Most people can recount a rough schema of Joan of Arc ’s story : A young French girl hears voices , leads military personnel into fight and is burned at the stake as a heretic . It ’s a fabled story of courageousness passed along since the Middle Ages . Renderings of her young nerve have rallied together country , race , genders and bm . mention to theMaid of Orléansappear in the writings of Shakespeare , Henry Longfellow , Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw , to name a few . During World War I , U.S. Treasury Departmentpropagandaposters exhort woman to buy war bond , proclaiming " Joan of Arc Saved France . " In short , Joan of Arc ’s caption has come to represent the ultimate example of courage , patriotism and religious devotion .
But while we often get the primary secret plan point of Joan ’s abbreviated life correct , the ending has been botch up repeatedly . True , she was burn up at the stake at the eld of 19 , but it was n’t for heterodoxy orwitchcraft , as the chronicle often goes . In the end , the only offense that the Inquisition judicature could formally appoint the chaste maiden over with was that of wear human being ’s clothes . The winding logical system that led the judicial panel to condemn a somebody to expiry for her sartorial choices illustrates not only the genuine military scourge that Joan of Arc posed to the English , but also the utmost length the Catholic Church was willing go to maintain its tight control over Europe during theInquisition .
Two major religious and political conflicts had been brew for a while in France and the rest of Europe when Joan of Arc led the epical beleaguering of Orléans in 1429 . In 1231 , Pope Gregory IX initiated the Inquisition to purge any heretic out of the Catholic Church . Two centuries later , that judicature system of ecclesiastic court of justice was alive and well among the clerics in England and France .
England and France were also tangle in the latter part of the Hundred Years War ( which actually lasted 116 years ) . The fight began in May 1337 , when King Charles IV of France died without an heir to the crapper . exogamy between French and Englishnobilityincited a debate between King Edward III of England and Philip the Fair of France over who would claim the stool . In 1420 , it seem that the war might come to an terminal with the Treaty of Troyes , which guaranteed Henry V of England the French throne once Charles VI died . But Henry died in 1422 , and Charles follow in suit two months later , rendering the accord void – and reigniting the military conflict .
Joan of Arc’s Divine Mission
By 1429 , the English absorb the northern Gallic provinces of Normandy and Brittany . Burgundy , on the easterly boundary line of France , persist independent but ally with England , effectively pressuring French military group on virtually all sides . Charles VII , the Frenchdauphin(heir to the commode ) lived in expatriation in the Chinon lawcourt deep in France ’s westerly soil .
At the age of 16 , Joan of Arc set out to meet the exiled dauphin in Chinon . Three twelvemonth earlier , she beganhearingvoices one day while working alfresco at her abode in Domrémy in Champagne region . She identified them as belong to St. Michael , St. Margaret and St. Catharine . At first , the trio of saints advance her in simple things , such as being a full daughter . But then , the messages intensified . They directed Joan to cut her whisker scant and donmen ’s article of clothing for meet the dauphin and finally lead the French to triumph over the English , bringing Charles VII to the throne . Joan of Arc ’s father even had pipe dream of her palisade by soldier and urge her brother to keep their baby from go out .
Joan did n’t heed her father ’s compliments and set out for the dauphin ’s court with a newly dress hairstyle and an unwavering feeling that she was charge by God to put the rightful king on the pot of France . Not surprisingly , the 16 - year - honest-to-god thwartwise - dressing lady friend ’s arrival in Chinon did n’t go unnoticed . Two days after requesting to encounter with Charles , Joan of Arc was granted permission to hold motor inn with the dauphin .
When Joan of Arc arrive to meet him , Charles designedly hid among the crowd of nobility in the hall . Nevertheless , the 16 - yr - old agnize him immediately . After a abbreviated , secret conversation , Charles announced that he trusted Joan of Arc ’s inspired commission since she was able to tell him a secret about himself that no one else could possibly acknowledge ( which rest unknown to this day ) . To see that he was n’t about to hand over the fate of France to a predictor or witch , Charles sent Joan to be examined by a panel of cleric . They agreed with the dauphin that Joan of Arc had , indeed , heard the word of God . With that , Joan of Arc became a captain in the French military and prepare to rescue the city of Orléans from English occupation .
Victory and Arrest
Before heading into battle , La Pucelle , or " the Maid , " as she became know to the French , need proper armor and munition . Legend hold up that when it came time to supply Joan with asword , her accompanying spokesperson told her to seem behind the altar of the church Sainte - Catherine - de - Fierbois . There , the voices said , she would find a rusted blade with five crosses etch on it . surely enough , the humankind place to fetch the sword found it and wiped the rust off with noteworthy simpleness . In May 1429 , arm with her mystic sword , Joan of Arc led her troops to victory in Orléans after a nine - day battle . By July 17 , the French had advertize the English forces into retreat in Normandy , and the dauphin was crowned Charles VII , King of France .
With England still occupying northerly state and Burgundy unsettled , the conflict was n’t exclusively resolve . In 1430 , Charles VII wished to broker a armistice with England to terminate the combat , but Joan of Arc did n’t support that programme . The following spring , Joan of Arc lead a radical of soldier into the northerly province of Artois , where the English had revamped their occupancy [ source : Chamberlin ] . Outnumbered , Joan of Arc attempted to move back but was check in the procedure . Charles VII did nothing to rescue her , and the Maid of Orléans was delivered into English captivity . She was imprisoned in the town of Rouen , the English working capital in Normandy .
Instead of being deal as aprisoner of state of war , Joan of Arc was handed over to an Inquisition court . The master orchestrator of Joan of Arc ’s Inquisition trial run was Pierre Cauchon , the Bishop of Beauvais . Joan had captured the Beauvais province during her military conquests , which fuel Cauchon ’s vendetta against her [ seed : Chamberlin ] . He and a group of theologians at the University of Paris like to try her for heterodoxy . If they could successfully excoriate her of that , it would discredit Charles VII ’s ability to govern and allow the English to claim the throne .
The preliminary heresy investigation start out in January 1431 . Guarded by common English guard , Joan of Arc grow increasingly implicated about her safety in prison . For that intellect , she proceed to bear men ’s clothing to deter any sexual feeler [ germ : Pernoud and Clin ] .
Joan of Arc Condemned on a Technicality
After prolong , intensive questioning by Cauchon and the other members of the tribunal , Joan of Arc gave them no solution that could establish heresy . They accused her of practicingsorcery , but she prove repeatedly that she only followed the Good Book of God and believed in the infallibility of the Church and Pope . The clerics then proclaimed that her crisscross - dressing was an loathing to God , to which she answered , " the apparel are a small matter , the least of all things " [ source : Pernoud and Clin ] . However , Cauchon soon realized that through a trifle in canon law of nature , the tribunal could condemn her on this small thing .
When Cauchon later asked Joan of Arc whether she would ever disobey the Church , she responded , in her usual style , that she only fulfilled the Word of God of God . But the Church that Cauchon referred to was something call theChurch Militant , or the Catholic Church on Earth , not the Church in heaven with God , know as theChurch Triumph[source : Pernoud and Clin ] . That meant if Joan of Arc did n’t obey the directives of the tribunal on behalf of the Church Militant , she would technically be in noncompliance of the church and a misbeliever .
On May 24 , the court convinced Joan of Arc to ratify a sound text file say her meekness to the Church and recanting her claim about hearing the saint ' voices . attach to that document was acedula , or royal decree , also affirm that she would no longer wearmen ’s clothing . Upon her repudiation , the judicature unblock Joan of Arc back toprisonwithout indict her for any crime .
Yet , three days later in prison , Joan of Arc was again wearing man ’s clothes . In a later trial , some bear witness that guards had stolen Joan ’s distaff apparel and put back them with male clothes . Whatever the case , as shortly as Cauchon get a line the news , he forthwith reprobate her for lapsed heresy on the terra firma of cross - dressing . The same twenty-four hours , the tribunal handed Joan of Arc over to the laic court for her punishment : burning at the stake .
On May 30 , 19 - yr - previous Joan of Arc was taken into the public marketplace of Rouen , tied to a stake and burned animated . establish on a triviality buried within canon law , the Maid of Orléans died for the offence of transverse - dressing . Twenty years later , once Charles VII had driven a absolute majority of the English military group out of France , the verdict was nullified . In 1920 , the Catholic Church canonized Joan of Arc as a saint . The last word the supposed heretic screamed before dying amid the fire was the name of Jesus .
