Joan of Arc
1412 – 1431
Medieval Era
I was a peasant girl who heard saints in my father's garden and ended up crowning a king. I rode at the head of armies before I was old enough to marry. They burned me at nineteen for refusing to call my voices liars.
Chapters
Chapter 11337 – 1412
A Kingdom Without a King
France is broken. A mad king on the throne, an English army on the march, and a country tearing itself in half. Into this ruin, a child will soon be born in a village no one has heard of.
Chapter 21412 – 1429
The Voices in the Garden
A farmer's daughter hears saints in her father's garden. Years later, she walks into a garrison commander's hall and demands an escort to the king.
Turning points
Stake Everything on a Vision1429
A peasant girl of seventeen stands in front of a garrison commander who has already mocked her twice. The English are tightening their grip on Orléans. The French heir is broke, demoralized, and surrounded by skeptical advisors. Joan must decide how hard to push, knowing that one wrong word could mean being sent home as a madwoman, or worse.
Chapter 31429
The Maid Before the Walls
She arrives at the king's court in men's clothes, passes every test they throw at her, and rides into a besieged city under torchlight.
Turning points
Press the Wounded Body Forward1429
An arrow has just gone through Joan's shoulder at the English fortress of les Tourelles. Her commanders see a wounded girl and want to pull back. The English see a chance to break the siege before nightfall. Joan must decide whether to leave the field or get back on her feet.
Chapter 41429
The Road to Reims
After the impossible victory at Orléans, the army has a choice. Strike at the English heartland, or march on the cathedral city where French kings are crowned.
Turning points
Crown First, Conquer Later1429
Patay is won. The English field army in the Loire valley is broken. Now the French council is split. Some want to drive into Normandy and finish the war. Others want to consolidate the Loire. Joan wants to march hundreds of miles north, through Burgundian territory, to crown the Dauphin at Reims.
Chapter 51429
Beneath the Walls of Paris
The crown is on the king's head. Now Joan wants Paris. The king wants peace talks. The cracks begin to show.
Turning points
Defy the Crown You Crowned1429
The assault on Paris has failed. Joan is wounded in the thigh. Charles is negotiating with the Duke of Burgundy and wants the army to stop. Joan and the Duke of Alençon have already drawn fresh plans for a second attempt. The king has not yet forbidden it. He may not need to.
Chapter 61429 – 1430
The Truce and the Trap
The court no longer needs her. She marches anyway, with a small band of volunteers, into a town the king has stopped trying to save.
Turning points
Surrender or Die in the Mud1430
The sortie from Compiègne has failed. Burgundian troops are swarming the field. The town gates have closed behind Joan to keep the enemy from rushing in. She is on foot now, in armor, with archers closing on her from three sides.
Chapter 71430 – 1431
The Court of Bishops
Sold to the English, chained in a cell, and put on trial for her life by men who already know the verdict. The war moves from sword to word.
Turning points
The Paper at the Scaffold1431
After months of interrogation, Joan is brought to a public scaffold at the cemetery of Saint-Ouen. The pyre is built. The executioner is waiting. A clerk is holding a document that will renounce her voices and her men's clothing. Cauchon is reading the sentence of condemnation.
Chapter 81431
The Old Marketplace
She put aside the dress. She put on the men's clothes again. She told the bishop her voices were true. Then she walked to the marketplace.
Chapter 91431 – 1920
The Maid of France
A peasant girl who refused to lie about what she heard. Six hundred years later, the world is still arguing about what she means.
Key Relationships
Charles VII of France
patron
He authorized her mission, gave her the army, ennobled her family — and then let her go silent into Burgundian and English hands without lifting a finger to ransom her.
John II, Duke of Alençon
collaborator
The one great noble who treated her as a true partner and listened to her tactical instincts; their forced separation marked her decline.
Yolande of Aragon
patron
Charles's mother-in-law arranged the Tours examination of Joan's virginity and shaped court opinion in her favor at the critical early moment.
Pierre Cauchon
adversary
The Burgundian-aligned bishop of Beauvais who orchestrated her trial, framed the charges, and read her condemnation; he became the face of her death.
Jean, Bastard of Orléans (Dunois)
collaborator
The Armagnac commander at Orléans who chose to use her as more than a figurehead and accepted her tactical advice when it mattered.
Isabelle Romée
family
Joan's mother shaped her piety and, decades later, kneeled in Notre-Dame to demand the rehabilitation trial that cleared her daughter's name.
Robert de Baudricourt
adversary
The Vaucouleurs garrison commander who twice mocked her and finally relented, providing the escort that made everything afterward possible.
John, Duke of Bedford
adversary
English regent in France who commanded the forces she fought and ultimately oversaw her imprisonment in Rouen.