Joan of Arc also called the maid of Orleans, a patron saint of France and a national heroine, led the struggle to the English invasion of France in the Hundred Years War. She was the third of five to a farmer named Jacques Darc and his wife Isabelle de Vouthon in the town of Domremy on the border of provinces of Champagne and Lorraine. During most of her childhood she attended her fathers herd in the fields and learning religion and housekeeping skills from her mother. When Joan was approximately 12 years old, she began hearing voices of Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret believing them to have been sent by God.
These very same voices told her to free her country from the English and help the Dauphin gain the French throne. She was told by them to cut her hair, dress in mans uniform and to pick up the arms. By 1429 the English with the help of their Burgundian allies occupied Paris and all of France north of the Loire. The resistance was minimum due to lack of leadership and a sense of hopelessness. Henry VI of England was claiming the French throne. Joan convinced the captain of the dauphins forces, and then the Dauphin himself of her calling.
After she passed an examination by a board of theologians, she was given troops to command and the rank of captain. In May 1429 at the battle of Orleans, Joan led the troops to a miraculous victory over the English. She continued fighting the enemy in other locations along the Loire. Fear of troops under her leadership was so formidable that when she approached Lord Talbots army at Patray, most of the English troops and Commander Sir John Fastolfe fled the battlefield. Fastolfe was later exposed of his Order of the Garter for this act of fearfulness.
Although Lord Talbot stood his ground, he lost the battle and was captured along with a hundred English noblemen and lost 1800 of his soldiers. Charles VII was crowned king of France on July 17, 1429 in Reims Cathedral. At the coronation, Joan was given a place of honor next to the king. Later she was ennobled for her services to the country. In 1430 she was captured by the Burgundians while defending Compiegne near Paris and was sold to the English. The English in return, handed over to the ecclesiastical court at Rouen led by Pierre Cauchon, a pro English bishop, to be tried for witchcraft and heresy.
Much of it was made for her insistence on wearing mens clothing. She was told that to wear mens clothing was a crime against God. Her determination to continue wearing it was seen as rebelliousness and finally potted her fate. After a fourteen-month interrogation Joan was convicted, and in 1431 she was burned at the stake in the Rouen marketplace. She was nineteen years old. Charles VII made no endeavor to come to her rescue. In 1456 a second trial was held and she was pronounced innocent of the charges against her.
