Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc (in French, Jeanne d'Arc) is the name history has given a peasant girl named Jehanne who rose from obscurity to lead the French army to several victories during the Hundred Years War, leading to the coronation of Charles VII as the French king. She did not personally kill anyone, but carried a battle standard (along with both a sword and an axe) and led the army, as well as making tactical decisions. She was born about 1412, and starting at age twelve claimed to see visions of and hear the voices of Saints Catherine, Michael, and Margaret, who she said told her to drive out the English and bring Charles VII to Rheims, then under English control, for his coronation. This is one of the less understood aspects of her life -- either she was lying, or she was mentally ill in some way, or God really was speaking to her; the reader can draw their own conclusions without stating them here.

After gaining the approval of Charles and a theological commission, she arrived at the siege of Orleans in 1429, where at the age of 17 she led the French to victory; contemporaries acknowledged her as the heroine of the engagement after she was wounded in the neck by an arrow but returned to lead the final charge. She led the French to several other victories, including at Reims, and was present at Charles VII's coronation. In October, Jehanne took Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier and was granted nobility.

However, a risky skirmish on 23 May 1430 led to her capture. Her family were peasants and did not have the money to ransom her, and King Charles VII, despite her winning several battles that strengthened his claim to the crown, refused to intervene. She attempted several escapes, but all failed. The Duke of Burgundy, who actually held much of France under English control, wanted his nephew King Henry VI to be recognized as the legitimate king of France; therefore Jehanne's victories had put a major crimp in his plans. Formal religion was still very strong during this time, and painting Jehanne as a heretic helped to cast aspersions on Charles VII's hold on the crown. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she was tried and convicted of heresy by a pro-Burgundy court, and forced to sign a renunciation of heresy she did not understand because she was illiterate. Heresy was a capital crime only for a repeat offense; she promised not to wear male clothing, which was considered heretical, but resumed it either as a defense against rape or, in the testimony of Jean Massieu, because her dress had been stolen and she was left with nothing else to wear. In any case, the church court rejected her supporters' explanations, and she was burned at the stake in 1431. In 1456 her conviction was posthumously reversed, and in 1920 she was declared a Catholic saint.

There are more churches and shrines dedicated to her in England than in France. She also is often painted in a Battle Ballgown.

Her fame also made writers base characters on her, thus the Jeanne D'Archetype.

For further information, see the book Joan of Arc: The Warrior Saint, by Stephen W. Richey. For a famous fictional portrayal, there is George Bernard Shaw's play Joan of Arc which fictionalizes large amounts of the story and actually seems to make an attempt to redeem her accusers.

Joan of Arc is the Trope Namer for:

Jeanne D'Archetype

Joan of Arc provides examples of the following tropes:

Action Girl: Despite her claims of not having killed anyone on the battlefield, it still took a lot of courage and prowess to survive the battles she was involved in.
Archangel Michael: She recounted a vision of Michael surrounded by other angels that prompted her personal mission.
Badass Pacifist: In her trial, Jehanne claimed to never have killed anyone on the battlefield, saying she preferred her banner over her sword.
Because Destiny Says So: During Jehanne's youth there were a pair of prophecies circulating the French countryside, one of which declared that an armed virgin would come forth to save France, while the other stated that a virgin carrying a banner would put an end to France's suffering. After her initial visions, Jehanne implied that she was the one promised by both prophecies.
Berserk Button: Anything to do with sexual immorality. She is recorded as having chased prostitutes out of army camps at the point of a sword and lambasted officers who kept mistresses.
Chaste Heroine: Jehanne used her virginity as a sign of her purity, and as such remained chaste all her life. Two tests were performed to confirm her virginity, including one during her trial, confirming it. And she called herself "Jehanne la Pucelle" -- "Jeanne the Maiden" -- during her time in the field.
Crazy Awesome: Jehanne managed to convince a group of dispirited French soldiers, and the king of France, that the visions she'd been receiving since she was 12 weren't something they burned you as a possessed person for in those days, but in fact were the real deal, and she proceeded to live up to the hype by kicking the English out of half of France, leading the final charge at Orléans with an arrow in her neck. And she did this while being a sworn pacifist. She carried the banner into battle instead, one of the most dangerous jobs on the field as you literally have a flag over your head screaming "shoot me please!" Even when captured she managed to stave off heresy accusations despite being an illiterate peasant faced with cutthroat clergy with enough trick questions to fill a test paper. In the end they only nailed her with an excuse to send her to the pyre because she wore men's clothes, primarily to stave off rapists, and even then they had to apparently steal her normal clothes and leave her with a choice between going nude or wearing men's clothing. Bear in mind this terror of English-occupied France was a teenage peasant.
Deadpan Snarker: If her trial records are anything to go by, Jehanne was this, even delivering a Take That to the heavily-accented judge Seguin Seguin:

Seguin Seguin: What language did [the Voices] speak?
Jehanne: A better one than yours.

Evil Mentor: She was taught swordplay and military strategy by Gilles de Rais, who had a reputation of a cruel man who was known to torture and murder children. Which is kind of ironic, in a way.
Farm Girl
Hearing Voices: After her initial visions, her divine guidance came from voices that spoke to her.
Historical Hero Upgrade: Jehanne became a unifying figure for the French people in her own time and even more so in the generations after.
Historical Villain Upgrade: See Shakespeare's portrayal of her in Henry VI Part 1. Although over time, the British gradually shed the animosity.
Iconic Item: Her banner, which she made herself.
Jeanne D'Archetype: Trope Maker, Trope Codifier and Trope Namer.
Kangaroo Court: Jehanne's trial was headed by Bishop Pierre Cauchon, who was in the payroll of both the English Earl of Warwick and the Duke of Burgundy, and handpicked the judges himself from members of the University of Paris who also hated Jehanne's guts. She never really stood a chance.
Knight in Shining Armor: Literally. Charles VII of France had a suit of armor of a type called "harnois blanc" custom-made for her. This "white iron" armor was so called because when polished it shone like a beacon in the sun and seemed to surround her in a haze of light.
Lady of War: Probably one of the more obvious examples.
Mission from God: Jehanne's charge to liberate France from the English was given her by Heaven and the Archangel Michael, who continued to advise her throughout her campaigns.
Morton's Fork: Jehanne's trial had a famous unsuccessful one. She was asked if she believed she was "in God's Grace". If she said yes, her overconfidence would brand her as a dangerous fanatic, since no one but God is supposed to know who's in his grace or not. If she said no, however, then it would mean she had been masquerading as a religious figure for trivial ends. Joan, however, figured out the trap quickly enough to answer: "If I'm not, may God put me in it; If I am, may God keep me there." The wording was considered both humble and pious. Centuries later, this witty reply was actually considered as an argument in favor of her canonization.
- Her death sentence was allegedly based on another one: Given only men's clothing, she had a choice between wearing it (and being condemned for impropriety) or going naked (and being condemned for impropriety, as well as exposing herself to certain other dangers in the enemy prison that she was held in).
  - Punishment for improper clothing or indecency was fine or flogging at the time. Joan of Arc was already considered a militant rebel, which was enough to warrant a high treason sentence i.e. qualified death.
My God, What Have I Done?: Her executioner, Geoffrey Therage, believed that he had damned himself irredeemably by burning her.
- A possible example may be Cardinal Henry Beaufort, the overseer of the trial, who left the execution in tears.
- Several of her judges, like John de Stogumber and Nicolas Loiseleur, seemed to have felt some remorse after her execution.
- Historical records suggest that Charles VII pushed for the posthumous reversal of Jehanne's sentence in 1456 out of remorse for leaving her to her fate.

Non-Indicative Name: "Jeanne d'Arc"/"Joan of Arc". This appellation was first applied to her nearly a quarter-century after her death, and was born of an English misinterpretation of the surname of her father, which was "Darc" or "Tarc" without an apostrophe -- and which she had never herself used. She was born and raised in Domrémy, which is some 300 miles from Arc, so under normal circumstances no one would ever have called her "of Arc". As a child she is believed to have used her mother's surname, following the tradition of the time, which would have made her "Jehanne Romée". In the field she presented herself as "Jehanne la Pucelle" ("Jeanne the Maiden"). She signed the letters she dictated simply "Jehanne" (possibly the only word she could write).
Redheaded Hero: Despite the fact that no portrait of her made while she was alive exists, she is frequently portrayed in the media with red hair.
Thou Shalt Not Kill: According to herself during her trial, she followed this.
Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Charles VII and Joan of Arc.
Shrouded in Myth: Even before she died, her name had become legend. And in the centuries that followed, she would come to become associated with various ideologies and causes, in time becoming intertwined with the French nation.
The Snark Knight: Both eyewitness accounts and the records of her testimony at her trial show that she had a very snarky sense of humor, especially when her temper flared up.
Sweet Polly Oliver: She didn't really disguise herself as a man, but she did wear male clothing for practical reasons -- armor was not designed to go over women's clothing. At her trial she claimed she had divine dispensation to crossdress for this reason, and that once her mission was accomplished she would return to women's clothing.
Trust Password: According to tradition, she whispered some secret to the Dauphin to convince him that she had really been divinely inspired to help him claim the throne. According to additional tradition, what she whispered was that God wanted him to be king of France, though some prefer to believe that she described an embarrassing birthmark on his backside.
Vindicated by History: Actually happened sooner after her death than most, as she was given a posthumous acquittal (called a "rehabilitation") in 1456. She was a symbol of the Catholic League during the 16th century, made bishop of Orléans in 1849, beautified in 1909, and officially canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.
You Are Worth Hell: Jehanne apparently inspired this kind of loyalty. One of her lieutenants, La Hire, once stated that he would have been prepared to follow her to the gates of Hell if she asked it of him.