History Fix

Ep. 123 Joan of Arc: How a Teenage Peasant Girl Helped Turn the Tide of the Hundred Years War

• Shea LaFountaine • Episode 123

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Join me this week as I recount the unbelievable true story of Joan of Arc, the 16 year old peasant girl who dressed in mens clothing and led French armies to victory in the 1420s. Something like this happening today seems near impossible, but in the 15th century when women had few rights, it was inconceivable. So how did a teenage girl with no military training come to lead successfully soldiers in battle? And what about the voices? Was Joan of Arc really sent by God to save France? 

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It’s 1428. A16 year old peasant girl stands in a field outside her family’s modest stone cottage. Her face is upturned towards the heavens as if listening intently for something. Her mother, watching warily from the window, calls her back inside. This is not a safe time or place to be a girl standing alone in a field, not a field in Domremy, France anyway, positioned directly between two enemy forces who had been at war for almost a hundred years now. Joan heads back inside to appease her mother but she remains unbothered by the threat of violence. In fact she knows that soon enough she must intentionally seek out that violence. She must be the one to lead France to victory. That’s what the voices have told her anyway - Saint Michael, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret. They speak to her often and she listens. This may sound like the plot of an animated children's movie, one meant to inspire young girls with tales of heroism and bravery. In the end, that peculiar girl in the field, Joan of Arc, will lead France to military victory after military victory. Yes, a teenage girl dressed as a man leading an army into battle in the 1420’s. Even if it were an animated children’s movie, critics would complain that it was too unrealistic. But this is no fictional tale. The story of Joan of Arc is well documented, with more surviving records backing her than any other historical figure of the time period. So what really happened in this remarkable expectation shattering tale and what is merely the stuff of legends? Let’s fix that. 


Hello, I’m Shea LaFountaine and you’re listening to History Fix where I discuss lesser known true stories from history you won’t be able to stop thinking about. The story of Joan of Arc isn’t necessarily lesser known but it is absolutely bananas and deserves some attention. Shout out to Caspar on Instagram for suggesting this one. Sorry I dropped the ball this year on a pride month episode, Caspar, I got you next year for sure. The story of Joan of Arc breaks so fully with what we typically see happen throughout history that it is honestly hard to believe. It is hard to believe that this actually happened and yet, we have solid documentation that it did. Helen Castor writes for History Extra quote “We know her story so well because of the survival of two remarkable caches of documents. Her case was heard in court twice over: one trial, in 1431, condemned her to death as a heretic, and the other, completed 25 years later, cleared her name. In the transcripts we hear first-hand testimony from Joan, her family and her friends. What could be more revealing?,” end quote. 


But, there’s still a lot to sort out here, there’s still a lot to fix. Castor goes on quote “But all is not as simple as it seems. The memories recounted by Joan and those who knew her were deeply infused with the awareness of who she had become and what she had achieved. In many ways, then, her story is a life told backwards. Not only that, but at almost every point there are discrepancies between the accounts of different witnesses, and sometimes within the testimony of a single witness, including that of Joan herself,” end quote. So let the fixing begin. 


To understand the story of Joan of Arc, you have to understand what’s going on in France at the time, late 1420s. And actually the story of what’s going on in France at the time goes back almost 100 years at this point, the Hundred Years War. The Hundred Years War actually lasted for 116 years and it was an ongoing dispute between England and France over land and specifically over control of the French crown. France and England are long time frenemies, kind of like Spain and England. They loved to like intermarry with each other’s royalty but then also go to war with each other at the drop of a hat. So the Hundred Years war started all the way back in 1337 and it started because of all the intermarrying going on between England and France. What happened was, in 1337, Edward III was king of England. But Edward III was also the grandson of the French king, Philip IV. Edward’s mother, Isabella, was Philip’s daughter and she, as a French princess, had been married off to the English king Edward II. So King Edward III of England was King Philip IV of France’s grandson. So Philip IV dies, no worries, he has three sons to succeed him to the throne, which they do each ruling for only a few years before dying without any male heirs. So the youngest of Philip’s sons dies, no male heirs, who is going to be king next? Well logically that would be Edward, right? Philip IV’s grandson and the nephew of the most recent king. But Edward gets passed over, presumably because he is already king of England, and they put a cousin on the throne instead, Philip of Valois. They claim that Edward can’t be king because he is only related through his mother and women can’t pass on succession because they don’t themselves possess it something stupid like that but really it’s because Edward is the King of England and France did not want an English king. 


Edward is not happy about this and he retaliates by starting the one hundred years war. Bit of an overreaction possibly, like, you’re already the king of one major world power but whatever. I mean it’s not totally his fault. He’s just like “Get out of here Philip, I’m actually King of France.” and Philip is like “nuh uh, how dare you even say that, now I’m going to take over this random duchy that England controls in France.” and then Edward is like “oh no you don’t,” and invades France. That’s how the war starts. And, to be clear, it’s called the hundred years war but it wasn’t like nonstop fighting for a hundred years. There were long periods of peace interspersed in that. Initially England was kind of killing it. They are winning battles and taking land left and right. In 1356 England captures the then French King John II and holds him for ransom. So ish got real. This resulted in a treaty cause you can’t be like kidnapping kings and stuff. It’s gone too far. The treaty says France pays a ransom, they get their king back. Edward has to give up his claim to the French throne, he’s gotta let that go, but he gets to hold on to a bunch of French territories that he’s claimed. 


So everyone agrees to the terms, everything is good for a minute. In 1364, France’s King John II, the one who got himself kidnapped, he dies, and his son Charles V takes the throne. Charles decides to break the peace treaty by reclaiming the territories that England had taken from them. The truce is broken and fighting resumes for decades, passes from one king to the next. England is mostly winning again which is surprising because they’re actually quite outnumbered. For example in 1415, England under King Henry V won the Battle of Agincourt with only 6,000 men compared to France’s 24,000 and this was mostly due to their use of the longbow. That’s where we’re at here, longbows are like the cutting edge technology at the time. 


So this all gets really confusing and messy because kings keep dying and their heirs keep taking the thrones and they all have the same names as their fathers, but basically what’s happening right before Joan comes on the scene is Henry V is king of England and Charles VI is king of France. Charles VI was also known as Charles the Mad, I talked about him in episode 11, Mad Kings, he was the one with glass delusion where he thought his body was made of glass and would shatter. So that’s not helping. Anyway, Henry V has won the battle of Agincourt for the English, this really important battle and that leads to a treaty being signed where Henry V, the English king, claims the French throne. He’s going to marry Charles’ daughter and become king of both England and France when Charles dies. But Henry ends up dying before Charles dies, actually less than 2 months before. Henry dies and his heir, Henry VI is only nine months old and everyone is like “no way. We may have signed up for an English king but we sure as heck didn’t sign up for a baby English king” and the whole plan gets derailed. Most of the country is team France, they want to put Charles’ son Charles’ VII on the throne, who, by the way, has already been acting as king regent for the past few years because his father was clinically insane. The rest of the country is team England, they want to put the nine month old baby Henry VI on the throne. And really what happens is a civil war breaks out in France amidst the hundred years war that has already been going on between France and England. We’ve essentially got like a war within a war happening and Joan’s home town of Domremy is right in between the two sides, with English Henry supporters to the north and French Charles supporters to the south. 


Most of France sees Charles as the king, cause Charles is French, and he’s essentially been their king already since 1418. This side is referred to as the Armagnacs. But Charles hasn’t actually been crowned king officially yet. And that’s because French kings are always crowned in the city of Reims and Reims is controlled by team England, as is Paris. And it’s like, okay, well easy fix, just crown him somewhere else. But that’s apparently out of the question and so Charles just sort of waits in limbo. He can’t officially be king until his coronation but they can’t do the coronation until they can reclaim Reims from the English and English supporters who are called Burgundians. And you may be wondering, why are any French people supporting the English and the English king. It’s because they didn’t like Charles VII. He had arranged the assassination of the Duke of Burgundy which to them meant he had forfeited the throne. That’s why they’re called Burgundians cause of the whole Duke of Burgundy thing. This is where Joan comes in. 


For years now Joan has been hearing voices. According to her trial testimony it started when she was 13 years old and sitting in her father’s garden. Voices spoke to her and she identified these voices as the voices of three Christian saints, Saint Michael who is more than just a saint he’s an archangel. And then also Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret. And according to Joan, the voices told her that she had to help Charles, the would be king, she had to help him reclaim Reims so that they could finally do this dang coronation and he could finally become the legit king of France. Preteen peasant girl in a garden, why not Michael, seems the obvious choice to lead the French army to victory. They haven’t managed it yet in a hundred years, time to try something different I suppose. In 1428, when Joan is sixteen years old, she’s been hearing these voices for around 3 years now, Joan finally decides to act on it. She goes to Vaucouleurs which is in the English Burgundian controlled northern part of France but it’s a Charles stronghold, the French are holding it down there. And I can’t imagine how this went down. I can’t imagine she was just like “see ya Pops, unaccompanied 16 year old girl here, I’m just gonna go stroll into enemy territory real quick. Don’t mind me.” They were not supportive at first but she did it anyway. Before she left, her father had actually had nightmares that Joan quote “went away with the men in arms.” She later said during her trial quote “I have heard my mother say that my father told my brothers ‘Truly, if I thought this thing would happen that I have dreamed about my daughter, I would wish you to drown her; and, if you would not do it, I would drown her myself!’ He nearly lost his senses when I went to Vaucouleurs,” end quote. I don’t really get that, like you’re so worried that something bad is going to happen to your daughter that you’re going to drown her to keep it from happening? That makes me think it’s less about keeping Joan safe and more about like family honor, their reputation, that sort of thing. 


Anyway Joan goes to Vaucouleurs, this French stronghold, and she finds the captain of the garrison there and tells him about the voices and what she’s supposed to do, how she’s supposed to help Charles get to Reims to be crowned king. And the captain, naturally is like, “get this unhinged peasant girl out of here” and he sends her packing, he sends her back home. But less than a year later Joan returns. She comes back, she’s like “seriously let me do this, let me help, let me get our guy on the throne. I can do it. God is telling me I can do it.” The captain decides to give her a shot. He’s impressed that she’s returned. He’s impressed by her piety and her determination to carry out this mission and he agrees to get her to Chinon for a meeting with Charles, the would be king. Chinon is back father south in the French controlled territory. So Joan dresses in men’s clothing and, accompanied by six soldiers, she goes to meet Charles for the first time and tell him about the voices and about how she’s supposed to help him get to Reims to be crowned king.  


Charles knows she’s coming and he’s understandably skeptical. He’s probably questioning the captain in Vaucouleurs decision to send her at all. And so he actually hides during their meeting. Not like, in a closet or something, he just dresses like one of his courtiers and stands among them, he’s not on a throne, he’s not obviously the would be king, the dauphin. He blends in. She’s never seen him before. She won’t know which one he is. But she does. She immediately picks him out from the line of courtiers and tells him about her god given mission to deliver him to Reims. Charles is like “I don’t know about all this,” and he sends Joan to be questioned by theologians for several weeks. Theologians are like religious experts, people who study religious beliefs, analyze religious texts, that sort of thing. After interrogating and analyzing Joan, the theologians tell Charles basically “we don’t know about the voices and all that, she’s definitely weird, but honestly dude you are in a desperate situation. You’ve got no other hope. This girl says she can help you. Maybe you should take her up on it.” 


And so, unbelievably, Charles accepts Joan’s offer to help him claim the throne. He gives her her own small army and in April of 1429, Joan sets out towards Orleans which is like right on the line between the French and English controlled parts of France. It’s technically on the French side but it’s been under siege by the English for the last six months. To get to Reims, they have to go through Orleans. So they create a diversion and Joan and her army sneak into Orleans. They bring supplies to the people who have been trapped there under siege, and they rally the French resistance. They go to battle with the English for control of Orleans, Joan personally led the charge in several of these battles. Okay, let’s just dissect that for a second. Joan is like 17 years old at the time. She has never been trained in battle. She’s not like some military expert by any means. This is probably the first time she’s ever wielded a weapon. She can’t read, she’s never been to school. She signs her name at one point but it’s clear she can’t actually write because of the shakiness of the letters. She doesn’t even know these people and yet she is leading this French army successfully in battle again and again. On May 7th she is struck by an arrow. She quickly dresses the wound and returns to the battle which she wins. The next day, the English forces retreat from Orleans. A 17 year old girl who has no idea what she’s doing beats them, forces the English out. That is bananas. That actually happened. 


But the sights are set on Reims of course. Orleans was just the first of many battles. History.com reports quote “During the next five weeks, Joan and the French commanders led the French into a string of stunning victories over the English. On July 16, the royal army reached Reims, which opened its gates to Joan and the Dauphin. The next day, Charles VII was crowned king of France, with Joan standing nearby holding up her standard: an image of Christ in judgment. After the ceremony, she knelt before Charles, joyously calling him king for the first time,” end quote. And that was her mission really, recapture Reims, get Charles crowned king. But Joan doesn’t stop there. Next she and Charles try to reclaim Paris. It is not successful. Joan is injured in battle but continues to help rally the troops until Charles calls an end to the siege. Soon after, though, she led a smaller campaign that recaptured the town of Saint-Pierre-la-Moitier and Charles gives her, her parents, and her brothers titles of nobility. It was the least he could do. 


In May of 1430, the Burgundians, those French people who supported the English king, laid siege to Compiegne north of Paris and Joan wasn’t having it. She snuck into the town under the cover of darkness to help defend it but was captured by the enemy. The Burgundians who captured her sold her to the English and the following year she was put on trial for heresy, because of the voices. And you may be thinking, well how is that heresy? She’s claiming to hear Christian saints; she's clearly a Christian, not a heretic. But, according to the tribunal that tried her, she had rejected the authority of the church in favor of direct inspiration from God. Like, her crime was that God shouldn’t be talking directly to her, or rather she shouldn’t be listening directly to God. She was supposed to go through the church for that kind of communication. How dare she cut them out, this unnecessary middle man who so often skewed the message anyway. That’s what they’re mad about, on paper. And the more Joan talks about these saints, trying to convince them of her piety, the more they see her as essentially a witch. These weren’t saints that were talking to her, these were demons, the devil. But also, like, this is the English accusing her of this. And Joan has been kicking their butts in France, she got Charles crowned and everything. They couldn’t have been happy about that. Can you imagine? Getting beat by a 17 year old girl? The mighty male-dominated English who have been mostly winning this war for a hundred years. Now here comes this girl out of nowhere and the tide starts to turn. Something absolutely had to be done. 


Joan stands her ground at the trial. She’s like yeah the saints talk to me. They told me to do it. That’s why I was successful. It was ordained by God. And of course this justification, this confession, is just making her more and more guilty in their eyes and she is sentenced to be executed by burning at the stake, which is the punishment for heresy. Joan is horrified at the sentencing. She thinks she’s proving herself as a good Christian, the best of Christians, a Christian whose faith is so strong, the saints speak directly to her. But to the authorities, she is akin to a false prophet, a witch led by the devil, and so she is sentenced to burn alive. Terrified of this fate, Joan recants. She’s like “nevermind, nevermind, forget what I said about the voices, that didn’t happen” and her sentence is changed from death by burning to a life sentence which is referred to as “perpetual imprisonment.” And part of this was her agreeing to dress like a woman again. They were like “we’ll let you live but don’t you dare do the crossdressing thing anymore. Don’t you dare.”


So they throw Joan in jail in this tower in the castle of Rouen. Her life is to be spared, great. But soon, Joan realizes that she can’t live with this decision. She has defied the saints, denounced them publicly. She is living a lie and it’s eating at her. She comes to the realization that she would rather die honorably, a martyr, than live this lie for the rest of her life. Authorities are notified that Joan is dressing like a man again and they’re like “oh no she didn’t.” They go to her cell and she’s like “yeah, I can’t do this guys, it was the voices. The voices told me to do it. Burn me if you must.” She claimed that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret had scolded her for giving in to the church against their will. She is labeled a relapsed heretic and her execution date is set. On May 30, 1431 when Joan was just 19 years old she is handed over from the church to secular authorities and taken to Place du Vieux-Marche in Rouen, France. While initially terrified, Joan had come to terms with her fate. She remained calm as she was tied to the pyre. She had requested that a priest in the crowd hold up a cross high enough for her to see and she stared at it as she burned, reciting prayers in a voice loud enough to be heard above the roar of the flames. Witnesses reported that her last word before she lost consciousness was “Jesus!” 


According to the witness report of a cleric 25 years later when Joan was retried posthumously, her heart remained unburned after her execution, despite the best efforts of the executioner. Later the same guy reported that a white dove had been seen fluttering from the flames as Joan breathed her last breath. And so we start to see little bits of legend grow from the very real story of Joan of Arc at that second trial 25 years after her death. But this makes sense when you look at what ultimately happened with the hundred years war. By 1453, so 22 years after Joan was killed, Charles had reclaimed all of the land taken by the English except for one city called Calais. Despite all of the many English victories, the French ended up winning the hundred years war and this ultimate victory was credited in part to Joan. She had gotten Charles crowned as king just as she said she would. She had led the French in unbelievable victories, sent by God, ordained by the saints, died a martyr to the cause. Joan served, in death, as this great source of military inspiration for the French. They rallied after her death, determined to reclaim their country as was God’s will. And so they did. In death, Joan became the savior of France and so, of course, after the war ended she was retried and declared innocent of heresy. Her name was cleared. Which like, great, not going to bring her back from the dead but thanks anyway guys. 


This is kind of what Helen Castor is referring to in that History Extra article when she says quote “The memories recounted by Joan and those who knew her were deeply infused with the awareness of who she had become and what she had achieved. In many ways, then, her story is a life told backwards,” end quote. Like in hindsight she becomes this legendary figure with this perfectly constructed story, but in reality the pieces of the story don’t fit together as neatly as they seem to from here, from now. Everything looks perfect from far away right? Castor goes on quote “Glossing over these contradictions has helped to create the legend of Joan of Arc, an icon who, in the modern world, has developed the protean capacity to be all things to all people. But if, instead, we trace the evolution of key elements in her story through the evidence of the two trials we get closer to the real Joan. And she, a roaring girl who – in fighting the English, took sides in a brutal civil war – is every bit as extraordinary as the myth,” end quote. 


According to Castor citing the trial records, the voices, Joan hearing the voices of the saints wasn’t as big of a deal at the time this was all playing out. People weren’t like “oh she hears voices, let her do whatever she wants.” That’s not how it went down. According to Castor, there is no surviving evidence to suggest that Joan said anything about hearing the voices of saints initially. This didn’t really come out until she was put on trail in 1431. But then again, we know Charles sent her to be interrogated by theologians so there had to be some mention of this being a mission from God. And a mission from God always comes with a sign. To the theologians, Joan claimed the sign was that God would allow her to lift the siege of Orleans in order to get the king to Reims and so they decided to give her a chance, to test out this sign and of course she was successful. They saw the sign. Later, when she was tried by the enemy, they too asked for a sign that she was on a mission from God. She told them that an angel had come to her while she was at Charles’ court at Chinon and given her a golden crown so finely wrought that no earthly goldsmith could have made it. She spins this fantastical tale about this angel and this golden crown, trying to prove herself not a heretic which actually backfires and proves it more and more in the court’s eyes. However later, just before her execution, Joan is asked again “Did an angel really come to you and give you a golden crown?” and she admits that, in reality, she was the angel and the golden crown was her promise that she would deliver Charles to Reims for his coronation. So it’s a metaphor. Which begs the question, how much of what Joan claimed during her trial was actually metaphorical. 


Castor writes quote “Joan’s need, alone in a hostile courtroom, to vindicate her mission had drawn her into a tale that made metaphor reality – to such problematic effect that her supporters, at the hearings to clear her name 25 years later, passed over it in silence. Some witnesses claimed instead that she had miraculously recognised Charles at first meeting even though he sought to disguise his identity, or that she had told him secrets she could only have known from God. But the truth seems to have been that what convinced the Armagnacs of her claims was victory in battle, proof positive that God was on their side. And that, of course, was a sign her Burgundian judges would never have accepted or recognised,” end quote. So it was much more about her remarkable victory in battle at the time than her claims of hearing the voices of saints. But really I think these two things are linked. Joan was emboldened by these voices. Were they actually saints? Was she just cuckoo? Hearing voices isn’t usually a good thing. I don’t know. But either way, it’s safe to say that Joan of Arc, a teenage peasant girl with no military experience, obviously, did remarkable things. At a time when women were nothing, they had no voice, no power, they certainly did not lead armies and here is Joan leading France to victory at Orleans, victory at Riems, setting the stage for France to win the hundred years war after 116 years of fighting. Whether you believe Joan actually spoke with saints as the Catholics do, officially making her a saint in 1920 or not, the story is no less remarkable. Because if Joan didn’t speak with saints, if she wasn’t sent by God, she at least believed she was. And that belief was enough for her to accomplish seemingly impossible things. It says a lot about the human mind and the power of confidence, our ability to manifest things into being with the belief that it’s not only possible, it’s ordained. Joan believed she could and so she did. Just as remarkable as her success though, is the fact that she was even allowed the opportunity to try. France put her at the head of their armies, dressed as a man, a teenage girl with no military training. That is extraordinary. That would be wild even today but back in the 1400s, inconceivable. And it says a lot about who Joan was. She’s often called charismatic. Castor called her a “roaring girl.” Joan clearly had power over others. It’s really no wonder they killed her. A teenage girl dressed in men's clothing hearing voices and beating England in battle. Absolutely not. But even the English, it seemed, regretted that decision almost immediately. At Joan’s second trial 25 years after her death, witnesses recounted that French and English alike wept as she burned, moved by her suffering, overwhelmed by the enormity of what they had done to her, Saint Joan of Arc, the peasant girl from Domremy who turned the tide of the Hundred Years War. 


Thank you all so very much for listening to History Fix, I hope you found this story interesting and maybe you even learned something new. Be sure to follow my instagram @historyfixpodcast to see some images that go along with this episode and to stay on top of new episodes as they drop. I’d also really appreciate it if you’d rate and follow History Fix on whatever app you’re using to listen, and help me spread the word by telling a few friends about it. That’ll make it much easier to get your next fix. 


Information used in this episode was sourced from History.com, History Extra, Wikipedia, and the jeanne-darc.info. As always, links to these sources can be found in the show notes.