Joan of Arc :: biographies bio biography

Jeanne d'Arc, commonly known as Joan of Arc , is the national heroine of France. Born in 1412 she was raised as a religious French peasant in Domrà ©my, in eastern France. Joan of Arc is famed for her input in several victories during the Hundred Years War, which actually lasted 116 years, and the coronation of King Charles VII. At the young age of twelve years old Joan first encountered the heavenly "voices" sent by Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret. The "voices" told her to drive out the English and help the Dauphin, soon to be Charles VII of France, to Reims to his coronation. Joan convinced Robert de Baudricourt that she was sent by god to save France. Baudricourt was skeptical, but her persistence gradually made an impression on him. On 17 February she announced a great defeat which had befallen the French arms outside Orlà ©ans (the Battle of the Herrings). As this statement was officially confirmed a few days later, her cause gained ground. At the battle of Orleans in May 1429, 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 Talbot's army at Patay, most of the English troops and Commander Sir John Fastolfe fled the battlefield. Fastolfe was later stripped of his Order of the Garter for this act of cowardice. 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. One year later she was captured by the Burgundians while defending Compiegne near Paris and was sold to the English. The English handed her over to the ecclesiastical court at Rouen led by Pierre Cauchon to be tried for witchcraft and heresy. Much was made of her wearing male clothing. She was told that for a woman to wear men's clothing was a crime against God. Her determination to continue wearing it (because her voices hadn't yet told