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

The renewed French confidence outlasted her own brief career as court intrigues slowed further offensive action. She was wounded during an unsuccessful attempt to recover Paris and fell prisoner at a battle outside Compiègne the following spring, and after a politically motivated trial, was convicted of heresy. The English regent John, duke of Bedford had her burnt at the stake in Rouen at the age on nineteen. Some twenty-four years later Pope Callixtus III reopened the case and a new finding overturned the original conviction, and her piety to the end impressed the retrial court. Pope Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May, 1920.

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

Historical background

The period that preceded Joan of Arc's career was the lowest era in French history until the Nazi occupation. The French king at the time of Joan's birth, Charles VI, suffered bouts of insanity and was often unable to rule. A quarrel between his cousins, Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy and the duke of Orléans, over the regency of France and the guardianship of the royal children finally led John the Fearless to order 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 the turmoil by invading France and winning a dramatic victory at Agincourt in 1415, which was followed by the capture of 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 had died. His first important official act was to conclude a peace treaty with John the Fearless in 1419, but 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 an alliance with the English and large sections of France fell to conquest.

Queen Isabeau of Bavaria, Charles's mother, concluded the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, which granted the royal succession to Henry V and his heirs and disinherited Charles. This agreement revived rumors that Queen Isabeau and the duke of Orléans had conducted an affair around the time of Charles VII's birth, and that the dauphin was not the son of Charles VI. 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, while Henry V's brother John, 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 and the Burgundians ruled Rheims. The latter was important as the traditional site of French coronations although neither claimant to the throne of France had been crowned. The English had laid siege to Orléans, the only remaining loyal French city north of the Loire, with its strategic location along the river making it the last obstacle to an assault on residual French heartland. There was little optimism that the city would resist the siege for long. In the words of one modern historian, "On the fate of Orléans hung that of the entire kingdom."

Biography

Early life

Joan of Arc was born in the village of Domrémy in the province of Lorraine, to Jacques D'Arc and Isabelle Romée who owned a modest farm. The region was part of the duchy of Burgundy and Joan's own village and a few nearby communities formed an isolated patch of territory that remained loyal to the French crown.

Joan later said she had her first vision around 1424. She reported that St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret told her to drive out the English and bring the dauphin to Rheims for his coronation. At the age of sixteen she asked a kinsman, Durand Lassois, to bring her to nearby Vaucouleurs where she petitioned garrison commander count Robert de Baudricourt for permission to visit the royal French court at Chinon. Baudricourt's sarcastic response did not deter her, and she returned the following January, gaining support from two men of standing: Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulegny. Under their auspices she was granted a second interview where she made an apparently miraculous prediction about a military reversal near Orléans.

Career

Baudricourt granted her an escort to visit Chinon after news from the front confirmed her prediction. She made the journey through hostile Burgundian territory in male disguise. Upon arrival at the royal court, she won Charles's confidence in a private conference. He verified her morality with background inquiries and a theological examination at Poitiers. Charles's mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon financed a relief expedition to Orléans at that time. Joan of Arc received permission to travel with the army. Her armor, horse, sword, equipment, and entourage were all donations. She had no funds of her own. Stephen Richey explains her rise as the only source of hope for a regime that was near collapse.

"After years of one humiliating defeat after another, both the military and civil leadership of France were demoralized and discredited. When the Dauphin Charles granted Joan’s urgent request to be equipped for war and placed at the head of his army, his decision must have been based in large part on the knowledge that every orthodox, every rational, option had been tried and had failed. Only a regime in the final straits of desperation would pay any heed to an illiterate farm girl who claimed that voices from God were instructing her to take charge of her country’s army and lead it to victory."

Joan arrived at the Orléans on 29 April 1429. Jean d'Orléans, the deputy of the Orléans ducal family, excluded Joan from war councils. She appealed to the town's population and the common soldiers, and she often disregarded the war council decisions. The extent of her military leadership is a subject of historical debate. Traditional historians such as Edouard Perroy cite conclude that she was a standard bearer whose primary effect was on morale. This type of analysis usually relies on the condemnation trial testimony where Joan of Arc stated that she preferred her standard to her sword. Recent scholarship that focuses on the rehabilitation trial testimony asserts that her fellow officers esteemed her as a skilled tactician and a successful strategist. In the words of Stephen W. Richey, "She proceeded to lead the army in an astounding series of victories that reversed the tide of the war." This would make more sense, as a condemnation trial, set up and run by the English, would undoubtedly not want to admit that a young girl in battle armor had beaten them with her brains and not charisma. In either case, the army enjoyed remarkable success during her brief career.

Joan urged the French forces to act against the siege fortifications, and they acted aggressively in skirmishes until the English abandoned peripheral structures. The English, subsequently, reconcentrated their forces at the stone fortress that controlled the bridge les Tourelles, which fell to a French assault on May 7th. Contemporaries acknowledged Joan as the hero of the engagement after she pulled an arrow from her own shoulder and returned wounded to lead the final charge.

The sudden victory at Orléans led to many proposals for offensive action. The English expected a direct assault on Paris. French counter-intelligence may have contributed to that perception. At Joan's later trial, she described a mark that the French command used in letters for disinformation. Joan of Arc persuaded Charles VII to approve her plan and grant her co-command of the army with Duke John II of Alençon. They would recapture nearby bridges along the Loire then advance on Rheims. This was a bold proposal because Rheims was roughly twice as distant as Paris. Rheims held political importance as the traditional site of French coronations.

The army recovered Jargeau on 12 June, Meung-sur-Loire on 15 June, then Beaugency on 17 June. Alençon credited Joan with the preclusion of his life at Jargeau where she warned him of an imminent artillery attack. She withstood a stone cannonball blow to her helmet while climbing a scaling ladder. An expected English relief force arrived in the area on 18 June under the command of Sir John Fastolf. The battle at Patay might be compared to Agincourt in reverse. The French vanguard attacked before the English archers finished defensive preparations. A rout ensued that decimated the main body of the English army. The French had minimal losses. A disgraced Fastolf escaped with a small band of soldiers.

The French army set out from Gien-sur-Loire on 29 June, accepting the conditional surrender of the Burgundian-held city of Auxerre on 3 July. Every other town in their path returned to French allegiance without resistance. Troyes, the site of the treaty that had tried to disinherit Charles VII, capitulated after a bloodless four-day siege. The army was in short supply of food by the time it reached Troyes. Edward Lucie-Smith cites this as an example why Joan of Arc was more lucky than skilled. A wandering friar named Brother Richard had been preaching that the world was about to end and had convinced local residents to plant beans, a crop with an early harvest. The hungry army arrived as the beans ripened.

Rheims opened its gates on 16 July. The coronation took place the following morning. Although Joan and the duke of Alençon urged a prompt march on Paris, the royal court pursued a negotiated truce with the duke of Burgundy. Duke Philip the Good broke the agreement, using it as a stalling tactic to reinforce the defense of Paris. The French army marched through towns near Paris during the interim, accepting peaceful surrenders. The duke of Bedford confronted Joan with an English force in a standoff on 15 August. The French assault on Paris ensued on 8 September. Despite a crossbow bolt wound to the leg, Joan continued directing the troops until the day's fighting ended. The following morning she received a royal order to withdraw. Most historians blame French grand chamberlain Georges de la Trémoille for the political blunders following the coronation.

Capture, trial, and execution

After minor action at La-Charité-sur-Loire in November and December, Joan went to Compiègne the following March to defend against an English and Burgundian siege. A skirmish on 23 May 1430 led to her capture. When she ordered a retreat she assumed the place of honor as the last to leave the field. Burgundians surrounded the rear guard.

It was customary for a war captive's family to raise a ransom. Joan of Arc and her family lacked the financial resources. Many historians condemn Charles VII for failing to intervene. She attempted several escapes, on one occasion leaping from a seventy foot tower to the soft earth of a dry moat. The English government eventually purchased her from Duke Philip of Burgundy. Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais, an English partisan, assumed a prominent role in these negotiations and her later trial.

Joan's trial for heresy was political. The duke of Bedford claimed the throne of France for his nephew Henry VI. She was responsible for the rival coronation. Condemning her was an attempt to discredit her king. Legal proceedings commenced on 9 January 1431 at Rouen, the seat of the English occupation government. The procedure was irregular on a number of points.

To summarize some major problems, the jurisdiction of promoter Bishop Cauchon was a legal fiction. He owed his appointment to his partisanship. The English government financed the entire trial. Clerical notary Nicolas Bailly, commissioned to collect testimony against her, could find no adverse evidence. Without this the court lacked grounds to initiate a trial. Opening one anyway, it denied her right to a legal advisor.

Nonetheless, her testimony could be brilliant. The transcript's most famous exchange is an exercise in subtlety. "Asked if she knew she was in God's grace, she answered: 'If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.'" The question is a scholarly trap. Church doctrine held that no one could be certain of being in God's grace. If she had answered yes, then she would have convicted herself of heresy. If she had answered no, then she would have confessed her own guilt. Notary Boisguillaume would later testify that at the moment the court heard this reply, "Those who were interrogating her were stupefied." In the twentieth century George Bernard Shaw would find this dialogue so compelling that sections of his play Saint Joan are literal translations of the trial record.

Several court functionaries later testified that significant portions of the transcript were altered in her disfavor. Many clerics served under compulsion, including the inquisitor, and a few even received death threats from the English. Joan should have been confined to an ecclesiastical prison with female guards. Instead the English kept her in a secular prison guarded by their own soldiers. Bishop Cauchon denied Jeanne's appeals to the Council of Basel and the Pope, which should have stopped his proceeding.

The twelve articles of accusation that summarize the court's finding contradict the already doctored court record. Illiterate Joan signed an abjuration document she did not understand under threat of immediate execution. The court substituted a different abjuration in the official record.

Heresy was a capital crime only for a repeat offense. Joan agreed to wear women's clothes when she abjured. Shortly afterward she was subject to a sexual assault in prison, possibly by an English lord. This does not appear to have been rape. She resumed male attire either as a defense against molestation or, in the testimony of Jean Massieu, because her dress had been stolen and she was left with nothing else to wear.

Eyewitnesses described the scene of the execution on 30 May 1431. Tied to a tall pillar, she asked two of the clergy, Martin Ladvenu and Isambart de la Pierre, to hold a crucifix before her. She repeatedly called out "...in a loud voice the holy name of Jesus, and implored and invoked without ceasing the aid of the saints of Paradise." After she expired the English raked back the coals to expose her charred body so that no one could claim she had escaped alive, then reduced the body to ashes to prevent any collection of relics. They cast her remains into the Seine. The executioner, Geoffroy Therage, later stated that he had "...a great fear of being damned, he had burned a saint."

Retrial

After Charles VII regained Rouen in November 1449, the investigation began with an inquest by clergyman Guillaume Bouille. Inquisitor-General Jean Brehal conducted an investigation in 1452. The formal appeal was initiated in November 1455. Pope Callixtus III authorized this appeal, known today as the "Rehabilitation Trial," at the request of Brehal and surviving members of Joan's family. The appellate process included clergy from throughout Europe and observed proper court procedure. After collecting testimony from 115 witnesses, theologians gave opinions. Brehal drew up his final summary of the case in June 1456. This describes Joan as a martyr and her judges as heretics for having convicted an innocent woman in the pursuit of a secular vendetta. The court declared her innocence on 7 July 1456.

Clothing

Joan wore men's clothing between her departure from Vaucouleurs and her abjuration at Rouen. This raised theological questions in her own era and raised other questions in the twentieth century. The technical reason for her execution was a Biblical clothing law. The appeals court reversed the conviction in part because medieval theology recognized exceptions to that stricture.

Doctrinally speaking, she was safe to disguise herself as a page during a journey through enemy territory, and she was safe to wear armor during battle. The Chronique de la Pucelle states that it deterred molestation while she was camped in the field. She likewise retained men's clothing while she was a prisoner as a defense against molestation. The apparel she chose would have slowed an assailant.

She referred the court to the Poitiers inquiry when questioned on the matter during her condemnation trial. That record no longer survives. Circumstances indicate the Poitiers clerics approved her practice. In other words, she had a mission to do a man's work so it was fitting that she dress the part. Clergy who testified at her rehabilitation trial affirmed that she continued to wear male clothing in prison to deter molestation and rape. She also kept her hair cut short through her military campaigns and while in prison. Her supporters, such as the theologian Jean Gerson, had defended her hairstyle, as did Inquisitor Brehal during the Rehabiliation trial.

According to Francoise Meltzer, "The depictions of Joan of Arc tell us about the assumptions and gender prejudices of each succeeding era, but they tell us nothing about Joan's looks in themselves. They can be read, then, as a semiology of gender: how each succeeding culture imagines the figure whose charismatic courage, combined with the blurring of gender roles, makes her difficult to depict."

Visions

Joan of Arc's religious visions have interested many people. All agree 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 these might mean. Devout Roman Catholics regard her visions as divine inspiration. She lived in a society that accepted this possibility. Other explanations posit hallucination, mental illness, or self delusion. Scholars who propose psychiatric explanations such as schizophrenia consider Joan a figurehead rather than an active leader. Among other hypotheses are a handful of neurological conditions that can cause complex hallucinations in otherwise sane and healthy people such as temporal lobe epilepsy. Ralph Hoffman, professor of psychology at Yale University, states that "hearing voices is not necessarily a sign of mental illness," and names Joan of Arc's religious inspiration as a possible exception without speculation as to alternative causes.

Psychiatric explanations encounter some difficulties. One is the slim likelihood that a mentally ill person could gain favor in the court of Charles VII. This king's own father had been popularly known as "Charles the Mad" and much of the political and military decline that had occurred in France during the previous decades could be attributed to the power vacuum from the reign of Charles VI. The old 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 in the attempt to disinherit him at Troyes. Contemporaries 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. As royal counselor Jacques Gélu cautioned upon Joan of Arc's arrival at Chinon, "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..." It was in this environment of skepticism that Joan of Arc proved herself.

Another conflicting circumstance is the intellectual decline that normally accompanies major mental illnesses. Joan of Arc remained astute to the end of her life. Rehabilitation trial testimony frequently marvels at her intelligence. "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.

The only detailed source of information about Joan of Arc's visions is the condemnation trial transcript, a complex and problematic document in which she resisted the court's inquiries. Régine Pernoud, a prominent historian, was sometimes sarcastic about speculative medical interpretations: in response to one such theory alleging that Joan of Arc 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.

Legacy

For additional information see Joan of Arc facts and trivia and Joan of Arc in art.

The Hundred Years' War continued for 22 years after Joan of Arc's 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 also 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 of Arc remained 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, also the original French notes for the Latin transcript. Soon historians also located the complete records of her rehabilitation trial that contained sworn testimony from 115 witnesses. Various contemporary letters 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 than Joan of Arc.

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 and inexperienced peasant at a moment when the age of feudalism was about to end. French and English kings had justified the ongoing war through competing interpretations of the thousand-year-old Salic law. It had been an inheritance feud between monarchs. Joan of Arc 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."

The Church declared that a religious play in her honor at Orléans was a pilgrimage meriting an indulgence. Joan of Arc 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 of Arc 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 Joan of Arc after Compiegne, alleviated Joan of Arc's conditions of captivity and may have delayed her sale to the English. Finally, Anne of Burgundy the duchess of Bedford declared Joan a virgin during pretrial inquiries. For technical reasons this prevented the court from charging Joan with witchcraft. Ultimately this provided part of the basis for Joan's vindication and sainthood. From Christine de Pizan to the present, women have looked to Joan of Arc as a positive example of a brave and active female.

Joan of Arc 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 with 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 Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's excommunication in 1988 to Joan of Arc's excommunication. Three separate vessels of the French Navy have been named after Joan of Arc, 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.

Notes

For bibliographical sources and further reading see Joan of Arc bibliography.

1. These are the modern English and French formulations of her name. There have been several other versions. For a cogent discussion see Pernoud and Clin, pp. 220 - 221.
2. A tribunal led by Inquisitor-General Brehal retried her case after the French won 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).
3. See Joan of Arc in art for literary, artistic, and popular culture references.
4. DeVries, pp. 15 - 19.
5. Pernoud and Clin, p. 167.
6. DeVries, pp. 24, 26.
7. Pernoud and Clin, pp. 188 - 189.
8. DeVries, p. 28.
9. Pernoud and Clin, p. 10.
10. Richey, p. 4.
11. Pernoud and Clin, p. 221.
12. Condemnation trial - First public examination
13. Condemnation trial - Fourth public examination
14. DeVries, pp.37 - 40.
15. Nullification trial testimony of Jean de Metz. (Accessed 12 February 2006).
16. Oliphant, ch. 2 (Accessed 12 February 2006).
17. Richey, "Joan of Arc: A Military Appreciation." (Accessed 12 February 2006).
18. Perroy, p. 283.
19. Richey, p. 4.
20. Pernoud and Clin, p. 230.
21. Devout Catholics regard this remarkable act as proof of her divine mission. At Chinon and Poitiers she had declared that she would give a sign at Orléans. The lifting of the siege gained her the support of prominent clergy such as the Archbishop of Embrun and theologian Jean Gerson, who both wrote supportive treatises immediately following this event.
22. DeVries, pp. 96 - 97.
23. Nullification trial testimony of Jean, Duke of Alençon. (Accessed 12 February 2006).
24. DeVries, pp. 114 - 115.
25. DeVries, pp. 122 - 126.
26. Lucie-Smith, pp. 156 - 160.
27. DeVries, p. 134.
28. These range from mild associations of intrigue to scholarly invective. For an empassioned statement see Gower, ch. 4 (Accessed 12 February 2006). Milder examples are Pernoud and Clin, pp. 78 - 80; DeVries, p. 135; and Oliphant, ch. 6. (Accessed 12 February 2006).
29. Judges' investigations January 9 - March 26, ordinary trial March 26 - May 24, recantation May 24, relapse trial May 28-29.
30. The retrial verdict later affirmed that Cauchon had no right to try the case. Also see Joan of Arc: Her Story by Regine Pernoud and Marie-Veronique Clin, p. 108. The vice-inquisitor of France objected to the trial on jurisdictional grounds at its outset.
31. Nullification trial testimony of Father Nicholas Bailly. (Accessed 12 February 2006).
32. Condemnation trial, p. 52. (Accessed 12 February 2006).
33. Pernoud and Clin, p. 112.
34. Shaw, Saint Joan. Penguin Classics; Reissue edition (2001). ISBN 0140437916
35. Pernoud and Clin, p. 130.
36. Condemnation trial, pp. 314 - 316. (Accessed 12 February 2006).
37. Condemnation trial, pp. 342 - 343. (Accessed 12 February 2006). Also nullification trial testimony of Brother Pierre Migier, "As to the act of recantation, I know it was performed by her; it was in writing, and was about the length of a Pater Noster." (Accessed 12 February 2006). In modern English this is better known as the Lord's Prayer, Latin and English text here (Accessed 12 February 2006). .
38. Nullification trial testimony of Jean Massieu. (Accessed 12 February 2006).
39. Polly Schoyer Brooks, Beyond the Myth: The Story of Joan of Arc. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1999. ISBN 0397324227
40. Nullification trial sentence of rehabilitation. (Accessed 12 February 2006).
41. Condemnation trial, pp. 78 - 79. (Accessed 12 February 2006).
42. Deuteronomy 22:5.
43. Most notably Thomas Aquinas, Outward apparel should be consistent with the state of the person according to general custom. Hence it is in itself sinful for a woman to wear man’s clothes, or vice-versa; especially since this may be the cause of sensuous pleasure; and it is expressly forbidden in the Law (Deut 22) …. Nevertheless this may be done at times on account of some necessity, either in order to hide oneself from enemies, or through lack of other clothes, or for some other such reason. (Summa Theologiae II, II, question 169, article 2, reply to objection 3).
44. Condemnation trial, p. 78. (Accessed 12 February 2006). Retrial testimony of Brother Seguin de Seguin, Professor of Theology at Poitiers does not mention clothing directly but constitutes a wholehearted endorsement of her piety. (Accessed 12 February 2006).
45. According to medieval clothing expert Adrien Harmand, she wore two layers of pants attached securely to the doublet with twenty fastenings, the outer pants being made of a boot-like leather. See "Jeanne d'Arc, son costume, son armure", p. 123, for the passage from the transcript and explanation; and pp. 177-185 for an examination of the outer pants.
46. Nullification trial testimony of Guillaume de Manchon. (Accessed 12 February 2006).
47. Fraioli, Joan of Arc: The Early Debate p. 131.
48. Meltzer, For Fear of the Fire: Joan of Arc and the Limits of Subjectivity, p. 6.
49. Lucie-Smith, 120 - 123.
50. Hoffman, "Auditory Hallucinations: What's It Like Hearing Voices?" in HealthyPlace.com, 27 September 2003. (Accessed 12 February 2006).
51. 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 0404614396
52. 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..." (Accessed 12 February 2006).
53. Nullification trial testimony of Guillaume de Manchon. (Accessed 12 February 2006).
54. Pernoud and Clin, p. 112.
55. Pernoud, Joan of Arc By Herself and Her Witnesses p. 275.
56. DeVries, pp. 179-180.
57. DeVries in Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc, ed. Bonnie Wheeler, p. 3.
58. Nullification trial testimony of Jean de Metz (Accessed 12 February 2006).
59. Richey, "Joan of Arc: A Military Appreciation." (Accessed 12 February 2006).
60. Ibid.
61. Joan of Arc is the most requested saint profile at Catholic.org. (Accessed 12 February 2006).
62. Pernoud and Clin, pp. 247 - 264.
63. Contrary to popular myth, the primary role of camp followers was not prostitution. They performed support functions such as laundry, cooking, and hauling and female camp followers were often the wives of soldiers. See "The World of Camp and Train: Women's Changing Roles in Early Modern Armies" by Byron C. Hacker and Margaret Vining (Accessed 12 February 2006).
64. The duke of Alençon reported seeing Joan of Arc break a sword against a camp follower at Saint Denis, nullification trial testimony. Joan of Arc's page Louis de Contes described the event as happening near Chauteau-Thierry and insisted that it was only a verbal warning. (Accessed 12 February 2006).
65. These tests, which Joan of Arc's confessor Father Jean Pasquerel 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 Joan of Arc's life.
66. 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).
67. Front National publicity logos include the tricolor flame and reproductions of Joan of Arc statues. (In French, accessed 7 February 2006). The graphics forums at Étapes magazine include a variety of political posters from the 2002 presidential election. (In French, accessed 7 February 2006).

• 1412 births
• 1431 deaths
• Catholic martyrs
• French military leaders
• French people
• History of Catholicism in France
• History of France
• Hundred Years' War
• Joan of Arc
• Middle Ages
• Nine Worthies
• People executed for heresy
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• Women in war