Joan of Arc: The Short but Eventful Life of the Maid of Lorraine
Quick answer: Who was Joan of Arc?
Joan of Arc was a French peasant girl born around 1412 in Domremy who, guided by voices she believed came from God, persuaded the future Charles VII to send her with the army to relieve the siege of Orleans in 1429. She saw him crowned at Reims, was captured at Compiegne in 1430, and was tried and burned at Rouen in 1431 at 19. She was canonized in 1920.
May is a good month to remember Joan of Arc. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XV on May 16, 1920, and executed in May 1431. Born around 1412 to Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romee, a peasant family in the village of Domremy in northeastern France, she grew up in a borderland so divided by the Hundred Years' War that, as she said at her trial, children fought children and came home "wounded and blooded." France was in desperate shape. Henry V of England invaded in 1415 and won at Agincourt, and the 1420 Treaty of Troyes promised the French crown to Henry and his heirs. The English held Paris and Rouen, and since 1428 they had besieged Orleans, the key to the Loire. At 13, Joan began hearing voices in her father's garden. "The voice came from the right, from the direction of the church, and was accompanied by a bright light," she said. At 16 she talked her way past a local garrison commander, Robert de Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs, and was eventually escorted to Charles at Chinon. She convinced him to send her with the army. In May 1429 the siege of Orleans was lifted, and she pressed on through enemy territory until Charles was crowned at Reims that July. That was the height of her military success. In May 1430 she was captured at Compiegne, sold to the English, and tried at Rouen for heresy by a court under Bishop Pierre Cauchon. She was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431, at 19. A later inquiry overturned the verdict, and France came to see her as a symbol of its unity.
Why it matters for leaders: Joan's conviction carried her far beyond what anyone thought a peasant girl could do, and she kept it to the end.
Q: When was Joan of Arc canonized?
A: On May 16, 1920, by Pope Benedict XV.
Q: Why was Joan of Arc executed?
A: An English-backed church court in Rouen convicted her of heresy, and she was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431. The verdict was overturned in 1456.
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By John Fenzel, founder and CEO of Heroes' Path Foundation