I know I could look up a bio of her online. Please, history buffs, tell me what the real deal was here? Not the party line, or myth.
How did this woman wind up in that position? Was it gender=politics, or politics=death with gender being a close second in terms of causality?
Cartooniverse
Kate Bornstein, Gender Warriors, Jeanne d’Arc was done in for her gender violation, as the trial records attest. Remember in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the “gender traitors” in the Republic of Gilead (i.e. the USA taken over by Christian fundamentalist Taliban) are executed and their bodies hung from the wall over the street for several days. Jeanne d’Arc was such a “gender traitor” in the eyes of medieval Christians. The death penalty.
Politics played a huge role in Jehanne’s demise.
After her capture by the English, her fate was almost a foregone conclusion. Her declaration that she was sent by God to deliver the French from English occupation was simply unacceptable. The English essentially had to declare her a heretic. To accept that this peasant girl (who was outrageously overstepping her social station, by the way) was God’s messanger was admitting that they were wrong in occupying France. In a nutshell, if Jehanne was who she said she was, then the English were defying the Lord’s will, and that simply wasn’t something they were willing to accept.
Executing her for heresy was a simple way of taking care of a larger political problem. Generally, uneducated peasants like Jehanne were easy to trap into admission of heretical beliefs. Questions were cleverly worded so that any answer would be wrong. For example, the inquisitors asked her if she was in a state of grace. To say yes would be saying that she knew the mind of God-- blasphemy, and to say no would be to admit she was a sinner and a heretic. Jehanne’s answer was astonishing: “If I am, may God keep me there. If I am not, may He bring me to it.” For an illiterate, uneducated peasant girl, this was incredibly clever.
The gender issue was part of it-- after all, the clerics had strong, serious doubts that if God had anything to say about the war, he would have chosen a dirty peasant girl who couldn’t even write her own name without assistance, and not a bishop or lord. Not only was Jehanne overstepping her natural subserviant role as a woman, but she was also overstepping her social status.
Okay, they quietly admitted, she had done some apparently miraculous things, but it must have been because she was a witch, being fed information by the devil. According to a source, she knew of a buried sword beneath an altar which the priests of the church had no knowledge. She was also able to tell the dauphin of France a secret which convinced him that she was truly sent by God, though we do not know what it was. Some scholars speculate that she told him he truly was legitimate-- something about which there was some debate.
The issue of the clothes was simply a way of forcing the issue. Jehanne, threatened with being burned at the stake, “confessed”, and the Church was forced to accept her penitence. (The only people who could be legally burned were relapsed heretics-- meaning that they had been warned, and refused to change or went back to their old ways. Of course, the Church found ways around that.) Jehanne claimed that they promised after she repented that she would be sent to a convent to be imprisoned, instead of where she was currently housed. She agreed to dress again in women’s clothing.
Various sources hint that Jehanne was either raped or assaulted in some way which led her to resume wearing men’s clothing. (Which had been temptingly placed in her cell, apparently. Else, where would she have gotten them?) She had always claimed that she wore men’s clothing to protect her virginity. (Her hose were tightly laced to her doublet, meaning that they could not be removed without quite a bit of effort, rather than the easy access provided by a woman’s dress.)
Putting the men’s clothes on was the relapse that the Churchmen needed to finally be rid of her. One can almost hear their sigh or relief down through the ages. They’d finally done it: after a lengthy trial in which the impertinent little witch had outwitted them repeatedly, and then her dissapointing recantation, they finally had what they needed to kill her.
When all the chips fell, the king of France was not willing to take the risk in trying to get her back. The fact that she was on trial before the Church, even if the trial were grossly rigged, had weight. The uncertain king could not afford to appear to support a heretic, or to have his crown credited to a witch, no matter what secret she had revealed to him. Secondly, she was getting a lot of public adultation, and the king may have been jealous, and nervous that Jehanne’s power would soon be greater than his own. She had also outlived her usefulness. While she was winning, she was a wonderful thing to have at the head of the army-- she was a powerful mascot, so to speak. But once she started losing battles, it must have seemed like God’s blessings had been lifted from her.
I think you’re missing the point of the OP – I get the impression that ]Cartooniverse isn’t asking about the details and reasons of her execution, but of how she got to lead the French forces in the first place.
I’m afraid that I can’t recall the reasons given in Marina Warner’s bio of her. What sticks in my mind is Shaw’s play Saint Joan, in which she gets her “break” at the position because some believed her divinely inspired, but that she kept the position because she was effective – she was no fool, and people followed her. It strikes me as a plausible explanation, but for the life of me I can’t recall how the historians feel about it.
Jehanne convinced people around her to take her to the local lord, who, at first, dismissed her as a nut, but finally, through dogged determination, she managed to convince the lord of her sincerity. He agreed to take her to court.
There, she was “tricked” by the court. A courtier dressed up as the dauphin and was presented to Jehanne, who saw through the ruse and chose the true dauphin out of the crowd-- pretty amazing to the court, since it was unlikely Jehanne had ever seen a painting or drawing of the dauphin and had probably heard only the roughest descriptions third or fourth hand.
She took the dauphin aside and told him something that convinced him that she was truly sent by God. We do not know what it was. Jehanne refused to say during her trial, and the dauphin never revealed the secret, either. Whatever it was, it struck a deep chord within him, and he agreed to do as she asked.
Regardless of what you think of Jehanne’s “voices” (I personally believe she may have been schizophrenic) she was an amazing young girl. Though she was helped by a prophecy which declared that a young maid would lead the land to victory, without her strength of character, Jehanne never would have gotten very far. She was very intelligent, quick on her feet, and willing to risk all for what she believed. She defied her parents, her gender role, her social role and even her Church in her quest. Most would have caved under the pressure and frustration, but Jehanne held firm.
The dauphin’s interest in Jehanne was most likely that she was a good mascot for his soldiers and had the remarkable ability to get them to follow her and rally to her banner. He was always suspicious of her-- but that was his nature. His motto should have been “Watch and Wait.” He also lacked confidence and the aggressive drive to push out the English. He preferred to negotiate. Jehanne wanted to attack. She did not understand or much care about diplomacy. Her mission was to war. The dauphin held her back.
He also put her through a trial of his own, having the French churchmen examine her for signs of heresy. She passed the test with flying colors. She also had to submit to what must have been a humiliating virginity test, which she also passed. (It was believed that the Devil couldn’t work through a virgin. A good deal of the slurs against Jehanne were that she was a whore to the French army and the Devil’s slut.)
I was asking for all of it. What wonderful posts. Thank you… much food for thought.
I had not thought of The Handmaid’s Tale, but gosh yes…frightening parallels.
Glad to contribute what I could. I love talking about history.
Speaking of which . . . would anyone be interested in a series of historical debates in GD along these lines? (I’m not talking about the socio-economic factors which lead to the Polypenesian war but commonly-known historical figures and events.)
A related question for you Lissa (hopefully won’t derial the OP). I’ve always heard that Jehanne would send away the prostitutes that traveled with the army (and even ask the soldiers not to swear).
Recently, reading about her sword and it’s fate I read an account that I would like confirmed or debunked.
It told of the fate of her sword which the article said was broken by Jehanne while killing a prostitute. Supposedly she liked doing this.
Any truth to this? Do you happen to know anythign more about her sword?
<---- Sword enthusiast 
That is reported in several accounts. How effective it was remains questionable. I’d imagine many of the soldiers said, “Isn’t that cute?” and went on swearing and screwing.
This is something that I have never heard. Jehanne swore at her trial that she had never killed anyone. She claimed she had only carried the sword for self-protection but had never used it in conflict.
One account of its fate that I have heard is that Jehanne whacked a couple of whores who were trying to delay the marching soldiers with the flat side of it (using it like a paddle) and it broke when she did so. Jehanne supposedly took this as God’s judgement on her losing her temper and striking someone.
Here is a page about Jehanne’s sword.
better late than never? So tragic it didn’t occur prior to 1920, the date of her official sainthood
The “Pope of Thirty Days” was John Paul I. Benedict XV was pope for 8 years.
Thanks very much Lissa!
You know, if my sword broke from slapping someone with the flat, I’d take it as a sign from god too (either that or a terrible smith!). 
Quite welcome.
The sword blade probably wasn’t the part that broke. It was probably the grip, which, after being buried, might have been more deteriorated than it appeared to be when they excavated it.
If Jehanne considered it holy, she probably would have just set the pieces aside, rather than have them repaired, epecially if the thought the break was a sign.
What about old reports that say Joan was alive and kicking, AFTER her supposed execution? So much about Joan of Arc seems like mythology to me-she has been transformed into a goddess, or saint, or devil 9take your pick). Exactly what info about her IS reliable?
Copious amounts of her trial testimony were recorded by the court, and are available on the Web.
I wonder if it is a bit misleading to say the English were occupying France, so much as actually it was French nobles that owned England as well as their territories in France and were using English resources to hang on to their French posessions.
I haven’t heard any reliable sources on this, but I have no doubts that like any celebrity of the age, there were pretenders.
It was a time when identification was nearly impossible to prove. Quite often, people claiming to be members of the royal family or other figures would pop up, getting the accolades of the area-- and the material benefits.
After Jehanne came into prominence, several other young women also claimed to be visited by saints and hear voices. Jehanne spent several nights with one of them who claimed that a saint came to visit her every night. The saint never appeared. Jehanne actually told one of these young women that she should go home and tend to her family, after which the young woman denounced Jehanne as being a fraud.
We know more about Jehanne D’Arc than any other living person up until that point-- and for some time afterward. What little documentation about people which existed at the time rarely survived. Jehanne’s records are a remarkable collection just for that reason.
She had three inquisitional trials, and there are copious documents associated with each. Here is an archive of some of the source material.
Remember that during the trials, the witnesses were swearing upon their immortal souls that what they were saying was true. This was taken very seriously at the time. While they may have attributed supernatural forces to some events which may be explained through more rational means, they were speaking truthfully as they percieved the events.
Lissa, is it true that there are no contemporary portraits of her?
Yes, it is true. The closest thing we have is a doodled drawing (you can see it at the top of the page I linked to about swords) which was on the edge of one of the trial transcripts, but the man who drew it never met Jehanne.
A contemporary painting of her did once exist. Jehanne said in her trial testimony that she saw it, but it was lost long ago.
Let me take issue with one urban legend: The fact that Joan wore men’s clothes wasn’t the hand over the heart, gasp/vapors inducing thing that folks tend to make it. The reason this is seen as so scandoulous is that the Trail made a HUGE deal of it and later ages portrayed it as scandalous. Women often wore men’s clothes in France at the time, going unescorted and undisguised – advertising clearly one was a woman was an invitation to disaster.
http://www.joan-of-arc.org/joanofarc_life_summary_vaucouleurs.html
[next to margin note 8]
One thing that I don’t fully understand is that standard time line is usually that Joan begs he local commander to take her to the Dauphin and he finally gives in to her. What actually happens is that the Duke of Lorraine hears that she is a wonder worker and sends for her. THAT in fact gets her ball rolling with the Court and commanders same cite
WTF? Does this make sense? How does she, a joke to her local commander and living off the kindness of her distant relations come to Lorraine’s attention? I don’t follow …