Joan of Arc: The poor peasant girl who heard God and became a medieval military genius

Born around January 1412 in Domrémy, a rural hamlet within the Duchy of Bar, which at the time lay under the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Empire but leaned politically toward France, Joan of Arc grew up during a period of national crisis.

The English controlled vast territories in northern France, and the Burgundians, a powerful French faction allied with England, posed a constant internal threat.

The dauphin, Charles, had not yet been crowned and struggled to assert his legitimacy.  

According to her later testimony at her trial, these visions began around the age of thirteen and were delivered by saints such as Michael the Archangel, Catherine of Alexandria, and Margaret of Antioch.

These heavenly figures instructed her to drive out the English and bring the dauphin to Reims for his coronation.

Joan, who was likely illiterate but able to sign her name, convinced Robert de Baudricourt, the garrison commander at Vaucouleurs, to support her cause.

After repeated efforts, she secured an escort and travelled in male disguise through enemy-held territory to reach the royal court at Chinon.

There, she was granted an audience with Charles and sent to Poitiers for a theological examination intended to assess the legitimacy of her claims.

Although the process lacked strict formality, the examiners ultimately approved her mission.

Once she passed this inquiry, she gained the support of the king and his advisers.

What followed was one of the most remarkable military careers of the Middle Ages, particularly for someone with no formal training in warfare. 

Upon her arrival at Orléans on 29 April 1429, Joan entered a city under siege by the English and on the verge of surrender.

The French had been demoralised by years of defeat, yet Joan’s presence galvanised both troops and civilians.

Wearing white armour and carrying a banner bearing the names of Jesus and Mary, she led a series of aggressive assaults against the English fortifications.

Though she did not engage directly in hand-to-hand combat, she positioned herself in the thick of the action, offering encouragement and influencing decisions with bold recommendations.

One of the key positions, the Tourelles, proved especially difficult to capture, and during the assault, Joan was struck by an arrow.

Undeterred, she returned to the field, and within nine days, the siege was broken and the English retreated.

The lifting of the siege of Orléans marked an important turning point in the war.

The French had finally secured a meaningful victory, and Joan’s name spread rapidly across the kingdom. 

In the months that followed, Joan urged Charles to push toward Reims, the traditional site of royal coronations.

Though the journey passed through enemy territory, her determination proved persuasive.

She played a leading role in the Loire campaign and helped secure key victories at Jargeau and Patay, where the English suffered a crushing defeat.

Her presence at Meung-sur-Loire and Beaugency is less clearly documented, but still associated with the wider progress of the campaign.

With an army behind her, she moved steadily north and she captured towns and opened the road to Reims.

On 17 July 1429, Charles was crowned in Reims Cathedral, and Joan stood beside him and held her banner.

This act gave symbolic authority to his rule and dealt a serious blow to the Treaty of Troyes, which had, in 1420, named Henry V of England and his heirs as successors to the French crown and excluded Charles from succession. 

Despite these early victories, Joan’s influence began to weaken. Charles VII, cautious and politically hesitant, hesitated to push the advantage.

Joan’s push toward Paris in September 1429 ended in failure when she was wounded during the attack on the city's gates.

The king soon agreed to a truce with the Burgundians, which removed her from further campaigns.

By May 1430, Joan had returned to the field on her own and attempted to defend the town of Compiègne from Burgundian forces.

During a fight outside the gates, she was captured by troops under John of Luxembourg and later sold to the English for 10,000 livres tournois. 

Her captors handed her over to the pro-English church court in Rouen. There, she faced charges of heresy and cross-dressing under formal ecclesiastical law as well as informal suspicions of witchcraft.

The trial, which was arranged by Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais, who acted on behalf of the English despite not residing in his diocese at the time, was a political performance presented as a religious inquiry.

English and Burgundian officials hoped to cast doubt on her and the authority she had given on Charles VII.

Throughout the months-long trial, Joan answered detailed religious questions with confidence.

Her accusers focused on her claim that her visions were genuine and that she had acted on divine orders.

Despite no clear evidence of heresy, she was found guilty and sentenced to death.

On 30 May 1431, at the age of nineteen, Joan was burned at the stake in the marketplace of Rouen.

According to some eyewitnesses, including accounts of an English soldier who reportedly wept at her death, there was a sense that a holy woman had been unjustly killed. 

Years later, in 1456, a later retrial approved by Pope Callixtus III cleared her of all charges.

The court cancelled her original conviction, describing her execution as an unjust action, and it preserved records from her trial as evidence of her bravery.

Joan of Arc became a symbol of French unity and sacrifice. The movement for her canonisation began in the nineteenth century, and the movement for her canonisation gathered support during moments of national revival.

In 1920, Pope Benedict XV made her a saint of the Catholic Church. Her story endures because it goes against every expectation of her time.

A peasant girl without rank or education who lacked any military background had altered the course of a war, restarted a failing cause, and stood steady when she faced powerful enemies.

Her actions changed confidence in a split kingdom, and are among the most remarkable events in the history of medieval Europe.