Battles & Wars › Medieval wars › Hundred Years' War
Joan of Arc
c. 1412–1431· Person· Europe
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
A teenage peasant from eastern France who believed God had sent her to save France, led its revival, and was burned.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
Joan, from the village of Domrémy, said that from about age 13 she heard the voices of saints. In 1429, aged about 17, she persuaded the Dauphin Charles to send her with the army relieving besieged Orléans. The siege was lifted in nine days. She then escorted Charles to Reims for his coronation. Captured by England's Burgundian allies in 1430, she was tried for heresy by a pro-English church court and burned at Rouen in 1431, aged about 19.
Why it matters
She revived French morale and Charles VII's legitimacy at the war's low point, and became France's national symbol, claimed by many political camps.
Legacy and how we know
The full record of her 1431 trial, with her own answers, and testimony from about 115 witnesses at the 1455–56 retrial that cleared her. She was declared a saint in 1920.
Still debated
What her voices were, and how much she directed military decisions rather than inspiring troops, are still debated.
Connections (2)
▸Battle of Agincourt left France reeling until the rise of Joan of ArcMostly agreed
The connection
Agincourt and the Treaty of Troyes left the disinherited Dauphin Charles holding only France south of the Loire, mocked as the 'king of Bourges'. In 1428 English troops besieged Orléans, the gateway to his lands. That desperate moment, and a popular hope that only a miracle could save France, opened the door for a teenage visionary from Domrémy.
When and how
France, 1415–1429; the Dauphin's court at Chinon, where Joan arrived in early 1429 while Orléans was under siege.
How sure are we?
Chronicles and Joan's trial records place her mission in the crisis created by English conquests after Agincourt; she said her voices told her to save Orléans.
Debates and open questions
Fourteen years separate the two; how directly Agincourt led to Joan, rather than the later siege of Orléans, is a matter of emphasis.
▸Joan of Arc turned the tide of Hundred Years' WarMostly agreed
The connection
Joan's arrival helped lift the siege of Orléans in May 1429, and the French then routed the English at Patay. She pressed Charles to be crowned at Reims that July, giving him legitimacy the English-backed Henry VI lacked. French gains followed, Burgundy switched to Charles in 1435, and by 1453 England had lost all but Calais.
When and how
Orléans, Patay and Reims, May–July 1429; Joan with Charles VII and commanders such as Jean de Dunois and the Duke of Alençon.
How sure are we?
Contemporary letters, chronicles and testimony at both of her trials, in 1431 and 1456, record her role at Orléans and Reims.
Debates and open questions
Historians debate whether she was a real commander or mainly a morale booster, and how much France's recovery owed to her versus Burgundian politics and artillery.