Joan of Arc

This is some stuff i have put together about Joan of Arc.

Hearing god
Did Joan of arc hear god?

This question has been bearing in my mind lately. After reading all the historical evidence that is written it seems that history points to some strange facts. That she existed, that she said she heard god, that she never deviated from her position, that the king accepted her, that the army won its first battles, and most important under her command-under her command, and that she was never charged with heresy for blaspheming god, but for matters of clothing and “official church business”.

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Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d'Arc) (January 6, 1412 - May 30, 1431), known as the Maid of Orléans (French: la pucelle d'Orléans), is a national heroine of France and saint of the Catholic Church. During the Hundred Years' War she led the French against the English: against all odds she defeated the English at the siege of Orléans as well as in a series of subsequent battles, enabling the coronation of King Charles VII of France in Rheims. Captured by the Burgundians, she was delivered to the English, who had a selected group of pro-English clergy condemn her for heresy, and who eventually burnt her in Rouen. Joan of Arc's campaigns were responsible for a revitalization of Charles VII's faction during the Hundred Years War. She has been revered as a national symbol in French patriotic circles since the 19th century.

Around 1424 Jeanne said she began receiving visions of Saint Michael the Archangel, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret telling her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin to Reims for his coronation. In 1428 at the age of 16, she asked a family relative, Durand Lassois, to bring her to nearby Vaucouleurs in order to ask the garrison commander, Lord Robert de Baudricourt, to give her an escort to bring her to the Dauphin's court at Chinon. She was rejected, but returned the following January and was finally granted an escort of six men. Two of these soldiers, Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy, said they gave her male clothing to wear (as the standard disguise used in such circumstances) and brought her through Burgundian-controlled territory to Chinon. She was said to have convinced Charles to believe in her by relating a private prayer that he had made the previous November 1st, although he additionally insisted on having her examined for three weeks by theologians at Poitiers before granting final acceptance. She was then brought to a succession of towns where preparations were being made to bring supplies to the city of Orléans, which had been under siege by the English since the previous October.

Joan of Arc and Charles VII
By 1424, the uncles of Henry VI had begun to quarrel over the infant's regency, and one, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, married Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut, and invaded Holland to regain her former dominions, bringing him into direct conflict with Philip III, Duke of Burgundy.
By 1428, the English were ready to pursue the war again, laying siege to Orléans. Their force was insufficient to fully invest the city, but larger French forces remained passive. In 1429, Joan of Arc convinced the Dauphin to send her to the siege, saying she had received visions from God telling her to drive out the English. She raised the morale of the local troops and they attacked the English redoubts, forcing the English to lift the siege. Joan proceeded to win several battles against the English, opening the way for the Dauphin to march to Reims for his coronation as Charles VII.
After Joan was captured by the Burgundians in 1430 and later sold to the English and executed, the French advance stalled in negotiations. But, in 1435, the Burgundians under Philip the Good switched sides, signing the Treaty of Arras and returning Paris to the King of France. Burgundy's allegiance remained fickle, but their focus on expanding their domains into the Low Countries left them little energy to intervene in France. The long truces that marked the war also gave Charles time to reorganize his army and government, replacing his feudal levies with a more modern professional army that could put its superior numbers to good use, and centralizing the French state.
By 1449, the French had retaken Rouen, and in 1450, the count of Clermont and Arthur III, Duke of Brittany caught an English army attempting to relieve Caen at the Battle of Formigny and defeated it, using cannon to break up the archers. The French proceeded to capture Cherbourg on July 6 and Bordeaux and Bayonne in 1451. The Earl of Shrewsbury's attempt to retake Gascony, though initially welcomed by the locals, was crushed by Jean Bureau and his cannon at the Battle of Castillon in 1453.
Joan’s action quickly became powerfully efficient. After gathering together her army, she left for Orléans, protected by Captain Dunois, nicknamed the bastard of Orléans as he was the half-brother of Duke Charles, imprisoned in England. Joan imposed respect and managed, not without difficulty, to take command of her army. In ten days she slayed the English in the East of the city and freed the bridge over the Loire in the course of the day of Tourelles, where she was wounded. This victory brought about the lifting of the siege as the chief of the English company was killed in the battle. From 8 May until 18 June, she won back the forteresses and towns on the banks of the Loire. On 18 June, Joan’s army won its first campagne victory. Since the beginning of the Hundred Years War, the defeat of Poitiers, of Crécy and of Azincourt had covered the French cavalry with shame. Patay was thus the much awaited revenge which restored confidence and at the same time opened up the road to Reims for Charles to be crowned there.

Joan conducted the war in an entirely new way, at a tume when the savagery of battles had broken all the rules of God’s Peace. Of course baudy wenches and other girls of possibly doubtful virtue were not allowed to follow the army. Priests carrying banners recited prayers and heard the confessions of the soldiers. Joan’s companions at arms, rough men of the road noted for their propensity for rape and their exactions (one of these companions of Joan, Gilles de Rais, was hanged for rape and pilfering), held her in such esteem that it was close to veneration. They had to change their behavior and language when in her presence.

For the modern reader, this last part raises questions. Divine intervention in History upsets a rational understanding of the facts and events. However, in spite of all Pierre Cauchon’s zeal, it was not possible to condemn Joan on the grounds that she heard voices, or that she was a crank or mentally unstable He never succeeded in proving the slightest incoherence. Joan never contradicted herself. So, what then ?

At Poitiers, this is how Joan related her vocation : "When she was minding the animals, she heard a voice who told her that God was weeping over the people of France and that she, Joan, must come to France. When she heard this she began to cry ; then the voice told her to go to Vaucouleurs where she would find a Captain who would lead her safely to France and to the King ; she was not to doubt this. This is exactly what she did and she went straight to the King without any hindrance. "She gave this account on several occasions before the judges without contradicting herself, in spite of their snares. She refused to go back on her account of the voices and insisted that, even if she died, the English would be chased out of France...

"I know that the English will have me put to death because they think that after my death they will conquer the kingdom of France. But even if there were a hundred thousand more of them than at present, they will not take the kingdom. "
And this is exactly what happened after her death… The English did indeed crown the young Henry VI in the cathedral of Paris in 1432. But this symbol did not rally the French and did not prove a victory. In 1435, the Armagnacs and the Burgundians were reconciled. In 1436, Paris rejected the English. Normandy which had been thoroughly pillaged rose up in 1449 (Rouen had about 14 000 inhabitants at the time of the English conquest, but only 5 000 inhabitants remained afterwards). The English were beaten at Formigny in 1450, then at Castillon in 1453. They had to hand over the duchy of Guyenne which had belonged to them since Eleanor of Aquitaine… The best proof of the authenticity of Joan’s mission is indeed that all her prophecies came true.

The problem that Joan presents to the historian and to History itself is the same as the one presented by Jesus of Nazareth. From start to finish, Joan claimed that she had received her mission from God, that she had obeyed her voices and that she would rather die than renounce her mission. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God.

In Joan’s case, if we refuse to accept what she said of her mission, we see her as a lunatic, unbalanced, a pale figure burnt at the stake on the Old Market Square of Rouen.

But in this case the sources have to be rejected and the Joan presented does not correspond to the figure that stands out in the various pieces of evidence. Joan would then be put on trial a second time, which would be ridiculous since she has already been judged. This is precisely what Luc Besson’s film does, backed up by a substantial amount of dollars. This is the image of Joan that is being widespread in the global village by the powerful means of the cinema. In many respects, this image is intolerable as it is a false image.

It has to be said that, in this case, truth is indeed finer than fiction

Saint Joan of Arc Quick Facts


National heroine and patron saint of France
Birth 1412
Death May 30, 1431
Place of Birth Domrémy (now Domrémy-la-Pucelle), France
Known for Leading French troops to a decisive victory against the English at Orléans, which shifted the momentum toward the French in the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453)
Milestones February 1429 Convinced Charles, heir to the French throne, that divine voices had commanded her to save France; was placed in command of French troops to fight the English in the Hundred Years' War
May 1429 Led French troops to victory, breaking an English siege of Orléans
July 1429 Sat at the side of Charles VII at his coronation ceremony in Reims
1430 Was captured during an unauthorized campaign at Compiégne by Bourguignon soldiers, French allies of England, who turned her over to the English six months later
1430-1431 Was interrogated by an ecclesiastical court at Rouen, and charged on various counts including witchcraft, heresy, and wearing male clothing
1431 Confessed wrongdoing and had her sentence reduced to life imprisonment, but after resuming masculine dress was burned at the stake in the marketplace at Rouen as a relapsed heretic
1456 Was found innocent in a posthumous trial by an ecclesiastical court, which voided the results of her heresy trial
Did You Know Joan was just 17 years old when she led French troops to battle in Orléans.
From age 13, Joan believed that she heard celestial voices; she thought them to be those of Saint Michael, Saint Margaret of Antioch, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria.
Pope Benedict XV canonized Joan of Arc in 1920.


This facts seem to point to the idea that Joan believed that she heard from god and that others believed that she heard from god. Now all of this I truly believe can be true and most likely is true, historical fact seems to support it.

The real question for me is that if she heard from god and delivered the message from god, then why did he lead a war that to me seemed over land or conquest. Was there some other motive for the English to leave France. Something that spurred on gods will. I do not know this. I still haven’t seen Jesus advocate any war.

website: http://archive.joan-of-arc.org/index.html