Joan
of Arc was born at Domremy in what is now Lorraine around 1412.
At a young age she began to hear voices from God. When she was
about 16, the voices exhorted her to bear aid to the dauphin,
Charles of Ponthieu (later King Charles Vll), who was kept from
the throne by the English and their Burgundian allies in the Hundred
Years War. Joan won the aid of Robert de Baudricourt, captain
of the dauphin's forces in Vaucouleurs, in obtaining an interview
with the dauphin. Meeting the dauphin at Chinon castle, she conquered
his skepticism as to her divine mission. After gaining approval
of the Church scholars at Poitiers in March of 1429, she was granted
titular command of an army which quickly lifted the siege of Orleans
on May 8, 1429, captured Jargeau, Meungsur-Loire, and Beaugency
in mid-June, and defeated an English army at Patay. After accepting
the surrender of Troyes and other towns, the army escorted Charles
to Rheims for his coronation on July 17. Joan stood near the dauphin
during the ceremony.
Two months later, in September, Joan made an unsuccessful attack
on Paris, followed by the successful capture of St-Pierre-le-Moutier
in November. As a reward for her service, Charles VII granted
Joan and her family noble status in December 1429. She returned
to the battlefield the following year, despite predicting her
own defeat. Captured by the Burgundians at Compiegne on May 23,
1430, Joan was sold to the English for 10,000 livres and placed
on trial in Rouen by a select group of pro-English clergy. Perhaps
the most serious crime alleged by her captors was the claim of
direct inspiration from God. In the eyes of the court, this refusal
to accept the church hierarchy constituted heresy. Throughout
the lengthy trial and imprisonment, she steadfastly resisted her
inquisitors. During this time, Charles made no attempt to secure
her freedom though it is not clear that he would have been successful
if he had done so. Only at the end of the trial, when Joan was
threatened to be turned over to a secular court, did she recant
and was condemned to life imprisonment. Shortly afterward, however,
she retracted her abjuration and was handed over to the secular
court as a relapsed heretic. On May 30, 1431, she was burned at
the stake.
Charles VII made tardy recognition of her services through a rehabilitation
trial in 1456 that annulled the proceedings of the 1431 trial.
The presiding inquisitor ruled that the original trial had been
tainted by fraud, illegal procedures, and intimidation of both
the defendant and many of the clergy who had taken part in the
trial. She was portrayed as a martyr. Joan was beatified on April
1909 and canonized as a saint on May 16, 1920.
