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Joan of Arc, Fr. Jeanne D'Arc (zhän därk), 1412?–31, French saint and national heroine, called the Maid of Orléans; daughter of a farmer of Domrémy on the border of Champagne and Lorraine.

Inspiration and Leadership

At a young age she began to hear "voices"—those of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret. When she was about 16, the voices exhorted her to bear aid to the dauphin, later King Charles VII, then kept from the throne by the English in the Hundred Years War. Joan won the aid of Robert de Baudricourt, captain of the dauphin's forces in Vaucouleurs, in obtaining an interview with the dauphin. She made the journey in male attire, with six companions. Meeting the dauphin at Chinon castle, she conquered his skepticism as to her divine mission. She was examined by theologians at Poitiers, and afterward she was furnished with troops by Charles.

Her leadership provided spirit and morale more than military prowess. In May, 1429, she succeeded in raising the siege of Orléans, and in June she took other English posts on the Loire and defeated the English at Patay. After considerable persuasion the dauphin agreed to be crowned at Reims; Joan stood near him at his coronation. This was the pinnacle of her fortunes.

Capture and Martyrdom

In Sept., 1429, Joan unsuccessfully besieged Paris. The following spring she went to relieve Compiègne, but she was captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English, who were eager to destroy her influence by putting her to death. Charles VII made no attempt to secure her freedom. In order to escape responsibility, the English turned her over to the ecclesiastical court at Rouen. She was tried for heresy and witchcraft before Pierre Cauchon and other French clerics who supported the English.

Probably her most serious crime was the claim of direct inspiration from God; in the eyes of the court this refusal to accept the church hierarchy constituted heresy. Throughout the lengthy trial and imprisonment she bravely fought her inquisitors. Only at the end of the trial, when Joan was sentenced to be turned over to a secular court, did she recant. She was condemned to life imprisonment. Shortly afterward, however, she retracted her abjuration, was turned over to the secular court as a relapsed heretic, and was burned at the stake (May 30, 1431) in Rouen. Charles VII made tardy recognition of her services by a rehabilitation trial in 1456 that annulled the proceedings of the original trial.

Joan was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920 (feast: May 30). Her career lent itself to numerous legends, and she has been represented in many paintings and statues. In literature and music she appears notably, though not always accurately, in works by many eminent writers and composers.

Bibliography

Among her biographies, the best known is that of J. Michelet (tr. 1957). See also biographies by A. Lang (1908) and V. Sackville-West (1936); translations of the trial records by W. P. Barrett (1932 ed.) and W. S. Scott (1950); R. Pernoud, The Retrial of Joan of Arc (tr. 1955) and Joan of Arc by Herself and Her Witnesses (tr. 1966); C. W. Lightbody, The Judgements of Joan (1961); H. Guillemin, Joan, Maid of Orleans (1973); M. Gordon, Joan of Arc (2000).

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Joan of Arc

Saint known as the Maid of Orl?ans; French name Jeanne d'Arc. ?1412--31, French national heroine, who led the army that relieved Orl?ans in the Hundred Years' War, enabling Charles VII to be crowned at Reims (1429). After being captured (1430), she was burnt at the stake as a heretic. She was canonized in 1920. Feast day: May 30

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Joan of Arc 

(in French, Jeanne d’Arc). Born circa 1412, in Domremy; died May 30, 1431, in Rouen. Popular French heroine. Leader of the French people’s struggle for liberation from the English during the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453).

Joan of Arc, the daughter of peasants, was born in a warravaged village in Lotharingia. A fanatically religious woman, Joan believed that she was foreordained to liberate France. In February 1429, after much effort, she secured an audience with the dauphin Charles and persuaded him to initiate decisive military actions. Placed in command of the army, she inspired the troops, and on May 8, 1429, she liberated Or-leans from the English (which led to her being called the Maid of Orleans). After a series of victories, Joan led the army to Reims, where she was instrumental in consecrating the dauphin as King Charles VII on July 17, 1429.

The scope of the people’s war and Joan’s enormous popularity frightened the king and the court aristocracy. Subsequently, Joan was virtually removed from military leadership. On May 23, 1430, during a French sortie from the besieged city of Compiegne, she was captured by allies of the English, the Burgundians. They sold her to the English, who took her to Rouen, where an ecclesiastical court accused her of heresy and witchcraft. She was burned at the stake. In 1456, Joan of Arc was triumphantly rehabilitated by a new trial in France. In 1920 the Catholic Church canonized her.

REFERENCES

Skazkin, S. “Zhanna d’Ark—geroinia frantsuzskogo naroda.” In Kniga dlia chteniia po istorii srednikh vekov, part 2. Moscow, 1951.
RozentaT, N. N. Zhanna d’Ark: Narodnaia geroinia Frantsii. Moscow, 1958.
Raitses, V. I . Zhanna d’Ark. Leningrad, 1959.
Levandovskii, A. P. Zhanna d’Ark. Moscow, 1962.
Liublinskaia, A. D. “Zhanna d’Ark.” In the collection Srednie veka. Moscow, 1962. Fasc. 22.
France, A. “Zhizn’ Zhanny d’Ark.” Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 14.Moscow-Leningrad, 1928. (Translated from French.)
Hanotaux, G.Jeanne d’Arc. Paris, 1911.
Waldman, M.Joan of Arc. London, 1935.
Calmette, J. Jeanne d’Arc. Paris, 1946.
Stolpe, S. Das Mädchen von Orlyéans. Frankfurt am Main, 1954.

E. V. BERNADSKAIA