Me & Joan (of Arc)

At the age of 13, Joan began to hear voices, which she determined had been sent by God to give her a mission of overwhelming importance: As part of this divine mission, Joan took a vow of chastity. At the age of 16, after her father attempted to arrange a marriage for her, she successfully convinced a local court that she should not be forced to accept the match.

In May , Joan made her way Vaucouleurs, a nearby stronghold of those loyal to Charles. Initially rejected by the local magistrate, Robert de Baudricourt, she persisted, attracting a small band of followers who believed her claims to be the virgin who according to a popular prophecy was destined to save France.

After sending off a defiant letter to the enemy, Joan led several French assaults against them, driving the Anglo-Burgundians from their bastion and forcing their retreat across the Loire River. She and her followers escorted Charles across enemy territory to Reims, taking towns that resisted by force and enabling his coronation as King Charles VII in July The Anglo-Burgundians were able to fortify their positions in Paris, and turned back an attack led by Joan in September.

The Burgundians took her captive, and brought her amid much fanfare to the castle of Bouvreuil, occupied by the English commander at Rouen. In the trial that followed, Joan was ordered to answer to some 70 charges against her, including witchcraft, heresy and dressing like a man. The Anglo-Burgundians were aiming to get rid of the young leader as well as discredit Charles, who owed his coronation to her. In May , after a year in captivity and under threat of death, Joan relented and signed a confession denying that she had ever received divine guidance. On the morning of May 30, at the age of 19, Joan was taken to the old market place of Rouen and burned at the stake.

Her fame only increased after her death, however, and 20 years later a new trial ordered by Charles VII cleared her name. Long before Pope Benedict XV canonized her in , Joan of Arc had attained mythic stature, inspiring numerous works of art and literature over the centuries and becoming the patron saint of France.

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. At Rouen in English-controlled Normandy, Joan of Arc, the peasant girl who became the savior of France, is burned at the stake for heresy. Joan was born in , the daughter of a tenant farmer at Domremy, on the borders of the duchies of Bar and Lorraine. They also asked her whether she had a mandrake a figurine for invoking demons , to which she replied: And finally she was asked again about the sign which was given to her King whereby he recognized her and her mission and again she refused to answer any questions on this subject, saying "Go and ask him.

After taking the oath in the same form as before, the questioning turned once again to the appearance of the Saints whom she claimed to see. Addressing the question of a future escape, she said that the saints in her visions "told me that I shall be delivered, but I do not know the day or the hour. Turning again to the question of her adoption of soldier's attire, she was asked if she had worn it "by revelation. Many other questions about this matter were put to her which she refused to answer. But it did transpire that, on several occasions, she had been offered women's clothing and asked to put off her male attire but she replied that she "would not put it off without God's leave.

Trial of Joan of Arc - Wikipedia

Many other questions about her standard and pennons and those of her followers ensued. She replied that they were made of "white satin, and on some there were fleur-de-lis. After briefly describing her meeting with Friar Richard at Troyes , the questioning turned to the issue of paintings of Joan "At Arras , I saw a painting of myself done by the hands of a Scot" and the response of the common people to her — the kissing of her rings, hands, garments, and the like. Joan was then asked about her meeting with Catherine de La Rochelle, a French mystic who likewise claimed to have revelations from God.

Joan said her saints had described Catherine as "folly and nothing more". Finally, the session closed with some questions about Joan's escape attempt from the castle at Beaurevoir, where she was held for a number of months by her Burgundian captors. She stated that although her visions forbade it, "from fear of the English, I leaped and commended myself to God" and "in leaping was wounded", further stating that she would "rather surrender her soul to God than fall into the hands of the English".

Questioning resumed, this time in her prison cell, with only a handful of assessors present. Joan described the action outside Compiegne when she was taken prisoner by the Burgundians. Asked about the role of her saints in this action, Joan reported that "Easter week last, when I was in the trenches at Melun, I was told by my voices.

John's Day," adding that "it had to be so" and that "I should not be distressed, but take it in good part, and God would aid me. She was then asked about her banner and the meaning of the designs painted thereon. Finally, the session closed with questions about the sign she gave to Charles as proof of her mission. Joan was questioned concerning the first meeting with her King when he was shown a sign.

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She further stated that they her saints "often come without my calling, but sometimes if they did not come, I would pray God to send them", adding "I have never needed them without having them. Later, when commenting on when she first heard her voices, Joan said that she "vowed to keep her virginity as long as it should please God" adding that she was then "thirteen years old, or thereabouts". She said that she had not told anyone of her visions neither her parents, nor her priest, nor any churchman , except Robert de Baudricourt. Asked whether she thought it was right to leave her parents without permission, she responded that she did so at the command of God and therefore "it was right to do so," further stating that "afterwards, I wrote to them, and they forgave me.

Joan was asked concerning a dream which her father had prior to her leaving Domremy. She replied that she was "often told by my mother that my father spoke of having dreamed that I would go off with men-at-arms" and that she had heard her mother tell how "my father said to my brothers 'in truth, if I thought this thing would happen which I have dreamed about my daughter, I would want you to drown her; and if you would not, I would drown her myself'.

The questioning then turned again to her adoption of male attire. She answered that the decision to adopt same was "of her own accord, and not at the request of any man alive. The bulk of this session was taken up with a discussion of the "sign" shown to the King Charles when Joan first met him at Chinon. When asked whether she had sworn to St. Catherine not to tell the sign, Joan replied, "I have sworn and promised not to tell this sign, of my own accord". Nevertheless, she then went on to describe the sign and the meeting in detail. She described an angel bringing the King a crown of pure gold, rich and precious, which was put in the King's treasure.

She added that when she first came to the King accompanied by the angel, she told him, "Sire, this is your sign; take it. The questioning then turned to the assault on Paris. She stated that she went to Paris not at the behest of a revelation, but "at the request of nobles who wanted to make an attack" adding that "after it had been revealed to me. The morning session of March 14 began with lengthy questioning concerning Joan's leap from the tower at Beaurevoir where she had been held captive prior to being delivered to the English.

She gave as one of the reasons for the leap that she knew she "had been sold to the English, and I would have died rather than fall into the hands of my enemies the English. Asked directly whether, in leaping from the tower, she expected to kill herself, Joan replied, "No, for as I leaped I commended myself to God. The questioning then turned to her Saints and the light which accompanied them when they spoke to her.

Trial of Joan of Arc

She stated that there was not a day when they did not come, and that they were always accompanied by a light. She asked three things of her voices: The prisoner was asked about a warning which she had given to Bishop Cauchon. She reported her words as follows:. Asked what this meant, she reported that St.

Catherine had told her she would have aid, that she would be delivered by a great victory, adding, "Take everything peacefully; have no care for thy martyrdom; in the end thou shalt come to the Kingdom of Paradise". The questioning ended for this session with Joan being asked whether, after hearing this revelation, she felt she could no longer commit mortal sin. She replied, "I do not know; but in everything I commit myself to God. In the afternoon of the same day, the assessors convened again in Joan's prison cell, taking up where the morning session had left off, namely, with the question of Joan's salvation and the certainty she felt concerning same.

Joan of Arc’s Early Life

Joan qualified her earlier reply by adding that her belief in her salvation was "provided that I kept my oath and promise to Our Lord to keep safe my virginity of body and of soul. Asked about any need she felt to confess, she responded that she "did not know of having committed mortal sin," adding that "if I were in mortal sin, I think St. Margaret would at once abandon me. After a question was raised concerning allegations that Joan had taken a man at ransom and subsequently had him put to death, she answered that she had not done that.

Then the assessors read off a list of charges, all of which had been dealt with in previous examinations, and asked her, in reference thereto, whether or not she felt herself in mortal sin as a result. Apart from this, her replies to the charges concerning the attack on Paris on a Feast Day, the allegation that she had stolen a horse from the Bishop of Senlis , her leap from the tower of Beaurevoir, her wearing of male clothing, and the aforesaid charge concerning a prisoner who was put to death were a recapitulation of earlier replies.

Regarding the horse, her statement was that she had purchased the horse from the Bishop, but that she did not know if he received the money. Throughout the trial, Joan had been requesting to hear Mass which had been refused to her. She was asked whether or not it would be proper for her to attend church wearing men's clothing or women's clothing. Throughout the rest of this section Joan tells the inquisitors that she is confident in what she has said to them. I assure you, I would not do or say anything against the Christian faith. If I had said or done anything, or if there were anything on my body that clerks could say was against the Christian faith the Lord established, I would not uphold it but would reject it.

She explains more about how she interacts with the Saints.

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In nearly the last session, Joan answers questions about her Saintly voices as well as wearing men's clothes. She refuses to answer some of the questions posed by her inquisitors about her banner and sword, but explains to them that she had already answered these questions, something that she repeatedly does throughout the entirety of her trial. In the final section of her trial, Joan is questioned about her banner. The inquisitors imply that the banner is the reason that she had been victorious in battle, but Joan gives all credit to God.

Joan had told her inquisitors that Saints Margaret and Catherine gave her the banner though it was provided by God. Joan is asked whether she had been in contact with any fairies, why she looked at her ring before battle, and why the banner was present at the Dauphin's coronation. This is where accusations of Joan being a witch are more focused. The ordinary, or regular, trial of Joan began on March 26, the day after Palm Sunday, with the drawing up of the 70 articles later summarized in a 12 article indictment.

If Joan refused to answer them, she would be said to have admitted them. On the following day, the articles were read aloud and Joan was questioned in French. The next two days, the extensive list of charges were then read to her in French. The Ordinary Trial concluded on May 24 with the abjuration.

On May 24, Joan was taken to a scaffold set up in the cemetery next to Saint-Ouen Church, and told that she would be burned immediately unless she signed a document renouncing her visions and agreeing to stop wearing soldiers' clothing. She had been wearing a soldiers' outfit consisting of a tunic, hosen, and long boots that went up to the waist, tied together with cords around the waist. The clergy who served on the tribunal later said Joan had kept this clothing tied tightly together during her months in prison because she said she needed such an outfit to protect herself from possible rape: One of the court scribes, Guillaume Manchon, later recalled: But faced with immediate execution on May 24, she agreed to give up this clothing and sign the abjuration document.

On May 28, Joan recanted her previous abjuration, donned men's apparel once more, and was accused of relapsing into heresy. The chief trial notary later said: And then one of these Englishmen took away the female clothing which she had, and they emptied the sack in which the male clothing was, and tossed this clothing upon her while telling her, 'Get up'; and they put away the female clothing in the aforementioned sack.

And, as she said, she put on the male clothing they had given her, [after] saying, 'Sirs, you know this is forbidden me: She was declared "relapsed", giving the court nominal justification to have her executed.