She was the teenager who led the French army to an incredible victory against the English but found herself burned alive only a few years later.
In this episode, we'll be looking at the amazing life of Joan of Arc, patron saint of France.
[00:00:05] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:12] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today is going to be the start of another three-part mini-series, this time on the subject of France. In today’s episode we will learn about the patron saint of France, Jeanne D’Arc, a mysterious young lady who was burned at the stake.
[00:00:40] Next, in part two, it’ll be a boy from Corsica who turned into the greatest military genius the country had ever seen, until…he wasn’t. And by this I mean, of course, Napoleon Bonaparte.
[00:00:53] And in the final part, part three, it’s going to be the complex but incredibly important case of L’affaire Dreyfus, the Dreyfus Affair, the biggest miscarriage of justice in French history.
[00:01:08] OK then, let’s get right into it and start with a patron saint of France, the famed defender of her motherland, Jeanne D’Arc, or to anglicise her name, Joan of Arc.
[00:01:23] For many people, their late teens are important years in terms of self development and growing up. When you’re 17, 18, 19, society starts to consider you a “grown up”, an adult.
[00:01:39] In the UK you can get a driving licence when you’re 17, you can vote in elections when you’re 18, you can legally buy alcohol and cigarettes, and by your 18th birthday you’re treated as an adult in the eyes of the law.
[00:01:56] This might be a time when you finish school, start university, leave home, fall in love, do all the sorts of things that are probably very important to you, but probably not so important outside of your immediate circle.
[00:02:13] For the subject of today’s episode these years were somewhat different.
[00:02:19] Very little is known about Joan of Arc as a young girl, and nothing is known about her after her teenage years because she was burned at the stake, she was publicly executed by the English before her 20th birthday.
[00:02:35] And in these years, during these late teenage years, her actions turned her into a French heroine, remembered as the saviour of the country, and they would lead her to her being canonised, turned into a saint, several hundred years later.
[00:02:53] So, before we get into the short but eventful life of this young lady, it’s worth reminding ourselves of what exactly was happening in France, and in Europe, at the time of her life.
[00:03:07] Joan was born in 1412, so towards the end of the series of wars that would come to be called the Hundred Years War.
[00:03:17] Long story short, this conflict was primarily about who had the rightful claim to be king of France.
[00:03:26] In 1328 Charles IV of France died, leaving no direct male heirs, no sons or brothers. His closest male relative was Edward III, the King of England.
[00:03:42] Remember, it was only in 1066, only a few centuries before, that William the Conqueror had sailed over from Normandy, in France, to claim the English throne for himself, and the French and English royal families had a lot of overlap.
[00:04:00] So, it’s 1328, the French king dies, his nearest relative is the English king, but clearly, allowing the King of England to also become King of France would be problematic; the French weren't so keen on the idea, but the English were.
[00:04:20] This triggered a series of wars that would last until 1453 and drag in several other European states.
[00:04:29] So, this was the environment Joan was born into, and the conflict that would dominate her life.
[00:04:38] Right, let’s talk about Joan herself.
[00:04:42] She was born in or around 1412. Her father was a peasant farmer called Jacques d’Arc and her mother a pious woman named Isabelle Romée.
[00:04:54] Now, not a huge amount is known about the details of the early life of Joan, and what we do know, at least in terms of her upbringing and family life, would have been pretty standard for a young lady at that time.
[00:05:10] She grew up in a small village called Domrémy, to the east of Paris.
[00:05:17] Given its location to the north of the country, relatively close to England, Domrémy, this village was at the heart of the conflict.
[00:05:27] She was brought up in a highly religious environment, Catholic of course.
[00:05:33] Her youth would have been spent helping her parents work the land, cooking, and doing housework. She never went to school, so never learned to read or write.
[00:05:45] So far, just your normal, run-of-the-mill French peasant teenage girl in the 15th century.
[00:05:52] But soon enough it was clear that this young woman was different.
[00:05:59] When she was 13 years old, she said that she heard voices. Or rather, the voice of an angel, sent to her by God.
[00:06:10] And what did this angel want, what was the message that it was bringing to her, directly from God?
[00:06:18] The first message, so Joan would say, was simply that she should be a good young Christian - she would behave well, and go to church.
[00:06:28] Fortunately, she was doing this already, so it didn't require a great change of lifestyle.
[00:06:35] But this would be the first of many messages she would receive, many visions that she would have of being visited by messengers of God.
[00:06:46] And soon the voice would tell her to do something that did require a bit of a change. It told her that she needed to “go to France”.
[00:06:57] Now, this might sound like a confusing message, given that she was in modern France, she had never and would never leave her country of birth.
[00:07:08] But what is believed to have been meant by this, or at least how Joan said she understood it, was that she needed to go inwards, to the central part of France, as Domrémy, her village, was on the periphery of the country.
[00:07:26] Joan believed that the messenger was Archangel Michael, or Saint Michael in French.
[00:07:33] And he gave her a very specific message. According to Joan, she should go to France and find a man called Robert de Baudricourt, the commander of the fortress of Vaucolouers, which was about 20 km north of Domrémy.
[00:07:53] He would give her an army, and it would be her job to go to the besieged city of Orleans and free it from the English.
[00:08:02] The only problem here was that Joan was not an experienced military commander; she was a teenage girl.
[00:08:11] She seemed to acknowledge the issue, and told the archangel that she didn’t know how to ride a horse, let alone to lead an army.
[00:08:19] But this was a divine mission, these kinds of practicalities were unimportant, and indeed they would actually prove themselves unimportant in the adventures that were to come.
[00:08:31] And so it was that in May of 1428, when Joan would have been 15 or 16, that she arrived at Vaucolouers to ask Robert de Baudricourt, the commander, to give her an army to go to Orléans. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, he said no. But she didn’t give up, and came back time and time again to ask him.
[00:09:01] Her case was strengthened by the fact that she had a growing band of supporters.
[00:09:07] There were several prophecies about a young girl who was destined to save France, and here was a very persistent young girl who claimed she had been sent by God. If you were the sort of person who believed in prophecies, which would have been a sizable proportion of the population back then, then she matched the description.
[00:09:29] What’s more, France was in a pretty poor position at the time, the 100 Years War was not going well.
[00:09:38] The English had won a decisive victory at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, and the English King Henry V had become regent of France, essentially de-facto king, in 1420.
[00:09:54] The French heir to the throne, or the French king, if you asked a Frenchman, was Charles VII. But he had never been officially crowned king, because Reims, the city where French kings were crowned, was under the control of the English.
[00:10:11] By the late 1420s, the English forces had won control of much of northern France, including Paris, as well as the south west coast.
[00:10:21] In fact, it wasn’t quite as simple as the English vs. the French, as France was split into warring groups. Specifically, it was a case of the Armagnacs, the allies of Charles VII, against the Bugundians, the supporters of the Duke of Burgundy, who were allied with the English.
[00:10:42] The front line of the conflict was at Orleans, a strategic point on the river Loire, just over 100km south West of Paris. If the siege had succeeded and Orleans had fallen, it would have provided the English army with an entry point through which to move southwards and take the rest of France, perhaps causing the entire country to fall.
[00:11:08] And since October of 1428, Orleans had been under siege. But try as they might, the English couldn’t break through.
[00:11:20] So, in a sentence, to sum things up, things weren’t looking rosy for the French.
[00:11:27] And there was Joan, a 15-year-old girl, claiming to have been sent by God.
[00:11:34] Eventually, Robert de Baudricourt, relented, he gave up, and he agreed to give Joan enough troops and horses to make the journey to Chinon, in the west of the country.
[00:11:47] Joan wanted to go here because it was there that Charles, the uncrowned king of France was staying, firmly out of the way of the English.
[00:11:58] Before she left, Joan made some preparations to make herself look less like a 15-year-old girl. She cut her hair short, like a boy’s, and dressed in men’s clothing.
[00:12:11] When she arrived at Charles’ court, she was forced to wait for two days for an audience with him.
[00:12:18] Then she would meet her first real test.
[00:12:22] She had claimed to have divine powers, so the king wanted to see if she would be able to recognise him, if she would be able to pick him out from the crowd.
[00:12:34] Charles disguised himself in the crowd, wearing normal clothes, but Joan reportedly walked right up to him, identifying him immediately, despite never having seen him before.
[00:12:49] It was a promising start.
[00:12:51] She told Charles that she had been sent by God to help get rid of the English once and for all, and she wouldn’t rest until he had been crowned King of France. To do this, she said, she needed him to give her an army to go to Orleans.
[00:13:10] This no doubt sounded like music to his ears, but Joan wasn’t exactly an experienced knight or seasoned warrior; she was a teenage girl who had never seen battle.
[00:13:22] Still, she seemed like an inspirational figure, she claimed to have been sent by God, so Charles was interested in hearing more.
[00:13:33] First though, he needed to check that she was who she said she was, that she was indeed the good Catholic that she claimed to be. She was examined by theologians, by religious experts. She was even intimately examined by Charles’ mother-in-law to check that she was still a virgin.
[00:13:53] Fortunately, she passed with flying colours, and Charles agreed to send her to Orléans. A suit of white armour was made and she set off on a white horse on a mission to liberate France from the English invaders.
[00:14:10] Most historians tend to believe that Charles agreed to send her to Orléans because she could be an inspiration, a morale-booster, to the French troops.
[00:14:21] Perhaps he did indeed believe she was sent by God, but he may well have thought, well, she’s a pretty impressive young lady and things aren’t going very well. I’ll give her a horse and a few men. What’s the worst that could happen?
[00:14:35] She set off at the end of April, 1429, and made her way into the city of Orléans, sneaking through the English siege and managing to enter the city.
[00:14:47] She was, reportedly, welcomed warmly by the troops. I mean, if you are stuck in Orleans in a pretty sticky situation, a young woman arrives saying she has been sent by God to save France, and you believe in the prophecy that France will be saved by a young woman, then this would understandably be good news.
[00:15:08] Initially she was a sort of mascot figure, cheering on the troops, encouraging them on.
[00:15:15] Within no time at all though it was clear that she was much more than this; this was an extremely brave young woman who truly believed in what she was doing.
[00:15:27] She personally led the French armies in attacks, taking off her helmet so everyone could see who she was, and raising her flag high into the sky.
[00:15:38] She was an inspiration to the French troops, and must have been a confusing sight for the English - there was someone who seemed to be a young woman at the frontlines, waving a banner, cheering on her country folk, a woman who seemed to be utterly unafraid of death.
[00:15:57] She wrote multiple letters to the English commander informing them that she had been sent by God to chase them from France. The English knew who she was, and knew how successfully she was boosting French morale.
[00:16:12] Whether or not they too believed she was sent by God is unclear, but she was clearly a frustrating presence.
[00:16:21] So you can imagine that there must have been cheers on the English side when one day she was shot in the neck by an English archer.
[00:16:30] She had taken off her helmet, as was her wont, and an English arrow had landed straight in her neck, lodging itself 15 centimetres in between her neck and her shoulders, a wound that would surely prove fatal. She fell to the floor and was dragged away from the battle.
[00:16:51] There were English celebrations, as it seemed that this teenage messenger of God might not be so holy at all; she was just flesh and blood like every other soldier.
[00:17:03] But a few hours later she returned to the field of battle, alive and well, shocking the English army and rumours going around that she was some sort of unholy, invincible witch.
[00:17:19] Whether this was the final morale-denting nail in the coffin we will never know.
[00:17:25] The following day, this is May the 8th by the way, of 1429, the English forces withdrew from the city, they gave up and the siege was broken.
[00:17:37] It was a hugely important French victory, and would turn the tide of the hundred years war.
[00:17:45] As a result, the name Jeanne D'Arc, Joan of Arc spread through France. She was the defender of the nation, the young woman who had saved the country from the scourge of the English. If there had been any doubt about the authenticity of her claims to be sent from God before, these were put to rest now.
[00:18:08] The next step for Joan was to fulfil her promise to see Charles crowned at Reims, in the far east of the country. She accompanied him, along with the French forces, and on July 17th, 1429, Charles VII was given a full coronation, with Joan of Arc a guest of honour at the ceremony.
[00:18:31] Her promise had been fulfilled, but there was still the not insignificant question of the English and Bugundian armies, which still controlled much of Northern France.
[00:18:43] Much of the next year was filled by small battles between the French and English forces, with Joan still playing a role, albeit a decreasing one, as she would never repeat the military success she had had at Orléans.
[00:18:58] But we need to fast forward to the 23rd of May 1430, just over a year after the victory at Orleans.
[00:19:08] Joan had gone with a small army to the town of Compiègne, north east of Paris. She had gone against the orders of the king, she wasn’t supposed to have done this, but she went anyway.
[00:19:22] This town was under siege by the Duke of Burgundy, who was French, but was an ally of the English.
[00:19:31] She had taken a group of soldiers out of the town to fight the Bugundians, but had been forced to retreat, to go back into the town to escape.
[00:19:42] Unfortunately, as she was trying to return to safety Joan was dragged off her horse, captured by the supporters of the Duke of Burgundy, and sold to the English.
[00:19:55] Although historians believe that it would have been relatively easy for Charles VII to have got her back if he wanted, probably by paying a ransom or asking the pope to intervene, he did absolutely nothing, he didn't lift a finger.
[00:20:11] Now, why was this? She had, after all, saved the country and fulfilled her promise to have him crowned king of France.
[00:20:21] Well, ever since that victory at Orleans, Joan had proved herself to be a bit of a liability, taking matters into her own hands, getting injured and presiding over several military defeats.
[00:20:35] Perhaps she wasn’t quite as sent by God as she said she was, and Charles didn't want his name to be associated with hers.
[00:20:44] In any case, there is no evidence that he ever tried to get her back, instead leaving her at the mercy of her English captors.
[00:20:54] As you might imagine, this was quite the coup for the English, and they sought to make an example of her.
[00:21:02] On January the 9th, 1431, she was put on trial for heresy.
[00:21:08] Although it was theoretically a trial, where evidence would be presented and she could be found guilty or innocent, and the entire process did take four and a half months, the verdict was a foregone conclusion.
[00:21:24] She had claimed she had spoken directly to God, which was not allowed by the church, it literally was heresy by the law of the church. To speak to God you had to speak through a clergyman, you had to go through the church.
[00:21:40] On May the 24th, after more than four months of questioning, she was made aware of her fate. She had been found guilty of heresy and would be immediately burned at the stake, killed by being burned alive.
[00:21:58] But there was a way out.
[00:21:59] If she signed a document declaring that her visions of God were a lie, and that she promised to stop wearing men’s clothes, she would be saved, she would only have to face life imprisonment.
[00:22:14] She signed the document, and was saved from the flames.
[00:22:19] But just four days later she went back on this, she rejected her rejection. She yet again put on the uniform of a male soldier, saying that St Catherine and St Margaret had told her off for giving in so easily.
[00:22:35] By now, her fate was sealed.
[00:22:39] On May the 29th of 1431 she was led to the town square at Rouen, placed on top of a pile of wood, tied to a pole, and burned alive at the age of 19.
[00:22:54] Now, as to the legacy of Joan of Arc, she is, as you heard at the start of the episode, a patron saint of France. She was canonised, turned into a saint, by the pope in 1920.
[00:23:08] And since her death she has been used as a symbol of French resistance. During both world wars she was called upon as a source of inspiration, perhaps not divine inspiration, but she was used as an example of the French fighting spirit and bravery in the face of adversity.
[00:23:29] Despite this status as the so-called “maid of France”, a French icon who was decisively anti-English, there are a few important points to be made that go somewhat against this narrative, and I’m not only saying this as an Englishman.
[00:23:46] Firstly, she was put on trial by the English, but of the 131 members of the church who were involved in her trial, and who found her guilty, 123 were French, she was found guilty and killed by the French.
[00:24:04] Secondly, she was caught not by the English but by the Bugundians, supporters of the Duke of Burgundy, and as anyone who likes their red wine will know, Burgundy, or Bourgogne, is most definitely in France. She was also sold to the English by the Bugundians, inhabitants of modern France, although it’s debatable whether they would have referred to themselves back then as French.
[00:24:30] And finally, she was betrayed, or at least not saved, by none other than the French king, Charles VII. He had the chance to save her from the flames, yet he did absolutely nothing.
[00:24:44] So, she might be a French heroine, but she wasn't treated so well by her fellow citizens when she was alive.
[00:24:53] Now, as for Joan herself, as you might imagine, modern historians and medical professionals have tried to rationally explain her condition and her visions, if indeed they were not the word of God. There’s a theory she might have been schizophrenic, epileptic, or even have had a lump in her brain.
[00:25:14] Whether or not these are true is anyone's guess. What seems to be hard to deny is that she really believed that she had been visited by messengers of God, that she was divinely appointed to save France, that she had been chosen. She believed she was exactly who she said she was; she was no fraud.
[00:25:36] During her four and a half month trial against a group of 131 learned clergymen she was able to hold her own, staying steadfast in her own convictions.
[00:25:48] She didn’t give up, she faced her fate with pride, even asking an English soldier to allow her to see the cross as she burned to death.
[00:25:59] Whether you believe or not that she was truly the saviour of France is up to you, but it’s undeniable that she was a remarkable young woman.
[00:26:11] Ok then, that is it for Joan of Arc, Jeanne D'Arc, the young lady who believed she was destined to save France and well, kind of did.
[00:26:22] As always, I would love to hear what you thought about this episode, especially for the French listeners among you.
[00:26:29] Do you think Joan of Arc was betrayed by her countrymen?
[00:26:32] How would history have been different had Orleans fell?
[00:26:36] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:26:40] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:26:48] And as a quick reminder, this is part one of a three of a mini-series on French history. Next up it’ll be Napoleon Bonaparte and then it’ll be the Dreyfus Affair.
[00:26:59] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:27:04] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[END OF EPISODE]
[00:00:05] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:12] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today is going to be the start of another three-part mini-series, this time on the subject of France. In today’s episode we will learn about the patron saint of France, Jeanne D’Arc, a mysterious young lady who was burned at the stake.
[00:00:40] Next, in part two, it’ll be a boy from Corsica who turned into the greatest military genius the country had ever seen, until…he wasn’t. And by this I mean, of course, Napoleon Bonaparte.
[00:00:53] And in the final part, part three, it’s going to be the complex but incredibly important case of L’affaire Dreyfus, the Dreyfus Affair, the biggest miscarriage of justice in French history.
[00:01:08] OK then, let’s get right into it and start with a patron saint of France, the famed defender of her motherland, Jeanne D’Arc, or to anglicise her name, Joan of Arc.
[00:01:23] For many people, their late teens are important years in terms of self development and growing up. When you’re 17, 18, 19, society starts to consider you a “grown up”, an adult.
[00:01:39] In the UK you can get a driving licence when you’re 17, you can vote in elections when you’re 18, you can legally buy alcohol and cigarettes, and by your 18th birthday you’re treated as an adult in the eyes of the law.
[00:01:56] This might be a time when you finish school, start university, leave home, fall in love, do all the sorts of things that are probably very important to you, but probably not so important outside of your immediate circle.
[00:02:13] For the subject of today’s episode these years were somewhat different.
[00:02:19] Very little is known about Joan of Arc as a young girl, and nothing is known about her after her teenage years because she was burned at the stake, she was publicly executed by the English before her 20th birthday.
[00:02:35] And in these years, during these late teenage years, her actions turned her into a French heroine, remembered as the saviour of the country, and they would lead her to her being canonised, turned into a saint, several hundred years later.
[00:02:53] So, before we get into the short but eventful life of this young lady, it’s worth reminding ourselves of what exactly was happening in France, and in Europe, at the time of her life.
[00:03:07] Joan was born in 1412, so towards the end of the series of wars that would come to be called the Hundred Years War.
[00:03:17] Long story short, this conflict was primarily about who had the rightful claim to be king of France.
[00:03:26] In 1328 Charles IV of France died, leaving no direct male heirs, no sons or brothers. His closest male relative was Edward III, the King of England.
[00:03:42] Remember, it was only in 1066, only a few centuries before, that William the Conqueror had sailed over from Normandy, in France, to claim the English throne for himself, and the French and English royal families had a lot of overlap.
[00:04:00] So, it’s 1328, the French king dies, his nearest relative is the English king, but clearly, allowing the King of England to also become King of France would be problematic; the French weren't so keen on the idea, but the English were.
[00:04:20] This triggered a series of wars that would last until 1453 and drag in several other European states.
[00:04:29] So, this was the environment Joan was born into, and the conflict that would dominate her life.
[00:04:38] Right, let’s talk about Joan herself.
[00:04:42] She was born in or around 1412. Her father was a peasant farmer called Jacques d’Arc and her mother a pious woman named Isabelle Romée.
[00:04:54] Now, not a huge amount is known about the details of the early life of Joan, and what we do know, at least in terms of her upbringing and family life, would have been pretty standard for a young lady at that time.
[00:05:10] She grew up in a small village called Domrémy, to the east of Paris.
[00:05:17] Given its location to the north of the country, relatively close to England, Domrémy, this village was at the heart of the conflict.
[00:05:27] She was brought up in a highly religious environment, Catholic of course.
[00:05:33] Her youth would have been spent helping her parents work the land, cooking, and doing housework. She never went to school, so never learned to read or write.
[00:05:45] So far, just your normal, run-of-the-mill French peasant teenage girl in the 15th century.
[00:05:52] But soon enough it was clear that this young woman was different.
[00:05:59] When she was 13 years old, she said that she heard voices. Or rather, the voice of an angel, sent to her by God.
[00:06:10] And what did this angel want, what was the message that it was bringing to her, directly from God?
[00:06:18] The first message, so Joan would say, was simply that she should be a good young Christian - she would behave well, and go to church.
[00:06:28] Fortunately, she was doing this already, so it didn't require a great change of lifestyle.
[00:06:35] But this would be the first of many messages she would receive, many visions that she would have of being visited by messengers of God.
[00:06:46] And soon the voice would tell her to do something that did require a bit of a change. It told her that she needed to “go to France”.
[00:06:57] Now, this might sound like a confusing message, given that she was in modern France, she had never and would never leave her country of birth.
[00:07:08] But what is believed to have been meant by this, or at least how Joan said she understood it, was that she needed to go inwards, to the central part of France, as Domrémy, her village, was on the periphery of the country.
[00:07:26] Joan believed that the messenger was Archangel Michael, or Saint Michael in French.
[00:07:33] And he gave her a very specific message. According to Joan, she should go to France and find a man called Robert de Baudricourt, the commander of the fortress of Vaucolouers, which was about 20 km north of Domrémy.
[00:07:53] He would give her an army, and it would be her job to go to the besieged city of Orleans and free it from the English.
[00:08:02] The only problem here was that Joan was not an experienced military commander; she was a teenage girl.
[00:08:11] She seemed to acknowledge the issue, and told the archangel that she didn’t know how to ride a horse, let alone to lead an army.
[00:08:19] But this was a divine mission, these kinds of practicalities were unimportant, and indeed they would actually prove themselves unimportant in the adventures that were to come.
[00:08:31] And so it was that in May of 1428, when Joan would have been 15 or 16, that she arrived at Vaucolouers to ask Robert de Baudricourt, the commander, to give her an army to go to Orléans. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, he said no. But she didn’t give up, and came back time and time again to ask him.
[00:09:01] Her case was strengthened by the fact that she had a growing band of supporters.
[00:09:07] There were several prophecies about a young girl who was destined to save France, and here was a very persistent young girl who claimed she had been sent by God. If you were the sort of person who believed in prophecies, which would have been a sizable proportion of the population back then, then she matched the description.
[00:09:29] What’s more, France was in a pretty poor position at the time, the 100 Years War was not going well.
[00:09:38] The English had won a decisive victory at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, and the English King Henry V had become regent of France, essentially de-facto king, in 1420.
[00:09:54] The French heir to the throne, or the French king, if you asked a Frenchman, was Charles VII. But he had never been officially crowned king, because Reims, the city where French kings were crowned, was under the control of the English.
[00:10:11] By the late 1420s, the English forces had won control of much of northern France, including Paris, as well as the south west coast.
[00:10:21] In fact, it wasn’t quite as simple as the English vs. the French, as France was split into warring groups. Specifically, it was a case of the Armagnacs, the allies of Charles VII, against the Bugundians, the supporters of the Duke of Burgundy, who were allied with the English.
[00:10:42] The front line of the conflict was at Orleans, a strategic point on the river Loire, just over 100km south West of Paris. If the siege had succeeded and Orleans had fallen, it would have provided the English army with an entry point through which to move southwards and take the rest of France, perhaps causing the entire country to fall.
[00:11:08] And since October of 1428, Orleans had been under siege. But try as they might, the English couldn’t break through.
[00:11:20] So, in a sentence, to sum things up, things weren’t looking rosy for the French.
[00:11:27] And there was Joan, a 15-year-old girl, claiming to have been sent by God.
[00:11:34] Eventually, Robert de Baudricourt, relented, he gave up, and he agreed to give Joan enough troops and horses to make the journey to Chinon, in the west of the country.
[00:11:47] Joan wanted to go here because it was there that Charles, the uncrowned king of France was staying, firmly out of the way of the English.
[00:11:58] Before she left, Joan made some preparations to make herself look less like a 15-year-old girl. She cut her hair short, like a boy’s, and dressed in men’s clothing.
[00:12:11] When she arrived at Charles’ court, she was forced to wait for two days for an audience with him.
[00:12:18] Then she would meet her first real test.
[00:12:22] She had claimed to have divine powers, so the king wanted to see if she would be able to recognise him, if she would be able to pick him out from the crowd.
[00:12:34] Charles disguised himself in the crowd, wearing normal clothes, but Joan reportedly walked right up to him, identifying him immediately, despite never having seen him before.
[00:12:49] It was a promising start.
[00:12:51] She told Charles that she had been sent by God to help get rid of the English once and for all, and she wouldn’t rest until he had been crowned King of France. To do this, she said, she needed him to give her an army to go to Orleans.
[00:13:10] This no doubt sounded like music to his ears, but Joan wasn’t exactly an experienced knight or seasoned warrior; she was a teenage girl who had never seen battle.
[00:13:22] Still, she seemed like an inspirational figure, she claimed to have been sent by God, so Charles was interested in hearing more.
[00:13:33] First though, he needed to check that she was who she said she was, that she was indeed the good Catholic that she claimed to be. She was examined by theologians, by religious experts. She was even intimately examined by Charles’ mother-in-law to check that she was still a virgin.
[00:13:53] Fortunately, she passed with flying colours, and Charles agreed to send her to Orléans. A suit of white armour was made and she set off on a white horse on a mission to liberate France from the English invaders.
[00:14:10] Most historians tend to believe that Charles agreed to send her to Orléans because she could be an inspiration, a morale-booster, to the French troops.
[00:14:21] Perhaps he did indeed believe she was sent by God, but he may well have thought, well, she’s a pretty impressive young lady and things aren’t going very well. I’ll give her a horse and a few men. What’s the worst that could happen?
[00:14:35] She set off at the end of April, 1429, and made her way into the city of Orléans, sneaking through the English siege and managing to enter the city.
[00:14:47] She was, reportedly, welcomed warmly by the troops. I mean, if you are stuck in Orleans in a pretty sticky situation, a young woman arrives saying she has been sent by God to save France, and you believe in the prophecy that France will be saved by a young woman, then this would understandably be good news.
[00:15:08] Initially she was a sort of mascot figure, cheering on the troops, encouraging them on.
[00:15:15] Within no time at all though it was clear that she was much more than this; this was an extremely brave young woman who truly believed in what she was doing.
[00:15:27] She personally led the French armies in attacks, taking off her helmet so everyone could see who she was, and raising her flag high into the sky.
[00:15:38] She was an inspiration to the French troops, and must have been a confusing sight for the English - there was someone who seemed to be a young woman at the frontlines, waving a banner, cheering on her country folk, a woman who seemed to be utterly unafraid of death.
[00:15:57] She wrote multiple letters to the English commander informing them that she had been sent by God to chase them from France. The English knew who she was, and knew how successfully she was boosting French morale.
[00:16:12] Whether or not they too believed she was sent by God is unclear, but she was clearly a frustrating presence.
[00:16:21] So you can imagine that there must have been cheers on the English side when one day she was shot in the neck by an English archer.
[00:16:30] She had taken off her helmet, as was her wont, and an English arrow had landed straight in her neck, lodging itself 15 centimetres in between her neck and her shoulders, a wound that would surely prove fatal. She fell to the floor and was dragged away from the battle.
[00:16:51] There were English celebrations, as it seemed that this teenage messenger of God might not be so holy at all; she was just flesh and blood like every other soldier.
[00:17:03] But a few hours later she returned to the field of battle, alive and well, shocking the English army and rumours going around that she was some sort of unholy, invincible witch.
[00:17:19] Whether this was the final morale-denting nail in the coffin we will never know.
[00:17:25] The following day, this is May the 8th by the way, of 1429, the English forces withdrew from the city, they gave up and the siege was broken.
[00:17:37] It was a hugely important French victory, and would turn the tide of the hundred years war.
[00:17:45] As a result, the name Jeanne D'Arc, Joan of Arc spread through France. She was the defender of the nation, the young woman who had saved the country from the scourge of the English. If there had been any doubt about the authenticity of her claims to be sent from God before, these were put to rest now.
[00:18:08] The next step for Joan was to fulfil her promise to see Charles crowned at Reims, in the far east of the country. She accompanied him, along with the French forces, and on July 17th, 1429, Charles VII was given a full coronation, with Joan of Arc a guest of honour at the ceremony.
[00:18:31] Her promise had been fulfilled, but there was still the not insignificant question of the English and Bugundian armies, which still controlled much of Northern France.
[00:18:43] Much of the next year was filled by small battles between the French and English forces, with Joan still playing a role, albeit a decreasing one, as she would never repeat the military success she had had at Orléans.
[00:18:58] But we need to fast forward to the 23rd of May 1430, just over a year after the victory at Orleans.
[00:19:08] Joan had gone with a small army to the town of Compiègne, north east of Paris. She had gone against the orders of the king, she wasn’t supposed to have done this, but she went anyway.
[00:19:22] This town was under siege by the Duke of Burgundy, who was French, but was an ally of the English.
[00:19:31] She had taken a group of soldiers out of the town to fight the Bugundians, but had been forced to retreat, to go back into the town to escape.
[00:19:42] Unfortunately, as she was trying to return to safety Joan was dragged off her horse, captured by the supporters of the Duke of Burgundy, and sold to the English.
[00:19:55] Although historians believe that it would have been relatively easy for Charles VII to have got her back if he wanted, probably by paying a ransom or asking the pope to intervene, he did absolutely nothing, he didn't lift a finger.
[00:20:11] Now, why was this? She had, after all, saved the country and fulfilled her promise to have him crowned king of France.
[00:20:21] Well, ever since that victory at Orleans, Joan had proved herself to be a bit of a liability, taking matters into her own hands, getting injured and presiding over several military defeats.
[00:20:35] Perhaps she wasn’t quite as sent by God as she said she was, and Charles didn't want his name to be associated with hers.
[00:20:44] In any case, there is no evidence that he ever tried to get her back, instead leaving her at the mercy of her English captors.
[00:20:54] As you might imagine, this was quite the coup for the English, and they sought to make an example of her.
[00:21:02] On January the 9th, 1431, she was put on trial for heresy.
[00:21:08] Although it was theoretically a trial, where evidence would be presented and she could be found guilty or innocent, and the entire process did take four and a half months, the verdict was a foregone conclusion.
[00:21:24] She had claimed she had spoken directly to God, which was not allowed by the church, it literally was heresy by the law of the church. To speak to God you had to speak through a clergyman, you had to go through the church.
[00:21:40] On May the 24th, after more than four months of questioning, she was made aware of her fate. She had been found guilty of heresy and would be immediately burned at the stake, killed by being burned alive.
[00:21:58] But there was a way out.
[00:21:59] If she signed a document declaring that her visions of God were a lie, and that she promised to stop wearing men’s clothes, she would be saved, she would only have to face life imprisonment.
[00:22:14] She signed the document, and was saved from the flames.
[00:22:19] But just four days later she went back on this, she rejected her rejection. She yet again put on the uniform of a male soldier, saying that St Catherine and St Margaret had told her off for giving in so easily.
[00:22:35] By now, her fate was sealed.
[00:22:39] On May the 29th of 1431 she was led to the town square at Rouen, placed on top of a pile of wood, tied to a pole, and burned alive at the age of 19.
[00:22:54] Now, as to the legacy of Joan of Arc, she is, as you heard at the start of the episode, a patron saint of France. She was canonised, turned into a saint, by the pope in 1920.
[00:23:08] And since her death she has been used as a symbol of French resistance. During both world wars she was called upon as a source of inspiration, perhaps not divine inspiration, but she was used as an example of the French fighting spirit and bravery in the face of adversity.
[00:23:29] Despite this status as the so-called “maid of France”, a French icon who was decisively anti-English, there are a few important points to be made that go somewhat against this narrative, and I’m not only saying this as an Englishman.
[00:23:46] Firstly, she was put on trial by the English, but of the 131 members of the church who were involved in her trial, and who found her guilty, 123 were French, she was found guilty and killed by the French.
[00:24:04] Secondly, she was caught not by the English but by the Bugundians, supporters of the Duke of Burgundy, and as anyone who likes their red wine will know, Burgundy, or Bourgogne, is most definitely in France. She was also sold to the English by the Bugundians, inhabitants of modern France, although it’s debatable whether they would have referred to themselves back then as French.
[00:24:30] And finally, she was betrayed, or at least not saved, by none other than the French king, Charles VII. He had the chance to save her from the flames, yet he did absolutely nothing.
[00:24:44] So, she might be a French heroine, but she wasn't treated so well by her fellow citizens when she was alive.
[00:24:53] Now, as for Joan herself, as you might imagine, modern historians and medical professionals have tried to rationally explain her condition and her visions, if indeed they were not the word of God. There’s a theory she might have been schizophrenic, epileptic, or even have had a lump in her brain.
[00:25:14] Whether or not these are true is anyone's guess. What seems to be hard to deny is that she really believed that she had been visited by messengers of God, that she was divinely appointed to save France, that she had been chosen. She believed she was exactly who she said she was; she was no fraud.
[00:25:36] During her four and a half month trial against a group of 131 learned clergymen she was able to hold her own, staying steadfast in her own convictions.
[00:25:48] She didn’t give up, she faced her fate with pride, even asking an English soldier to allow her to see the cross as she burned to death.
[00:25:59] Whether you believe or not that she was truly the saviour of France is up to you, but it’s undeniable that she was a remarkable young woman.
[00:26:11] Ok then, that is it for Joan of Arc, Jeanne D'Arc, the young lady who believed she was destined to save France and well, kind of did.
[00:26:22] As always, I would love to hear what you thought about this episode, especially for the French listeners among you.
[00:26:29] Do you think Joan of Arc was betrayed by her countrymen?
[00:26:32] How would history have been different had Orleans fell?
[00:26:36] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:26:40] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:26:48] And as a quick reminder, this is part one of a three of a mini-series on French history. Next up it’ll be Napoleon Bonaparte and then it’ll be the Dreyfus Affair.
[00:26:59] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:27:04] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[END OF EPISODE]
[00:00:05] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:12] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today is going to be the start of another three-part mini-series, this time on the subject of France. In today’s episode we will learn about the patron saint of France, Jeanne D’Arc, a mysterious young lady who was burned at the stake.
[00:00:40] Next, in part two, it’ll be a boy from Corsica who turned into the greatest military genius the country had ever seen, until…he wasn’t. And by this I mean, of course, Napoleon Bonaparte.
[00:00:53] And in the final part, part three, it’s going to be the complex but incredibly important case of L’affaire Dreyfus, the Dreyfus Affair, the biggest miscarriage of justice in French history.
[00:01:08] OK then, let’s get right into it and start with a patron saint of France, the famed defender of her motherland, Jeanne D’Arc, or to anglicise her name, Joan of Arc.
[00:01:23] For many people, their late teens are important years in terms of self development and growing up. When you’re 17, 18, 19, society starts to consider you a “grown up”, an adult.
[00:01:39] In the UK you can get a driving licence when you’re 17, you can vote in elections when you’re 18, you can legally buy alcohol and cigarettes, and by your 18th birthday you’re treated as an adult in the eyes of the law.
[00:01:56] This might be a time when you finish school, start university, leave home, fall in love, do all the sorts of things that are probably very important to you, but probably not so important outside of your immediate circle.
[00:02:13] For the subject of today’s episode these years were somewhat different.
[00:02:19] Very little is known about Joan of Arc as a young girl, and nothing is known about her after her teenage years because she was burned at the stake, she was publicly executed by the English before her 20th birthday.
[00:02:35] And in these years, during these late teenage years, her actions turned her into a French heroine, remembered as the saviour of the country, and they would lead her to her being canonised, turned into a saint, several hundred years later.
[00:02:53] So, before we get into the short but eventful life of this young lady, it’s worth reminding ourselves of what exactly was happening in France, and in Europe, at the time of her life.
[00:03:07] Joan was born in 1412, so towards the end of the series of wars that would come to be called the Hundred Years War.
[00:03:17] Long story short, this conflict was primarily about who had the rightful claim to be king of France.
[00:03:26] In 1328 Charles IV of France died, leaving no direct male heirs, no sons or brothers. His closest male relative was Edward III, the King of England.
[00:03:42] Remember, it was only in 1066, only a few centuries before, that William the Conqueror had sailed over from Normandy, in France, to claim the English throne for himself, and the French and English royal families had a lot of overlap.
[00:04:00] So, it’s 1328, the French king dies, his nearest relative is the English king, but clearly, allowing the King of England to also become King of France would be problematic; the French weren't so keen on the idea, but the English were.
[00:04:20] This triggered a series of wars that would last until 1453 and drag in several other European states.
[00:04:29] So, this was the environment Joan was born into, and the conflict that would dominate her life.
[00:04:38] Right, let’s talk about Joan herself.
[00:04:42] She was born in or around 1412. Her father was a peasant farmer called Jacques d’Arc and her mother a pious woman named Isabelle Romée.
[00:04:54] Now, not a huge amount is known about the details of the early life of Joan, and what we do know, at least in terms of her upbringing and family life, would have been pretty standard for a young lady at that time.
[00:05:10] She grew up in a small village called Domrémy, to the east of Paris.
[00:05:17] Given its location to the north of the country, relatively close to England, Domrémy, this village was at the heart of the conflict.
[00:05:27] She was brought up in a highly religious environment, Catholic of course.
[00:05:33] Her youth would have been spent helping her parents work the land, cooking, and doing housework. She never went to school, so never learned to read or write.
[00:05:45] So far, just your normal, run-of-the-mill French peasant teenage girl in the 15th century.
[00:05:52] But soon enough it was clear that this young woman was different.
[00:05:59] When she was 13 years old, she said that she heard voices. Or rather, the voice of an angel, sent to her by God.
[00:06:10] And what did this angel want, what was the message that it was bringing to her, directly from God?
[00:06:18] The first message, so Joan would say, was simply that she should be a good young Christian - she would behave well, and go to church.
[00:06:28] Fortunately, she was doing this already, so it didn't require a great change of lifestyle.
[00:06:35] But this would be the first of many messages she would receive, many visions that she would have of being visited by messengers of God.
[00:06:46] And soon the voice would tell her to do something that did require a bit of a change. It told her that she needed to “go to France”.
[00:06:57] Now, this might sound like a confusing message, given that she was in modern France, she had never and would never leave her country of birth.
[00:07:08] But what is believed to have been meant by this, or at least how Joan said she understood it, was that she needed to go inwards, to the central part of France, as Domrémy, her village, was on the periphery of the country.
[00:07:26] Joan believed that the messenger was Archangel Michael, or Saint Michael in French.
[00:07:33] And he gave her a very specific message. According to Joan, she should go to France and find a man called Robert de Baudricourt, the commander of the fortress of Vaucolouers, which was about 20 km north of Domrémy.
[00:07:53] He would give her an army, and it would be her job to go to the besieged city of Orleans and free it from the English.
[00:08:02] The only problem here was that Joan was not an experienced military commander; she was a teenage girl.
[00:08:11] She seemed to acknowledge the issue, and told the archangel that she didn’t know how to ride a horse, let alone to lead an army.
[00:08:19] But this was a divine mission, these kinds of practicalities were unimportant, and indeed they would actually prove themselves unimportant in the adventures that were to come.
[00:08:31] And so it was that in May of 1428, when Joan would have been 15 or 16, that she arrived at Vaucolouers to ask Robert de Baudricourt, the commander, to give her an army to go to Orléans. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, he said no. But she didn’t give up, and came back time and time again to ask him.
[00:09:01] Her case was strengthened by the fact that she had a growing band of supporters.
[00:09:07] There were several prophecies about a young girl who was destined to save France, and here was a very persistent young girl who claimed she had been sent by God. If you were the sort of person who believed in prophecies, which would have been a sizable proportion of the population back then, then she matched the description.
[00:09:29] What’s more, France was in a pretty poor position at the time, the 100 Years War was not going well.
[00:09:38] The English had won a decisive victory at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, and the English King Henry V had become regent of France, essentially de-facto king, in 1420.
[00:09:54] The French heir to the throne, or the French king, if you asked a Frenchman, was Charles VII. But he had never been officially crowned king, because Reims, the city where French kings were crowned, was under the control of the English.
[00:10:11] By the late 1420s, the English forces had won control of much of northern France, including Paris, as well as the south west coast.
[00:10:21] In fact, it wasn’t quite as simple as the English vs. the French, as France was split into warring groups. Specifically, it was a case of the Armagnacs, the allies of Charles VII, against the Bugundians, the supporters of the Duke of Burgundy, who were allied with the English.
[00:10:42] The front line of the conflict was at Orleans, a strategic point on the river Loire, just over 100km south West of Paris. If the siege had succeeded and Orleans had fallen, it would have provided the English army with an entry point through which to move southwards and take the rest of France, perhaps causing the entire country to fall.
[00:11:08] And since October of 1428, Orleans had been under siege. But try as they might, the English couldn’t break through.
[00:11:20] So, in a sentence, to sum things up, things weren’t looking rosy for the French.
[00:11:27] And there was Joan, a 15-year-old girl, claiming to have been sent by God.
[00:11:34] Eventually, Robert de Baudricourt, relented, he gave up, and he agreed to give Joan enough troops and horses to make the journey to Chinon, in the west of the country.
[00:11:47] Joan wanted to go here because it was there that Charles, the uncrowned king of France was staying, firmly out of the way of the English.
[00:11:58] Before she left, Joan made some preparations to make herself look less like a 15-year-old girl. She cut her hair short, like a boy’s, and dressed in men’s clothing.
[00:12:11] When she arrived at Charles’ court, she was forced to wait for two days for an audience with him.
[00:12:18] Then she would meet her first real test.
[00:12:22] She had claimed to have divine powers, so the king wanted to see if she would be able to recognise him, if she would be able to pick him out from the crowd.
[00:12:34] Charles disguised himself in the crowd, wearing normal clothes, but Joan reportedly walked right up to him, identifying him immediately, despite never having seen him before.
[00:12:49] It was a promising start.
[00:12:51] She told Charles that she had been sent by God to help get rid of the English once and for all, and she wouldn’t rest until he had been crowned King of France. To do this, she said, she needed him to give her an army to go to Orleans.
[00:13:10] This no doubt sounded like music to his ears, but Joan wasn’t exactly an experienced knight or seasoned warrior; she was a teenage girl who had never seen battle.
[00:13:22] Still, she seemed like an inspirational figure, she claimed to have been sent by God, so Charles was interested in hearing more.
[00:13:33] First though, he needed to check that she was who she said she was, that she was indeed the good Catholic that she claimed to be. She was examined by theologians, by religious experts. She was even intimately examined by Charles’ mother-in-law to check that she was still a virgin.
[00:13:53] Fortunately, she passed with flying colours, and Charles agreed to send her to Orléans. A suit of white armour was made and she set off on a white horse on a mission to liberate France from the English invaders.
[00:14:10] Most historians tend to believe that Charles agreed to send her to Orléans because she could be an inspiration, a morale-booster, to the French troops.
[00:14:21] Perhaps he did indeed believe she was sent by God, but he may well have thought, well, she’s a pretty impressive young lady and things aren’t going very well. I’ll give her a horse and a few men. What’s the worst that could happen?
[00:14:35] She set off at the end of April, 1429, and made her way into the city of Orléans, sneaking through the English siege and managing to enter the city.
[00:14:47] She was, reportedly, welcomed warmly by the troops. I mean, if you are stuck in Orleans in a pretty sticky situation, a young woman arrives saying she has been sent by God to save France, and you believe in the prophecy that France will be saved by a young woman, then this would understandably be good news.
[00:15:08] Initially she was a sort of mascot figure, cheering on the troops, encouraging them on.
[00:15:15] Within no time at all though it was clear that she was much more than this; this was an extremely brave young woman who truly believed in what she was doing.
[00:15:27] She personally led the French armies in attacks, taking off her helmet so everyone could see who she was, and raising her flag high into the sky.
[00:15:38] She was an inspiration to the French troops, and must have been a confusing sight for the English - there was someone who seemed to be a young woman at the frontlines, waving a banner, cheering on her country folk, a woman who seemed to be utterly unafraid of death.
[00:15:57] She wrote multiple letters to the English commander informing them that she had been sent by God to chase them from France. The English knew who she was, and knew how successfully she was boosting French morale.
[00:16:12] Whether or not they too believed she was sent by God is unclear, but she was clearly a frustrating presence.
[00:16:21] So you can imagine that there must have been cheers on the English side when one day she was shot in the neck by an English archer.
[00:16:30] She had taken off her helmet, as was her wont, and an English arrow had landed straight in her neck, lodging itself 15 centimetres in between her neck and her shoulders, a wound that would surely prove fatal. She fell to the floor and was dragged away from the battle.
[00:16:51] There were English celebrations, as it seemed that this teenage messenger of God might not be so holy at all; she was just flesh and blood like every other soldier.
[00:17:03] But a few hours later she returned to the field of battle, alive and well, shocking the English army and rumours going around that she was some sort of unholy, invincible witch.
[00:17:19] Whether this was the final morale-denting nail in the coffin we will never know.
[00:17:25] The following day, this is May the 8th by the way, of 1429, the English forces withdrew from the city, they gave up and the siege was broken.
[00:17:37] It was a hugely important French victory, and would turn the tide of the hundred years war.
[00:17:45] As a result, the name Jeanne D'Arc, Joan of Arc spread through France. She was the defender of the nation, the young woman who had saved the country from the scourge of the English. If there had been any doubt about the authenticity of her claims to be sent from God before, these were put to rest now.
[00:18:08] The next step for Joan was to fulfil her promise to see Charles crowned at Reims, in the far east of the country. She accompanied him, along with the French forces, and on July 17th, 1429, Charles VII was given a full coronation, with Joan of Arc a guest of honour at the ceremony.
[00:18:31] Her promise had been fulfilled, but there was still the not insignificant question of the English and Bugundian armies, which still controlled much of Northern France.
[00:18:43] Much of the next year was filled by small battles between the French and English forces, with Joan still playing a role, albeit a decreasing one, as she would never repeat the military success she had had at Orléans.
[00:18:58] But we need to fast forward to the 23rd of May 1430, just over a year after the victory at Orleans.
[00:19:08] Joan had gone with a small army to the town of Compiègne, north east of Paris. She had gone against the orders of the king, she wasn’t supposed to have done this, but she went anyway.
[00:19:22] This town was under siege by the Duke of Burgundy, who was French, but was an ally of the English.
[00:19:31] She had taken a group of soldiers out of the town to fight the Bugundians, but had been forced to retreat, to go back into the town to escape.
[00:19:42] Unfortunately, as she was trying to return to safety Joan was dragged off her horse, captured by the supporters of the Duke of Burgundy, and sold to the English.
[00:19:55] Although historians believe that it would have been relatively easy for Charles VII to have got her back if he wanted, probably by paying a ransom or asking the pope to intervene, he did absolutely nothing, he didn't lift a finger.
[00:20:11] Now, why was this? She had, after all, saved the country and fulfilled her promise to have him crowned king of France.
[00:20:21] Well, ever since that victory at Orleans, Joan had proved herself to be a bit of a liability, taking matters into her own hands, getting injured and presiding over several military defeats.
[00:20:35] Perhaps she wasn’t quite as sent by God as she said she was, and Charles didn't want his name to be associated with hers.
[00:20:44] In any case, there is no evidence that he ever tried to get her back, instead leaving her at the mercy of her English captors.
[00:20:54] As you might imagine, this was quite the coup for the English, and they sought to make an example of her.
[00:21:02] On January the 9th, 1431, she was put on trial for heresy.
[00:21:08] Although it was theoretically a trial, where evidence would be presented and she could be found guilty or innocent, and the entire process did take four and a half months, the verdict was a foregone conclusion.
[00:21:24] She had claimed she had spoken directly to God, which was not allowed by the church, it literally was heresy by the law of the church. To speak to God you had to speak through a clergyman, you had to go through the church.
[00:21:40] On May the 24th, after more than four months of questioning, she was made aware of her fate. She had been found guilty of heresy and would be immediately burned at the stake, killed by being burned alive.
[00:21:58] But there was a way out.
[00:21:59] If she signed a document declaring that her visions of God were a lie, and that she promised to stop wearing men’s clothes, she would be saved, she would only have to face life imprisonment.
[00:22:14] She signed the document, and was saved from the flames.
[00:22:19] But just four days later she went back on this, she rejected her rejection. She yet again put on the uniform of a male soldier, saying that St Catherine and St Margaret had told her off for giving in so easily.
[00:22:35] By now, her fate was sealed.
[00:22:39] On May the 29th of 1431 she was led to the town square at Rouen, placed on top of a pile of wood, tied to a pole, and burned alive at the age of 19.
[00:22:54] Now, as to the legacy of Joan of Arc, she is, as you heard at the start of the episode, a patron saint of France. She was canonised, turned into a saint, by the pope in 1920.
[00:23:08] And since her death she has been used as a symbol of French resistance. During both world wars she was called upon as a source of inspiration, perhaps not divine inspiration, but she was used as an example of the French fighting spirit and bravery in the face of adversity.
[00:23:29] Despite this status as the so-called “maid of France”, a French icon who was decisively anti-English, there are a few important points to be made that go somewhat against this narrative, and I’m not only saying this as an Englishman.
[00:23:46] Firstly, she was put on trial by the English, but of the 131 members of the church who were involved in her trial, and who found her guilty, 123 were French, she was found guilty and killed by the French.
[00:24:04] Secondly, she was caught not by the English but by the Bugundians, supporters of the Duke of Burgundy, and as anyone who likes their red wine will know, Burgundy, or Bourgogne, is most definitely in France. She was also sold to the English by the Bugundians, inhabitants of modern France, although it’s debatable whether they would have referred to themselves back then as French.
[00:24:30] And finally, she was betrayed, or at least not saved, by none other than the French king, Charles VII. He had the chance to save her from the flames, yet he did absolutely nothing.
[00:24:44] So, she might be a French heroine, but she wasn't treated so well by her fellow citizens when she was alive.
[00:24:53] Now, as for Joan herself, as you might imagine, modern historians and medical professionals have tried to rationally explain her condition and her visions, if indeed they were not the word of God. There’s a theory she might have been schizophrenic, epileptic, or even have had a lump in her brain.
[00:25:14] Whether or not these are true is anyone's guess. What seems to be hard to deny is that she really believed that she had been visited by messengers of God, that she was divinely appointed to save France, that she had been chosen. She believed she was exactly who she said she was; she was no fraud.
[00:25:36] During her four and a half month trial against a group of 131 learned clergymen she was able to hold her own, staying steadfast in her own convictions.
[00:25:48] She didn’t give up, she faced her fate with pride, even asking an English soldier to allow her to see the cross as she burned to death.
[00:25:59] Whether you believe or not that she was truly the saviour of France is up to you, but it’s undeniable that she was a remarkable young woman.
[00:26:11] Ok then, that is it for Joan of Arc, Jeanne D'Arc, the young lady who believed she was destined to save France and well, kind of did.
[00:26:22] As always, I would love to hear what you thought about this episode, especially for the French listeners among you.
[00:26:29] Do you think Joan of Arc was betrayed by her countrymen?
[00:26:32] How would history have been different had Orleans fell?
[00:26:36] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:26:40] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:26:48] And as a quick reminder, this is part one of a three of a mini-series on French history. Next up it’ll be Napoleon Bonaparte and then it’ll be the Dreyfus Affair.
[00:26:59] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:27:04] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[END OF EPISODE]
