BAJO.
JOAN (jeean' or jun) OF ARC (Fr. Jeanne Dare), TIIE MAID OF ORLEANS (1412-31). She was born January 6. 1412, in tile village of Dom remy, near Vaucouleurs, France. She was the daughter of well-to-do peasants and was taught the duties of a girl in her station. She was not a shepherdess, as commonly represented. When about thirteen years of age she believed that she heard an angel's voice, saying: "Jeanne, he good; go to church often!" Gradually 'the voices' talked to her more frequently, and she believed them to belong to Saint Michael. Saint Catharine, and Saint Margaret. Saint Michael gave to her di rections which finally became very definite. He told her of the sad state of France and of her mission. "Jeanne, you are summoned to lead a different life and to do marvelous things, for it is you whom the King of heaven has chosen to restore happiness to France and to aid King Charles. Put on a man's clothes, arm yourself; you shall be the chief in war and all shall be done according to your advice." For four years the 'voices' continued to speak to Joan, and the condition of France in the meanwhile became more and more desperate. Henry VI. of England had been crowned, at Paris. King of France (1422). The regent, the Duke of Bedford, was victorious almost everywhere. The Dauphin, Charles V11., weak. and vacillating, held little territory and was called in derision, by the Eng lish and the Burgundians, 'the King of Bourges.' Toward the close of 1428 the English laid siege to Orleans, and, although the city was well garrisoned, its defenders finally lost heart and at the beginning of 1429 the place seemed destined soon to be captured. .Joan's 'voices' had heeome more distinct and more impera tive, until finally she obeyed. and sought the French commander at Vauconleurs. Her story was at first rejected as that of one insane, but. she succeeded in convincing the commander and in getting an escort to Charles VII., to whom she rode in male attire, February, 1429. By his command Joan was submitted to an examination by learned theologians, from which she emerged triumphant. The Dauphin thereupon resolved to employ her. A snit of armor was prepared for her, and she had a white harmer made, representing Christ holding the world. This she herself carried into the front of every battle.
ln April preparations were being made to send a convoy with provisions to Orleans. Joan led the troops, and on April 29, 1429. reached the city, still closely besieged by this Eng lish. From May 4th to Sth she made success ful sallies upon the English, which resulted in their being compelled to raise the siege. From this time she was known as `the Maid of Or leans.' fhe national ardor of the French was rekindled to the utmost and Joan became the dread of the previously triumphant English. By her own people she was beloved and revered as God's agent; by the English she was believed to be a witch. After some delays she persuaded the Dauphin to allow himself to be conducted to Rheims, where he was crowned, July 17, 1429. After this she is said to have wished to return home, deeming her mission accomplished; but King Charles importuned her to remain with the army, to which she consented. As a special favor to her, Domremy and a neighboring village were exempted from all taxation, and her family was ennobled under the name of Du Lys. From this time her fortune changed, and she failed in sev eral undertakings. notably the capture of Paris. The popular explanation of her failure was that she had broken her sword. It was one which she had miraculously discovered at FiSbois. One day, the story goes, she struck with the flat of this sword some common women whom she found in the camp. The sword broke, and the pieces could not be welded together. Joan took part in
many conflicts, until, on Slay 24, 1430, she suc ceeded in entering with a few troops into Com piegne, which Burgundian forces were besieging. On the same day, in a sally which she led from the town, she became isolated from her followers and was taken prisoner. The Burgundian Duke, after some hesitation, gave her up to the English. She was taken to Rouen and confined in chains. She was urged to put on female attire, but re fused, alleging both that she was forbidden by her `voices' and that the male attire was absolutely necessary to preserve her from the brutal as saults of her jailers. Wearing men's clothes and cutting off her hair were two of the main charges against when she was brought before the inquisition. She was tried in the ecclesiastical court, as a sorceress, by the Bishop of Beauvais, assisted by members of the University of Paris, which was under English control, and a specially delegated inquisitor. The trial dragged on for months because the evidence was insufficient, and Joan faced her judges boldly. One of the judges disguised himself, and pretending to be a fellow prisoner, endeavored to worm from her some important confession. but in vain. She was threatened with torture to no effect. Finally, on twelve charges which were drawn up by the judges, she was condemned to be burned to death, but she recanted her alleged errors and expressed penitence. Her punishment was then commuted by the ecclesiastical authorities into perpetual imprisonment. The English, however. felt it necessary to have Joan put to death. The events of the next few days are obscure: hut it is certain that Joan was subjected by her English jailers to treatment which hroke her spirit, and that in self-defense she again put on the male attire which she had abjured. The resumption of these garments and expressions of regret for her re cantation were made grounds for concluding that she had relapsed. She was condemned and burned at the stake, May 30, 1431.
After the execution attempts were made to blacken her character in the popular French opinion, but with little success. Her family, by King Charles's influence, obtained in 1449 a re vision of her trial, and in 1456 she was formally pronounced to have been innocent.
The memory of the Maid of Orleans during the centuries succeeding the Hundred Years' War never probably enjoyed that general reverence among the French people which her services to her country would seem to have merited. Vol taire's La Pneelle expresses the views of the eighteenth-century philosophers regarding the Maid. in the nineteenth century, however, her fame underwent rehabilitation. In 1S75 the ques tion of her canonization came up before the Roman Curia, and in 1902 she had passed through the first stage of the process, and had been declared `venerable.' In literature the character of Joan of Are has been variously treated. Shakespeare's Henry V/. reflects the contemporary English opinion, which regarded .Joan as a sorceress in league with the devil. In Schiller's beautiful Jungfrau roe Orleans she is depicted. on the contrary, as a virgin mystic, who, in fulfillment of her heaven-appointed mission, spurns all earth ly love and dies in the moment of victory with the banner of the Christ child in her arms.
Consult: Quieherat, Condanination et rehabili tation de Jeanne Dare (5 vols., Paris, 1841-49) ; Wallop, Jeanne Dare (Paris, 1575) ; Marin, Jeanne Dare, tartirien et strategists (4 vols., Paris, lS91) Belon and Baline. Jean Brehel, grand inquisiteur de France, et in rehabilitation de Jeanne Dare (2 vols., Paris. ]893) : Oliphant, Jeanne d'Are (New York, 1S9(1) ; Petit de Julie rifle, Joan of Are (Eng. trans., London, 1901) ; Murray, Jeanne d'Arc (New York, 1902).