Joan of Arc
OR JEANNE D'ARC, the Maid of Orleans; born of poor but devout parents, in the village of Domremy, Jan. 6, 1412. Her religious faith During the unhappy time of national was ardent almost from her cradle.
JOAN OF ARC From the Sculpture by A. V. Hyatt. degradation a prophecy, ascribed to Merlin, was current in Lorraine, that the kingdom lost by a woman (Queen Isabella) should be saved by a virgin, and no doubt this, together with her visions helped to define her mission to the brooding and enthusiastic mind of the young peasant girl. Her story was at first laughed to scorn, but her persistence bore down all opposition, and at last she succeeded in making her way to the Dauphin and convincing him by secret signs of her sincerity. She put on male dress and a suit of white armor, mounted a black charger, bearing a banner of her device-white, embroidered with lilies, on one side a picture of God enown of France supported by two angels, together with a pennon, on which was represented the Annunciation. Her sword was one that she divined would be found buried behind the altar in the Church of St. Catherine de Fierbois. Thus equipped she put herself at the head of an army of 6,000 men, dictated a letter to the English, and advanced to aid Dunois in the relief of Orleans, which was hard beset by the victorious enemy.
Her arrival fired the fainting hearts of the French with a new enthusiasm. On April 29, 1429, she threw herself into the city, and, after 15 days of fighting, the English were compelled to raise the siege and retreat. The French spirit again awoke, and within a week the enemy were swept from the principal positions on the Loire. She urged the weak-hearted Dauphin to his coronation.
Less than three months later she stood beside him at Rheims, and with tears of joy saluted him as king. She continued to accompany the French armies, and was present in many conflicts, and was mortified to the heart by the failure to carry Paris. At length, on May 24, 1430, she threw herself with a handful of men into Compiègne, which was then besieged by the forces of Burgundy; and, being driven back by them in a desperate sally, was left behind by her men, taken prisoner, and sold to the English by John of Luxembourg, in November, for 10,000 livres. In December she was carried to Rouen, the headquarters of the English, and flung into a gloomy prison, and at length arraigned before the spiritual tribunal of Pierre Cauchon, then Bishop of Beauvais, as a sorceress and a heretic, while the king left her to die. Her trial was long, and was disgraced by every form of shameful brutality. She was burned at the stake, May 30, 1431.
She was beatified by Pope Pius X. in 1909 and canonized by Pope Benedict XV. in 1920. Monuments have been erected in her memory not only in France but in many other countries. Her story has been the basis for a number of plays among which the most famous are Shakespeare's "Henry VI." and Schiller's "Jungfrau von Orleans." The story of her life has been written by many authors, including Andrew Lang, Ana tole France, and Mark Twain.