Porte-clés Jeanne d'Arc

Joan of Arc or Jeanne d'Arc , as she liked to be called in French, was mucking out the stables one day when God came down and told her that He had chosen her to go and pick a fight with England. Why He chose a cross dressing, peasant girl from Domrémy in Eastern France and what he had against England is unclear but they do say He works in mysterious ways. It is equally unclear why the French King Charles the VII sent her off to help raise the siege of Orleans but I guess the English had been giving the French merry hell for a few years and he thought it wouldn’t hurt to let a teenage girl take charge of the army – come to think of it, if she was anything like a typical 21st century teenage girl, she was probably an inspired choice. Anyway, things went swimmingly, she showed the French army how to fight and they started winning for a while. Jean helped them lift the siege of Orleans and to take the Burgundian held city of Rheims. She had a bit of a knack for lifting sieges so she went off to help the city of Compiègne but was captured by the Burgundians after attacking their camp. Duke Philip of Burgundy sold her to the English who were still a bit angry with her – actually they must have been really angry with her because they tried her for heresy and burnt her at the stake and I’m sure that there is a lesson to be learned there.