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Joan was born to farmer parents Isabelle and Jacues. They lived in the small village of Dormremy, located in northeastern France. Joan had two older brothers, Jacues and Jean. The house where she was born is still standing today, and is now a museum.
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Joan only lived to be 19 years old; she was burned at the stake at 19, after being imprisioned for a little over a year.
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Henry the V of England attacks and defeats the French at Agincourt. This is a major victory for the English, giving them a firm foothold into France.
-This impacts Joan’s life because it begins the English rule over parts of France that she will later fight to reclaim. -
Henry the fifth, King of England is named heir of Charles King of France. He also marries Catherine, Princess of France. This unites the two countries even further, securing England's hold over France yet again.
-Those events once again set up the scene for Joan; she will have to fight to give the son of King Charles of France the right to rule France. -
Henry V, King of England, and Charles VI King of France both die within two months of each other. In France, the uncrowned Dauphin, (prince) waits to see what England will do, how he can reclaim his heritage and kingdom.
-Joan will eventually help the Dauphin claim his title of King of France. The death of the two kings makes this possible. -
Joan's small village of Domremy is attacked by English and French raiders. The raiders burn the church, and take the cattle and valuables.
Joan was about 13 at the time; neither she nor her family was harmed. -
Joan starts hearing voices during this year; she is 13 years old at this point. She believes the voices to be those of St. Catherine, St. Margaret, and St. Michael.
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Joan asks a powerful local lord, Robert de Baudricourt for help. This is only the first of many times she will ask him for help.
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Joan is accused of breaking her promise to marry a local man, and taken to court. She wins her case, and is soon back to her mission. She was sixteen at the time.
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Joan goes back to Robert de Baudricourt several times, and at last receives his promise of help. Several of his soldiers convince him of her sincerity, and agree to take her to the Dauphin, who is at Chinon.
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Joan arrives at the castle of Chinon, and meets the Dauphin Charles.
He sets up a way to trick her, and discover whether or not she really is sent from God. He dresses up as a servant, and has an imposter pose as him. Joan goes directly up to the real Dauphin and introduces herself, proving she isn’t lying. -
Joan is questioned by church officials, making sure her voices are really from God and not demons. Only then is she allowed to begin preparing for battle.
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Joan is reported to have gotten her sword from a church of St. Catherine’s, although the rest of her armor came through more conventional means when she arrived at the city of Tours.
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Joan takes the English occupied monastery of St. Loup, in Orleans.
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The siege of Orleans is lifted. Joan drives the English back, and frees the French, giving them the hope they needed to press on.
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Charles, the Dauphine of France is now the king. He is crowned king at a cathedral in Rheims.
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Charles asks more of Joan, giving her orders to attack Paris. Joan tried several times to re-take Paris, but was never offered the support she needed. The reinforcements promised her by Charles never arrive. Meanwhile, her voices have told her that she will be captured if she continues to fight.
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Joan is captured outside of a city called Compiegne, located close to Paris, by fellow Frenchmen turned to the English.
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Joan is held as a prisoner at Beaurevoir, in the tower of John of Luxembourg for four months. John was not a harsh captor; she was allowed to be with female compaions, and take her meals with them. But when the English offered a huge sum of money for Joan to be given to them, he couldn't resist taking it.
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Joan's trial was eventually set up, after bouncing from one English stronghold to another. The trial was to be held at Rouen, which was a French city held by the English.
Joan will be tried by the church court, not the English; they will determine her sentence. The catholic church was very powerful at this time, more powerful than individual countries. -
The first public part of the trial starts, where Joan is introduced to the church court. She is charged with being a heritic, practicing witchcraft, and idolatry, or worshipping false gods.
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Joan is tried in her prison cell, in private, and threatened with torture. She begins to break down, worn out by her English captors trying to persuade her to reject her heresy.
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Joan signs a document confessing that she wasn't obeying God and that the voices didn't come from him. She believed the false promises that she would be handed back to the French after signing it, and allowed to be under the care of other women. Joan took back her confession almost at once, but her signature was already down in ink.
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Joan's prosecutors deliver their verdict: that Joan will be handed back over to the English, to be burned at the stake.
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Joan was burned at the stake after being declared a heretic by her prosecutors. She was burned in a marketplace in Rouen. Supposedly a bystander to the burning, an Englishman, actually said "We are lost; we have burned a saint."
