Her reception by French authorities was about what she expected--total rejection.  But she knew the voices were serious, so she persisted.  With the help of some "signs" from the same voices, she was finally able to convince Charles of the legitimacy of her call.  Finally in April of 1429, given command of a French army she quickly rounted the English army besieging Orléans, chased the English out of the Loire valley and by July had delivered Reims from the English so that Charles could be crowned king (Charles VII) in this traditional coronation site.

But now events began to move against her.  She continued to try to rout the English from France--even though Charles himself seemed to have little appetite for such doings.  When in September she moved against the English in Paris she was wounded and the effort failed.  Meanwhile Charles made a truce with his enemies (and England's ally) the Burgundians.  But the next spring (1430) she took up arms again--only to be captured by the Burgundians in an effort to rally the French at Compiègne against an English-Burgundian assault on that town.  She was sold by her captor to the English.

She was then turned over to a French ecclesiastical court (with strong pro-English sentiments) in Rouen to be tried as a witch.  After a lengthy trial she was found guilty of sorcery and heresy and sentenced to death.  On May 30, 1431  she was burned at the stake as a witch.

Almost immediately it was recognized that rather than being a witch she had been in fact a true agent of God.  Over the centuries her popularity grew until in 1920 she was canonized as a saint by Pope Benedict XV.

In approximately the year 1412 Joan (Jeanne d'Arc) was born to Jacques and Isabelle d'Arc in Domremy, a village in the Champagne region of northeastern France, the youngest of five children.  She was brought up on her family's farm in typical fashion for girls in her time--learning neither to read nor write but instead to busy herself in sewing and spinning and helping out with chores involving the farm animals.

She was a playful child--who however developed an exceptionally deep piety as she grew up into a young lady.  She prayed often--to the statues of the Virgin and saints at her village church.

But with time, the message of these voices became more and more targeted on a call that God was placing on her--to come to the assistance of her king, Charles VII of France.  She was apparently resistant:  she knew nothing about riding horses--much less waging war.  But by May of 1428 the voices (in particular that of St. Michael) were quite adamant that she was to present herself to Robert Baudricourt, the local French military commander located nearby in Vaucoulers.

The tide in France had swung strongly in favor of the English kings.  The whole south of France (Aquitaine) had long been in English hands and the English were also pressing for total control of northwestern France.  Paris, the very heart of France, was itself held by the English under the Duke of Bedford.

The Treaty of Troyes (1420).  Indeed, the English were close to laying claim to possession of the whole of France.  In 1420 another round in the Hundred Year's War ended with the Treaty of Troyes--which designated King Henry V of England as king of France upon the death of the current (and visibly insane) French king, Charles VI.   But as things worked out, both kings died two years later in 1422.

The English however pressed the case for Henry VI as king of both England and France, in keeping with the intention of the Treaty of Troyes.

Charles VII of France.  The French Dauphin Charles, son of Charles VI, was hardly in agreement with the English on this matter.  He naturally sought the French crown for himself.  But in order to legitimate this claim, he would have to have himself crowned king in the cathedral of Rheims, the ancient site of all French coronations.  This however presented a major problem:  Rheims was in English hands.

For a while there was a political stand-off between French and English interests.  But the standoff only worsened the situation for Charles--weakening his authority among the French with each year that he did nothing to legitimate his claim to the throne.

The Burgundians.  Further, this tenuous situation was made even more complex by the workings of national and regional political alliances.  Burgundy was a large region in the south and east of France which was nominally a vassal of the French king--but was in fact quite independent in its politics.  Indeed, the Burgundians, for reasons of mutual interest in a weakened French monarchy, were allies with the English in the English-French struggles.

But by that fall the situation facing Charles was worsening rapidly.  The English had broken the Treaty of Troyes and were starting up a new round in the ancient war by attacking the city of Orléans.  To capture this city in the heart of France was to leave the English in unquestioned control of all of France.  By the end of the year the fall of Orléans seemed to be at hand.

In January 1429 a very reluctant Joan once again, under the very urgent call of the voices, visited Baudricourt in Vaucouleurs.  Baudricourt again did not receive her well--but this time he did not send her away either.  She persistently stayed on in Vaucoulers, claiming that she had to obey the voice of God.

Then in mid-February she disclosed another of her visions--that the French had just suffered a major defeat just outside the city walls of Orléans, and that her services were needed more than ever.  When a few days later news arrived of exactly such a defeat, Baudricourt finally yielded to her request to be led to the French king.

She traveled under military escort, being herself dressed in armor (at her own request), to the king's court at Chinon in the Loire valley in the west of France--not far from Orléans--arriving there on March 3rd, 1429.  Her reception by the king's court was inclined to be much like Baudricourt's initial reception (the king's close advisor, La Trémoille, was adamantly opposed to her)--except that she was able to communicate to the king her knowledge of a secret which he alone knew, strengthening greatly in the king's mind her claims to have the powers of God with her.

Nonetheless, before Charles was willing to trust her entirely, he sent her off to Poitiers to be examined by "doctors" of the church--to ascertain whether the visions she claimed to be receiving were authentic or not.  She was examined, found to be quite orthodox in her spirituality, and the doctors returned her to the king with their understanding that she could safely be put to some kind of use--along with continuing scrutiny.

Her esteem with the court (La Trémoille apparently being the usual exception) was enhanced greatly when upon being offered a sword, she instead asked for the sword buried behind the altar in the chapel of Ste-Catherine-de-Fierbois.  Much to everyone's surprise, such a sword was indeed found--and delivered to her.

She further impressed the court with her announcement that Orléans would soon be delivered from the English, that she herself would be wounded by an arrow in the battle, and that the King would be crowned in Rheims by summer (all of which subsequently came true)--and with the mention of a few other things that only the king knew to be true.

With this announcement a 17-year-old Joan of Arc stood ready to answer the call of her God.

She stood ready to pursue the English, now that the tide in the war was turning.  But Charles (under the advisement of La Trémoille and the Archbishop of Rheims) was slow in his response to her entreaties.  She finally got authorization for a move along the Loire valley against the English.  She met with a number of small successes--forcing the English finally to send out a huge army against her from Paris.  But this too she routed--on June 18.

Despite her growing set of victories she still found the French forces nervous. When at Troyes her efforts to take that town met with serious resistance, her commanders were ready to retreat.  But she once again rallied the army and took Troyes.

Even as she then turned toward Rheims with the idea of restoring that all-important city to French rule, she found her commanders reluctant.  Once again by her sheer popularity with her army she pushed on, taking that city and paving the way for Charles to be crowned there on July 17th.  (She now had the honor to stand by the king, holding her own military standard, as he was crowned.)  She had completed the mission that God had been calling her to for the past several years.

In any case, she continued to press forward with the war against the English--obviously trying to deliver all of France from the hold of the English.

She proceeded to march on to Paris, to try to deliver that key city from the English.  Once again her support from the French court itself was tepid.  She was able to capture St. Denis, just outside Paris.  But the city itself could not be taken.  On September 8th, as she was encouraging her men in filling the moat below the city's walls, she was seriously wounded and carried off from the scene of battle.  She had to abandon the effort to take Paris.

Then several days later the news reached her that Charles had once again yielded easily to pressure and had signed a truce with the Burgundians--a truce that tied her hands with respect to pursuing a campaign of liberating France from the English.  She had to call it quits.

Though she was now part of the court party of Charles VII, even having her family ennobled in December of 1429 as the Du Lis, the experience was a miserable one for her.  She was a person of simple and direct thoughts--and totally ill-equipped to deal with the intrigue that swirled around her king.

The following spring (1430), with the Burgundian truce having come to an end, she took to the field again.  She heard from the voices again--telling her this time that she would be taken prisoner before Midsummer Day.

Charles did nothing to bring about her freedom.  He could have exchanged prisoners (such as the English Earl of Suffolk, whom the French held)--as was usually done in such cases of important individuals.  In fact capturing and holding important political figures for ransom was a lucrative business during the Hundred Years War.  But Charles took no action.  But then neither did the prosperous city of Orléans, which owed their freedom to her.  Nor did any other French citizen make such an offer.

In any case, John subsequently sold Joan to the English--for a very large sum of money.  The English however were not looking for a prisoner.  They were looking for her death.  However the rules of warfare were such that a soldier could not be put to death for simply having been a powerful enemy.  So they looked for another rationale to put an end to her.

The evidence against her was her voices--that these were not the voices of departed saints, but of demons (which the English were easily ready to believe).  The very idea of a woman donning armor and leading a full army itself was further evidence that she was demon-possessed.

A major point against her was her attire--which was appropriate only for a male nobleman--not a female of any stature.  There is much to speculate on about this.  Why did she continue when clearly this was a mark against her?  Some say that it was the only protection for the little modesty still allowed her that she had.

Another problem was that she had to represent herself without counsel--and was thus at times very uncomprehending of what was being asked of her or the implications of her answers.

At one point, despairing of the fate she knew awaited her from her captives, she leapt from the 70-foot high tower of Beaurevoir, either to end her life or to make her escape.  Amazingly she was unhurt--but was also quickly captured.  From then on she was confined inside an iron cage with head, hands and feet manacled.

Finally the hearings were finished in Mid-March and some 70 charges were brought against her.  She was allowed a reply to these points.  Subsequently these charges were rewritten into 12 charges.

She was given the opportunity to renounce parts of her earlier position--which at first she refused to do, even under the threat of torture.  Once again, on May 23, as the stake was being prepared outside to receive its victim, she was asked again to sign some kind of abbreviated retraction.  This she was willing to do.  Thus her life was spared.  She now instead faced a life-time of imprisonment.

This was not the way things were supposed to go and the English and the Burgundians were furious with the French court that had heard the case.  The Bishop of Beauvais promised that somehow they would still "get her."

It seemed that in signing the statement of renunciation she had agreed to a number of terms--including not ever wearing men's dress again.  Failure to meet any of these terms would automatically convict her of possessing a faithless (ie, demonic) spirit and make her subject to death at the stake.  Thus when in her continuing confinement she donned her soldier's attire (some say that her women's wear was taken from her in order to catch her in this trap; others say that she did this as an act of defiance when the worship privileges she was promised were not forthcoming) she was declared a relapsed heretic.

On May 29 the court decided unanimously in favor of the charges.  On the next day, May 30, 1431, she was burned at the stake in the market-place of Rouen, moving the crowd to tears with the strength of the spirit by which she met death.

Posthumous Rehabilitation

Over the centuries her reputation continued to grow--even finding acceptance among the English by the 19th century.  Indeed in the mid 19th century the matter of her beatification as a saint was initiated.  Moving through all the stages of this lengthy process, it finally concluded with her canonization in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.

What about those voices?  Were they really from God?  Why would God care about whether France survived or not?  Why would God send a girl to do a man's job?  Was this all real--or was it all just the product of a vivid imagination of a very impressionable Catholic girl?  These questions have to be answered if you are going to seriously address the events of those days.

One thing is for certain:  Joan really believed that she heard those voices.  And another thing is also certain--without those voices she would have lived and died as just another villager from Domremy.  Those voices turned her into someone who was fearless beyond all reason.  What she accomplished makes no sense under any other terms.  And indeed, when it seems that she was no longer moving under such clear direction her situation changed.

Of course she remained brave.  Once she had crossed some kind of human threshold by actually taking up arms and leading an army, once she had several victories under her belt, she could now play her role on the strength of her own experience.  But even then she clearly was losing her special touch.  She depended on those voices--not on her own military know-how, not on her own enthusiasm, not on the enthusiasm of her soldiers.  Those voices were a critical part of the story.

What did those voices want?  To rescue France?  Why?  Why should voices from the "other side" care what happened to France or to the French monarchy?  Is this the kind of thing we would expect God to be concerned with--if those voices were indeed from God?