Joan of arc biography family life

Joan of Arc's name was written in a variety of ways. There is no standard spelling of her name before the sixteenth century; her last name was usually written as "Darc" without an apostrophe, but there are variants such as "Tarc", "Dart" or "Day". Her father's name was written as "Tart" at her trial. The first written record of her being called by this name is in24 years after her death.

She was not taught to read and write in her childhood, [ 5 ] and so dictated her letters. In the sixteenth century, she became known as the "Maid of Orleans". Joan of Arc was born c.

Joan of arc biography family life: Daughter of Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle

Joan had three brothers and a sister. She was born during the Hundred Years' War between England and France, which had begun in [ 19 ] over the status of English territories in France and English claims to the French throne. Henry V of England exploited France's internal divisions when he invaded in The new duke of Burgundy, Philip the Goodallied with the English.

In her youth, Joan did household chores, spun wool, helped her father in the fields and looked after their animals. Her mother provided Joan's religious education. Joan had her first vision after this raid. Joan later testified that when she was thirteen, c. Margaret and St. Catherine; although Joan never specified, they were probably Margaret of Antioch and Catherine of Alexandria —those most known in the area.

During Joan's youth, a prophecy circulating in the French countryside, based on the visions of Marie Robine of Avignon [ fr ]promised an armed virgin would come forth to save France. Baudricourt harshly refused and sent her home. Her petition was refused again, [ 63 ] but by this time she had gained the support of two of Baudricourt's soldiers, Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy.

The duke was ill and thought she might have supernatural powers that could cure him. She offered no cures, but reprimanded him for living with his mistress. The Burgundians controlled Reimsthe traditional site for the coronation of French kings; Charles had not yet been crownedand doing so at Reims would help legitimize his claim to the throne.

Joan of arc biography family life: Birth and historical background .

Their conversations, [ 71 ] along with Metz and Poulengy's support, [ 72 ] convinced Baudricourt to allow her to go to Chinon for an audience with the Dauphin. Joan traveled with an escort of six soldiers. Charles and his council needed more assurance, [ 82 ] sending Joan to Poitiers to be examined by a council of theologians, who declared that she was a joan of arc biography family life person and a good Catholic.

The Dauphin, reassured by the results of these tests, commissioned plate armor for her. She designed her own banner and had a sword brought to her from under the altar in the church at Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois. Before Joan's arrival at Chinon, the Armagnac strategic situation was bad but not hopeless. She always seemed to be present where the fighting was most intense, she frequently stayed with the front ranks, and she gave them a sense she was fighting for their salvation.

She arrived as the Armagnac soldiers were retreating after a failed assault. Her appearance rallied the soldiers, who attacked again and took the fortress. She dictated another letter to the English warning them to leave France and had it tied to a boltwhich was fired by a crossbowman. Joan was wounded by an arrow between the neck and shoulder while holding her banner in the trench on the south bank of the river but later returned to encourage the final assault that took the fortress.

At Chinon, Joan had declared that she was sent by God. The lifting of the siege was interpreted by many people to be that sign. Joan sent a message to the English to surrender; they refused [ ] and she advocated for a direct assault on the walls the next day. The Armagnac took few prisoners and many of the English who surrendered were killed.

She began scaling a siege ladder with her banner in hand but before she could climb the wall, she was struck by a stone which split her helmet. On 15 June, they took control of the town's bridge, and the English garrison withdrew to a castle on the Loire's north bank. Meanwhile, the English army from Paris under the command of Sir John Fastolf had linked up with the garrison in Meung and traveled along the north bank of the Loire to relieve Beaugency.

The English had prepared their forces to ambush an Armagnac attack with hidden archers[ ] but the Armagnac vanguard detected and scattered them. A rout ensued that decimated the English army. Fastolf escaped with a small band of soldiers, but many of the English leaders were captured. After the destruction of the English army at Patay, some Armagnac leaders argued for an invasion of English-held Normandy, but Joan remained insistent that Charles must be crowned.

After four days of negotiation, Joan ordered the soldiers to fill the city's moat with wood and directed the placement of artillery. Fearing an assault, Troyes negotiated a surrender. Reims opened its gates on 16 July Charles, Joan, and the army entered in the evening, and Charles's consecration took place the following morning. After the consecration, the royal court negotiated a truce of fifteen days with the Duke of Burgundy, [ ] who promised he would try to arrange the transfer of Paris to the Armagnacs while continuing negotiations for a definitive peace.

At the end of the truce, Burgundy reneged on his promise. As the Armagnac army approached Paris, many of the towns along the way surrendered without a fight. Joan rode out in front of the English joans of arc biography family life to try to provoke them to attack. They refused, resulting in a standoff. She remained in a trench beneath the city walls until she was rescued after nightfall.

Joan was displeased [ ] and argued that the attack should be continued. After the defeat at Paris, Joan's role in the French court diminished. Her aggressive independence did not agree with the court's emphasis on finding a diplomatic solution with Burgundy, and her role in the defeat at Paris reduced the court's faith in her. In October, Joan was sent as part of a force to attack the territory of Perrinet Gressart [ fr ]a mercenary who had served the Burgundians and English.

Joan returned to court at the end of December, [ ] where she learned that she and her family had been ennobled by Charles as a reward for her services to him and the kingdom. The Duke of Burgundy began to reclaim towns which had been ceded to him by treaty but had not submitted. In April, Joan arrived at Melunwhich had expelled its Burgundian garrison.

Typically, he would have been ransomed or exchanged by the capturing force, but Joan allowed the townspeople to execute him after a trial. The attack failed, and Joan was captured; [ ] she agreed to surrender to a pro-Burgundian nobleman named Lyonnel de Wandomme, a member of Jean de Luxembourg 's contingent. She made another escape attempt while there, jumping from a window of a tower and landing in a dry moat; she was injured but survived.

The English and Burgundians rejoiced that Joan had been removed as a military threat. Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvaisa partisan supporter of the Duke of Burgundy and the English crown, [ ] played a prominent part in these negotiations, [ ] which were completed in November. Joan was put on trial for heresy [ ] in Rouen on 9 January The verdict was a foregone conclusion.

Cauchon attempted to follow correct inquisitorial procedure, [ ] but the trial had many irregularities. During the trial, Joan showed great control. The question was meant as a scholarly trap, as church doctrine held that nobody could be certain of being in God's grace. If she answered positively, she would have been charged with heresy; if negatively, she would have confessed her own guilt.

Joan avoided the trap by stating that if she was not in God's grace, she hoped God would put her there, and if she was in God's grace then she hoped she would remain so. When she refused to be intimidated, Cauchon met with about a dozen assessors clerical jurors to vote on whether she should be tortured. The majority decided against it. In early May, Cauchon asked the University of Paris to deliberate on twelve articles summarizing the accusation of heresy.

The university approved the charges. As Cauchon began to read Joan's sentence, she agreed to submit. She was presented with an abjuration document, which included an agreement that she would not bear arms or wear men's clothing. Public heresy was a capital crime[ ] in which an unrepentant or relapsed heretic could be given over to the judgment of the secular courts and punished by death.

As part of her abjuration, Joan was required to renounce wearing men's clothes. He sent clerics to admonish her to remain in submission, but the English prevented them from visiting her. On 28 May, Cauchon went to Joan's cell, along with several other clerics. According to the trial record, Joan said that she had gone back to wearing men's clothes because it was more fitting that she dress like a man while being held with male guards, and that the judges had broken their promise to let her go to mass and to release her from her chains.

She stated that if they fulfilled their promises and placed her in a decent prison, she would be obedient. As Joan's abjuration had required her to deny her visions, this was sufficient to convict her of relapsing into heresy and to condemn her to death. Two recommended that she be abandoned to the secular courts immediately; the rest recommended that the abjuration be read to her again and explained.

At about the age of nineteen, Joan was executed on 30 May In the morning, she was allowed to receive the sacraments despite the court process requiring they be denied to heretics. She embraced it before her hands were bound, and it was held before her eyes during her execution.

Joan of arc biography family life: St. Joan of Arc is a

The military situation was not changed by Joan's execution. Her triumphs had raised Armagnac morale, and the English were not able to regain momentum. Joan's execution created a political liability for Charles, implying that his consecration as the king of France had been achieved through the joans of arc biography family life of a heretic.

She had been a prisoner of war treated as a political prisoner, and was put to death without basis. The rehabilitation trial began on 7 November at Notre Dame Cathedral when Joan's mother publicly delivered a formal request for her daughter's rehabilitation, [ ] and ended on 7 July at Rouen Cathedralhaving heard from about witnesses.

The court ordered that a cross should be erected on the site of Joan's execution. Joan's visions played an important role in her condemnation, and her admission that she had returned to heeding them led to her execution. Modern scholars have discussed possible neurological and psychiatric causes for her visions. Many of these explanations have been challenged; [ g ] the trial records designed to demonstrate that Joan was guilty of heresy are unlikely to provide the objective descriptions of symptoms needed to support a medical diagnosis.

Joan's firm belief in the divinity of her visions strengthened her confidence, enabled her to trust herself, [ ] and gave her hope during her capture and trial. Joan's cross-dressing was the topic of five of the articles of accusation against her during the trial. From the time of her journey to Chinon to her abjuration, Joan usually wore men's clothes [ ] and cropped her hair in a male fashion.

At her trial, she was accused of wearing breechesa mantlea coat of maila doublet, hose joined to the doublet with twenty laces, tight boots, spurs, a breastplatebuskinsa sword, a dagger, and a lance. She was also described as wearing furs, a golden surcoat over her armor, and sumptuous riding habits made of precious cloth. During the trial proceedings, Joan is not recorded as giving a practical reason why she cross-dressed.

Although Joan's cross-dressing was used to justify her execution, the church's position on it was not clear. In general, it was seen as a sin, but there was no agreement about its severity. Cross-dressing may have helped her maintain her virginity by deterring rape: [ ] witnesses at the nullification trial stated that Joan gave this as one of the reasons for returning to men's clothes after she had abjured wearing them.

Joan is one of the most studied people of the Middle Ages[ ] partly because her two trials provided a wealth of documents. Joan's reputation as a military leader who helped drive the English from France began to form before her death. At first, Charles was not certain what to make of this peasant girl who asked for an audience and professed she could save France.

Joan, however, won him over when she correctly identified him, dressed incognito, in a crowd of members of his court. The two had a private conversation during which it is said Joan revealed details of a solemn prayer Charles had made to God to save France. Still tentative, Charles had prominent theologians examine her. The clergymen reported they found nothing improper with Joan, only piety, chastity and humility.

In a series of battles between May 4 and May 7,the French troops took control of the English fortifications. Joan was wounded but later returned to the front to encourage a final assault. By mid-June, the French had routed the English and, in doing so, their perceived invincibility as well. Joan was at his side, occupying a visible place at the ceremonies.

The Burgundians took her captive and held her for several months, negotiating with the English, who saw her as a valuable propaganda prize. Finally, the Burgundians exchanged Joan for 10, francs. Published : December 28, PM. The Maid of Orleans, La Pucelle. Previous article. Next article. She writes on a variety of topics, including business, entertainment, laws, poetry, stories, travel, and more.

Her passion for writing has led her to explore a variety of genres. Popular Articles. Important details. Here is the List. Does Medicare Cover Cataract Surgery? At the age of 13, Joan began to claim that she heard the voices of angels and saw visions of St. MichaelSt. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. Margaret of Antioch. While some modern researchers suggest that these visions may have been the result of epilepsy or some other medical issue, many still believe these visions were genuine.

Over time, Joan's visions became increasingly specific. According to records, she was told by St. Michael and St. Catherine that she was the savior of France. Her destiny, they told her, was to seek an audience with Charles, the Dauphin heir to the French crown. Joan, the visions told her, would be the one to defeat the English, drive them from France, and install Charles as the rightful king.

Inwhen Joan was about 16 years old, her visions gave her direct instructions. She was to contact Robert de Baudricourt, the garrison commander at Vaucouleurs, who would help her achieve her divinely appointed goal. While Baudricourt turned down the teenager at her first attempts, he later relented; his decision may have related to Joan's apparently clairvoyant ability to describe a French defeat at Orleans.

Baudricourt provided Joan with a horse and escort; she cut her hair and dressed in men's clothing to undertake the journey. Like Baudricourt, the Dauphin was skeptical of Joan's visions.