her to the English for 10,000 livres tournois — a huge sum at the time, roughly equivalent to the price of hundreds of warhorses.

The Trial

Joan was taken to Rouen, the administrative capital of English France. She was tried not by a secular court, but by an ecclesiastical court led by Bishop Pierre Cauchon, a supporter of the English cause.

The Trial of Condemnation ran from January 9 to May 29, 1431. It was politically motivated: if Joan was proven a heretic, Charles VII’s coronation could be discredited as achieved through a witch.

She was imprisoned not in a Church prison with female attendants, as was customary, but in the English military castle of Rouen under the guard of English soldiers. She was kept in irons.

Charges included heresy, witchcraft, and cross-dressing. Joan defended her male clothing as practical for riding, fighting, and protecting her modesty in a male prison. She defended her visions with remarkable composure and intelligence, despite being questioned for months by dozens of theologians from the University of Paris.

Execution at Rouen

On May 24, 1431, under threat of immediate execution, Joan signed an abjuration — a document renouncing her visions. She was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Days later, she resumed wearing men’s clothing, stating her voices had told her she had erred in abjuring. For the court, this made her a relapsed heretic.

On May 30, 1431, at about 19 years old, Joan was handed to secular authorities and burned at the stake in the marketplace of Rouen. Her ashes were cast into the Seine River.

Why Was Joan of Arc Burned at the Stake?

Officially, she was executed for heresy and for relapsing after abjuration. The specific theological issue was her insistence that her visions came from God and that she was subject to God before the Church on earth.

Politically, historians agree the English needed to discredit her military victories and delegitimize Charles VII. As noted by Encyclopaedia Britannica, the trial was deeply flawed and conducted by judges with clear conflicts of interest, many on the English payroll.

Rehabilitation Trial

After the English were expelled from France, Charles VII, now secure, requested a re-examination. In 1455, Pope Callixtus III authorized a new investigation led by Jean Bréhal, Inquisitor General of France.

The Rehabilitation Trial in 1456 interviewed over 100 witnesses who had known Joan. It concluded the original trial was corrupt, politically motivated, and had violated Church law. It noted judges were threatened, records tampered with, and Joan’s appeal to the Pope ignored.

On July 7, 1456, her conviction was annulled. She was declared innocent and a martyr.

Canonization as a Saint

Joan remained a folk saint for centuries. Following the French Revolution, her legacy was revived by Napoleon as a symbol of French patriotism.

In 1869, Bishop Félix Dupanloup of Orléans petitioned for formal canonization. She was beatified on April 18, 1909, by Pope Pius X and canonized on May 16, 1920, by Pope Benedict XV in St. Peter’s Basilica. Over 30,000 people attended, including 140 descendants of her family, according to Vatican records.

Her feast day is May 30.

Joan of Arc’s Legacy

Joan’s legacy is multifaceted. In France, she is a national heroine who helped create a sense of French identity. Militarily, she is studied for morale and momentum. Religiously, she is venerated as a mystic who obeyed what she believed was divine will.

She is also an early example of a woman exercising military command in medieval Europe, though her authority rested on charisma and perceived divine favor, not feudal right.

For those interested in how historians reconstruct ancient figures, our article on Herodotus and the birth of history writing explores similar challenges of evidence.

Interesting Facts About Joan of Arc

• No contemporary portrait of Joan made during her lifetime survives. All images are later interpretations.
• She signed her name as “Jehanne” — surviving examples show a shaky signature, suggesting limited literacy.
• Her banner, not her sword, was her most important symbol. She stated she loved her banner forty times more than her sword.
• She never killed anyone in combat, by her own testimony. She carried her banner and did not fight with weapons.
• The English used her male clothing as proof of heresy, but it also protected her in camp and prison.
• France was not fully liberated until 1453, 22 years after her death, at the end of the Hundred Years’ War.
• According to Smithsonian Magazine, analysis of the trial documents shows she was exceptionally quick-witted for her age and education.
• More than 10,000 books have been written about her, making her one of the most written-about women in history.

What Modern Historians Say

Modern historians generally agree on the core facts of her campaign, as documented by multiple sources. They continue to debate the nature of her visions and the extent of her tactical influence versus her symbolic impact.

As summarized by History.com, scholars note that whether viewed as saint, strategist, or symbol, her ability to inspire a demoralized army at age 17 remains historically remarkable.

There is consensus that her trial was a political trial cloaked in religious language, and that her rehabilitation reflected changing political realities as much as justice.

Timeline