Who was Joan of Arc

A.� Joan of Arc (1412-1431), Jeanne d'Arc, also called the Maid of Orleans, a patron saint of France and a national heroine, led the resistance to the English invasion of France in the Hundred Years War. At the age of 19 she was executed, burned at the stake. Crjoy asked us where

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Q. So how did this all happen

A.�� She was born the third of five children to a farmer, Jacques D'arc and his wife Isabelle de Vouthon in Domre�my-la-Pucelle on the border of Champagne and Lorraine. When Joan was about 12, she began hearing 'voices' of St Michael, St Catherine and St. Margaret, believing them to have been sent by God. These voices told her that it was her divine mission to free her country from the English and help the dauphin gain the French throne. They told her to cut her hair, dress in a man's uniform and to pick up arms.

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Q.� Why were the English there

A.� Henry VI of England claimed the French throne. By 1429 the English with the help of Burgundian allies occupied Paris and all of France north of the Loire. France was virtually leaderless after being soundly beaten at the battles of Agincourt and Verneuil. Joan convinced Robert de Baudricourt, captain of the dauphin's forces, and then the dauphin, of her saintly calling. After passing an examination by a board of theologians, she was given troops to command and the rank of captain.

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Q.� It all worked then

A. Seems so. Joan led the French troops to an amazing victory over the English at the Battle of Orleans in May, 1429. The army went from strength to strength and she became so feared that when she approached Lord Talbot's army at Patay, most of the English troops and commander Sir John Fastolfe fled the battlefield.

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Q.� All was going to plan for Joan

A.� Yes. Charles VII was crowned king of France in Rheims Cathedral on 17 July, 1429. Joan, the architect of the king's success, was given a place of honour next to him at the coronation.

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Q.� And then it all went wrong

A.� You guessed it.� In 1430 she was captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English. She was handed over to the ecclesiastical court at Rouen led by Pierre Cauchon, a pro-English Bishop of Beauvais, to be tried for witchcraft and heresy.�

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Q.� It was a fair trial

A.�� No chance. Her most serious crime was to claim that she received direct inspiration from God. This meant she refused to accept the church hierarchy and that was heresy. Joan was convicted after a 14-month interrogation and, on 30 May, 1431, she was burned at the stake in the Rouen marketplace. Charles VII, the man she made king, made no attempt to rescue her. Bizarrely, a second trial was held in 1456 and she was pronounced innocent. She canonised by Pope Benedict XV in 1920.

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By Steve Cunningham

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