1. From Heretic to National Heroine and Saint
Two decades after Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, an inquisitorial court was ordered by a new Pope to reexamine her trial. The new court debunked all the charges against her, cleared her posthumously, and declared her a martyr. In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte made her a national symbol of France.
Five centuries after she had been executed as a heretic, Joan of Arc was beatified in 1909, then canonized as a Saint by the Catholic Church in 1920. Today, Saint Joan of Arc is one of the patron saints of France, and the most famous female warrior of all time.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
Ancient Origins – Grace O’Malley: The 16th Century Pirate Queen of Ireland
Australian Dictionary of Biography – Armfield, Lillian May (1884-1971)
Black History Heroes – Queen Nana Yaa Asantewaa of West Africa’s Ashanti Empire
Cracked – Badass Women History Class Totally Failed to Mention
Culture Trip – Hai Ba Trung: The Story of Vietnam’s Elephant-Riding Warrior Princesses
Dangerous Women Project – Yaa Asantewaa, Queen Mother of the Ashanti Confederacy
History Collection – The Most Formidable Women in History that Made Men Cower Before Them
Devi, Mahasweta – The Queen of Jhansi (2000)
Devries, Kelly – Joan of Arc: A Military Leader (2011)
Encyclopedia Britannica – Lakshmi Bai
Female Pirates – Anne Dieu-le-Veut
New South Wales State Archives & Records – Tilly Devine and the Razor Gang Wars, 1927 – 1931
Pernoud, Regine – Joan of Arc by Herself and Her Witnesses (1982)
Rejected Princesses – Alexandra Boiko: Soviet Tank Girl
History Collection – Amazing Women Who Should Be Way More Famous
Taylor, Keith Weller – The Birth of Vietnam (1983)
University of Notre Dame, Australia – Tackling Sydney’s Organized Crime, Armed With Just a Handbag
War History Online – Queen of Ghana and War For the Golden Stool