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This article is about the historical person. For other uses of this name, see Joan of Arc (disambiguation).

Joan of Arc
Painting, c. 1485. The only known portrait for which she sat has not survived, so all depictions of her represent artistic license. (Centre Historique des Archives Nationales, Paris, AE II 2490)
Saint
Born	c. 1412 Domrémy, France
Died	30 May 1431 Rouen, France
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	18 April 1909, Notre Dame Cathedral by Pius X
Canonized	16 May 1920, St. Peter's Basilica by Benedict XV
Patronage	captives; France; martyrs; opponents of Church authorities; people ridiculed for their piety; prisoners; rape victims; soldiers; Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service; Women's Army Corps

Joan of Arc, also known as Jeanne d'Arc, (c.1412 – 30 May 1431) was a national heroine of France and is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. She asserted that she had visions from God which told her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege at Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the light regard of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. Several more swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims and settled the disputed succession to the throne.

The renewed French confidence outlasted her own brief career. She refused to leave the field when she was wounded during an attempt to recapture Paris that autumn. Hampered by court intrigues, she led only minor companies from then onward and fell prisoner at a skirmish near Compiègne the following spring. A politically motivated trial convicted her of heresy. The English regent John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford had her burnt at the stake in Rouen. She had been the heroine of her country at the age of seventeen and died at just nineteen. Some twenty-four years later Pope Callixtus III reopened the case and a new finding overturned the original conviction. Her piety to the end impressed the retrial court. Pope Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May, 1920.

She has remained an important figure in Western culture and many other nations. From Napoleon to the present, French politicians of all leanings have invoked her memory. Major writers and composers who have created works about her include Shakespeare, Voltaire, Schiller, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Twain, Shaw, Brecht, and Honegger. Depictions of her continue in film, television, and song.

Background

The historian Kelly DeVries describes the period preceding her appearance with, "If anything could have discouraged her, the state of France in 1429 should have." The Hundred Years' War had begun in 1337 as a succession dispute to the French throne with intermittent periods of relative peace. Nearly all the fighting had taken place in France and the English use of chevauchée tactics had devastated the French economy. The French population had not recovered from the Black Death of the previous century and its merchants were cut off from foreign markets. At the outset of her career, the English had almost achieved their goal of a dual monarchy under English control and the French army had won no major victory for a generation. In DeVries's words, "the kingdom of France was not even a shadow of its thirteenth-century prototype."

Although the English nobility had spoken Norman French as their primary language for centuries after the Norman Conquest, the English language had gained ascendancy among the English aristocracy during the fourteenth century. Notwithstanding her claim of a divine mission and her enemies' claim that she followed instead the Devil, both she and her opponents were Catholic, and England would remain so until the following century when England split with Rome during the reign of Henry VIII.

The French king at the time of Joan's birth, Charles VI, suffered bouts of insanity and was often unable to rule. The king's brother Duke Louis of Orléans and the king's cousin Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy quarreled over the regency of France and the guardianship of the royal children. This dispute escalated to accusations of an extramarital affair with Queen Isabeau of Bavaria and the kidnappings of the royal children. The matter climaxed when the Duke of Burgundy ordered the assassination of the Duke of Orléans in 1407.

The factions loyal to these two men became known as the Armagnacs and the Burgundians. The English king, Henry V, took advantage of this turmoil to invade France, winning a dramatic victory at Agincourt in 1415, == Headline text ==WHATS UP ANDREW wand capturing northern French towns. The future French king, Charles VII, assumed the title of Dauphin as heir to the throne at the age of fourteen, after all four of his older brothers died. His first significant official act was to conclude a peace treaty with Burgundy in 1419. This ended in disaster when Armagnac partisans murdered John the Fearless during a meeting under Charles's guarantee of protection. The new Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, blamed Charles and entered into an alliance with the English. Large sections of France were conquered.

In 1420, Queen Isabeau of Bavaria concluded the Treaty of Troyes, which granted the French royal succession to Henry V and his heirs in preference to her son Charles. This agreement revived rumors about her supposed affair with the late duke of Orléans and raised fresh suspicions that the Dauphin was a royal bastard rather than the son of the king. Henry V and Charles VI died within two months of each other in 1422, leaving an infant, Henry VI of England, the nominal monarch of both kingdoms. Henry V's brother, John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, acted as regent.

By the beginning of 1429, nearly all of northern France and some parts of the southwest were under foreign control. The English ruled Paris, while the Burgundians controlled Reims. The latter city was important as the traditional site of French coronations and consecrations, especially since neither claimant to the throne of France had yet been crowned. The English had laid siege to Orléans, which was the only remaining loyal French city north of the Loire. Its strategic location along the river made it the last obstacle to an assault on the remainder of the French heartland. In the words of one modern historian, "On the fate of Orléans hung that of the entire kingdom." No one was optimistic that the city could long withstand the siege.

This is all fake stup[id

Visions

Joan's religious visions have interested many people. The consensus among scholars is that her faith was sincere. She identified St. Margaret, St. Catherine, and St. Michael as the source of her revelations although there is some ambiguity as to which of several identically named saints she intended. Some Catholics regard her visions as divine inspiration.

Analysis of her visions is problematic since the main source of information on this topic is the condemnation trial transcript in which she defied customary courtroom procedure about a witness's oath and specifically refused to answer every question about her visions. She complained that a standard witness oath would conflict with an oath she had previously sworn to maintain confidentiality about meetings with her king. It remains unknown to what extent the surviving record may represent the fabrications of corrupt court officials or her own possible fabrications to protect state secrets. Some historians sidestep speculation about the visions by asserting that her belief in her calling is more relevant than questions about the visions' ultimate origin.

Documents from her own era and historians prior to the twentieth century generally assume that she was both healthy and sane. A number of more recent scholars attempted to explain her visions in psychiatric or neurological terms. Potential diagnoses have included epilepsy, migraine, tuberculosis, and schizophrenia. None of the putative diagnoses have gained consensus support because, although hallucination and religious enthusiasm can be symptomatic of various syndromes, other characteristic symptoms conflict with other known facts of Joan's life. Two experts who analyze a temporal lobe tuberculoma hypothesis in the medical journal Neuropsychobiology express their misgivings this way: "It is difficult to draw final conclusions, but it would seem unlikely that widespread tuberculosis, a serious disease, was present in this 'patient' whose life-style and activities would surely have been impossible had such a serious disease been present." Historian Régine Pernoud was sometimes sarcastic about speculative medical interpretations. In response to another such theory alleging that she suffered from bovine tuberculosis as a result of drinking unpasteurized milk, Pernoud wrote that if drinking unpasteurized milk can produce such potential benefits for the nation, then the French government should stop mandating the pasteurization of milk. Ralph Hoffman, professor of psychology at Yale University, points out that visionary and creative states including "hearing voices" are not necessarily signs of mental illness and names her religious inspiration as a possible exception although he offers no speculation as to alternative causes.

Among the specific challenges that potential diagnoses such as schizophrenia face is the slim likelihood that any person with such a disorder could gain favor in the court of Charles VII. This king's own father, Charles VI, was popularly known as "Charles the Mad," and much of the political and military decline that France had suffered during his reign could be attributed to the power vacuum that his episodes of insanity had produced. The previous king had believed he was made of glass, a delusion no courtier had mistaken for a religious awakening. Fears that Charles VII would manifest the same insanity may have factored into the attempt to disinherit him at Troyes. This stigma was so persistent that contemporaries of the next generation would attribute inherited madness to the breakdown that England's King Henry VI was to suffer in 1453: Henry VI was nephew to Charles VII and grandson to Charles VI. Upon her arrival at Chinon the royal counselor Jacques Gélu cautioned, "One should not lightly alter any policy because of conversation with a girl, a peasant... so susceptible to illusions; one should not make oneself ridiculous in the sight of foreign nations...." Contrary to modern stereotypes about the Middle Ages, the court of Charles VII was shrewd and skeptical on the subject of mental health.

Besides the physical rigor of her military career, which would seem to exclude many medical hypotheses, she displayed none of the cognitive impairment that can accompany some major mental illnesses when symptoms are present. She remained astute to the end of her life and rehabilitation trial testimony frequently marvels at her astuteness. "Often they turned from one question to another, changing about, but, notwithstanding this, she answered prudently, and evinced a wonderful memory." Her subtle replies under interrogation even forced the court to stop holding public sessions. If her visions had some medical or psychiatric origin then she would have been an exceptional case.

Legacy

The Hundred Years' War continued for 22 years after her death. Charles VII succeeded in retaining legitimacy as king of France in spite of a rival coronation held for Henry VI in December 1431 on the boy's tenth birthday. Before England could rebuild its military leadership and longbow corps lost during 1429, the country lost its alliance with Burgundy at the Treaty of Arras in 1435. The duke of Bedford died the same year and Henry VI became the youngest king of England to rule without a regent. That treaty and his weak leadership were probably the most important factors in ending the conflict. Kelly DeVries argues that Joan of Arc's aggressive use of artillery and frontal assaults influenced French tactics for the rest of the war.

Joan became a semi-legendary figure for the next four centuries. The main sources of information about her were chronicles. Five original manuscripts of her condemnation trial surfaced in old archives during the nineteenth century. Soon historians also located the complete records of her rehabilitation trial, which contained sworn testimony from 115 witnesses, and the original French notes for the Latin condemnation trial transcript. Various contemporary letters also emerged, three of which carry the signature "Jehanne" in the unsteady hand of a person learning to write. This unusual wealth of primary source material is one reason DeVries declares, "No person of the Middle Ages, male or female, has been the subject of more study".

She came from an obscure village and rose to prominence when she was barely more than a child and she did so as an uneducated peasant. French and English kings had justified the ongoing war through competing interpretations of the thousand-year-old Salic law. The conflict had been an inheritance feud between monarchs. She gave meaning to appeals such as that of squire Jean de Metz when he asked, "Must the king be driven from the kingdom; and are we to be English?" In the words of Stephen Richey, "She turned what had been a dry dynastic squabble that left the common people unmoved except for their own suffering into a passionately popular war of national liberation." Richey also expresses the breadth of her subsequent appeal:

The people who came after her in the five centuries since her death tried to make everything of her: demonic fanatic, spiritual mystic, naive and tragically ill-used tool of the powerful, creator and icon of modern popular nationalism, adored heroine, saint. She insisted, even when threatened with torture and faced with death by fire, that she was guided by voices from God. Voices or no voices, her achievements leave anyone who knows her story shaking his head in amazed wonder.

In 1452, during the postwar investigation into her execution, the Church declared that a religious play in her honor at Orléans would qualify as a pilgrimage meriting an indulgence. She became a symbol of the Catholic League during the 16th century. Félix Dupanloup, bishop of Orléans from 1849 to 1878, led the effort for Joan's eventual beatification in 1909. Her canonization followed on 16 May 1920. Her feast day is 30 May. She has become one of the most popular saints of the Roman Catholic Church.

Joan was not a feminist. She operated within a religious tradition that believed an exceptional person from any level of society might receive a divine calling. She expelled women from the French army and may have struck one stubborn camp follower with the flat of a sword. Nonetheless, some of her most significant aid came from women. Charles VII's mother-in-law, Yolande of Aragon, confirmed Joan's virginity and financed her departure to Orléans. Joan of Luxembourg, aunt to the count of Luxembourg who held custody of her after Compiègne, alleviated her conditions of captivity and may have delayed her sale to the English. Finally, Anne of Burgundy, the duchess of Bedford and wife to the regent of England, declared Joan a virgin during pretrial inquiries. For technical reasons this prevented the court from charging her with witchcraft. Ultimately this provided part of the basis for her vindication and sainthood. From Christine de Pizan to the present, women have looked to her as a positive example of a brave and active female.

Joan has been a political symbol in France since the time of Napoleon. Liberals emphasized her humble origins. Early conservatives stressed her support of the monarchy. Later conservatives recalled her nationalism. During World War II, both the Vichy Regime and the French Resistance used her image: Vichy propaganda remembered her campaign against the English with posters that showed British warplanes bombing Rouen and the ominous caption: "They Always Return to the Scene of Their Crimes." The resistance emphasized her fight against foreign occupation and her origins in the province of Lorraine, which had fallen under Nazi control. Traditional Catholics, especially in France, also use her as a symbol of inspiration, often comparing the 1988 excommunication of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (founder of the Society of St. Pius X and a dissident against the Vatican II reforms) to Joan's excommunication. Three separate vessels of the French Navy have been named after her, including a helicopter carrier currently in active service. At present the controversial French political party Front National holds rallies at her statues, reproduces her likeness in party publications, and uses a tricolor flame partly symbolic of her martyrdom as its emblem. This party's opponents sometimes satirize its appropriation of her image. The French civic holiday in her honor is the second Sunday of May

Notes

1. Her name was written in a variety of ways, particularly prior to the mid-19th century. See Pernoud and Clin, pp. 220–221. She reportedly signed her name as "Jehanne" (see www.stjoan-center.com/Album/, parts 47 and 49; it is also noted in Pernoud and Clin).
2. Modern biographical summaries often assert a birthdate of 6 January. Actually she could only estimate her own age. All of the rehabilitation trial witnesses likewise estimated her age even though several of these people were her godmothers and godfathers. The 6 January claim is based on a single source: a letter from Lord Perceval de Boullainvilliers on 21 July 1429 (see Pernoud's Joan of Arc By Herself and Her Witnesses, p. 98: "Boulainvilliers tells of her birth in Domrémy, and it is he who gives us an exact date, which may be the true one, saying that she was born on the night of Epiphany, January 6"). Boulainvilliers, however, was not from Domrémy. The event was probably not recorded. The practice of parish registers for non-noble births did not begin until several generations later.
3. A tribunal led by Inquisitor-General Brehal retried her case after the war. The new verdict overturned the original conviction and described the earlier proceeding as "corruption, cozenage, calumny, fraud and malice". (Accessed 12 February 2006)
4. DeVries, pp. 27–28.
5. Pernoud and Clin, p. 323.
6. DeVries, pp. 15–19.
7. Pernoud and Clin, p. 167.
8. DeVries, p. 24.
9. Pernoud and Clin, pp. 188–189.
10. DeVries, pp. 24, 26.
11. Pernoud and Clin, p. 10.
12. DeVries, p. 28.
13. Condemnation trial, pp. 36–37, 41–42, 48–49. (accessed 1 September 2006)
14. In a parenthetical note to a military biography, DeVries asserts, "The visions, or their veracity, are not in themselves important for this study. What is important, in fact what is key to Joan's history as a military leader, is that she (author's emphasis) believed that they came from God," p. 35.
15. Many of these hypotheses were devised by people whose expertise is in history rather than medicine. For a sampling of papers that passed peer review in medical journals, see ""I heard voices...": From semiology, a historical review, and a new hypothesis on the presumed epilepsy of Joan of Arc," d'Orsi G, Tinuper P, Epilepsy Behav. 2006 Aug;9(1):152–7. Epub 2006 June 5 (idiopathic partial epilepsy with auditory features); "Joan of Arc," Foote-Smith E, Bayne L, Epilepsia. 1991 Nov–Dec;32(6):810–5 (epilepsy); "Joan of Arc and DSM III," Henker FO, South Med J. 1984 Dec;77(12):1488–90 (various psychiatric definitions) ; "The schizophrenia of Joan of Arc," Allen C, Hist Med. 1975 Autumn–Winter;6(3–4):4–9 (schizophrenia) . (accessed 1 September 2006)
16. "A historical case of disseminated chronic tuberculosis," Nores JM, Yakovleff Y, Neuropsychobiology. 1995;32(2):79–80 (temporal lobe tuberculoma) (accessed 1 September 2006)
17. Pernoud, p. 275.
18. Hoffman, "Auditory Hallucinations: What's It Like Hearing Voices?" in HealthyPlace.com, 27 September 2003. (Accessed 12 February 2006)
19. Pernoud and Clin, pp. 3, 169, 183. Richard C. Famiglietti, Royal Intrigue: Crisis at the Court of Charles VI, 1392–1420. New York: AMS Press, 1987. ISBN 0-404-61439-6.
20. Nullification trial testimony of Dame Marguerite de Touroulde, widow of a king's counselor: "I heard from those that brought her to the king that at first they thought she was mad, and intended to put her away in some ditch, but while on the way they felt moved to do everything according to her good pleasure." (Accessed 12 February 2006)
21. Nullification trial testimony of Guillaume de Manchon. (Accessed 12 February 2006)
22. Pernoud and Clin, p. 112.
23. DeVries, pp. 179–180.
24. Pernoud and Clin, pp. 247–264.
25. DeVries in Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc, ed. Bonnie Wheeler, p. 3.
26. Nullification trial testimony of Jean de Metz. (Accessed 12 February 2006)
27. Richey, (Accessed 12 February 2006)
28. Ibid.
29. She is the most requested saint profile at Catholic.org. (Accessed 12 February 2006)
30. Contrary to popular myth, the primary role of camp followers was not prostitution. They performed support functions such as laundry, cooking, and hauling. Female camp followers were often the wives of soldiers. Some prostitution also took place. Byron C. Hacker and Margaret Vining, "The World of Camp and Train: Women's Changing Roles in Early Modern Armies". (Accessed 12 February 2006)
31. The duke of Alençon reported seeing her break a sword against a camp follower at Saint Denis. Her page Louis de Contes described the event as happening near Chauteau-Thierry and insisted that it was only a verbal warning. Nullification trial testimony. (Accessed 12 February 2006)
32. These tests, which her confessor describes as hymen investigations, are not reliable measures of virginity. However, they signified approval from matrons of the highest social rank at key moments of her life. Rehabilitation trial testimony of Jean Pasquerel. (Accessed 23 March 2006)
33. English translation of Christine de Pizan's poem "La Ditie de Jeanne d'Arc" by L. Shopkow. (Accessed 12 February 2006) Analysis of the poem by Professors Kennedy and Varty of Magdalen College, Oxford. (Accessed 12 February 2006)
34. Front National publicity logos include the tricolor flame and reproductions of statues depicting her. Template:Fr icon (Accessed 7 February 2006) The graphics forums at Étapes magazine include a variety of political posters from the 2002 presidential election. Template:Fr icon (Accessed 7 February 2006)

See also

• Cultural depictions of Joan of Arc
• Joan of Arc bibliography
• The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia entry.
• The Jeanne d'Arc Centre biography and research.
• Jeanne-darc.dk Various materials including a complete English translation of the rehabilitation trial transcript.
• Joan of Arc in the First World War by B.J. Omanson, covers interest in Joan of Arc during the First World War.
• Joan of Arc Museum in Rouen, France.
• St. Joan of Arc Center of Albuquerque, New Mexico, maintained by Virginia Frohlick.

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• Joan of Arc
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• Nine Worthies
• People executed by burning at the stake
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• People excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church
• People of the Hundred Years' War
• Roman Catholic saints
• Women in war in France