This frail girl had a clearer vision than the learned ecclesiastics and the unlettered feudal warriors who were misruling the French provinces. argued that Joan’s claims of divine manifestations did nothing to undermine her sanity, “She sensed the need for development of a centralized national State, and this made her a figure that neither her contemporaries nor future historians could ignore. Her willingness to express them coincided with her growing passion to drive the English out of France. However, it is also important to note that while Joan claimed to have begun having visions at age thirteen, she did not immediately speak of them.
There is no denying Joan’s fervent belief in her visions, which she rigorously defended at her trial. Depending on the individual’s religious inclinations and lens of analysis, conclusions vary. Condemned as a heretic by a pro-English Bishop and later made a Saint by the Roman Catholic Church, much discussion has been made regarding Joan’s sanity. The above picture depicts an artistic interpretation of Joan in 1485, as the only surviving paining of Joan has been lost. Charles sent her to Siege of Orléans, where Joan defeated the English in nine days. Eventually, she met with Charles VII (who had not yet been crowned) and “overwhelmed him with her passion and conviction” (Pettinger 2007). According to Joan, these saints told her to unify the French people by driving out the English.Īt the age of 16 or 17, with the help of a relative, she met with a series of French officials, all with the goal of speaking with the French Crown. She later explained that she frequently heard divine voices and had visions of Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret. The first time that I heard this Voice, I was very much frightened it was mid-day, in the summer, in my father’s garden” (Official Transcript, Translated). At her cross-examination during her Heresy trial, Joan reported to hearing divine voices at each thirteen, “I was thirteen when I had a Voice from God for my help and guidance. There was much civil unrest surrounding her home and there is evidence to suggest that her village was burned down at least once due to the conflict during her childhood. Joan was born in 1412 to a French farmer family, living in Domremy, a French Crown loyalist area despite being surrounded by pro-English lands during the Hundred Years’ War. As an introductory blog post, I will first be focusing on Joan’s origins and pre-battle history, as well as give some commentary on whether or not she was sane.
For my final project, I will be doing a blog series focused on Joan of Arc. George Bernard Shaw famously described her as “the queerest fish among the eccentric worthies of the Middle Ages” (Shaw 1924) after Mark Twain had characterized her as “by far the most extraordinary person the human race has ever produced” (Twain 1896).
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