Joan of Arc
This
story starts with the hundred years war, which was going on at the time that
Joan was born. Unfortunately, I can only do one topic for my web page, so
for now, I have to put down a link for The Hundred Years War. Click here
or here
to learn more about the causes of the war. Click here
to find out more about the war itself. Now that you
know all that, I think its time to actually talk about Joan of Arc.
Joan was born,
on January 6th 1412 to Jacques and
Isabelle d'Arc. When she was born, her name was not Joan of Arc, she was
christened Jehanne, after either her aunt Jehanne Lassois, or one of her
godmothers, Jehanne Royer, Jehanne de Viteau, or Jehanne the wife of the mayor.
There isn't
much to say about Joan's early childhood. Joan's early life was spent in
the forests and the strawberry covered fields of the Meuse River Valley.
Her home life was as far as I know normal, she did every task that her
parents asked her to do, and she was a very pleasant child according to her
neighbors. She and her family occasionally had to flee from army's
marching through their town but that was all normal for Joan.
Her life
changed when she first heard the voices of two dead saints, Saint Catherine and
Saint Margaret, when she was twelve years old. The saints had then told
her to "Be good" and to "Go to church regularly". They
continued that until she was thirteen years old. It was then that
they told her to go to the local commander at Vacouleurs to get an escort to
take her to the royal court.
Finally
on May 1428 she okayed the voices and had a family relative , Durand Lassois, to
take her to Vaucouleurs to speak to the commander. However he refused to
listen to listen to her, and so she returned home on July 1428.
Joan was finally granted permission after her third attempt,
to go with an escort to speak with Charles. Now that she was granted
permission to see him, she now needed to find a way to convince him that she
knew what she was doing and to let her help. When she talked to him, she
gave a convincing prediction of a French defeat near Rouvray. This
actually happened, when Baudricourt was informed of the disaster he arranged for
an armed escort to Chinon, through enemy territory . Her escorts dressed
her in mail, just incase they were captured, and so that her identity wouldn't be revealed, for the obvious reason that if her
captors found out she was a
woman she would most likely be raped, and plus her armor was a one piece and
her pants and tunic could be tied together for an extra measure of
security. She never took this armor off, and laced it very tightly when
camping in the fields with solders, just in case. Because of this
she nicknamed herself La Pucelle, which explained that she had promised the
saints to keep her virginity for as long as it pleased God.
After eleven days on the road, she was finally delivered to
Charles without capture. Joan told him that God had sent her to aid his Kingdome. When he did not take her seriously, she reminded him of a
privet prayer that he had made the previous November asking god to punish him alone
rather than the people if his sins were the reason the war started, and to aid
him in finding out that he was the rightful heir to the throne. Joan told
him every detail of the prayer then told him he was the rightful heir.
She was tested for orthodoxy, and was then granted command of
an army. She was then given the armor made exactly for her body, and two
banners. Once at the camp she began to reform her troops by expelling the
prostitutes from the camp, and making them go to confession and to quit
swearing.
The army was attacked at Checy and the enemy was
defeated. The remainder of the troops made it to the city where another assault
was launched where 114 died and 40 were captured. She had many
times warned the French to leave by writing it on a note and sending it by messenger, and of coarse the
messenger would never be seen again, this time however, she sent it on an arrow and had an archer shoot it to them rather than
risking another soldier as a finial warning.
On May 6th an attack was launched, where Joan herself was
wounded by an arrow. Because of this she stayed behind for a day, but
returned the near dusk to encourage the troupes to one last effort that played off
with few losses.
The next battle was in Jargeau, where Joan as always carried
her banner up front of the troupes, this time being struck in the helmet with a
stone. However, she got right back up and shouted "Amys, amys, sus!
Sus! Nostre Sire a condepne les Angloys!",which meant "Friends,
friends, up! Up! Our lord has condemned the English!". The English
were successfully defeated, and the survivors surrendered.
Charles was later crowned king with Joan at his side, holding
her banner.
The English and the French had another clash on August 14 and
15 where Joan led a charge ageist the English. However gory the battle cold have been, both
armies withdrew on the 15.
Later at her own will, Joan left on the 23ed with a body of
troops. On September 8th a brief battle began, where Joan was hit in the
thigh and carried back ageist her will. No farther attack was made
It was later in May that her troops were ambushed by Burgundian.
After she decided to stay with the rear guard during the retreat she was
captured. The gates were then permanently shut behind her trapping she and
her solders outside. She refused to surrender, and was finally pulled
off her horse by an archer and had no choice but to surrender.
King Charles, tried to rescue her, but he could not force the
Burgundans to give her up for ransomed. Joan was transferred to the
English for 10,000 livres after being a prisoner for four months. Normally
female suspects would be held in a church run prison with nuns as their guards,
but Joan was held in a military prison with English solders as guards.
It was because of this that she kept her pants and tunic on, and refused to wear
a dress. Because of this the English decided to add cross dressing and
defiance to her charges. When Joan finally agreed to wear a dress, her guards
tried to rape her and finally took her dress and gave her back her pants
and tunic that she was forbidden to wear. She was then charged with
defiance and it lead to her death.
At the trial the English had tried to accuse her of
witchcraft, but those charges were dropped. She had been vary content at
her trial, she listened carefully and gave them straight answers that they couldn't
use ageist her.
On the day of her
execution, she said nothing. She
listened to the sermon who read to her, she started to cry during her address
and then started to talk, it was then she forgave her accusers and asked them to
pray for her. They tied her to a tall pillar above the crowd. She
had asked for a cross, which one solder had tried to provide, but instead found
only a cross that the friar held in front of her until the flames rose. As
the flames burned her, she repeatedly screamed "...In a loud voice the holy
name of Jesus , and implored and invoked without ceasing the aid of the saints
of paradise.", then her head drooped, and it was all over.
Joan of Arc died at the age of eight-teen but her story is
still remembered over six hundred years later
Hyper Links
http://joan-of-arc.org/joanofarc_short_biography.html
http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographys/joanarc.html
Pictures
That was my Joan of arc page, I hope you
enjoyed it and learned something from it!