Joan of Arc -- Peasant Girl, Military Leader, and Saint (1412-1431)

Joan of Arc is born around January 6, 1412, to Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romee, propertied peasant farmers in the village of Domremy in northeastern France. The region remains loyal to the French crown during the Hundred Years' War, despite being surrounded by Burgundian and English territories.

At around age 13, Joan begins experiencing visions of saints, which she later identifies as Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and Saint Margaret of Antioch. The visions instruct her to drive the English from France and bring the dauphin Charles to Reims to be crowned king. Joan later testifies that the visions were accompanied by light and voices, and that she wept when they departed.

After repeated attempts to gain an audience, Joan secures an escort from the garrison commander Robert de Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs. Dressed in men's clothing and accompanied by six men, she travels for 11 days through enemy territory to reach the royal court at Chinon. At Chinon, Charles VII tests her by disguising himself among his courtiers, but Joan identifies him immediately, reportedly convincing him of her divine mission.

Joan arrives at the besieged city of Orleans with reinforcements and supplies, entering by the eastern gate. Over the following nine days, she leads several assaults against English siege positions, despite being wounded by an arrow between the neck and shoulder. The English withdraw on May 8, 1429, ending the 209-day siege. This victory is a turning point in the Hundred Years' War and establishes Joan as a military leader.

Joan orchestrates the Loire Campaign to clear English forces from the Loire Valley. The French achieve a series of victories: the storming of Jargeau (June 12), the capture of Meung-sur-Loire bridge (June 15), and the recapture of Beaugency (June 17). On June 18, at the Battle of Patay, French cavalry catches a large English army in the open, destroying it with minimal losses in the most decisive French victory of the war since 1415.

Following the Loire victories, the French army marches unopposed through English-held territory to Reims, traditionally the site of French royal coronations. Charles VII is crowned king in Reims Cathedral, with Joan standing at his side holding her banner. This fulfills the central promise of Joan's divine mission and significantly strengthens the legitimacy of Charles's claim to the throne.

Joan leads an assault on the heavily fortified city of Paris, held by Burgundian-English forces. She is wounded in the thigh by a crossbow bolt. The assault fails, and Charles VII, having secured his coronation, negotiates a truce with Burgundy rather than continuing the campaign. Joan's influence at court wanes as the king pursues diplomatic rather than military solutions.

During a skirmish outside the town of Compiegne, Joan covers the retreat of her troops but is pulled from her horse by a Burgundian bowman and captured. The Burgundians hold her for several months, and despite efforts by Charles VII to negotiate (or lack thereof -- the king notably did not intervene), she is sold to the English for 10,000 livres.

Joan is put on trial by an ecclesiastical court led by Bishop Pierre Cauchon, a pro-English cleric. The trial is politically motivated: a guilty verdict would delegitimize Charles VII by connecting his coronation to a heretic. Joan is interrogated publicly over multiple sessions, facing questions about her visions, her wearing of men's clothing, and her claim of direct divine authority. Despite her articulate and often brilliant responses, she is convicted on charges of heresy.

After a brief recantation and relapse (she resumed wearing men's clothing, reportedly because her women's garments were taken and she had nothing else to wear), Joan is condemned as a relapsed heretic. She is burned at the stake in the marketplace of Rouen before an estimated crowd of 10,000. She calls upon Jesus repeatedly as the flames rise. Her ashes are scattered in the Seine River to prevent any relic collection.

After the end of the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII commissions a posthumous rehabilitation trial at the request of Joan's mother, Isabelle. The trial reviews the original proceedings, hears testimony from over 100 witnesses including childhood friends and fellow soldiers, and formally annuls the original conviction, declaring Joan innocent and a martyr for France. The original verdict is declared to have been obtained through fraud, illegality, and coercion.

Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint in a ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The canonization completes a long historical arc by which a woman executed as a heretic in 1431 is formally recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church nearly five centuries later. She is declared a patron saint of France, and her feast day is celebrated on May 30.