The most remarkable figure in medieval history
Abandon your strongholds and go back to your country. If not, I will make a war-cry that will be remembered forever
The year is 1429 and a 17-year-old girl from the village of Domrémy in north-east France is granted an audience with the dauphin to share her divine message. Her absolute belief in God’s plan to overthrow the English at Orléans, and thus prevent their advance into Armagnac-held France, eventually leads to her being despatched to the town, which has been under siege for seven months. Just four days after Joan the Maid arrives, the English retreat and the town is liberated. However, her rise to glory is short-lived: just two years after this unprecedented victory, Joan is put on trial by the Burgundians for heresy, and she is burned at the stake. Five hundred years later, Joan of Arc was made patron saint of France and became the only person in history to be both condemned and canonised by the Catholic Church.