CHAPTER 2
7 WARRIOR WOMEN
OBJECTIVES:
1. Introduce the seven women warriors in mythology.
2. Discuss the stories of the seven warrior women in mythology.
3. Explain lessons derived from the aims of the seven warriors.
MODULE 2.1
Throughout the ages, women have often been at the forefront of battles, fighting
to protect their people, land, and way of life. These women warriors have been
historically viewed as strong, proud women with unfailing courage. The tradition of
women warriors is deeply rooted in ancient Greek, Celtic, and Norse mythology. This
unit is organized to be able to compare mythological warrior women with those from
history easily. First, you will learn about the characteristics of women warriors in
mythology and folklore. Next, you will read about the Amazons (mythological, then
historical), then about Celtic goddesses and a warrior queen from the first century A.D.
You will learn the deeds of Valkyries, the Norse warrior-goddesses, as well as a Norse
warrior woman from around the year 1000. Finally, you will consider the effects of these
on women in ancient societies.
7. BOUDICCA: BRUTAL AS ANY MAN
Written By Kathleen Kuiper
Kathleen Kuiper was Senior Editor, Arts & Culture, Encyclopædia Britannica until
2016. She also edited Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature
Years of taxation, ill-treatment, and enslavement had worn down the Celtic
tribes of East Anglia. They didn’t need much rallying to rebel against the
Romans. Shortly after her husband died, the queen of the Iceni, Boudicca, was
stripped of her possessions, flogged, forced to see her young daughters raped
and tortured. She didn’t want to take it any longer and gathered the troops.
Before she died, she and her troops razed the towns of Camulodunum
(Colchester), the capital of Roman Britain; Verulamium (St. Albans); and
Londinium (London)
The time was the early 15th century, France. Caught in the seemingly
endless French and English skirmishes over territory and succession to the
French crown, Joan (who was a farm girl) felt compelled to act. Relying upon her
faith in God and the guidance of long-dead saints, she took her courage in hand
and led French troops in many battles, notably to victory in Orléans. After her
capture, she was tried for heresy and burned at the stake. This trial was movingly
rendered by the film director Carl Theodor Dreyer in The Passion of Joan of Arc
(1928).
QUESTIONS:
[Link] is Boudicca? Discuss her contributions that her a warrior.
Boudicca is the queen of the Iceni, she and her troops razed the towns of
Camulodunum (Colchester), the capital of Roman Britain; Verulamium (St.
Albans); and Londinium (London). Although her campaign was initially
successful, her forces were defeated at the Battle of Watling Street in 61
AD.
2. Why did Boudicca kill herself? Explain.
Thousands were killed. Finally, Boudicca was defeated by a Roman army led by
Paulinus. Many Britons were killed and Boudicca is thought to have poisoned
herself to avoid capture. The site of the battle, and of Boudicca's death, are
unknown.
[Link] is Boadicea now called Boudicca?
From the 19th century until the late 20th century, Boadicea was the most common
version of the name, which is probably derive from a mistranscription when a
manuscript of Tacitus was copied in the middle ages. Her name was clearly
spelled Boudicca in the best manuscript of Tacitus.(Wikipedia).
4. Give one lesson that you can get from her life. Explain.
The lesson that I can get from her life was being a strong woman despite what
she experienced about what happen to her family and to the hands of the
Romans army. Even she is a woman she fought for her Family and the property
of her husband. She gathered and raised her own troops to revenge to the
Romans people even they defeated. Being a warrior is not easy especially as
woman but Boudicca showed that even we are women we can do what a man’s
can do.
MODULE 2.2
SAINT JOAN OF ARC: A GIRL AND HER VISIONS
OBJECTIVES:
1. Introduce St. Joan of Arc and discuss why she was considered a saint.
2. Explain the visions of St. Joan of Arc.
3. Discuss the contributions of Joan to her community.
4. Explain why St. Joan of Arc was executed.
5. Identify and discuss the symbol of St Joan of Arc.
Joan was the daughter of a tenant farmer at Domrémy, on the duchies of
Bar and Lorraine. In her mission of expelling the English and their Burgundian
allies from the Valois kingdom of France, she felt herself to be guided by the
voices of St. Michael, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. Margaret of Antioch.
Joan was endowed with remarkable mental and physical courage and
a robust common sense. She possessed many attributes characteristic of the
female visionaries who were a noted feature of her time. These qualities included
extreme personal piety, a claim to direct communication with the saints, and a
consequent reliance upon individual experience of God’s presence beyond the
priesthood's ministrations and the institutional church's confines.
At the time, France's crown 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. Henry’s armies were in alliance with those
of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy (whose father, John the Fearless, had
been assassinated in 1419 by partisans of the dauphin) were occupying much of
the northern part of the kingdom. The apparent hopelessness of the dauphin’s
cause at the end of 1427 was increased by the fact that, five years after his
father’s death, he still had not been crowned. Reims, the traditional place for the
investiture of French kings, was well within the territory 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.
Joan’s village of Domrémy was on the frontier between the France of the
Anglo-Burgundians and the dauphin. The villagers had already had to abandon
their homes before Burgundian threats. Led by the voices of her saints, Joan
traveled in May 1428 from Domrémy to Vaucouleurs, the nearest stronghold still
loyal to the dauphin, where she asked the captain of the garrison, Robert de
Baudricourt, for permission to join the dauphin. He did not take the 16-year-old
and her visions seriously, and she returned home. Joan went to Vaucouleurs
again in January 1429. This time her quiet firmness and piety gained the respect
of the people, and the captain, persuaded that she was neither a witch nor
feebleminded, allowed her to go to the dauphin at Chinon. Joan left Vaucouleurs
about February 13, dressed in men’s clothes and accompanied by six men-at-
arms. Crossing territory held by the enemy and traveling for 11 days, she
reached Chinon.
Joan went at once to the place of the dauphin Charles, who was uncertain
about receiving her. His advisers gave him conflicting advice, but two days later,
he granted her an audience. As a test, Charles hid from his courtiers, but Joan
quickly determined him; she told him that she wished to go to war against
the English and she would like him crowned at Reims. On the dauphin’s orders,
she was questioned by church authorities with Jean, Duc d’Alençon, a relative of
Charles, who showed himself well-disposed her. She was then brought
to Poitiers for three weeks, where she was further questioned by theologians who
were allied to the dauphin’s cause. These tests, the record of which has not
lasted, were occasioned by the ever-present fear of faction following the end
of Western Schism in 1417. Joan informed the ecclesiastics that it was not at
Poitiers but Orléans that she would give evidence of her mission. On March 22,
she dictated letters of resistance to the English. In their report, the churchmen
suggested that because of the desperate situation of Orléans, which had been
under English blockade for months, the Dauphin would be well-advised to make
use of her. Joan of Arc | Biography, Death, Accomplishments, & Facts ....
[Link]
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc answering the
questions of the prelates.
© [Link]/Jupiterimages
Joan returned to Chinon. In April, at tours, the dauphin provided her with
several men's military household; Jean d’Aulon became her attendant, and Joan
was joined by her brothers Jean and Pierre. She had her standard painted with
an image of Christ in Judgment and a banner bearing the name of Jesus. When
the question of a sword was brought up, she declared that it would be found in
the church of Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois, and one was discovered there.
Action at Orléans
French troops with hundred men were mustered at Blois, and on April 27,
1429, they set out for Orléans. The city, besieged since October 12, 1428, was
almost surrounded by a ring of English strongholds. When Joan and one of the
French commanders, La Hire, entered with supplies on April 29, she was told
that action must be deferred until further reinforcements could be brought in.
On the evening of May 4, when Joan was resting, she suddenly sprang
up, apparently inspired, and announced that she must go and attack the English.
Arming herself, she hurried to an English fort east of the city, where she
discovered an engagement was already taking place. Her arrival roused the
French, and they took the fort. The next day Joan addressed another of her
letters of defiance to the English. On May 6, she crossed to the south bank of the
river and advanced toward another fort; the English immediately evacuated to
defend a stronger position nearby, but Joan and La Hire attacked them and took
it by storm. Very early on May 7, the French advanced against the fort of Les
Tourelles. Joan was wounded but quickly returned to the fight, and it was thanks
in part to her example that the French commanders maintained the attack until
the English capitulated. The next day, the English were seen retreating, but Joan
refused to pursue it because it was a Sunday. Joan of Arc | Biography, Death,
Accomplishments, & Facts .... [Link]
Victories and coronation
Joan left Orléans on May 9 and met Charles at Tours. She urged him to
make haste to Reims to be crowned. Though he hesitated because some of his
more prudent counselors were advising him to undertake Normandy conquest,
Joan’s importunity ultimately carried the day. However, it was decided to clear
the English out of the other towns along the Loire River. Joan met her friend the
Duc d’Alençon, who had been made lieutenant-general of the French armies,
and together they took a town and a vital bridge. They next attacked Beaugency.
After that, the English retreated into the castle. Then, despite the opposition of
the dauphin and his adviser Georges de La Trémoille, and despite the reserve of
Alençon, Joan received the Constable de Richemont, who was under suspicion
at the French court. After making him swear fidelity, she accepted his help, and
shortly after that, the castle of Beaugency was surrendered.
The French and English armies came face to face at Patay on June 18,
1429. Joan promised success to the French, saying that Charles would win a
more significant victory that day than any he had won so far. The victory was
indeed complete; the English army was routed, and with it, finally, its reputation
for invincibility.
Instead of pressing home their advantage by a bold attack upon Paris,
Joan and the French commanders turned back to rejoin the dauphin, who was
staying with La Trémoille at Sully-sur-Loire. Again Joan urged upon Charles the
need to go on swiftly to Reims for his coronation. However, he vacillated, and as
he meandered through the towns along the Loire, Joan accompanied him and
sought to defeat his hesitancy and prevail over the counselors who advised
delay. She was aware of the dangers and difficulties involved but declared them
of no account, and finally, she won Charles to her view.
From Gien, where the army began to assemble, the dauphin sent out the
summons' customary letters to the coronation. Joan wrote two letters: one of
exhortation to the people of Tournai, always loyal to Charles, the other a
challenge to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. She and the dauphin set out on
the March to Reims on June 29. Before arriving at Troyes, Joan wrote to the
people, promising them to pardon if they would submit. They countered by
sending a priest, preacher Brother Richard, to take stock of her. Although he
returned full of eagerness for the Maid of Orléans (as she was known) and her
mission, the townsfolk decided to remain loyal to the Anglo-Burgundian regime.
The dauphin’s council decided that Joan should lead an attack against the town,
and the citizens quickly submitted to the next morning’s assault. The royal army
then marched on to Châlons, where, despite an earlier decision to resist, the
count-bishop handed the town's keys to Charles. On July 16, the royal army
reached Reims, which opened its gates. On July 17, 1429, the coronation took
place. With her banner not far from the altar, Joan was standing at the
consecration, and after the ceremony, she knelt before Charles, calling him her
king for the first time. That same day she wrote to the duke of Burgundy, adjuring
him to make peace with the king and to withdraw his garrisons from the royal
fortresses.
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc, French heroine, and martyr,
kneeling before the dauphin Charles
(later Charles VII, king of France).©
[Link]/Jupiterimages
Paris Ambitions
Charles VII left Reims on July 20, and for a month, the army paraded
through Champagne and the Île-de-France. On August 2, the king decided on a
retreat from Provins to the Loire, which implied abandoning any plan to
attack Paris. The loyal towns that would thus have been left to the enemy’s
mercy expressed some alarm. Joan, who was opposed to Charles’s decision,
wrote to reassure the citizens of Reims on August 5, saying that the duke of
Burgundy, then in possession of Paris, had made a fortnight’s truce, after which it
was hoped that he would yield Paris to the king. On August 6, English troops
prevented the royal army from crossing the Seine at Bray, much to the delight of
Joan and the commanders, who hoped that Charles would attack Paris.
Everywhere acclaimed, Joan was now, according to a 15th-century chronicler,
the idol of the French. She felt that the purpose of her mission had been
achieved.
Near Senlis, on August 14, the French and English armies again
confronted each other. This time only skirmishes took place, neither side daring
to start a battle, though Joan carried her standard up to the enemy’s earthworks
and openly challenged them. Meanwhile, Compiègne, Beauvais, Senlis, and
other towns north of Paris surrendered to the king. On August 28, a four-month
truce for all the territory north of the Seine was concluded with the Burgundians.
Joan, however, was becoming more and more impatient; she thought it
essential to take Paris. She and Alençon were at Saint-Denis on the northern
outskirts of Paris on August 26, and the Parisians began to organize their
defenses. Charles arrived on September 7, and an attack was launched on
September 8, directed between the gates of Saint-Honoré and Saint-Denis. The
Parisians could be in no doubt of Joan’s presence among the besiegers; she
stood forward on the earthworks, calling on them to surrender their city to
France's king. Wounded, Joan continued to encourage the soldiers until Joan
had to abandon the attack. The next day she and Alençon sought to renew the
assault, they were ordered by Charles’s council to retreat.
Further struggle
Charles VII retired to the Loire, Joan following him. At Gien, which they
reached on September 22, the army was disbanded. Alençon and the other
captains went home; only Joan remained with the king. Later, when Alençon was
planning a Normandy campaign, he asked the king to let Joan rejoin him, but La
Trémoille and other courtiers dissuaded him. Joan went to Bourges with the king.
Many years later, she was membered for her goodness and generosity to the
poor. In October, she was sent against Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier; through her
courageous assault, the town was taken with only a few men. Joan’s army then
laid siege to La Charité-sur-Loire; short of munitions, they appealed to
neighboring towns for help. The supplies arrived too late, and after a month, they
had to withdraw.
Joan then rejoined the king, who was spending the winter in towns along
the Loire. Late in December 1429, Charles issued letters patent ennobling Joan,
her parents, and her brothers. Early in 1430, the duke of Burgundy began to
threaten Brie and Champagne. The inhabitants of Reims became alarmed, and
Joan wrote in March to assure them of the king’s concern and to promise that
she would come to their defense. When the duke moved up to
attack Compiègne, the townsfolk determined to resist; in late March or early April,
Joan left the king and set out to their aid, accompanied only by her brother Pierre
squire Jean d’Aulon, and a small troop of men-at-arms. She arrived at Melun in
the middle of April, and it was no doubt her presence that prompted the citizens
there to declare themselves for Charles VII.
Joan was at Compiègne by May 14, 1430. There she found Renaud de
Chartres, archbishop of Reims, and Louis I de Bourbon, Comte de Vendôme, a
king's relative. With them, she went on to Soissons, where the townspeople
refused them entry. Therefore, Renaud and Vendôme decided to return south of
the Marne and Seine rivers; but Joan refused to accompany them, preferring to
return to her “good friends” in Compiègne.
Capture, Trial, And Execution
On her way back to Compiègne, Joan heard that John of Luxembourg, the
Burgundian company captain, had laid siege to the city. Hurrying on, she entered
Compiègne under cover of darkness. The next afternoon, May 23, she led a
sortie and twice repelled the Burgundians but was eventually outflanked by
English reinforcements and compelled to retreat. Remaining until the last to
protect the rear guard while crossing the Oise River, she was unhorsed and
could not remount. She gave herself up and, with her brother Pierre and Jean
d’Aulon, was taken to Margny, where the duke of Burgundy came to see her. In
telling the people of Reims of Joan’s capture, Renaud de Chartres accused her
of rejecting all counsel and acting
willfully. Charles, who was working
toward a truce with the duke of
Burgundy, made no attempts to save
her.
The capture of Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc is captured while
she tried to relieve Compiègne from
an English siege, 1430. © [Link]/Jupiterimages. St. Joan of Arc - Capture,
trial, and execution | Britannica. [Link]
Joan-of-Arc/Capture-trial-and-execution
John of Luxembourg sent Joan and Jean d’Aulon to his castle in
Vermandois. When she tried to escape to return to Compiègne, he sent her to
one of his more distant castles. There, though she was treated kindly, Joan
became more and more distressed at the predicament of Compiègne. Her desire
to escape became so great that she jumped from the top of a tower, falling
unconscious into the moat. She was not seriously hurt, and when she had
recovered, she was taken to Arras, a town adhering to the duke of Burgundy.
News of her capture had reached Paris on May 25, 1430. The next day
the theology faculty of the University of Paris, which had taken the English side,
requested the duke of Burgundy to turn her over for judgment either to the chief
inquisitor or to the bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon, in whose diocese she
had been seized. The university also wrote, to the same effect, to John of
Luxembourg. On July 14, the bishop of Beauvais presented himself before the
duke of Burgundy, asking, on his behalf and in the English king's name, that the
Maid be handed over in return for a payment of 10,000 francs. The duke passed
on the demand to John of Luxembourg, and by January 3, 1431, she was in the
bishop’s hands. The trial was fixed to take place at Rouen. Joan was moved to a
tower in the Bouvreuil castle, which was occupied by Warwick's earl, the English
commander at Rouen. Though her offenses against the Lancastrian monarchy
were common knowledge, Joan was brought to trial before a church court
because the theologists at the University of Paris, as arbiter in matters
concerning the faith, insisted that she be tried as a heretic. Orthodox, according
to the criteria for orthodoxy laid down by many theologians of the period. She
was no friend of the church militant on earth (which perceived itself as in spiritual
combat with the forces of evil), and she threatened its hierarchy through her
claim that she communicated directly with God through visions or voices. Further,
her trial might serve to discredit Charles VII by demonstrating that he owed his
coronation to a witch or at least a heretic. Her two judges were Cauchon, bishop
of Beauvais, and Jean Lemaître, the vice-inquisitor of France.
THE TRIAL
Beginning January 13, 1431, statements taken in Lorraine and elsewhere
were read before the bishop and his assessors; they were to provide the
framework for Joan’s interrogation. Summoned to appear before her judges on
February 21, Joan asked for permission to attend mass beforehand. It refused on
gravity account for the crimes she was charged with, including
attempted suicide in jumping into the moat. She was ordered to swear to tell the
truth and did so swear, but she always refused to reveal the things she had said
to Charles. Cauchon forbade her to leave her prison, but Joan insisted that she
was morally free to escape. Guards were then assigned to remain always inside
the cell with her. She was chained to a wooden block and sometimes put in irons.
Between February 21 and March 24, she was interrogated nearly a dozen times.
On every occasion, she was required to swear anew. Still, she always made it
clear that she would not necessarily divulge everything to her judges since,
although nearly all of them were Frenchmen, they were enemies of King Charles.
This preliminary questioning report was read to her on March 24, two
points she admitted its accuracy.
When the trial proper began a day or so later, Joan took two days to
answer the 70 charges drawn up against her. These were based mainly on
the contention that her behavior showed blasphemous presumption: in particular,
that she claimed for her pronouncements the authority of divine revelation;
prophesied the future; endorsed her letters with the names of Jesus and Mary,
thereby identifying herself with the novel and suspect cult of the Name of Jesus;
professed to be assured of salvation, and wore men’s clothing. Perhaps the most
severe charge was preferring what she believed to be God's direct commands to
the church.
On March 31, she has questioned again on several points that she had
been evasive, notably her submission to the church. In her position, obedience to
the court trying her was inevitably made a test of such submission. She did her
best to avoid this trap, saying she knew well that the church militant could not err,
but it was to God and her saints that she held herself answerable for her words
and actions. The trial continued; the 70 charges were reduced to 12 and sent for
consideration to many eminent theologians in Rouen and Paris.
Meanwhile, Joan fell sick in prison and was attended by two doctors. She
received a visit on April 18 from Cauchon and his assistants, who encouraged
her to submit to the church. Joan, who was seriously ill and thought she was
dying, begged to confession and received Holy Communion and be buried
in consecrated ground. They continued to badger her, receiving only her constant
response, “I am relying on our Lord, I hold to what I have already said.” They
became more insistent on May 9, threatening her with torture if she did not clarify
specific points. She answered that even if they tortured her to death, she would
not reply differently, adding that in any case, Joan would afterward maintain that
any statement she might make had been extorted from her by force. In light of
this commonsense fortitude, her interrogators, by a majority of 10 to three,
decided that torture would be useless. Joan was informed on May 23 of the
University of Paris's decision that if she persisted in her errors, she would be
turned over to the secular authorities; only they, and not the church, could carry
out the death sentence of a condemned heretic.
ABJURATION, RELAPSE, AND EXECUTION
Nothing further could be done. Joan was taken out of prison for the first
time. On May 24, and conducted to the church of Saint-Ouen's cemetery, where
her sentence was to be readout. First, she was made to listen to a sermon by
one of the theologians. He violently attacked Charles VII, provoking Joan to
interrupt him because she thought he had no right to attack the king, a “good
Christian,” and should confine his strictures. When the sermon ended, she asked
that all the evidence on her words and deeds be sent to Rome. Her judges
ignored her appeal to the pope and began to read out the sentence abandoning
her to the secular power. Hearing this dreadful pronouncement, Joan quailed and
declared she would do all that the church required of her. She was presented
with a form of abjuration, which must already have been prepared. She hesitated
in signing it, eventually doing so on condition that it was “pleasing to our Lord.”
She was then condemned to perpetual imprisonment or, as some maintain, to
incarceration in a place habitually used as a prison. In any case, the judges
required her to return to her former prison.
The vice-inquisitor had ordered Joan to put on women’s clothes, and she
obeyed. But two or three days later, when the judges and others visited her and
found her again in male attire, she said she had made the change of her
own free will, preferring men’s clothes. They then pressed other questions, to
which she answered that the voices of St. Catherine of Alexandria and St.
Margaret of Antioch had censured her “treason” in making an abjuration. These
admissions were taken to signify relapse, and on May 29, the judges and 39
assessors unanimously agreed that she must be handed over to the secular
officials.
The next morning, Joan received from Cauchon permission,
unprecedented for a relapsed heretic, to make her confession and receive
Communion. Accompanied by two Dominicans, she was then led to the Place du
Vieux-Marché. There she endured one more sermon, and the sentence
abandoning her to the secular arm—that is, to the English and their French
collaborators—was read out in the presence of her judges and a great crowd.
The executioner seized her, led her to the stake, and lit the pyre. A Dominican
consoled Joan, who asked him to hold high a crucifix for her to see and to shout
out the assurances of salvation so loudly that she should hear him above the roar
of the flames. To the last, she maintained that her voices were sent of God and
had not deceived her. According to the rehabilitation proceedings of 1456, few
witnesses of her death seem to have doubted her salvation, and they agreed that
she died a faithful Christian. A few days later, the English king and the University
of Paris formally published the news of Joan’s execution.
Death of Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc being burned at the stake
for heresy, May 30, 1431.
© [Link]/Jupiterimages
Almost 20 years afterward, on
his entry into Rouen in 1450,
Charles VII ordered an inquiry into
the trial. Two years later, the cardinal
legate Guillaume d’Estouteville made a
much more thorough investigation.
Finally, on Pope Calixtus III's order
following a petition from the d’Arc
family, proceedings were instituted in
1455–56 that revoked and annulled
the sentence of 1431. Pope Benedict
XV canonized Joan on May 16, 1920;
her feast day is May 30. On June 24,
1920, the French parliament decreed a
yearly national festival in her honor;
this is held the second Sunday in May.
CHARACTER AND IMPORTANCE
Watch researchers
attempt to
reconstruct what
Joan of Arc's face
looked like
Researchers were
attempting to create
an accurate image of
Joan of Arc's
appearance.
Contunico © ZDF
Enterprises GmbH,
Mainz
Joan of Arc’s place in history is assured. Perhaps her contribution to the
history of human courage is more significant than her significance in France’s
political and military history. She was victimized as much by a French civil conflict
as by a war with a foreign power. The relief of Orléans was undoubtedly a
notable victory, which secured the loyalty of some areas of northern France to
the régime of Charles VII. But the Hundred Years’ War continued for a further 22
years after her death. The defection of Philip the Good of Burgundy from his
alliance with the Lancastrians in 1435 provided the foundation upon which Valois
France's recovery was based. Moreover, the nature of Joan’s mission is a source
of controversy among historians, theologians, and psychologists. Innumerable
points about her campaigns and the motives and actions of her supporters and
enemies are subject to dispute: for instance, the number and dates of her visits
to Vaucouleurs, Chinon, and Poitiers; how she was able to win the confidence of
the dauphin at their first meeting at Chinon; whether Charles’s perambulations
after his coronation at Reims represented triumphant progress or scandalous
indecision; what her judges meant by “perpetual imprisonment”; whether, after
her recantation, Joan resumed men’s clothes of her own free will and at the
bidding of her voices or, as one later story has it because they were forced upon
her by her English jailers.
Later generations have tended to distort the significance of Joan’s mission
according to their own political and religious viewpoints rather than seeking to set
it in the troubled context of her time. The effects of the Western Schism (1378–
1417) and the decline of papal authority during the Conciliar Movement (1409–
49) made it difficult for persons to seek independent arbitration and judgment in
cases relating to the faith. The Inquisition verdicts were liable to be colored by
political and other influences. They were not the only victims of an essentially
unjust procedure, which allowed the accused no counsel of the defense and
sanctioned interrogation under duress. Her place among the saints is secured,
not by the dubious miracles attributed to her.
The heroic fortitude she endured was the ordeal of her trial except for one
lapse toward its end, her profound conviction of the justice of her cause,
sustained faith in the divine origin of her voices. In many ways, a victim of
internal strife within France, condemned by judges and assessors who were
almost entirely northern French in origin, she has become a symbol of
national consciousness with whom all French people, of whatever creed or party,
can identify.
France: Charles VII
Then Joan of Arc appeared. Stirred by the popular memory of traditional
French kingship, she found her way from her peasant home at Domrémy (on the
border of Champagne and Bar) to Chinon, where she confronted Charles with
her astonishing inspiration: her “voices” proclaimed a divine.
DRESS: REBELLION
In 1429 Joan of Arc adopted male
clothes, and this wearing of male
dress was included among the
charges against her when the bishop
said her claim that God, angels, and
saints had told her to don male attire.
1. Introduce St. Joan of Arc and
discuss why she was considered
a saint.
2. Explain the visions of St. Joan of Arc.
3. Discuss the contributions of Joan to her community.
4. Explain why St. Joan of Arc was executed.
5. Identify and discuss the symbol of St Joan of Arc.
Questions:
1. What did Joan of Arc’s visions tell her to do? For what? Why?
Joan allegedly began to experience visions of the Archangel Michael, Saint
Margaret, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria. These visions told her to recover
France from English control and reinstate Charles VII as its rightful king, a mission
she should fulfill with divine purpose.
Jeanne d’Arc’s religious visions. “My Voices tells me that I must go against the
English,”. The record of the Saint of Lorraine presented so many cases of
clairvoyance and of prophecy that they gave her by common consent the right to
claim that she had the mysterious power of divination.
2. Does she deserve to be a saint? Why?
Yes, because Joan of Arc rose from a medieval peasant girl to a saint of the
Catholic church. Legend says that despite having no military training, she led France
to victory during the Hundred Years’ War thanks to divine guidance, later burning at
the stake aged just 19.
3. What were Joan of Arc’s last words? Discuss.
The last Words of Joan of Arc was "Hold the cross high so I may see it through
the flames!" To the last she maintained that her voices were sent of God and had
not deceived her.
4. What does Joan of Arc symbolize? Discuss.
For the people of New Orleans, Joan of Arc is a symbol of French heritage and
the traditions of an inclusive and costume-loving city. Her arrival right after epiphany
marks the beginning of carnival season. In New Orleans, rather than old Orleans,
Joan remains a powerful symbol.
[Link] and how was she executed? Discuss.
-Joan of Arc, national heroine of France, a peasant girl who, believing that she
was acting under divine guidance, led the French army in a momentous victory that
repulsed an English attempt to conquer France during the Hundred Years’ War.
Captured a year afterward, Joan was burned to death as a heretic.
-Joan of Arc was executed for heresy. She was burned at the stake by the
authorities because, as well as being a heretic, it was believed that she was guilty
of witchcraft. In actual fact, Joan was executed because she represented a threat to
the English invaders and their French allies.
6. From your point of view, is Joan of Arc worth emulating? Explain your
answer.
Yes, because Joan of Arc’s place in history is assured. Perhaps her contribution to
the history of human courage is greater than her significance in the political and military
history of France. She was victimized as much by a French civil conflict as by a war with a
foreign power.
