Joan of Arc
In 1429, France was in a very bad way. Close ties of English and French royal blood mingled with the lands that Eleanor of Aquitaine had owned, leading to both intense rivalry and Edward III proclaiming himself King of France, starting the Hundred Years’ War. At this date, France was losing badly. Suddenly, however, a mysterious peasant girl, aged only 17, appeared on the stage, and inspired a fierce resistance to England’s presence in France. She was Joan of Arc, and over the next few years of her short life (c.1412-31), she was to prove the biggest threat to England.
Joan became involved in the Hundred Years’ War because of mystical visions she received. In the humble garden adjoining her home, Saints Michael, Catherine, and Margaret appeared to 13-year-old Joan, commanding her to fight off the English and to crown the Dauphin King of France. Aged 16, she convinced the local garrison commander, Robert de Baudricourt, to take her disguised as a male soldier to the Dauphin, later Charles VII, by successfully predicting a French defeat at the Battle of Rouvray. Charles was impressed, and sent the unlikely figure of a teenage peasant girl to the besieged city of Orléans.
This was probably a strategic move by Charles, for Joan’s divine ordinance made the Hundred Years’ War into a religious matter and provided inspiration to the beleaguered and downhearted troops. Her appearance coincided with a change of strategy, as the defenders of Orléans launched successful attacks on the English, eventually driving them off. Though we don’t know for certain, contemporaries claimed that Joan was present at the final, decisive victory on 7th May 1429. What we do know is that Joan advised the Duke of Alençon on similarly offensive military strategy in the coming campaigns, which is truly staggering.
The English response to the appearance of Joan was to accuse her of being possessed by the Devil; part of their justification for the Hundred Years’ War was that God was on their side. The French, however, saw her as an emissary of God, for her aggressive strategy paid dividends, and the Dauphin was crowned at Reims, as the saints had commanded Joan to achieve. Joan’s inspiring tactics led to the English negotiating a peace treaty, but it didn’t last long, and her luck ran out in May 1430 when she was ambushed by the Burgundians, allies of the English.
In 1431 she was put on trial for heresy in Rouen. The trial was, of course, a farce, though the illiterate Joan stunned inquisitors by deftly avoiding their theological traps, and on 30th Mary 1431 she was burned at the stake. However we interpret her religious visions, Joan’s brief career is remarkable. Here was an illiterate female peasant, whose forthright views and inexplicable military brilliance inspired the losing side in a long and bloody war. Perhaps launching an offensive against the English was just common sense, but by changing Frances’s tactics she bested the failing men charged with defending France.