Domremy
The woman later known as the Maid of Orleans, in French la Pucelle, was born around 1412 in the village of Domremy on the border between the duchy of Bar and the lands around Vaucouleurs. Her exact birth date is not recorded, and she herself seems not to have known her age precisely. Her family worked the land. She learned the prayers and household tasks of a village girl, and, by her own account, she did not learn to read.
The war was never far away. Armed bands moved through the borderlands, and at least once the villagers fled with their cattle to a nearby town to escape a raid. The local lord was loyal to the dauphin, even as the great Burgundian duchy pressed close. Around the age of thirteen, Joan later said, she heard a voice she took to be from God, and over time she came to identify the voices as saints. Whatever one makes of the experience, it clearly shaped everything that followed.
The road to Chinon
In 1428 she asked a local garrison captain at Vaucouleurs to take her to the dauphin, and was at first turned away. Her persistence, and perhaps a growing local reputation, led to support in early 1429. She cut her hair, dressed in men’s clothing for safety on the road, and rode with a small escort for about eleven days through hostile territory to Chinon, in the Loire valley.
At Chinon she was received by Charles, and then examined by churchmen at Poitiers. They reported that they found nothing wrong in her, and it was concluded that she could be allowed to accompany the army. She was provided with armor, a banner and a small household. She also dictated a letter to the English commanders, calling on them to withdraw from France.
Orleans
The English had been besieging Orleans since October 1428. The city was important because it controlled a crossing of the Loire and the road to the south. Joan arrived in late April 1429 with a supply convoy. In the following days French forces attacked the English siege forts, and by 8 May the English withdrew. Joan was present, was wounded by an arrow near the neck, and returned to the fighting. Her exact decisions are uncertain, and many of the French captains who were with her, such as Dunois, were experienced commanders. Even so, the relief of Orleans was celebrated across France, and was attributed in popular memory to the Maid. The question of what she did militarily is taken up in a companion article.
From Orleans to Reims
A campaign along the Loire followed in June, culminating in the French victory at Patay, where an English force was overwhelmed. Joan urged Charles to go to Reims for the coronation without delay, even though the route lay through territory held by Burgundy and the English. Many towns opened their gates, and Charles was crowned in Reims Cathedral on 17 July 1429, with Joan standing near with her banner.
Setbacks and capture
After the coronation, the French court began talks with Burgundy, while Joan wanted to press on. An attack on Paris on 8 September failed, and she was wounded. Over the winter she stayed with the court or on minor operations. In May 1430 she went to help the town of Compiegne, which was under siege by Burgundian troops. During a sortie she was captured by men of a Burgundian captain. Charles VII did not attempt to ransom her, and the reasons are debated: he may have been unable, unwilling, or unaware of the situation. She was sold to the English and taken to Rouen.
Trial and death
The trial began in early 1431 under Bishop Pierre Cauchon. She was questioned over many sessions about her voices, her dress and her loyalty to the church. The record shows a quick-witted young woman, who sometimes avoided the traps of her interrogators. Such church tribunals were supposed to follow strict procedure, but the court was operating in English-held territory, and she was denied the transfer to a different court that she may have been entitled to.
After a period of pressure she signed a statement of abjuration, and then resumed male clothing, which the court treated as proof of relapse. On 30 May 1431 she was burned in the market square at Rouen. Her ashes were reportedly thrown into the Seine. Eyewitness accounts speak of her calling on Christ at the end.
After her death
Charles VII retook Rouen in 1449 and began an inquiry that led to the rehabilitation trial of the 1450s. The earlier verdict was annulled in 1456. In the nineteenth century she became a national symbol of France, and in 1920 she was canonized by the Catholic Church. Her dates and her main actions are well supported, while the more colorful stories about her, including those about her early visions, need to be treated as testimony rather than established fact.