Exposé Jeanne d'Arc : Has her role been overestimated by historians?

Joan of Arc AKA Jeanne d’Arc

Question: Has her role been overestimated by historians?

Considered as a national heroine in France, she’s a peasant girl who, believing she was acting under divine guidance, led the French army in a momentous victory at Orléans that repulsed an English attempt to conquer France during the Hundred Years’ War (and then the French were on the way to victory). We all know her fate: captured a year afterward, she was burned to death by the English and their French collaborators as a heretic. Nevertheless, we can wonder on her role during the Lancastrian phase of the hundred years’ war. She is said to be skilled and a hard worker, and guided by saint’s voices through her military mission. But we can wonder if she really is as important as she has been depicted by her contemporaries and historians.

Problematic :

Was the maid of Orléans, Joan of Arc, a major military and spiritual element leading to victory? Or has her role been overestimated by historians, as a kind of piece of propaganda?

1. Early life and the beginning of her divine mission

She was born in 1412 in Domremy. She was executed the 30th of May in 1431 in Rouen

She was the daughter of a tenant farmer in Lorraine. When she was 13, she heard voices which have given her a mission. Indeed, she felt herself to be guided by the voices of St Michael, St Catherine of Alexandria and St Margaret of Antioch. She was entitled to help the French king, Charles, expelling the English and their Burgundian allies from the Valois kingdom of France

It may be noted that Joan was described as endowed with remarkable mental and physical courage, as well as a robust common sense, and possessed many characteristics of the female visionaries. She embodies personal piety and claim to direct communication with the saints. Although she was a peasant, she seemed very cultivated, especially about the war which was happening in her region. It later fuels rumours that she was only given a fake role to restore the king.

To set the context:

We must talk about the events that have encouraged the resumption of the war. The crown of France at the time was in dispute between the dauphin Charles (later Charles VII), son and heir of the Valois king Charles VI, and the Lancastrian English king Henry VI (which was a baby … and whose armies were in alliance with Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy (whose father, John the Fearless had been assassinated in 1419 by partisans of the Dauphin) and were occupying much of the northern part of the kingdom, including her village.

The apparent hopelessness of the Dauphin’s situation at the end of 1427 was increased by the fact that 5 years after his father’s death he still had not been crown (Reims being held by his enemies). As long as the Dauphin remained unconsecrated, the rightfulness of his claim to be king of France was open to challenge.

1. Her way to the king and to the successful battles

Her rise :

Led by the voices, Joan (whose village was in the middle of the war) travelled in May 1428 to Vaucouleurs, the nearest  city from the Dauphin position. She asked the captain Robert de Baudricourt to take her to the king: ofc he didn’t take this 16-year-old and her visions seriously. She tried again in 1429, her firmness gained her the respect of the people and the captain. They bring her to the Dauphin which was in Chinon. She was dressed in men’s clothes and arrived the 24th February.

She detected him immediately, and told him she wished to go to battle against the English to help him take back his legitimate crown (she was examined by theologians in Poitiers to prevent from heresy) [cf picture of her answering the questions of the prelates])Then the longstanding Anglo-French conflict turned into a kind of religious war, so they make sure she wasn’t devilish but sane.

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Military campaigns :

The Battle of Orléans :  Charles gave to the 17-year-old Joan of Arc an armor and a horse and allowed her to accompany the army to Orléans, the site of an English siege. In a series of battles between May 4th and May 7th, 1429, the French troops took control of the English fortifications. Joan was wounded, but later returned to the front to encourage a final assault.

• This sudden victory led to many proposals for further offensive action. Joan persuaded Charles to allow her accompany the army along the Loire as a prelude to the consecration in Reims. Bold proposal of strategy : very dangerous.

Success of the Battle of Patay, minimal French losses with their vanguard attacking a unit of English archers. They killed or captured the most of English commanders. That was in the way to Reims in order to crown Charles VII . The French will liberate Troyes, Auxerre et Chalon for instance.

Charles’ coronation happened in 1429. Joan is going to have a sword and her knights will take a sword in a sanctuary, according to legend it was Charles Martel’s sword with which he repelled the musulman attack in France.

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