Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc)Saint of the Roman Catholic church and French national heroine.

 

I am not afraid... I was born to do this.


If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.


I  was in my thirteenth year when I heard a voice from God to help me  govern my conduct. And the first time I was very much afraid.



Saint Jeanne d’Arc, The Maid of Orleans is a recognized Saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Although she was excommunicated and burned at the stake for heresy by local officials in 1431, central Church officials would later nullify her excommunication, declaring her a martyr unjustly executed for a secular vendetta. Her legend would grow from there, leading to her beatification in 1909 and her canonization in 1920. The details of the life of Jeanne d’Arc form a biography which is unique among the world’s biographies in one respect: It is the only story of a human life which comes to us under oath, the only one which comes to us from the witness-stand.

She remains the only figure in history ever to be both condemned and canonized by the Catholic Church

She played a major (and somewhat mysterious) role in rallying the flagging forces of Charles VII against the English occupier in 1429, leading her troops to breaking the siege of Orléans and having Charles VII, the Seventh, the king of France officially crowned king in Reims the same year. Girl and soldier, saint and heretic, savior – since the time of her death, Jeanne has inspired thousands of historians, poets, and painters. Each of them tells a different story.

 the role she played in the Hundred Years’ War. This war started, with interruptions, from 1337-1453, and began as a dynastic conflict between the English and French royal houses which both laid claim to the French throne. Initially this war went badly for France; the Dauphin, later King Charles VII, had to withdraw for safety to the Castle of Chinon from the English and their allies, the Burgundians.

In 1429, the country lass Jeanne d’Arc (1412-1431), managed to reach him at the castle, led by divine inspiration. This started her military successes: with a small army she marched on Orleans which she managed to rid of the English. Her success was a powerful momentum for French national consciousness. New successes at Patay and Reims followed. The performance of the Pucelle (Virgin) d’ Orleans led to a change in the war in favour of the French.

It culminated in the coronation of Charles VII in Reims cathedral on 17 July 1429, in which Jeanne d’Arc held her standard above Charles’s head. A complete English defeat seemed unavoidable, but the siege of Paris in September failed, due to lack of the necessary means. In May 1430, she fell into the hands of the Burgundians, who delivered her to the English.

In February 1431, a trial began against her in which she was condemned as a witch. On 30 May 1431, she died at the stake on the Place du Vieux Marché in Rouen.