Joan of Arc was a French Heroine during the "Hundred Years War" in which England had laid France under siege. Joan was born to a peasant family in the war ravaged lands of France in 1412. During her early childhood, the village nearby Joan had been raided several times, and finally burned. When Joan was about twelve years old, she was working in a field when she heard voices all around her. Angels appeared before her and she is said to have collapsed in tears at the beauty of the heavenly beings around her. She said that Saint Micheal, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret told her to drive the English out of France.When she was sixteen, Joan traveled to the royal court of France and made an enormous impression of King Charles the VII. in a private court. It is said that, and quote, "After years of one humiliating defeat after another, both the military and civil leadership of France were demoralized and discredited. When the Dauphin Charles granted Joan’s urgent request to be equipped for war and placed at the head of his army, his decision must have been based in large part on the knowledge that every orthodox, every rational, option had been tried and had failed. Only a regime in the final straits of desperation would pay any heed to an illiterate farm girl who claimed that the voice of God was instructing her to take charge of her country’s army and lead it to victory."Joan was granted the position as head of the French army and lead them into victory time and time again. She seemed to know the exact course of action that the opposition was taking, and every time she countered it with a victory. In 1430 Joan was captured and tried in French court. She was interrogated by the Duke of France who wanted the throne for his nephew Henry VI, but since she had assisted in the coronation of King Charles, was said to have undermined the kings rule and was sentenced to death. The whole court was completely governmently ruled and there was no hope for escape.In 1431 at the age of 19, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. In 1456, Pope Callixtus III declared her innocent of the charges brought against her, and she was later patronized and recognized as a martyr. In 1920 she was officially titled as a saint. Joan of Arc played the largest role in the largest revolution of the era. The French went on to freedom, but only with the help of an illiterate farm girl.I think that this is an amazing story, and cannot believe what it must have been like to serve and fight along side with Joan. I could also not imagine what it would be like to lose battle after battle to a teenager aftert winning a war for decades.
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