Life[edit]
Further information: Name of Joan of Arc
Joan was born the daughter of Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée[23] in Domrémy, a village which was then in the French part of the duchy of Bar.[24] Joan's parents owned about 50 acres (20 hectares) of land and her father supplemented his farming work with a minor position as a village official, collecting taxes and heading the local watch.[25]They lived in an isolated patch of eastern France that remained loyal to the French crown despite being surrounded by pro-Burgundian lands. Several local raids occurred during her childhood and on one occasion her village was burned.
At her trial, Joan stated that she was about 19, which implies that she thought she was born around 1412. She later testified that she experienced her first vision in 1425 at the age of 13, when she was in her "father's garden"[26] and saw visions of figures she identified as Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret, who told her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin to Reims for his coronation. She said she cried when they left, as they were so beautiful.[27]
At the age of 16, she asked a relative named Durand Lassois to take her to the nearby town of Vaucouleurs, where she petitioned the garrison commander, Robert de Baudricourt, for permission to visit the royal French court at Chinon. Baudricourt's sarcastic response did not deter her.[28] She returned the following January and gained support from two of Baudricourt's soldiers: Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy.[29] According to Jean de Metz, she told him that "I must be at the King's side... there will be no help (for the kingdom) if not from me. Although I would rather have remained spinning [wool] at my mother's side... yet must I go and must I do this thing, for my Lord wills that I do so."[30] Under the auspices of Metz and Poulengy, she gained a second meeting, where she made an announcement about a military reversal near Orléans several days before messengers arrived to report it.[31]Given the distance of the battle's location, Baudricourt felt Joan could only have known about the French defeat by Divine revelation, and this convinced him to take her seriously.
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