Saint Joan of Arc (Jeanne la Pucelle)

Saint Joan of Arc called herself, Jeanne la Pucelle, meaning "Jean the Maid." Also known as "Joan of Orleans," for her miraculous intervention in the One Hundred Years War, the turning point of which was the "Siege of Orleans," ended by Joan's brilliant military command.

Portion of the frieze, "The Life of Joan of Arc," at the Panthéon, Paris.

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Historical sources

Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain

Few people know that Twain wrote about Joan of Arc. There is a story that as a child he encountered a stray page with the story of her trial, and the young Samuel Clemens took great offense on her behalf at her interrogators. Whether true or not, he was fascinated by her story. He explained,

I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; twelve years of preparation, and two years of writing. The others needed no preparation and got none.

Modern academics who study Twain consider it unworthy of his canon. They admit, grudgingly, that he thought it was his greatest work.

Jeanne D'Arc (1895) by Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel

In 1896, Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel illustrated a children's book of the life of Joan of Arc. Through the early 1900s, he expanded several of the images into full paintings, a collection of which are held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, per here:

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  La Vision (Vision of the Archangel St. Michael)

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  Appeal to the Dauphin (the Dauphin had someone else sit on the throne and hid amidst the Court; Joan identified him immediately)

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  The Maid in Armor on Horseback (now Commander of the French Armies, Joan marches the army to free Orleans from the English siege)

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  The Turmoil of Conflict (the Battle of Orleans, which is nearly lost after Joan is hit in the shoulder and neck by a bolt, but she returns to the field and leads the French to victory)

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  The Crowning at Rheims of the Dauphin (Joan's mission was to have the Dauphin properly crowned King by French custom and in the form of Charlemagne; the leadership thought it was unnecessary, but Joan understood that the people of France needed the ceremony)

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  The Trial of Joan of Arc (The King and his councilors betray Joan, leaving her to fight with a small army; she is captured by the French ally of the English. The French King refuses to pay a ransom for her, and she is tried in an illegitimate ecclesiastic court)