Jeanne d'Arc, La Pucelle d'Orléans

Patent: The Lord of Féron; filed a petition in October 1550 along with his uncle Robert Le Fournier, to confirm the transmission of nobility through the female line, which had been allowed under the provisions of the original patent of nobility issued to Jehanne Darc (St. Joan of Arc) and her family in 1429

• Jeanne d'Arc - Wikipedia - French
• Joan of Arc - Wikipedia - English
• Jeanne d'Arc - Wikipedia - German

Saint Joan of Arc or The Maid of Orléans Saint Joan of Arc or The Maid of Orléans (French: Jeanne d'Arc, ca. 1412]– 30 May 1431 is considered a national heroine of France and a Catholic saint.

A '*peasant' girl born in eastern France who claimed Divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII. She was captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, tried by an ecclesiastical court, and burned at the stake when she was nineteen years old.

• (Joan being a 'peasant girl' is speculative and not exactly true stemming from fetish opinions via popular academia. There is an alternative theory that she was the legitimate daughter of Charles VI and Isabeau of Bavaria, for more go here: Was Joan of Arc a Peasant Girl? The Evidence Says No!)

Joan asserted that she had visions from God which instructed her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War.

Down to the present day, Joan of Arc has remained a significant figure in Western culture. From Napoleon onward, French politicians of all leanings have invoked her memory.

• Joan of Arc - archive

Decline of the medieval Inquisition in France.

In 1430 Pierre Cauchon, the bishop of Beauvais, promoted a trial against Joan of Arc, who was also known as the "Maid of Orleans". In the fifteen months since her involvement in 1429, she had subverted the course of the war between the English and the French. She did this by liberating Orléans and defeating the English invaders on several occasions.

The reasons behind this process were politically motivated. Cauchon aspired to become cardinal, but to obtain this and further recognitions, he needed the support of the King of England and the Duke of Bedford, who in turn needed to rid themselves of Joan. Furthermore, giving to her victories a diabolic origin would have been a conceivable way to alleviate their men's morale. Thus the decision to involve the Inquisition, which therefore did not instigate the trial and in fact showed a reluctance throughout its duration.

Seventy charges were brought against her, including accusations of witchcraft and dressing as a male. Joan was first condemned to life imprisonment and the deputy-inquisitor, Jean Le Maitre, obtained from her assurances of relinquishing her male clothes. However, after four days, in which she was allegedly tortured by English soldiers and possibly raped, she refused again to wear female clothes, which was seen as a sign of her return to heresy. She was therefore burnt at the stake two days later, on 30 May 1431.

In 1455, by the order of King Charles VII of France, who Joan had publicly supported, a rehabilitation trial was opened in the Notre Dame de Paris to investigate the dubious circumstances which led to Joan's execution. The Inquisitor-General of France was put in charge of the trial. After a careful analysis of all the proceedings, including Joan's answers to the allegations, he pronounced null her condemnation.

Joan of Arc was eventually canonized in 1920. The rehabilitation of Joan of Arc was also unprecedented in the previous history of the Inquisition, reflecting a clear signal in the decline of the Medieval Inquisition in France.

Further reading

• Thurston, Herbert. "St. Joan of Arc." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 9 Aug. 2014 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08409c.htm>.
• Biography of Joan of Arc by: Allen Williamson

Links

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGwAQS62ZWI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ_OG0NKnzY
• google image search

Notes:

• Books: Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism, Joan of Arc: Reality and Myth, Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc, Joan of Arc and Spirituality, etc...
• Bishop Pierre Cauchon de Beauvais, de Lisieux was a judge in process of Jeanne d'Arc., «Pierre Cauchon, juge de Jeanne d'Arc», Albert Sarrazin, 1901