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Joan of Arc: Maid, Myth and History
Joan of Arc, born in Domremy in France in 1412, began to hear voices when she was thirteen and, believing they were directives from God, followed them - to the French court, to battle to wrest France from the English in the Hundred Years War, and to defeat and capture. She was put on trial for heresy and, on 30 May 1431, burned at the stake. Even today many people are fascinated by this teenage woman who persuaded her king to believe that she could lead her nation to victory. In the retrial of 1452-6 she was vindicated, but it took almost five hundred years after an English soldier declared 'we have burnt a saint' for the Catholic Church to conclude that she was indeed one. This new book is not merely an account of a life that was cut short; its focus is also on Joan's history, which in 1431 had just begun, and which, the author shows, was influenced just as much by the transformation in Anglo-French relations and by internal politics, issues of freedom and republicanism, and by changes in society regarding secularisation and belief, as by our response to the central issue of Joan's voices themselves.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 30, 2016
Joan of Arc is one of those fascinating characters in history who seems so much a figure of legend it is almost hard to believe she was real or could be real. That a young peasant girl could champion the cause of her king, rally her countrymen, lead armies into battle, inspired by the 'voices' of angels and saints, be betrayed to her death and executed by fire - and not only that she was inspired to do all this but that rational, battle-hardened men would believe in and follow her...well, it's the stuff of legend indeed. And no less true, for all that.
In this book Wilson-Smith chronicles both the history and the legend of Joan of Arc. He takes a three-part approach, tackling first the facts of Joan's life and death, then looks at the process of vindication that unfolded in the years after her death, and finally the cult of Joan, later St Joan, patron saint of France, that has lasted to this very day, and how she has been portrayed in politics, art and culture. The cult of Joan has had such power and longevity that she is remembered and revered even in England, the country who had her put to death, in a supposed ecclesiastical trial that was far more about politics than it was religion. Joan was executed for heresy and witchcraft - in reality, as Wilson-Smith ably demonstrates with full recourse to original sources, Joan was a scapegoat for her king and her country, executed for the crime of defying England, in an attempt to cast doubt on Charles VII's claim to the throne.
In fact, despite her eventual canonisation in 1920, Joan's history has always been political. She may have been inspired by divine voices (whether you believe they were real or hallucinations) and believed she was acting in a holy cause, but her aim was political, her trial was entirely political, and the different ways she has been remembered and revered throughout the centuries have always ebbed and flowed in response to political currents. In many ways, Joan of Arc is a very secular saint. And perhaps that very fact is why she is still such a fascinating figure, why she is known and loved when so many other saints are all but forgotten.
The one gap in this book is the lack of any kind of commentary on Joan's visions - but perhaps the author can be forgiven for that. Any kind of psychological analysis at the remove of five centuries would be all but impossible - and in many ways, irrelevant. Whether Joan was schizophrenic or truly divinely inspired doesn't really matter - in the end, today as it was in the fifteenth century, it comes down to faith.
In this book Wilson-Smith chronicles both the history and the legend of Joan of Arc. He takes a three-part approach, tackling first the facts of Joan's life and death, then looks at the process of vindication that unfolded in the years after her death, and finally the cult of Joan, later St Joan, patron saint of France, that has lasted to this very day, and how she has been portrayed in politics, art and culture. The cult of Joan has had such power and longevity that she is remembered and revered even in England, the country who had her put to death, in a supposed ecclesiastical trial that was far more about politics than it was religion. Joan was executed for heresy and witchcraft - in reality, as Wilson-Smith ably demonstrates with full recourse to original sources, Joan was a scapegoat for her king and her country, executed for the crime of defying England, in an attempt to cast doubt on Charles VII's claim to the throne.
In fact, despite her eventual canonisation in 1920, Joan's history has always been political. She may have been inspired by divine voices (whether you believe they were real or hallucinations) and believed she was acting in a holy cause, but her aim was political, her trial was entirely political, and the different ways she has been remembered and revered throughout the centuries have always ebbed and flowed in response to political currents. In many ways, Joan of Arc is a very secular saint. And perhaps that very fact is why she is still such a fascinating figure, why she is known and loved when so many other saints are all but forgotten.
The one gap in this book is the lack of any kind of commentary on Joan's visions - but perhaps the author can be forgiven for that. Any kind of psychological analysis at the remove of five centuries would be all but impossible - and in many ways, irrelevant. Whether Joan was schizophrenic or truly divinely inspired doesn't really matter - in the end, today as it was in the fifteenth century, it comes down to faith.
December 28, 2022
Too many of the authors own opinions. Topic is interesting
February 23, 2014
Read my review here: http://braveheart1305.wordpress.com/2...
August 7, 2015
Was Joan of Arc's bravery a force of personality or a sign of genuine madness? This account of her life will give you much to ponder.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews