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In the English occupied city of Rouen in Normandy. In 1427 Jeanne Darc was a peasant girl of maybe 15 years in the French town of Domremy. She was illiterate and desite the presence of the 100 Years war, had no real contact with the war. It is possible that she never even saw a soldier. The war was caused by the French succession. Both the kings of England and of France had claims of inheritence to the French throne. In those days it mattered who your king was as foreign kings typically treated the country far more harshly than locally born kings. For example, following the Conquest of 1066, William of Normandy ran England into the ground and caused much suffering among regular people. By the 1420s, the war was going badly for France. The crown prince was on the run and the country was being squeezed between England in the west and her ally Burgundy in the east. In 1429, the last strong hold was the fortress city of Orleans and it was under seige.
Jeanne began to be influenced by "voices" as she later characterized them of Sts. Margaret and Catherine. The voices told her to get a letter of introduction from the local landlord and take it first to the nearby city of Valcolours and then to Chinon where the crown prince held court. Following initial reluctance, the landlord finally agreed. At Valcoulors she picked up an armed escort and proceeded on the long trip to Chinon. Upon arrival she proclaimed that she had been sent by the king of heaven to assume command of the French army and raise the seige at Orlean. She was allowed in to see the crown prince. There she realized that it was not the c.p. on the throne and found him in the crowd. (There were no photographs then.) Later, in private, she is reported to have told Prince Charles some profound personal secret that she could only have known by divine intervention. That secret is lost to history.
For whatever reason, Chuck gave Jeanne the army. Whatever his or the generals' intentions, Jeanne excercised actual field command and lead from the front. She arrived at Orleans which was not completely invested and entered the city. After a dictated warning was ignored, she ignored the advice of generals who advised caution and immediately went on the offensive. Small castles had been constructed by the English surrounding the city and the French assaulted them. Jeanne herself was shot in the shoulder by an arrow, but after being bandaged, she continued to lead from the front. On May 8, 1429, the English were in full retreat. She then proceeded to clear out the Loire Valley en route to Rhiems, the cathedral town where French rulers had been coronated since Charlemange. In thanks, she alone stood in armor with her own flag while Charles was coronated and she was made a pier with permission to use the royal fleur-de-lis on her coat-of-arms and the right to female inheritence for the daughters she never had. (Her noble name was Jeanne D'Arc de Lis.) Her home town remained tax exempt until the Revolution.
Following the coronation, her fortunes went downhill quickly. Her effort to raise the seige at Paris failed (where she was wounded a second time.) Ultimately, she was captured at Compien in another failed campaign. Her Burgundian captuers sold her to England where she was tried by an illegal ecclesiastical court. She defended herself ably, but with the procedural rules and the circular dogma stacked against her, she eventually confessed under duress and false pretenses. She retracted her confession and was condemned as a relapsed heretic. They burnt her alive in the market square at Rouen. She was maybe 17. The crowd rioted accusing the English church officials of murdering a saint. Years later, at the urging of King Chuck, the church vacated the judgment claiming the tribunal was illegally constituted. In 1920, Jeanne was cannonized as St. Jeanne D'Arc, patron saint of France and of the French Army.
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