Joan of Arc – NOT Mrs Noah

The single most extraordinary thing about Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, is that 12% of Americans think she was married to Noah, late of the Parish of Mesopotamia. That’s an actual statistic from Pew Research. I’m guessing that if you think Joan was married to Noah, you probably wouldn’t be able to fill out a Passport form, so we don’t meet them on Chain Gang tours.

We cross paths with Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years War all over the place, on our Loire Valley tour, but also our Bordeaux Winetrail, Champagne, and Burgundy tours. If you’d asked me about Joan of Arc when I started The Chain Gang, I’d have said “French girl, young, rode a horse, fought in a war, a long, long time ago.” One of my favourite podcasts, ‘The Rest Is History’ did a 5-part series on Joan, so assuming there was a bit more to her than riding a horse, I thought I’d dig a little bit deeper into what Joan actually did.

I know that Chinon and Loches were involved. I know she told some French King to ‘boot the English out of France’, and I know she got burnt at the stake. That’s about it.

But, if you ask Chat GPT who are the greatest French heroes, Joan is No. 1. Ahead of Charles de Gaulle, ahead of Napoleon. I don’t want to regurgitate the history of her life. Too long, nobody will read it, and I couldn’t possible do it justice. But I did want to find out why she’s the No. 1 hero. She’s their Churchill, their George Washington, their Wayne Greztky! What did she do?

Some historical context is unavoidable. She was born in a village called Domrémy, near Nancy, East of Paris, in 1412. France and England were about two-thirds of the way through the 100 Years War, although I guess they didn’t know it at the time. The key thing to know is that England were winning, and absolutely nothing was going France’s way.

In 1415 the King of France, Charles VI, suffered a crushing defeat at Agincourt, forcing him to sign the Treaty of Troyes, disinheriting his own son, the Dauphin, and naming the English King, Henry V, as his legitimate heir to the French throne. The English held all of Northern France, including Paris, and also Reims, the cathedral city where French Kings and Queens were traditionally crowned.

France was also mired in civil war. As well as the English, the Dauphin (the future Charles VII), was also at war with the Burgundians. So when English King Henry died before French King Charles, who in turn died in 1422, the situation got complicated, to say the least, and for the Dauphin, the future looked bleak. Holed up in Bourgues, he was referred to dismissively as ‘the King of Bourges’. Akin to being in charge of his own shed.

Enter 17-year old Joan of Arc.

She somehow managed to get to Chinon, where she was presented to the Dauphin. She’d had a ‘vision’, various Saints had told her the Dauphin must get himself to Reims, seize the Crown, and ‘boot the English out of France’. God was on their side.

It was a preposterous suggestion, and the Dauphin suggested to Joan she first prove herself by lifting the siege of Orleans where the English had the French surrounded. Without dwelling on the details, she succeeded, and became known as ‘the Maid of Orléans’.

Joan gate-crashed Charles again, this time in the Cité Royale in Loches, one of my favourite of all the Loire Valley chateaux.

Obviously she was taken a bit more seriously, and she shared her ‘vision’, that Charles must travel to Reims, seize the French crown, and boot the English out of France. She was still only 17, but at Joan’s urging, the Charles made his way to Reims, through more than 150 miles (240 Km) of enemy territory, and declared himself King Charles VII, with Joan beside him, under a magnificent silk banner that became an important part of her legend.

The Burgundians, allies of the English, held much of the territory between the Loire and Reims, and many Burgundy-held towns threw open their gates to Joan and the future king, so things were looking-up.

She moved onto Paris, successfully taking St Denis to the North, but within 10 months it was all over. Joan was captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, and burnt at the stake. Her crime? Wearing men’s trousers. I kid you not! She briefly agreed to stop wearing men’s trousers, but she recanted, which was classed as heresy, and her fate was sealed. She was put to death by the English in May 1431, aged just 19!

The Hundred Years War carried on for more than 20 years, Joan certainly didn’t win it. So why is Joan such a hero? She died aged just 19, was involved for no more than a year, and The Hundred Years War still had 20 years to run.

In short, before Joan arrived, France were losing horribly, to a much poorer and smaller enemy. After Joan arrived, they won. The tide turned irreparably. Burgundy reconciled with France, recognising Charles as the rightful King, the French improved both their tactics and their artillery. But basically it was all uphill until Joan of Arc rescued Orléans, and all downhill in sunshine after the coronation in Reims.

She conducted herself very well throughout her trial (which suggests, of course, that the English did not!) – it’s worth reading about. – and was subsequently canonised.