Joan of Arc: Who Was She, Why Does She Matter, and How Did She Change History?

Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d'Arc) was a teenage peasant girl from northeastern France who, guided by what she described as divine visions, led French armies to a series of stunning military victories during the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), helping crown Charles VII as the rightful king of France. Captured by Burgundian forces in 1430 and handed to the English, she was tried for heresy and burned at the stake in Rouen on 30 May 1431 at approximately 19 years of age. She was canonised as a saint by the Catholic Church in 1920 and remains one of history's most recognisable and studied figures, a symbol of faith, nationalism, and resistance against overwhelming odds.

Who Was Joan of Arc? Early Life and Origins

Joan was born around 6 January 1412 in the village of Domrémy, in the Duchy of Bar on the border of the Champagne and Lorraine regions of northeastern France. Her father, Jacques d'Arc, was a tenant farmer who also served as a minor village official; her mother, Isabelle Romée, was a devout woman who passed a deep Catholic faith onto her daughter. Joan had three brothers — Jacquemin, Jean, and Pierre — and a sister, Catherine. The family was not destitute but was far from privileged, and Joan grew up herding cattle, sewing, and helping with farmwork. Domrémy sat in territory loyal to the French crown but was surrounded by land under Burgundian influence, meaning Joan grew up acutely aware of the civil war and foreign occupation tearing France apart. By 1415, following the catastrophic French defeat at the Battle of Agincourt, much of northern France — including Paris — was under effective English control, and the French dauphin Charles had been disinherited by the Treaty of Troyes (1420).

What Were Joan of Arc's Visions and How Did She Interpret Them?

Joan later testified that she first experienced supernatural voices at approximately age 13, around 1425. She identified these voices as belonging to Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and Saint Margaret of Antioch. At first the messages were general exhortations to be pious and to attend church, but by around 1428 the voices had become urgent and specific: she must travel to the court of the dauphin Charles, help him reclaim his kingdom, and see him crowned at Reims Cathedral — the traditional site of French royal coronations. Joan's interpretation was unshakeable and completely sincere; under intense interrogation during her 1431 trial she never recanted the divine origin of her visions. Modern historians and medical scholars have proposed various retrospective diagnoses — including epilepsy, schizophrenia, and tuberculosis causing auditory hallucinations — but no consensus exists, and the Catholic Church accepted her accounts as genuine mystical experience when it canonised her.

How Did Joan of Arc Convince the French Court to Trust Her?

In January 1429, at age 17, Joan persuaded Robert de Baudricourt, the garrison commander at Vaucouleurs, to provide her with an armed escort to travel to Chinon, where the dauphin Charles VII held his court. The journey of roughly 500 kilometres through largely enemy-controlled territory took eleven days; Joan reportedly wore male clothing for safety. When she arrived at Chinon in late February 1429, Charles VII reportedly disguised himself among his courtiers to test her, but Joan — according to later accounts — identified him immediately, which greatly impressed the court. Before trusting her with any military command, Charles ordered a three-week theological examination at Poitiers in March 1429. A panel of churchmen and legal scholars questioned her at length; unable to find fault or heresy, they concluded that her mission could be supported. She was then equipped with armour, given a standard bearing the words 'Jhesus Maria,' and assigned to the relief army heading for Orléans.

What Were Joan of Arc's Greatest Military Victories?

The Siege of Orléans, which had begun in October 1428, was the most strategically critical conflict of the era. English and Burgundian forces had surrounded the city, cutting it off for over six months. If Orléans fell, the dauphin's cause was almost certainly lost. Joan arrived with a relief force on 29 April 1429 and, over a breathtaking nine-day campaign from 4–8 May, the French retook the English fortifications one by one. Joan was wounded in the shoulder by an arrow on 7 May during the assault on the fortress of Les Tourelles but returned to the fighting the same day. By 8 May 1429, the English lifted the siege entirely. The liberation of Orléans transformed Joan from a curiosity into a legend overnight — she became known as 'La Pucelle d'Orléans' (the Maid of Orléans). Following this triumph, Joan led or participated in a string of further victories along the Loire Valley during the Loire Campaign of June 1429, including the battles of Jargeau (12 June), Meung-sur-Loire (15 June), Beaugency (16–17 June), and the crushing defeat of an English relief force at the Battle of Patay on 18 June 1429 — sometimes called the French Agincourt in reverse, in which the English lost approximately 2,000 men.

The Coronation of Charles VII: Why Was Reims So Important?

Joan's stated primary mission was not simply military victory but the coronation of Charles VII at Reims Cathedral, the city where French kings had been anointed since the baptism of Clovis I in 496 AD. Without a proper coronation, Charles's claim to the throne was legally and spiritually weaker than that of the young English king Henry VI. Following the Loire Campaign victories, Joan convinced Charles to march northeast through Burgundian-held territory toward Reims. City after city surrendered without a fight as the French army approached. On 16 July 1429, the army entered Reims, and on 17 July 1429, Charles VII was crowned and anointed King of France in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Reims. Joan stood beside the altar holding her standard during the ceremony — one of the most emotionally charged moments of the entire war. In a letter written just days later, Joan referred to her mission as now largely complete. The coronation decisively shifted French morale and international perception of the conflict.

How Was Joan of Arc Captured and Why Did France Fail to Rescue Her?

After the coronation, Joan's influence over military strategy began to wane as court factions reasserted themselves. A bold attempt to retake Paris in September 1429 failed, and Joan was wounded again — this time by a crossbow bolt to the thigh. The army withdrew, and Joan spent a frustrating winter with limited command authority. In the spring of 1430 she led a small independent force to defend the town of Compiègne, north of Paris, which was under attack by Burgundian forces. On 23 May 1430, during a skirmish outside the town's gates, Joan's rearguard was cut off, and she was pulled from her horse and captured by a Burgundian soldier loyal to Jean de Luxembourg. The circumstances surrounding why the garrison commander at Compiègne — Guillame de Flavy — closed the gates before Joan's group could re-enter have been debated for centuries, with some historians alleging deliberate abandonment. Charles VII made no serious attempt to ransom or rescue her. In December 1430, Jean de Luxembourg sold Joan to the English for 10,000 livres tournois — a king's ransom.

What Happened at Joan of Arc's Trial? The Charges and the Verdict

Joan's trial, formally known as the Trial of Condemnation, began on 9 January 1431 in Rouen under the presidency of Pierre Cauchon, the Bishop of Beauvais, who was closely aligned with English interests. The charges were serious: heresy, idolatry, witchcraft, and the wearing of male clothing (considered a violation of Deuteronomy 22:5). Over roughly five months of proceedings, Joan faced 70 charges later reduced to 12, all assessed by a panel of approximately 42 theologians and church lawyers — a substantial ecclesiastical assembly. Despite having no legal counsel, being held in chains in an English military prison, and facing relentless questioning from learned clergymen, Joan gave remarkably sharp and often clever answers. When asked the loaded theological question whether she knew she was in God's grace, she replied: 'If I am not, may God put me there; if I am, may God keep me there' — an answer that left her accusers stumped. Joan initially signed an abjuration (recantation) document on 24 May 1431 under what she later said was coercion and fear of burning. When she resumed wearing male clothing days later — whether by choice or because her female clothing was taken from her, accounts differ — she was declared a relapsed heretic. On 30 May 1431, Joan of Arc was burned alive in the Old Market Square (Place du Vieux-Marché) of Rouen before a crowd of thousands. An English soldier reportedly constructed a small cross from twigs and handed it to her as the flames rose. Her ashes were thrown into the Seine River. An English soldier present allegedly declared afterwards: 'We have burned a saint.'

How Was Joan of Arc Rehabilitated and Eventually Canonised?

After France ultimately won the Hundred Years' War in 1453, Charles VII — aware that his legitimacy rested partly on Joan's efforts — ordered a posthumous review of her trial. Pope Calixtus III authorised a nullification trial, and on 7 July 1456, the original verdict was declared null and void; Joan was proclaimed a martyr and her reputation restored. However, formal beatification did not occur until 18 April 1909, under Pope Pius X, following a lengthy 19th-century campaign championed largely by French nationalists — particularly after France's humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 reinvigorated interest in Joan as a symbol of national resistance. Pope Benedict XV canonised her on 16 May 1920, less than two years after the end of World War One, in which French soldiers had reportedly carried her image into battle. Her feast day is 30 May. In 1920, the French government also made her a national symbol, and her status as the patron saint of France is enshrined in national consciousness.

Why Is Joan of Arc's Legacy Still Relevant Today?

Few historical figures have been claimed by so many different movements across so many centuries. In France, Joan has been embraced by republicans, monarchists, Catholics, feminists, and nationalists alike — sometimes simultaneously, often contradictorily. The far-right Front National (now Rassemblement National) has repeatedly used her image in political campaigns, while feminist scholars highlight her defiance of medieval gender norms — she wore armour, led armies, and refused to defer to male authority even under threat of death. She has inspired over 20,000 books, dozens of films (including Carl Theodor Dreyer's silent masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928, and Luc Besson's The Messenger, 1999), operas, plays (George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan, 1923, won the Nobel Prize in Literature), and visual artworks. She appears on French coins and stamps and is commemorated by a national holiday on the second Sunday of May. Academically, her trial transcript — preserved in remarkable completeness — is one of the most detailed surviving documents of any medieval individual's voice, making her one of the best-documented people of the 15th century despite her peasant origins. Joan of Arc remains a potent reminder that historical change can be driven by individuals of no social standing whatsoever, armed only with conviction.