Martyr and Saint, Savior of France, National Icon, All by the Age of Nineteen
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc was born sometime in January of 1412, the date of the sixth is traditionally mentioned. Her parents, Jacques and Isabelle, were farmers who modestly tended a fifty acre plot in the village of Domremy. This tiny town was located in a remote area of Lorraine, a region loyal to the French monarchy but surrounded by territory controlled by the Duke of Burgundy
Joan, entering Orleans
After six months of siege and with the fate of the kingdom of France hanging in the balance, a 17 year old girl freed Orleans in just four days of fighting, destroying the English myth of invulnerability. This news spread across France and throughout Europe, proof that The Maiden was the instrument of the almighty.
Joan of Arc, Paris, Rue de Rivoli
Clearly, the next military objective for the French army should have been the liberation of Paris, the largest city in France and most prestigious in Europe. But, at this critical juncture, the English dangled a truce in front of Charles, who sent his court chamberlain George de la Tremoille, to negotiate with the Duke of Burgundy.
Martyr and Saint, Savior of France, National Icon, All by the Age of Nineteen
Joan of Arc, under interrogation
Among the more driven individuals attempting to pry Joan out of the grasp of de Luxembourg was Pierre Cauchon, the Bishop of Beauvais. Cauchon was a former Dean of the University of Paris, a chaplain to the Duke of Burgundy, as well as an ambitious and calculating high-ranking cleric. Compiegne was in the diocese of Beauvais and Cauchon reasoned that any ecclesistical proceeding should be handled by himself. Cauchon also understood that whoever succeeded in convicting and punishing Joan would establish himself prominently in the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Cauchon additionally had a personal axe to grind as it was Joan’s incursion into Rhiems and the territory around Beauvais that had chased pro-English figures like Gauchon out of the area. For the moment, he had relocated to Rouen, which was also the location of the administration of the English occupiers.
Remnant of Bouvreuil, Rouen
Hearing rumors of such a transaction, Joan attempted to escape from her rooftop cell in the keep of de Luxembourg’s fortress at Beaurevoir. From an estimated seventy feet in the air, Joan attempted to tie together pieces of bedding and cloth. During the process these tore, sending her to the completely uncushioned ground below. Most likely unconscious for two days, she eventually regained her vitality. Possibly her escape was actually a suicide attempt but to admit such an inclination was again a grave blasphemy.
Joan of Arc, Vieux Marche, Rouen
Joan was dragged to the fourth and highest platform and chained and bound to the stake by the official executioner. Later, he would complain that the stake was so high he could not apply the customary rope around the victim’s neck to employ strangulation, a merciful alternative to actual burning. The condemned was wearing a gray, sleeveless garment that stretched below her knees. On her head, a crude crown with the words “Heretic, relapse, apostate, idolater.” Around her neck a small, wooden crucifix, fashioned for her at the last moment. A sympathetic priest, assigned to comfort her in her last minutes returned to her vicinity with a tall crucifix that he had retrieved from a nearby church. Joan shouted to him, the din from the jeering crowd rising with each passing minute.
“Hold it before my eyes so I can see it until the last!!”
Cauchon’s obscured burial site today, Lisieux
Pierre Gauchon did not live to observe these developments. He died of a heart attack at Rouen in December of 1442, still enjoying prominence and comfort under the protection of the English.
Joan of Arc statue, near stake location, Rouen, France
