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Joan of Arc Biography

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JOAN OF ARC (Fr. Jeanne d'Arc), The Maid of Orléans (c.1412–31). She was born between 1410 and 1412, in the village of Domremy, near Vaucouleurs, France. She was the daughter of well-to-do peasants and was taught the duties of a girl in her station. When about 13 years of age, she believed that she heard an angel's voice, saying, "I come from God to help thee to live a good and holy life. Be good, Jeannette, and God will aid thee." Gradually "the voices" talked to her more frequently, and she believed them to belong to St. Michael, St. Catharine, and St. Margaret. St. Michael gave to her directions which finally became very definite: "Daughter of God, thou shalt lead the Dauphin to Rheims, that he may there receive worthily his anointing." For four years the "voices" continued to speak to Joan, and the condition of France in the meanwhile became more and more desperate. Henry VI of England had been crowned, at Paris, King of France (1422). The Regent, the Duke of Bedford, was victorious almost everywhere. The, Dauphin, Charles VII, weak and vacillating, held little territory and was called in derision, by the English and the Burgundians, "the King of Bourges." Towards the close of 1428 the English laid siege to Orléans, and, although the city was well garrisoned, its defenders finally lost heart and at the beginning of 1429 the place seemed destined soon to be captured. Joan's "voices" had become more distinct and more imperative, until finally she obeyed, and sought the French commander at Vaucouleurs. Her story was at first rejected as that of one insane, but she went a second time and succeeded in getting an escort to Charles VII, to whom she rode in male attire (February, 1429). By his command Joan was admitted to an examination by learned theologians, from which she emerged triumphant. The Dauphin thereupon resolved to employ her. A suit of armor was prepared for her, and she had a white banner made, representing God blessing the fleurs-de-lis. This she herself carried into the front of every battle.

In April preparations were being made to send a convoy with provisions to Orléans. Joan led the troops, and on April 29, 1429, reached the city, still closely besieged by the English. From May 4 to 8 she made successful sallies upon the English, which resulted in their being compelled to raise the siege. Joan was wounded, but not severely. From this time she was known as "the Maid of Orléans." The national ardor of the French was rekindled to the utmost, and Joan became the dread of the previously triumphant English. Between June 12 and 18 the French won notable victories under Joan's leadership. By her own people she was beloved and revered as God's agent; by the English she was believed to be a witch. After some delays she persuaded the Dauphin to allow himself to be conducted to Rheims, where he was crowned (July 17, 1429). From this time her fortune changed, and she failed in several undertakings, notably the capture of Paris. The popular explanation of her failure was that she had broken her sword. It was one which she had miraculously discovered at Fierbois. One day, the story goes, she struck with the flat of this sword some common women whom she found in the camp. The sword broke, and the pieces could not be welded together. Joan took part in many conflicts, until, on May 23, 1430, she succeeded in entering with a few troops into Compiègne, which Burgundian forces were besieging. On the same day, in a sally which she led from the town, she became isolated from her followers and was taken prisoner. Her captors sold her, six months later, to the English. She was taken to Rouen and confined in chains. She was urged to put on female attire, but refused, because she was forbidden by her "voices." Wearing men's clothes and cutting off her hair were two of the main charges against her when she was brought before the Inquisition. She was tried in the ecclesiastical court, as a sorceress, by the Bishop of Beauvais, assisted by members of the University of Paris, which was under English control, and a specially delegated inquisitor. The trial dragged on for months, and Joan faced her judges boldly. One of the judges disguised himself and, pretending to be a fellow-prisoner, won her confidence and secured a great deal of information about "the voices," which was used in the trial. She was threatened with torture to no effect. Finally, on 12 charges which were drawn up by the judges, she was condemned to be burned to death, but she recanted her alleged errors and expressed penitence. Her punishment was then commuted by the ecclesiastical authorities into perpetual imprisonment. The English, however, felt it necessary to have Joan put to death. The events of the next few days are obscure; but it is certain that Joan again put on the male attire which she had abjured. The resumption of these garments and expressions of regret for her recantation were made grounds for concluding that she had relapsed. She was condemned and burned at the stake (May 30, 1431).

After the execution attempts were made to blacken her character in the popular French opinion, but with little success. Her family, by King Charles's influence, obtained in 1450 a revision of her trial, and in 1455 she was formally pronounced to have been innocent.

The memory of the Maid of Orléans during the centuries succeeding the Hundred Years’ War never probably enjoyed that general reverence among the French people which her services to her country would seem to have merited. Voltaire's La Pucelle expresses the views of the eighteenth-century philosophers regarding the Maid. In the nineteenth century, however, her fame underwent rehabilitation. In 1875 the question of her canonization came up before the Roman Curia, and she was beatified by Pius X, the reigning Pope, April 11, 1909. In literature the character of Joan of Arc has been variously treated. Shakespeare's Henry VI reflects the contemporary English opinion, which regarded Joan as a sorceress in league with the devil. In Schiller's beautiful Jungfrau von Orleans she is depicted, on the contrary, as a virgin mystic, who, in fulfillment of her heaven-appointed mission, spurns all earthly love and dies in the moment of victory with the banner of the Christ child in her arms.