Joan of Arc - Jeanne d’Arc (1412 - 1431) | Jeanne-darc.info (original) (raw)

Saint of the Roman Catholic church and French national heroine.

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This web project started in late 1997 and can now celebrate 25 years online.

Jeanne d'Arc 1412-1431

This web project is specific related to Jeanne d’Arc, also known as Joan of Arc, born January 6th, 1412, burned as a heretic, May 30th, 1431, canonised as a saint, May 16th, 1920

Saint and heretic, savior...

Guided by what she thought were divine voices
Jeanne revived French fortunes in the Hundred Years’ War. (1337–1453)
An intermittent struggle between England and France in the 14th–15th century.

Only 19 years old

On May 30, 1431 she was burned at the stake as a witch, only 19 years old. Almost immediately it was recognized that rather than being a witch she had been in fact a true agent of God.

Over the centuries her popularity grew until in 1920 she was canonized as a saint by Pope Benedict XV.

Girl and soldier

Since the time of her death, Jeanne has inspired thousands of historians, poets, and painters. Each of them tells a different story.

Jeanne d'Arc entered history during the spring of 1429

In obedience to what she said was the command of God, Jeanne inspired the Dauphin’s armies in a series of stunning military victories which lifted the siege of Orleans and destroyed a large percentage of the remaining English forces at the battle of Patay, reversing the course of the Hundred Years’ War. The Dauphin – Charles VII – was crowned a few months later at Reims.

Condemned and Canonized

The only figure in history ever to be both condemned and canonized by the Catholic Church.

Breaking the siege of Orléans

Works about her

Jeanne d’Arc has been a popular figure to depict in the culture since the time of her death and many famous writers, filmmakers and composers who have created works about her.

Legendary figure

Jeanne became a semi-legendary figure for the four centuries after her death. Brave, gentle, merciful, courteous, kind, and loyal. “relapsed, heretic & excommunicate”

Chronicles

The main sources of information about her were chronicles. Five original manuscripts of her condemnation trial surfaced in old archives during the 19th century.

Since her death

The people who came after her in the five centuries since her death tried to make everything of her: demonic fanatic, spiritual mystic, naive and tragically ill-used tool of the powerful, creator and icon of modern popular nationalism, adored heroine, saint.

Divine calling

She insisted, even when threatened with torture and faced with death by fire, that she was guided by voices from God. Voices or no voices, her achievements leave anyone who knows her story shaking his head in amazed wonder.

Cultural works

Documented

The life of Jeanne d’Arcis one of the best documented of her era. This is especially remarkable when one considers that she was not an aristocrat, but instead was a very young peasant girl.

The Trial of Condemnation

One of the most significant and moving trials ever conducted in human history. Of no other trial of the fifteenth century have we a report approaching this in detail and accuracy. In February 1431, a trial began against her in which she was condemned as a witch. On 30 May 1431, she died at the stake on the Place du Vieux Marché in Rouen.

The Battle of Orléans

Jeanne proved herself to the king after winning the battle of Orleans, and was promoted in her conquest to save France from England. Considered to be one of the most decisive battles in history.

Convicted of witchcraft

Jeanne was convicted of witchcraft and fraud, and condemned to the grounds of insisting to wear male clothing. She was burned at the stake at Rouen’s Old Market Square only 19 years old, but should have been spared if she would wear appropriate women’s clothing

The details of the life of Jeanne d’Arc form a biography which is unique among the world’s biographies in one respect: It is the only story of a human life which comes to us under oath, the only one which comes to us from the witness-stand. Although she was excommunicated and burned at the stake for heresy by local officials in 1431, central Church officials would later nullify her excommunication, declaring her a martyr unjustly executed for a secular vendetta. Her legend would grow from there, leading to her beatification in 1909 and her canonization in 1920.

Girl and soldier, saint and heretic, savior

Since the time of her death, Jeanne has inspired thousands of historians, poets, and painters. Each of them tells a different story. Guided by what she thought were divine voices, Jeanne revived French fortunes in the Hundred Years’ War.

She played a major (and somewhat mysterious) role in rallying the flagging forces of Charles VII against the English occupier in 1429, leading her troops to breaking the siege of Orléans and having Charles VII, the Seventh, the king of France officially crowned king in Reims the same year. Girl and soldier, saint and heretic, savior – since the time of her death, Jeanne has inspired thousands of historians, poets, and painters. Each of them tells a different story.

Guided by what she thought were divine voices, Jeanne revived French fortunes in the Hundred Years’ War. She was later captured and sold to the English, who burned her at the stake for heresy and perjury in 1431, in Rouen France.

Her death only made her more powerful.

She was only 19 years old

The role she played in the Hundred Years' War.

This war started, with interruptions, from 1337-1453, and began as a dynastic conflict between the English and French royal houses which both laid claim to the French throne. Initially this war went badly for France; the Dauphin, later King Charles VII, had to withdraw for safety to the Castle of Chinon from the English and their allies, the Burgundians. In 1429, the country lass Jeanne d’Arc, managed to reach him at the castle, led by divine inspiration. This started her military successes: with a small army she marched on Orleans which she managed to rid of the English.

Her success was a powerful momentum for French national consciousness. New successes at Patay and Reims followed. The performance of the Pucelle (Virgin) d’ Orleans led to a change in the war in favour of the French. It culminated in the coronation of Charles VII in Reims cathedral on 17 July 1429, in which Jeanne d’Arc held her standard above Charles’s head. A complete English defeat seemed unavoidable, but the siege of Paris in September failed, due to lack of the necessary means. In May 1430, she fell into the hands of the Burgundians, who delivered her to the English. In February 1431, a trial began against her in which she was condemned as a witch.

On 30 May 1431, she died at the stake on the Place du Vieux Marché in Rouen.

Sixteenth-century France made her a national heroine.

The men of subsequent centuries took her story for their plays and poems, her image for their statues. She became the spirit of France, the maiden, the holy warrior, the Republican and Napoleonic symbol for opposition to the English and for those who would protect France from foreign domination. In the Second World War Charles de Gaulle used her standard, the Cross of Lorraine, as the symbol of Free France. In 1920 she was canonized as a saint by Pope Benedict XV.

Cultural depictions of Jeanne d'Arc

Jeanne d’Arc has inspired artistic and cultural works for nearly six centuries. Portrayals of Jeanne d’Arc are numerous. For example, in 1979 the Bibliothèque Municipale in Rouen, France held a gallery containing over 500 images and other items related to Jeanne d’Arc and Schiller’s play inspired at least 82 different dramatic works during the nineteenth century, and Verdi’s and Tchaikovsky’s operatic adaptations are still recorded and performed. Most of the others survive only in research libraries.

As another example, in 1894, Émile Huet listed over 400 plays and musical works about Jeanne d’Arc. Despite a great deal of scholarly interest in Jeanne d’Arc no complete list of artistic works about her exists, although a 1989 doctoral dissertation did identify all relevant films including ones for which no copy survives. Examples of fine art

“We declare you of right excommunicate and heretic, being stubborn and obstinate in your crimes, excesses and errors; and we pronounce it meet to abandon you to the secular justice as a limb of Satan, infected with the leprosy of heresy, cut off from the Church, in order to prevent the infection of the other members of

Christ …” last words addressed to Joan of Arc, Wednesday 30 May 1431

About this web project

This web project is an effort to collect, record and publish the history of Jeanne d’Arc in hypermedia.

This project is displayed for educational or research purposes, and enjoyment of others. Not only offer general readers an intriguing and authentic insight into a past age, but also provide artists, historians, students, and theater and film with a highly accurate source of reference material.

The project is aimed at historical actuality, authenticity, factuality and focuses on the true value of knowledge claims about what really happened. Read more ->

This web project is pure ‘labour of love’ and is tended by a dedicated history and art lover in my spare time.

If you are enjoying the content that I create and would like to support my work by “buying me a coffee” then I’d really appreciate it.