Look up Jared in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Jared is a proper name of Biblical derivation that is a common first name, mostly in North American English-speaking countries.

In the Bible, Jared was the sixth link in the ten pre-flood generations between Adam and Noah; he was the son of Mahalaleel and the father of Enoch, and lived 962 years (per Genesis 5:18).

Two people named Jared are mentioned in the Book of Mormon: Jared (founder of Jaredites) and Jared (Book of Mormon king).

The meaning of the name is "he who descended" (Hebrew root YRD). In the Book of Enoch it is explained that Mahalaleel named Jared because during his lifetime the angels of the Lord descended to earth. The name could also be understood as "he who shall rule" (future tense of the Hebrew root RDH, as found for example in Psalms 72:8).

People[link]

Sports[link]

• Jared Allen (born 1982), American football player
• Jared Aulin (born 1982), Canadian ice hockey player
• Jared Barker (born 1975), Canadian rugby player
• Jared Boll (born 1986), American ice hockey player
• Jared Borgetti (born 1973), Mexican football player
• Jared Brennan (born 1984), Australian football player
• Jared Burton (born 1981), American baseball player
• Jared Clauss (born 1981), American football player
• Jared Connaughton (born 1985), Canadian sprinter
• Jared Cook (born 1987), American football player
• Jared Cowen (born 1991), Canadian ice hockey player
• Jared Crouch (born 1978), Australian football player
• Jared DeVries (born 1976), American football player
• Jared Dudley (born 1985), American basketball player
• Jared Fernández (born 1972), American baseball player
• Jared Gaither (born 1986), American football player
• Jared Goedert (born 1985), American baseball player
• Jared Graves (born 1982), Australian cyclist
• Jared Hess (born 1983), American mixed martial artist
• Jared Hodgkiss (born 1986), English football player
• Jared Homan (born 1983), American basketball player
• Jared Jeffries (born 1981), American basketball player
• Jared Jordan (born 1984), American basketball player
• Jared Lewis (born 1982), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines sprinter
• Jared Mitchell (baseball) (born 1988), American baseball player
• Jared Montz (born 1982), American soccer player
• Jared Newberry (born 1981), American football player
• Jared Newson (born 1984), American basketball player
• Jared Odrick (born 1987), American football player
• Jared Palmer (born 1971), American tennis player
• Jared Petrenko (born 1989), Australian football player
• Jared Poulton (born 1977), Australian football player
• Jared Rando (born 1981), Australian mountain biker
• Jared Reiner (born 1982), American basketball player
• Jared Retkofsky (born 1983), American football player
• Jared Rivers (born 1984), Australian football player
• Jared Rollins (born 1977), American mixed martial artist
• Jared Ross (born 1982), American ice hockey player
• Jared Sandberg (born 1978), American baseball player
• Jared Staal (born 1990), Canadian ice hockey player
• Jared Tallent (born 1984), Australian race walker
• Jared Theodorakos (born 1981), American baseball player
• Jared Tomich (born 1974), Australian football player
• Jared Weaver (born 1982), American baseball player
• Jared Wells (born 1981), American baseball player
• Jared Wilson (footballer) (born 1989), English football player
• Jared Zabransky (born 1983), American football player

Other People[link]

• Jared Anderson (heavy metal musician) (1974–2006), American musician
• Jared Benson (1821–1894), American politician
• Jared Bernstein, American economist
• Jared Brossett (born 1982), American politician
• Jared Brush (1814–1895), American politician
• Jared Carter (born 1939), American poet
• Jared Ingersol Chipman (1788–1832), Nova Scotian lawyer and politician
• Jared Cohen (born 1981), American foreign policy advisor and author
• Jared Crouch (born 1936), American academic
• Jared Daperis (born 1990), Australian actor
• Jared Diamond (born 1937), American scientist and writer
• Jared Evan (born 1988), American musician
• Jared Bradley Flagg (1820–1899), American painter
• Jared Fogle (born 1977), American spokesman for Subway
• Jared Followill (born 1986), American musician
• Jared French (1905–1988), American painter
• Jared Gold (born 1972), American fashion designer
• Jared Harris (born 1961), English actor
• Jared Hasselhoff (born 1971), American musician
• Jared Hedges (born 1980), American writer
• Jared Hess (born 1979), American filmmaker
• Jared Huffman (born 1964), American politician
• Jared Ingersoll (1749–1822), American politician
• Jared Irwin (1750–1818), American politician, Governor of Georgia
• Jared Irwin (Pennsylvania) (1768–1818), American politician
• Jared Keeso (born 1984), Canadian actor
• Jared Kirtland (1793–1877), American naturalist and politician
• Jared Kushner (born 1981), American newspaper owner
• Jared Lane (born 1972), New Zealand artist
• Jared Lee Loughner (born 1988), American arrested for the 2011 Tucson shooting
• Jared Lee (born 1943), Canadian artist
• Jared Leto (born 1971), American actor (featured in various movies such as Requiem for a Dream, Lord of War, Fight Club, and Mr. Nobody, among others) and is also the frontman and rhythm guitarist of the popular hard rock band 30 Seconds to Mars
• Jared Mansfield (1759–1830), American mathematician and surveyor
• Jared Martin (born 1940), American actor
• Jared Mitchell (writer) (born 1955), Canadian journalist
• Jared Monti (1975–2006), American soldier
• Jared Murillo (dancer) (born 1988), American dancer
• Jared Nathan (1985–2006), American actor
• Jared Padalecki (born 1982), American actor
• Jared Peck (1816–1891), American politician
• Jared Perkins (1793–1854), American politician
• Jared Polis (born 1975), American politician
• Jared Rushton (born 1974), American musician and actor
• Jared Slingerland (born 1984), Canadian musician
• Jared Sparks (1789–1866), American historian and university president
• Jared Taylor (born 1951), American journalist
• Jared Sidney Torrance (1853–1921), American real estate developer
• Jared Troop (1837–1876), Canadian lawyer and politician
• Jared Turner (born 1978), New Zealand-born Australian actor
• Jared Whitaker (1818–1884), American newspaperman and politician
• Jared W. Williams (1796–1864), American lawyer and politician
• Jared Williams (Virginia) (1766–1831), American politician
• Jared Young Sanders, Jr. (1892–1960), American politician
• Jared Young Sanders, Sr. (1869–1944), American politician

Fiction[link]

• Jared Banks, fictional character on One Life to Live
• Jared Casey, fictional character on Passions
• Jared Nomak, antagonist from the movie Blade 2 (played by Luke Goss)

Neumark or Ostbrandenburg (de) Nowa Marchia (pl) terra trans Oderam (la) Neumark or East Brandenburg Region of the Margraviate of Brandenburg ← 1252–1945 → Coat of arms of Brandenburg, shared by the Neumark The Margraviate of Brandenburg ca 1320, showing the Neumark as the portion reaching out to the east. Cross-hatched are territories also acquired by the House of Ascania outside of Brandenburg. Capital Soldin Historical era Middle Ages, Modern era  - Lubusz Land bought     by Mgvt Brandenburg     and Abp Magdeburg 1252  - Pawned to the     Teutonic Knights 1402–63a  - Partitioned to form     Brandenburg-Küstrin 1535–71  - Electors inherited     Duchy of Prussia 1618  - Expanded on     abolition of     Posen-West Prussia 1938  - Potsdam Conference     awarded most of     Neumark to Poland 17 July – 2 Aug 1945  - Reorganised to     Lubusz Voivodeship 1 January 1999 Today part of  Poland  Germany a: Pawned to the Teutonic Knights in 1402, who gained complete control of the territory by 1429. Pawned back to Brandenburg in 1455, whose reacquisition of the territory was completed in 1463.

The Neumark ( listen (help·info)), also known as the New March (Polish: Nowa Marchia) or as East Brandenburg (German:  Ostbrandenburg (help·info)), comprised a region of the Prussian province of Brandenburg, Germany, located east of the Oder River in territory which became part of Poland in 1945.

Called the Lubusz Land while part of medieval Poland, the territory later known as the Neumark gradually became part of the German Margraviate of Brandenburg from the mid-13th century. As Brandenburg-Küstrin the Neumark formed an independent state of the Holy Roman Empire from 1535 to 1571; after the death of the margrave John, a younger son of Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg, it returned to Elector John George, the margrave's nephew and Joachim I Nestor's grandson. With the rest of the Electorate of Brandenburg, it became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 and part of the German Empire in 1871 when each of those states first formed. After World War I the entirely ethnic German Neumark remained inside the new Weimar Republic of Germany.

After World War II the Potsdam Conference assigned the majority of the Neumark to Polish administration, and since 1945 it remains part of Poland. Polish settlers largely replaced the expelled German population. Most of the Polish territory became part of the Lubusz Voivodeship, while the northern towns Choszczno (Arnswalde), Myślibórz (Soldin), and Chojna (Königsberg in der Neumark) belong to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. Some territory near Cottbus, which was administratively part of the district of Frankfurt an der Oder (coterminous with the Neumark) after the 1815 Congress of Vienna, became part of East Germany in the 1940s, becoming part of Germany after reunification in 1990.

Location[link]

The Oder marked the borders of the Neumark in the west and south; in the north it bordered on Pomerania, and in the east on Poland (and, after the Second Partition of Poland, by the Province of Posen). The Warta and Noteć Rivers and their swamp regions dominated the landscape of the region. At the time of the Neumark's greatest territorial extent (at the end of the 17th century), the region included the Kreise (districts) and towns of:

• Königsberg in der Neumark (Chojna)
• Soldin (Myślibórz)
• Landsberg an der Warthe (Gorzów Wielkopolski)
• Friedeberg (Strzelce Krajeńskie)
• Arnswalde (Choszczno)
• Dramburg (Drawsko Pomorskie)
• Schivelbein (Świdwin)
• Sternberg (Torzym)
• Crossen an der Oder (Krosno Odrzańskie)

History[link]

Ancient history[link]

In the Bronze Age the area which became the Neumark fell within the area of the Lusatian culture. In the Iron Age the Jastorf culture operated in this region, identified sometimes with Germanic and sometimes with Celtic tribes.

As its inhabitants moved westward, the region became depopulated during the Migration Period.^{[citation needed]} After AD 500 West Slavic tribes gradually repopulated the area, which became a forest borderland between Pomerania and Greater Poland. According to the Bavarian Geographer's description, the Miloxi inhabited the future Neumark region: they had 47 settlements between the Oder and Poznań.

Middle Ages[link]

Lubusz Land — core of the future Neumark — during the Piast period (marked in yellow)

The region came under the sovereignty of the first Polish state during the 10th-century rule of Mieszko I (died 992) and Bolesław I (ruled 992–1025), Dukes of the Polans.^[1] Polish rulers incorporated the future Neumark territory as the Lubusz Land: by the beginning of the 13th century it had a thinly-spread population of Poles.

The Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg, starting with Albert the Bear (ruled 1157–70), aspired to extend their dominion east of the Oder. They had gained a foothold east of the river by 1242 and in 1252 the Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Archbishopric of Magdeburg purchased the Lubusz Land. In 1253 they founded Frankfurt an der Oder as a river-crossing and as a staging-point for further expansion easward.^[2] Through land purchases, marriage pacts, and services to Poland's Piast dynasty, the Ascanians extended their territory eastward to the Drawa River and northward to the Parsęta River. For instance, the Polish castellany of Zantoch, an important base and crossing point over the Warta near its junction with the Noteć, was sought by Pomerania. To relieve himself of the trouble of maintaining the fortress, Duke Przemysł I of Greater Poland granted the castellany to Margrave Conrad as a dowry for his daughter Konstancja. To safeguard the region Margrave John I founded the town of Landsberg an der Warthe (now Gorzów Wielkopolski) in 1257. The Templars sold Soldin to the Ascanians in 1261, and the town began to become a center for the region.

Beginning in the 1230s, Low-German–speaking colonists from the Holy Roman Empire began settling north and south of the Warta and Noteć Rivers upon the initiative of Pomeranian and Polish lords; see Ostsiedlung. The lords invited members of the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller to establish monasteries, near which settlements began to develop. To fortify the borderland Pomeranian and Polish dukes built castles in the north, around which settlements also grew.

Most of the colonists who settled in Brandenburg's new eastern territory came from Magdeburg or the Altmark ("Old March"). Unlike in the rest of Brandenburg (where the Ascanians settled knights in open villages) the margraves began constructing castles in their land east of the Oder to guard against Poland.^[3] The Slavic inhabitants of the region gradually became Germanized. Because the new Terra trans Oderam, or "land across the Oder", formed an extension of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, it became known as the Neumark ("New March") after the middle of the 15th century.

With the extinction of the Ascanian line in 1320, Brandenburg's interest in the Neumark decreased. Neither the margraves of the Wittelsbach (1323–73) nor those of the Luxembourg dynasties concerned themselves with developing their eastern-most territory further. The political vacuum allowed Poland to reassert its influence in the area, while robber barons terrorized the populace.

The Teutonic Knights[link]

Brandenburg pawned the Neumark to the Teutonic Knights in 1402, and it passed completely under their control in 1429, although the Order neglected the region as well. After the Teutonic Knights' defeat in the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) in 1410, the future Grand Master Michael Küchmeister von Sternberg used the Neumark as a staging ground for an army of German and Hungarian mercenaries which he later used against the forces of King Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland. This allowed the Order to retain much of its territory in the First Peace of Thorn in 1411.^[4]

In 1454/1455 the Knights' mismanagement led to their pawning of the Neumark back to Brandenburg, by then led by Elector Frederick II of the Hohenzollern dynasty (Treaties of Cölln and Mewe). After Frederick completed the re-acquisition of Neumark in 1463 for 40,000 guilders, the region belonged to Brandenburg for the following centuries, with the exception of the time between 1535-1571. Frederick II wrote for his successors "that the said land, the New Mark, shall belong to German territory and to the worshipful Electorate of the Mark of Brandenburg, with which it was incorporated at the institution of the Electorate, and shall so remain, and shall never pass to those who speak not the German tongue".^[5]

Brandenburg-Küstrin[link]

Margraviate of Brandenburg-Küstrin Markgrafschaft Brandenburg-Küstrin
State of the Holy Roman Empire
← 1535–1571 →
A groschen of John, Margrave of Brandenburg-Küstrin, 1545 Coat of arms of Brandenburg
Capital	Soldin (to 1548)a Küstrin (from 1548)b
Government	Principality
Margrave	John
Historical era	Early modern age
- Partitioned from     Brandenburg	1535
- Reabsorbed into     Brandenburg	1571
Today part of	Poland  Germany
a: Soldin is now the Polish city of Myślibórz b: Küstrin straddled the Oder-Neisse line, so was partitioned after World War II and is now Kostrzyn nad Odrą in Poland and the Küstriner Vorland in Germany.

After the death of Elector Joachim I Nestor in 1535, Brandenburg's territory west of the Oder (the Kurmark) went to his older son Joachim II Hector, while the Neumark went to his younger son John, who began ruling the Neumark as an independent margraviate and consolidated the land. An enthusiastic supporter of the Protestant Reformation, John succeeded in converting the Neumark to Lutheranism and in confiscating church property. He lived frugally and acquired wealth for his treasury through usury and hiring out mercenary companies.

The division of Brandenburg resulted in trade wars between the brothers, as Crossen and Landsberg competed with the Kurmark's Frankfurt for mercantile primacy. The two margraves eventually compromised — at the economic expense of Stettin. (The brothers also reconciled out of concern for their territories during the Schmalkaldic War of 1546–47.)

In 1548 John's administration moved from Soldin to Küstrin. With the death of both brothers within ten days of each other in 1571, the Neumark became reunited with the Kurmark under Joachim II's son, John George.^[3]

Brandenburg-Prussia[link]

In 1618, East Brandenburg became part of Brandenburg-Prussia after the electors' inheritance of the Duchy of Prussia. During the Thirty Years' War (1618–48) both Swedish and Imperial troops plundered, ravaged and burnt the land, while plague epidemics in 1626 and 1631 killed much of the populace. While occupied by Swedish troops the region had to contribute 60,000 thalers and 10,000 Wispel of rye.

Kingdom of Prussia[link]

Districts of the Neumark in 1818

After the declaration of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, the situation in the Neumark began to improve. King Frederick I initiated new waves of colonization. Many French Hugenots, forced to flee from religious persecution in France, arrived as settlers. The textile industry also began to develop in the Neumark. The Seven Years' War caused the region to regress in its development, as high contributions were exacted from the population for the war effort and the Neumark was the setting for battles such as at Kunersdorf. Under Frederick II, increased land reclamation and economic consolidation resulted from the drainage of the Warta and Notec areas.

The reorganization of Prussia after the territorial changes — resulting from the Congress of Vienna in 1815 — changed the political makeup of the Neumark. The districts of Dramburg and Schivelbein and the northern part of Landkreis Arnswalde with the town of Nörenberg became part of the Province of Pomerania. The Neumark's remaining territory was incorporated into the newly created Regierungsbezirk Frankfurt an der Oder of the Province of Brandenburg.

Germany[link]

With the formation of the Prussian-led German Empire in 1871 the Neumark — along with the rest of Brandenburg — became part of a unified German state. In the Weimar Republic's National Assembly of 1 November 1919, the majority of the region voted for the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). The Neumark populace mostly voted for the German National People's Party in the elections for the German Reichstag on 20 May 1928, with a small island of SPD voters. In the Reichstag vote of December 1924 1,900 votes were cast for the Polish People's Party out of a population of 570,000. In 1925 the Neumark had 3,500 Polish-speakers.^[6] In the Reichstag vote of 6 November 1932, the Nazi Party won the election in the region.^[7]

When the Nazi authorities dissolved the province of Posen-West Prussia in 1938, they expanded the Neumark to include the districts of Schwerin (now Skwierzyna) and Meseritz (now Międzyrzecz), although the districts of Arnswalde and Friedeberg were reassigned to Pomerania. According to the 1939 census, the Neumark had a population of 645,000 residents, including 3,000 non-Germans.^[6] The dialect spoken in much of the territory was Neumärkisch, a variation of the East Low German Brandenburgisch dialect.

Infrastructure before 1945[link]

The Neumark region long featured agriculture and forestry. The medium-sized towns were mostly Ackerbürgerstädte, or farmer-citizen-towns. The textile industry became prominent in the 19th century. With the construction of modern roadways, of the Fernverkehrstraße 1 (an arterial road from Berlin to Königsberg), and of the Prussian Eastern Railway, the Neumark also began to develop industrially. Such development was primarily geared toward agricultural needs and was concentrated near the cities of Landsberg and Küstrin, and the Neumark did not become nearly as industrialized or densely-populated as other German areas such as the Ruhr, Saxony, or Upper Silesia.

World War II[link]

Near the end of World War II, the Soviet Red Army reached the Neumark at the end of January 1945. Because the Red Army had advanced so quickly, the civilian population of the region suffered greatly from warfare and occupying troops because they had not prepared to flee in time. More than 40,000 Neumarkers were killed in action as soldiers.

As the Neumark lay east of the Oder-Neisse line which formed the new border between Allied-controlled Germany and Poland, the region was put under Polish administration after the Potsdam Conference and eventually became part of Poland; see Recovered Territories. Germans remaining in the region were expelled and their land and possessions confiscated in accordance with the Polish government's Bierut Decree of March 1946. A small part of the German population, mostly technicians for the water supply companies, were retained and used for compulsory labour; they were allowed to emigrate to Germany in the 1950s. Older estimates indicated that of the pre-war population of 645,000, only 5,000 of the inhabitants from 1939 remained in the province in 1950.^[7][8] According to the Centre Against Expulsions, 40,000 Neumarkers were killed in action as soldiers, 395,000 fled to West or East Germany by 1950, and 208,000 died, disappeared, or were murdered during the course of flight or expulsion by Polish and Soviet troops.^[6]

Poland[link]

The Oder-Neisse line delimiting Germany and Poland split several localities of the region into divided cities:

• Küstrin was separated into German Küstrin-Kietz and Polish Kostrzyn nad Odrą,
• Frankfurt an der Oder was split into German Frankfurt (Oder) and Polish Słubice,
• Guben was divided into German Guben and Polish Gubin,
• Bad Muskau was split into German Bad Muskau and Polish Łęknica,
• Forst was divided into German Forst and Polish Zasieki,
• Görlitz was separated into German Görlitz and Polish Zgorzelec.

To replace the expelled indigenous German population, the new Polish authorities re-settled the former Neumark, with about 66% of the new population Poles from central Poland and about 33% of the Poles and Ukrainians from territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union. From 1975–98 the former Neumark territory was divided between the Voivodeships of Gorzów and Zielona Góra with a small section around Chojna in Szczecin Voivodeship. Since the reorganization of Polish voivodeships on 1 January 1999, almost all of the former Neumark region lies within the Lubusz Voivodeship.

Notes[link]

This article incorporates information from the revision as of 12 May 2006 of the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia.

See also[link]

• Bishopric of Lebus
• List of cities and towns in the Neumark

External links[link]

• 1493 map -Marcha Nova-Neumark
• Map of the Neumark in the Middle Ages
• Administrative history (German)
• Genealogical research (German)

Joan of Arc
Painting, ca. 1485. An artist's interpretation, since the only portrait for which she is known to have sat has not survived. (Centre Historique des Archives Nationales, Paris, AE II 2490)
Saint
Born	ca. 1412 Domrémy, Duchy of Bar, Kingdom of France.
Died	30 May 1431 (aged 19) Rouen, France (then controlled by England)
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church Anglican Communion
Beatified	18 April 1909, Notre Dame de Paris by Pope Pius X
Canonized	16 May 1920, St. Peter's Basilica, Rome by Pope Benedict XV
Feast	30 May
Patronage	France ; martyrs; captives; military personnel; people ridiculed for their piety; prisoners; soldiers, women who have served in the WAVES (Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service); and Women's Army Corps

Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" (French: Jeanne d'Arc,^[1] IPA: [ʒan daʁk]; ca. 1412^[2] – 30 May 1431), is a folk heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in what is now eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII of France. She was captured by the Burgundians, transferred to the English in exchange for money, put on trial by the pro-English Bishop of Beauvais Pierre Cauchon for charges of "insubordination and heterodoxy,"^[3] and was burned at the stake for heresy when she was only 19 years old.^[4]

Twenty-five years after her execution, an inquisitorial court authorized by Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, pronounced her innocent, and declared her a martyr.^[4] Joan of Arc was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920. She is – along with St. Denis, St. Martin of Tours, St. Louis IX, and St. Theresa of Lisieux – one of the patron saints of France. Joan said that she had visions from God that instructed her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the dismissive attitude of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. Several additional swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims and settled the disputed succession to the throne.

To the present day, Joan of Arc has remained a significant figure in Western civilization. From Napoleon I onward, French politicians of all leanings have invoked her memory. Famous writers and composers who have created works about her include: William Shakespeare (Henry VI, Part 1), Voltaire (The Maid of Orleans), Friedrich Schiller (The Maid of Orleans), Giuseppe Verdi (Giovanna d'Arco), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (The Maid of Orleans), Mark Twain (Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc), Arthur Honegger (Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher), Jean Anouilh (L'Alouette), Bertolt Brecht (Saint Joan of the Stockyards), George Bernard Shaw (Saint Joan) and Maxwell Anderson (Joan of Lorraine). Cultural depictions of Joan of Arc have continued in film, theatre, television, video games, music, and performances.

Background[link]

France at the outset of Joan of Arc's career. The dot that represents Paris is near the centre of the Anglo-Burgundian-controlled region. Reims lies to the northeast of this area.

The historian Kelly DeVries describes the period preceding her appearance in the following terms: "If anything could have discouraged her, the state of France in 1429 should have." The Hundred Years' War had begun in 1337 as a succession dispute over the French throne with intermittent periods of relative peace. Nearly all the fighting had taken place in France, and the English army's use of chevauchée tactics (similar to scorched earth strategies) had devastated the economy.^[5] The French population had not recovered from the Black Death of the previous century and its merchants were isolated from foreign markets. At the outset of Jeanne d'Arc's appearance, the English had nearly achieved their goal of a dual monarchy under English control and the French army had not achieved any major victories for a generation. In DeVries's words, "The kingdom of France was not even a shadow of its thirteenth-century prototype."^[6]

The French king at the time of Joan's birth, Charles VI, suffered bouts of insanity^[7] and was often unable to rule. The king's brother Duke Louis of Orléans and the king's cousin John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, quarreled over the regency of France and the guardianship of the royal children. This dispute escalated to accusations of an extramarital affair with Queen Isabeau of Bavaria and the kidnappings of the royal children.^{[citation needed]}. The matter climaxed with the assassination of the Duke of Orléans in 1407, on the orders of the Duke of Burgundy.^[8]

The factions loyal to these two men became known as the Armagnacs and the Burgundians. Henry V of England took advantage of this turmoil to invade France, winning a dramatic victory at Agincourt in 1415, and capturing many northern French towns.^[9] The future French king, Charles VII, assumed the title of Dauphin – the heir to the throne – at the age of fourteen, after all four of his older brothers died in succession.^[10] His first significant official act was to conclude a peace treaty with Burgundy in 1419. This ended in disaster when Armagnac partisans assassinated John the Fearless during a meeting under Charles's guarantee of protection. The new duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, blamed Charles for the murder and entered into an alliance with the English. Large sections of France were conquered.^[11]

In 1420, Queen Isabeau of Bavaria concluded the Treaty of Troyes, which granted the succession of the French throne to Henry V and his heirs instead of her son Charles. This agreement revived rumors about her alleged affair with the late duke of Orléans and raised fresh suspicions that the Dauphin was illegitimate rather than the son of the king.^[12] Henry V and Charles VI died within two months of each other in 1422, leaving an infant, Henry VI of England, the nominal monarch of both kingdoms. Henry V's brother, John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, acted as regent.^[13]

By the beginning of 1429, nearly all of northern France and some parts of the southwest were under foreign control. The English controlled Paris and Rouen while the Burgundians controlled Reims, the latter city being the traditional site of French coronations. This was an important consideration since neither claimant to the throne of France had yet been officially crowned. The English had laid siege to Orléans, one of the few remaining loyal French cities and a strategic position along the Loire River which made it the last obstacle to an assault on the remainder of the French heartland. In the words of one modern historian, "On the fate of Orléans hung that of the entire kingdom."^[14] No one was optimistic that the city could long withstand the siege.^[15]

Life[link]

Her birthplace is now a museum. The village church where she attended Mass is on the right behind the trees.

Joan was born the daughter of Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée.^[16] in Domrémy, a village which was then in the duchy of Bar (later annexed to the province of Lorraine and renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle).^[17] Joan's parents owned about 50 acres (20 hectares) of land and her father supplemented his farming work with a minor position as a village official, collecting taxes and heading the local watch.^[18] They lived in an isolated patch of eastern France that remained loyal to the French crown despite being surrounded by Burgundian lands. Several local raids occurred during her childhood and on one occasion her village was burned.

Joan said she was about 19 at her trial, so she must have been born around the year 1412. She later testified that she experienced her first vision around 1424 at the age of 12 years, when she was out alone in a field and saw visions of figures she identified as Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret, who told her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin to Reims for his coronation. She said she cried when they left, as they were so beautiful.^[19]

At the age of 16, she asked a kinsman, Durand Lassois, to bring her to nearby Vaucouleurs where she petitioned the garrison commander, Count Robert de Baudricourt, for permission to visit the royal French court at Chinon. Baudricourt's sarcastic response did not deter her.^[20] She returned the following January and gained support from two men of standing: Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy.^[21] Under their auspices, she gained a second meeting where she made a remarkable prediction about a military reversal near Orléans.^[22]

Rise[link]

Jeanne d’Arc by Henri Chapu

Ruin of the great hall at Château de Chinon where she met the future King Charles VII. The castle's only remaining intact tower has also become a museum dedicated to her.

Robert de Baudricourt granted her an escort to visit Chinon after news from the front confirmed her prediction. She made the journey through hostile Burgundian territory in male disguise.^[23] Upon arriving at the Royal Court she impressed Charles VII during a private conference. During this time Charles's mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon was financing a relief expedition to Orléans. Joan asked for permission to travel with the army and wear the equipment of a knight. She depended on donated items for her armor, horse, sword, banner, and other items utilized by her entourage. Historian Stephen W. Richey explains her attraction to the Royal Court by pointing out that they may have viewed her as the only source of hope for a regime that was near collapse:

Upon her arrival, Joan effectively turned the longstanding Anglo-French conflict into a religious war.^[24] But this course of action was not without its risks. Charles' advisers were worried that unless Joan's orthodoxy could be established beyond doubt – that she was not a heretic or a sorceress – Charles' enemies could easily make the claim that his kingdom was a gift from the Devil. To circumvent this possibility, the Dauphin ordered background inquiries and a theological examination at Poitiers to verify her morality. In April 1429, the commission of inquiry "declared her to be of irreproachable life, a good Christian, possessed of the virtues of humility, honesty and simplicity."^[24] The theologians at Poitiers did not pass judgment on her divine inspiration; rather, they informed the Dauphin that there was a 'favorable presumption' to be made on the divine nature of her mission. This was enough for Charles, but they put the ball back in his court by stating that he had an obligation to put Joan to the test. 'To doubt or abandon her without suspicion of evil would be to repudiate the Holy Spirit and to become unworthy of God's aid', they declared.^[25] The test for the truth of her claims would be the raising of the siege of Orléans.

She arrived at the siege of Orléans on 29 April 1429, but Jean d'Orléans, the acting head of the Orléans ducal family, initially excluded her from war councils and failed to inform her when the army engaged the enemy.^[26] This did not prevent her from being present at most councils and battles. The extent of her actual military leadership is a subject of historical debate. Traditional historians such as Édouard Perroy conclude that she was a standard bearer whose primary effect was on morale.^[27] This type of analysis usually relies on the condemnation trial testimony, where she stated that she preferred her standard to her sword. Recent scholarship that focuses on the nullification trial testimony asserts that the army's commanders esteemed her as a skilled tactician and a successful strategist. Stephen W. Richey's opinion is one example: "She proceeded to lead the army in an astounding series of victories that reversed the tide of the war."^[23] In either case, historians agree that the army enjoyed remarkable success during her brief career.^[28]

Leadership[link]

Entrance of Joan of Arc into Reims in 1429, painting by Jan Matejko

Joan of Arc rejected the cautious strategy that characterized French leadership during previous campaigns. During the five months of siege before her arrival, the defenders of Orléans attempted only one aggressive move and that ended in disaster. On 4 May the French attacked and captured the outlying fortress of Saint Loup, which she followed on 5 May with a march to a second fortress called Saint Jean le Blanc, which was found deserted. The next day she opposed Jean d'Orleans at a war council where she demanded another assault on the enemy. D'Orleans ordered the city gates locked to prevent another battle, but she summoned the townsmen and common soldiers and forced the mayor to unlock a gate. With the aid of only one captain she rode out and captured the fortress of Saint Augustins. That evening she learned she had been excluded from a war council where the leaders had decided to wait for reinforcements before acting again. Disregarding this decision, she insisted on attacking the main English stronghold called "les Tourelles" on 7 May.^[29] Contemporaries acknowledged her as the heroine of the engagement after she was wounded in the neck by an arrow but returned to lead the final charge.^[30]

The sudden victory at Orléans led to many proposals for further offensive action. The English expected an attempt to recapture Paris or an attack on Normandy. In the aftermath of the unexpected victory, Joan persuaded Charles VII to grant her co-command of the army with Duke John II of Alençon and gained royal permission for her plan to recapture nearby bridges along the Loire as a prelude to an advance on Reims and the coronation of Charles VII. This was a bold proposal because Reims was roughly twice as far away as Paris and deep within enemy territory.^[31]

The inner keep at Beaugency is one of the few surviving fortifications from Joan's battles. English defenders retreated to the tower at upper right after the French breached the town wall.

Notre-Dame de Reims, traditional site of French coronations. The structure had additional spires prior to a 1481 fire.

Joan at the coronation of Charles VII, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres in 1854, is a notable example of attempts to add more feminine characteristics to her appearance. Note the long hair and the skirt around the armor.

The army recovered Jargeau on 12 June, Meung-sur-Loire on 15 June, and Beaugency on 17 June. The Duke of Alençon agreed to all of Joan's decisions. Other commanders including Jean d'Orléans had been impressed with her performance at Orléans and became her supporters. Alençon credited her with saving his life at Jargeau, where she warned him of an imminent artillery attack.^[32] During the same battle she withstood a blow from a stone cannonball to her helmet as she climbed a scaling ladder. An expected English relief force arrived in the area on 18 June under the command of Sir John Fastolf. The battle at Patay might be compared to Agincourt in reverse. The French vanguard attacked before the English archers could finish defensive preparations. A rout ensued that decimated the main body of the English army and killed or captured most of its commanders. Fastolf escaped with a small band of soldiers and became the scapegoat for the humiliating English defeat. The French suffered minimal losses.^[33]

The French army set out for Reims from Gien-sur-Loire on 29 June and accepted the conditional surrender of the Burgundian-held city of Auxerre on 3 July. The other towns in their path returned to French allegiance without resistance. Troyes, the site of the treaty that tried to disinherit Charles VII, capitulated after a bloodless four-day siege.^[34] The army was in short supply of food by the time it reached Troyes. But the army was in luck: a wandering friar named Brother Richard had been preaching about the end of the world at Troyes and convinced local residents to plant beans, a crop with an early harvest. The hungry army arrived as the beans ripened.^[35]

Reims opened its gates to the army on 16 July. The coronation took place the following morning. Although Joan and the duke of Alençon urged a prompt march on Paris, the royal court preferred a negotiated truce with the duke of Burgundy. Duke Philip the Good broke the agreement, using it as a stalling tactic to reinforce the defense of Paris.^[36] The French army marched through towns near Paris during the interim and accepted more peaceful surrenders. The Duke of Bedford headed an English force and confronted the French army in a standoff on 15 August. The French assault at Paris ensued on 8 September. Despite a wound to the leg from a crossbow bolt, Joan continued directing the troops until the day's fighting ended. The following morning she received a royal order to withdraw. Most historians blame French Grand Chamberlain Georges de la Trémoille for the political blunders that followed the coronation.^[37] In October Joan took Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier and was granted nobility.

Capture[link]

After a minor action at La-Charité-sur-Loire in November and December, Joan traveled to Compiègne the following April to help defend the city against an English and Burgundian siege. A skirmish on 23 May 1430 led to her capture, when her force attempted to attack the Burgundian's camp at Margny.^[38] When she ordered a retreat into the nearby fortifications of Compiègne after the advance of an additional force of 6,000 Burgundians,^[38] she assumed the place of honor as the last to leave the field. Burgundians surrounded the rear guard, and she was unhorsed by an archer and initially refused to surrender.^[39]

It was customary for a captive's family to ransom a prisoner of war. Joan was in an unusual circumstance. Many historians condemn King Charles VII for failing to intervene. She attempted several escapes, on one occasion jumping from her 70 foot (21 m) tower in Vermandois to the soft earth of a dry moat, after which she was moved to the Burgundian town of Arras.^{[citation needed]} The English government eventually purchased her from Duke Philip of Burgundy. Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais, an English partisan, assumed a prominent role in these negotiations and her later trial.^[40]

Trial[link]

The keep of the castle of Rouen, surviving remnant of the fortress where Joan was imprisoned during her trial. It has since become known as the Joan of Arc tower.

The trial for heresy was politically motivated. The Duke of Bedford claimed the throne of France on behalf of his nephew Henry VI. Joan had been responsible for the rival coronation, hence condemning her was an attempt to undermine her king's legitimacy. Legal proceedings commenced on 9 January 1431 at Rouen, the seat of the English occupation government.^[41] The procedure was irregular on a number of points.

Joan interrogated in her prison cell by Cardinal Winchester. By Hippolyte Delaroche, 1824, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France.

To summarize some major problems: Under ecclesiastical law, Bishop Cauchon lacked jurisdiction over the case.^[42] He owed his appointment to his partisan support of the English government which financed the trial. Clerical notary Nicolas Bailly, commissioned to collect testimony against Joan, could find no adverse evidence.^[43] Without such evidence the court lacked grounds to initiate a trial. Opening a trial anyway, the court also violated ecclesiastical law in denying her right to a legal adviser. Upon the opening of the first public examination Joan complained that those present were all partisans against her and asked for "ecclesiastics of the French side" to be invited.^[44]

The trial record demonstrates her remarkable intellect. The transcript's most famous exchange is an exercise in subtlety. "Asked if she knew she was in God's grace, she answered: 'If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.'"^[45] The question is a scholarly trap. Church doctrine held that no one could be certain of being in God's grace. If she had answered yes, then she would have convicted herself of heresy. If she had answered no, then she would have confessed her own guilt. Notary Boisguillaume later testified that at the moment the court heard this reply, "Those who were interrogating her were stupefied."^[46] In the twentieth century George Bernard Shaw found this dialogue so compelling that sections of his play Saint Joan are literal translations of the trial record.^[47]

Several court functionaries later testified that significant portions of the transcript were altered in her disfavor. Many clerics served under compulsion, including the inquisitor, Jean LeMaitre, and a few even received death threats from the English. Under Inquisitorial guidelines, Joan should have been confined to an ecclesiastical prison under the supervision of female guards (i.e., nuns). Instead, the English kept her in a secular prison guarded by their own soldiers. Bishop Cauchon denied Joan's appeals to the Council of Basel and the pope, which should have stopped his proceeding.^[48]

The twelve articles of accusation that summarize the court's finding contradict the already doctored court record.^[49] The illiterate defendant signed an abjuration document she did not understand under threat of immediate execution. The court substituted a different abjuration in the official record.^[50]

Execution[link]

Joan of Arc's Death at the Stake, by Hermann Stilke (1843)^[51]

Heresy was a capital crime only for a repeat offense. Joan agreed to wear feminine clothing when she abjured. A few days later she told a tribunal member that "a great English lord had entered her prison and tried to take her by force."^[52] She resumed male attire either as a defense against molestation or, in the testimony of Jean Massieu, because her dress had been stolen and she was left with nothing else to wear.^[53] In terms of doctrine, she had been safe to disguise herself as a page during her journey through enemy territory and she was safe to wear armor during battle. The Chronique de la Pucelle states that it deterred molestation while she was camped in the field. Clergy who later testified at the posthumous rehabilitation trial affirmed that she continued to wear male clothing in prison to deter molestation and rape.^[54] Preservation of chastity was another justifiable reason for cross-dressing: her apparel would have slowed an assailant, and men would be less likely to think of her as a sex object in any case.^[55]

Statue of Joan of Arc a few inches in front of the execution place, by Maxime Real del Sarte, 1928^[56]

She referred the court to the Poitiers inquiry when questioned on the matter. The Poitiers record no longer survives but circumstances indicate the Poitiers clerics had approved her practice. In other words, she had a mission to do a man's work so it was fitting that she dress the part.^[57] She also kept her hair cut short through her military campaigns and while in prison. Her supporters, such as the theologian Jean Gerson, defended her hairstyle, as did Inquisitor Brehal later during the Rehabilitation trial.^[58] Nonetheless, at the trial in 1431 she was condemned and sentenced to die.

Eyewitnesses described the scene of the execution by burning on 30 May 1431. Tied to a tall pillar at the Vieux-Marché in Rouen, she asked two of the clergy, Fr Martin Ladvenu and Fr Isambart de la Pierre, to hold a crucifix before her. A peasant also constructed a small cross which she put in the front of her dress. After she died, the English raked back the coals to expose her charred body so that no one could claim she had escaped alive, then burned the body twice more to reduce it to ashes and prevent any collection of relics. They cast her remains into the Seine from the only bridge called Mathilda.^[59] The executioner, Geoffroy Therage, later stated that he "...greatly feared to be damned."^[60]

Posthumous events[link]

Modern statue of Joan of Arc in Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral interior, Paris

The Hundred Years' War continued for twenty-two years after her death. Charles VII succeeded in retaining legitimacy as the king of France in spite of a rival coronation held for Henry VI in December 1431 on the boy's tenth birthday. Before England could rebuild its military leadership and force of longbowmen, lost in 1429, the country lost its alliance with Burgundy at the Treaty of Arras in 1435. The Duke of Bedford died the same year and Henry VI became the youngest king of England to rule without a regent; his weak leadership was probably the most important factor in ending the conflict. Kelly DeVries argues that Joan of Arc's aggressive use of artillery and frontal assaults influenced French tactics for the rest of the war.^[61]

In 1452, during the posthumous investigation into her execution, the Church declared that a religious play in her honor at Orléans would allow attendees to gain an indulgence (remission of temporal punishment for sin) by making a pilgrimage to the event.

Retrial[link]

A posthumous retrial opened after the war ended. Pope Callixtus III authorized this proceeding, also known as the "nullification trial", at the request of Inquisitor-General Jean Brehal and Joan's mother Isabelle Romée. The aim of the trial was to investigate whether the trial of condemnation and its verdict had been handled justly and according to canon law. Investigations started with an inquest by a priest, Guillaume Bouille. Brehal conducted an investigation in 1452. A formal appeal followed in November 1455. The appellate process involved clergy from throughout Europe and observed standard court procedure. A panel of theologians analyzed testimony from 115 witnesses. Brehal drew up his final summary in June 1456, which describes Joan as a martyr and implicated the late Pierre Cauchon with heresy for having convicted an innocent woman in pursuit of a secular vendetta. The technical reason for her execution had been a Biblical clothing law.^[62] The nullification trial reversed the conviction in part because the condemnation proceeding had failed to consider the doctrinal exceptions to that stricture. The appellate court declared her innocent on 7 July 1456.^[63]

Canonization[link]

She became a symbol of the Catholic League during the 16th century. When Félix Dupanloup was made bishop of Orléans in 1849, he pronounced a fervid panegyric on Joan of Arc, which attracted attention in England as well as France and he led the efforts which culminated in Joan of Arc's beatification in 1909. Pope Benedict XV canonized Joan on 16 May 1920. As Saint Joan of Arc, she has become one of the most popular saints of the Roman Catholic Church.^[64]

Legacy[link]

Joan of Arc became a semi-legendary figure for the four centuries after her death. The main sources of information about her were chronicles. Five original manuscripts of her condemnation trial surfaced in old archives during the 19th century. Soon historians also located the complete records of her rehabilitation trial, which contained sworn testimony from 115 witnesses, and the original French notes for the Latin condemnation trial transcript. Various contemporary letters also emerged, three of which carry the signature "Jehanne" in the unsteady hand of a person learning to write.^[65] This unusual wealth of primary source material is one reason DeVries declares, "No person of the Middle Ages, male or female, has been the subject of more study."^[66]

Joan of Arc dictated her letters. Three of the surviving ones are signed Jehanne.

Joan of Arc came from an obscure village and rose to prominence when she was a teenager, and she did so as an uneducated peasant. The French and English kings had justified the ongoing war through competing interpretations of the thousand-year-old Salic law. The conflict had been an inheritance feud between monarchs. She gave meaning to appeals such as that of squire Jean de Metz when he asked, "Must the king be driven from the kingdom; and are we to be English?"^[21] In the words of Stephen Richey, "She turned what had been a dry dynastic squabble that left the common people unmoved except for their own suffering into a passionately popular war of national liberation."^[23] Richey also expresses the breadth of her subsequent appeal:

The people who came after her in the five centuries since her death tried to make everything of her: demonic fanatic, spiritual mystic, naive and tragically ill-used tool of the powerful, creator and icon of modern popular nationalism, adored heroine, saint. She insisted, even when threatened with torture and faced with death by fire, that she was guided by voices from God. Voices or no voices, her achievements leave anyone who knows her story shaking his head in amazed wonder.

—Stephen Richey^[23]

Joan of Arc was not a feminist. She operated within a religious tradition that believed an exceptional person from any level of society might receive a divine calling. She expelled women from the French army and may have struck one stubborn camp follower with the flat of a sword.^[67][68] Nonetheless, some of her most significant aid came from women. King Charles VII's mother-in-law, Yolande of Aragon, confirmed Joan's virginity and financed her departure to Orléans. Joan of Luxembourg, aunt to the count of Luxembourg who held custody of her after Compiègne, alleviated her conditions of captivity and may have delayed her sale to the English. Finally, Anne of Burgundy, the duchess of Bedford and wife to the regent of England, declared Joan a virgin during pretrial inquiries.^[69] For technical reasons this prevented the court from charging her with witchcraft. Ultimately this provided part of the basis for her vindication and sainthood. From Christine de Pizan to the present, women have looked to her as a positive example of a brave and active female.^[70]

Flag of Charles de Gaulle's government in exile during World War II. The French Resistance used the cross of Lorraine as a symbolic reference to Joan of Arc.

Joan of Arc has been a political symbol in France since the time of Napoleon. Liberals emphasised her humble origins. Early conservatives stressed her support of the monarchy. Later conservatives recalled her nationalism. During World War II, both the Vichy Regime and the French Resistance used her image: Vichy propaganda remembered her campaign against the English with posters that showed British warplanes bombing Rouen and the ominous caption: "They Always Return to the Scene of Their Crimes." The resistance emphasised her fight against foreign occupation and her origins in the province of Lorraine, which had fallen under Nazi control.

Three separate vessels of the French Navy have been named after her, including a helicopter carrier which was retired from active service on 7 June 2010. At present the controversial French far-right political party Front National holds rallies at her statues, reproduces her likeness in party publications, and uses a tricolor flame partly symbolic of her martyrdom as its emblem. This party's opponents sometimes satirize its appropriation of her image.^[71] The French civic holiday in her honour is the second Sunday of May.

Traditionalist Catholics, in France and elsewhere, also use her as a symbol of inspiration, often comparing the 1988 excommunication of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (founder of the Society of St. Pius X and a dissident against the Vatican II reforms), to her excommunication.

Philippe-Alexandre Le Brun de Charmettes is the first historian who wrote Joan of Arc's complete history^[72] in 1817, in an attempt to restore her family's reputation from Joan's status as a relapsed heretic. His interest in Joan came at a time when France was still struggling to define its new identity after the Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. The national ethos was in search of non-controversial heroes. A staunch supporter of King and country, Joan of Arc was an acceptable symbol to the monarchists. As a patriot and the daughter of commoners, she was seen as one prototype of the low-born volunteers (the soldats de l'an II) who had victoriously fought for revolutionary France in 1802 and as such could be claimed by the Republicans. As a religious martyr, she was also popular in the powerful Catholic community. De Charmette's Orléanide, today largely forgotten, was another attempt to magnify the national ethos as writers like Virgil (the Aeneid), or Camoens (the Lusiad) had done for Rome and Portugal.

Visions[link]

Jeanne d' Arc, by Eugene Thirion (1876). Late 19th century images such as this often had political undertones because of French territorial cessions to Germany in 1871. (Chautou, Church of Notre Dame)

Joan of Arc's religious visions have remained an ongoing topic of interest. The consensus among scholars is that her faith was sincere. She identified Saint Margaret, Saint Catherine, and Saint Michael as the source of her revelations, although there is some ambiguity as to which of several identically named saints she intended. Some Catholics regard her visions as divine inspiration.

Analysis of her visions is problematic since the main source of information on this topic is the condemnation trial transcript in which she defied customary courtroom procedure about a witness's oath and specifically refused to answer every question about her visions. She complained that a standard witness oath would conflict with an oath she had previously sworn to maintain confidentiality about meetings with her king. It remains unknown to what extent the surviving record may represent the fabrications of corrupt court officials or her own possible fabrications to protect state secrets.^[73] Some historians sidestep speculation about the visions by asserting that her belief in her calling is more relevant than questions about the visions' ultimate origin.^[74]

Documents from her own era and historians prior to the 20th century generally assume that she was both healthy and sane.

A number of more recent scholars attempted to explain her visions in psychiatric or neurological terms. Potential diagnoses have included epilepsy, migraine, tuberculosis, and schizophrenia.^[75] None of the putative diagnoses have gained consensus support, possibly due to the limited amount of information available about Joan's life. Two experts who analyse a temporal lobe tuberculoma hypothesis in the medical journal Neuropsychobiology express their misgivings this way:

It is difficult to draw final conclusions, but it would seem unlikely that widespread tuberculosis, a serious disease, was present in this "patient" whose life-style and activities would surely have been impossible had such a serious disease been present.^[76]

In response to another such theory alleging that she suffered from bovine tuberculosis as a result of drinking unpasteurized milk, historian Régine Pernoud wrote that if drinking unpasteurized milk could produce such potential benefits for the nation, then the French government should stop mandating the pasteurization of milk.^[77]

The fact that Joan of Arc gained favor in the court of King Charles VII has been suggested as evidence against mental illness hypotheses. The argument suggests that Charles VII would have been able to recognize "madness" because his own father, Charles VI, suffered from it. Charles VI was popularly known as "Charles the Mad", and much of the political and military decline that France had suffered during his reign could be attributed to the power vacuum that his episodes of insanity had produced. The previous king had believed he was made of glass, a delusion no courtier had mistaken for a religious awakening. Fears that King Charles VII would manifest the same insanity may have factored into the attempt to disinherit him at Troyes. This stigma was so persistent that contemporaries of the next generation would attribute to inherited madness the breakdown that England's King Henry VI was to suffer in 1453: Henry VI was nephew to Charles VII and grandson to Charles VI. Upon Joan's arrival at Chinon the royal counselor Jacques Gélu cautioned,

One should not lightly alter any policy because of conversation with a girl, a peasant ... so susceptible to illusions; one should not make oneself ridiculous in the sight of foreign nations.

The court of Charles VII was shrewd and skeptical on the subject of mental health.^[78][79]

Also potentially relevant is the fact that she displayed none of the objective symptoms that can accompany the mental illnesses which have been suggested, such as Schizophrenia. She remained astute to the end of her life and the rehabilitation trial testimony frequently marvels at her astuteness:

Often they [the judges] turned from one question to another, changing about, but, notwithstanding this, she answered prudently, and evinced a wonderful memory.^[80]

Her subtle replies under interrogation even forced the court to stop holding public sessions.^[46]

Although mental illness does not necessarily include severe cognitive impairment, nonetheless the various psychiatric conditions which have been specifically suggested to explain Joan's experiences would include certain detrimental symptoms which are among the diagnostic criteria. For example, in the case of Schizophrenia the American Psychiatric Association's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" lists detrimental and noticeable side effects such as disorganized speech, disorganized or catatonic behavior, affective flattening, alogia, and avolition, among other effects.^[81] As noted farther above, these symptoms do not appear to have been present in Joan's case.

Some psychiatrists have also urged that a distinction should be made between different types of experiences. Ralph Hoffman, professor of psychology at Yale University, argues that visionary and creative states including "hearing voices" are not necessarily signs of mental illness. He lists Joan of Arc's case as a possible example of what Hoffman describes as an "inspired voice", without elaborating on the term.^[82]

Alleged relics disproven[link]

Joan of Arc on horseback, triumphantly raising her sword to the heavens and crepuscular rays at San Francisco's Palace of the Legion of Honor.

In 1867, a jar was found in a Paris pharmacy with the inscription "Remains found under the stake of Joan of Arc, virgin of Orleans". They consisted of a charred human rib, carbonized wood, a piece of linen and a cat femur – explained as the practice of throwing black cats onto the pyre of witches. They are now in the Museum of Art and History in Chinon museum. In 2006, Philippe Charlier, a forensic scientist at Raymond Poincaré Hospital (Garches) was authorized to study the relics. Carbon-14 tests and various spectroscopic analyses were performed, and the results^[83] show that the remains come from an Egyptian mummy from the sixth to the third century BC. The charred appearance comes from the embalming substances, not from combustion. Large amounts of pine pollen were also found, consistent with the presence of resin used in mummification and some unburned linen was found to be similar to that used to wrap mummies. The famous perfumers Guerlain and Jean Patou said that they could smell vanilla in the remains, also consistent with mummification. Apparently the mummy was part of the ingredients of medieval pharmacopoeia and it was relabeled in a time of French nationalism.

Revisionist theories[link]

The accuracy of the standard accounts of the life of Joan of Arc has been questioned by revisionist authors.

See also[link]

Golden statue of Joan of Arc at Place des Pyramides, Paris by Emmanuel Frémiet, 1874

	Christianity portal
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• The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, a book describing 15 military engagements which, in the opinion of the author, had a significant impact on world history. The Siege of Orléans is included.
• Joan of Arc, a sculpture in Washington, D.C.

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

Joan of Arc, by Scheffer Henry, 1843.

• DeVries, Kelly (1999). Joan of Arc: A Military Leader. Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-1805-5. OCLC 42957383. 
• Lucie-Smith, Edward (1976). Joan of Arc. Bristol: Allen Lane. ISBN 0-7139-0857-2. 
• Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret). Jeanne d'Arc: Her Life and Death. http://www.authorama.com/book/jeanne-d-arc.html. 
• Royal Intrigue: Crisis at the Court of Charles VI, 1392–1420. Richard C. Famiglietti. New York: AMS Press. 1987. ISBN 0-404-61439-6. 

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

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• Media related to Jeanne d'Arc at Wikimedia Commons
• 1919 version of the Catholic Encyclopedia: Blessed Joan of Arc (written before her canonization)
• Archive of Joan of Arc materials
• Médailles Jeanne d’Arc, Exonumia: Medallions devoted to Joan of Arc
• Garden of Praise – Joan of Arc
• Catholic Online Saints
• Britannica article on Joan of Arc
• Site of the Joan of Arc Museum in Rouen, France.
• A Stirring Icon of Girl Power: A Father and a Daughter Follow the Trail of Joan of Arc Article in the Washington Post by Steve Hendrix, 12 Oct 2008.
• Joan of Arc's Loire Valley Battles on Google Maps