Joan of Arc remains one of the most fascinating figures in medieval history. While most people know her as the peasant girl who led the French army, few understand the bizarre and tragic details of her short life. For instance, she never actually fought in combat or killed an enemy soldier. Furthermore, her own king refused to pay her ransom when the enemy captured her. Prepare to march to the siege with the Saint of France.
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc found her sword behind a church altar. She told her soldiers to dig behind the altar of Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois, where they discovered a rusty sword with five crosses on it. She claimed her voices revealed the location of the ancient weapon to her.
She never actually killed anyone in battle. Although she led charges and carried a banner, she viewed her role as a spiritual leader rather than a combatant. She preferred to carry her standard into the fray so she would not have to use her sword against another person.
The English burned her at the stake for cross-dressing. While the court accused her of heresy, the specific charge that sealed her death warrant was her refusal to stop wearing men’s clothes. She likely wore the tunic and hose to protect herself from assault by guards in prison.
A “Fake Joan” appeared five years after her death. A woman named Claude des Armoises arrived in 1436 claiming to be Joan, stating she had escaped the fire. Surprisingly, Joan’s own brothers accepted the impostor and traveled with her to meet the king.
Legend says her heart survived the fire intact. After the executioner burned her body to ash, he reportedly found her heart still whole and full of blood. He panicked and threw the organ into the Seine River because he believed he had burned a holy woman.
She had a volatile temper. Far from being a quiet saint, she frequently shouted at her soldiers to stop them from swearing and gambling. She even chased sex girls out of the military camp, reportedly breaking her sword on the back of one of them.
Doctors diagnosed her with modern disorders based on her visions. Some neurologists today suggest she might have suffered from epilepsy or schizophrenia because she heard voices and saw bright lights. However, these theories fail to explain how she successfully led an army and predicted military outcomes.
She sustained a severe arrow wound at Orléans. During the famous siege, an arrow pierced her between the neck and shoulder. Remarkably, she returned to the battlefield just hours later to lift the morale of her troops for the final assault.
The Pope did not canonize her until 1920. Although the Church overturned her guilty verdict twenty-five years after her death, it took nearly five hundred years for the Vatican to declare her a saint. She is now one of the patron saints of France.
Her iconic haircut influenced 20th-century fashion. In 1909, a Polish hairdresser named Antoine created the “bob” cut, inspired by the short hair Joan wore to fit into her helmet. This style became a symbol of female independence in the 1920s.
King Charles VII did nothing to save her. After the Burgundians captured her, the French king she had crowned refused to offer money or a prisoner exchange for her release. He seemingly viewed her as a political liability once she had served her purpose.
A prophecy predicted her arrival. A popular saying stated that “France would be lost by a woman and saved by a virgin.” People interpreted this to mean Queen Isabeau of Bavaria ruined the country, and Joan of Arc arrived to rescue it.
She jumped from a sixty-foot tower to escape. During her imprisonment at Beaurevoir, she leapt from the top of a tower in a desperate bid for freedom. Miraculously, she survived the fall with only minor injuries, though the guards recaptured her immediately.
We have her exact words from the trial transcripts. Scribes recorded every word of her interrogation, providing historians with a rare, direct voice from the Middle Ages. Her witty and sharp answers to the judges’ trick questions continue to impress legal experts today.
Finally, she was only nineteen years old when she died. She accomplished her entire military campaign, the crowning of a king, and her rise to legendary status while she was still a teenager. She remains the youngest person in history to command the armies of a nation.
