In the Middle Ages, Britain and France fought for the throne. This protracted battle lasted in 116 (1337-1453), which was later called the "Hundred Years' War". At the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, France was defeated despite its superiority in numbers of troops, losing many towns in the north. Queen Isabeau of France signed the Treaty of Troyes, recognizing that Henry V of England and his heirs would inherit the French royal family, which was tantamount to depriving Crown Prince Charles of the right to inherit. Britain's power reached its peak, and France was in danger of extinction. The irony is that King Henry V of England did not survive the defeated general Charles VI. As soon as charles the old king died, Charles VII immediately tore up the contract and refused to accept it.
Medieval Europe was still in the era of cold weapons, and the army was mainly cavalry and infantry. The British longbowmen were god-like beings in Europe, with soldiers with high arms; bows and arrows with cast iron tips, a range of more than 300 meters, and could penetrate the cuirassiers of cavalry. The French grabbed the British soldiers and often cut off their middle and index fingers first. When the British army fought with the French, it would provocatively measure its middle finger, which means "there is a kind of you to cut my middle finger."
The French army was dominated by cavalry, with heavy cavalry having but not many. At that time, wars were organized by the nobility (who bought weapons at their own expense), and it was common for people to be distracted (at that time, there were two major factions of the French nobility: the Burgundians and the Amanjac. When the British army invaded, the Burgundians instinctively chose to cooperate with the British army to protect themselves, and charles VII could only rely on the Amanoacs.
But in the face of the high morale of the British army, Charles VII had no chance of winning, and the French army was surrounded in Orleans. If this fortress is lost, there is a risk that southern France will fall, and the final battle of France will be staged... A miracle has happened! The most legendary heroine in French history is born! Joan of Arc, a 17-year-old girl, rode a white horse and stepped on a colorful cloud to save the king.
Fame rises
Jeanne d'Arc, whose real name was Jeanne d'Arc, was born in 1412 in a rural village called Champagne-Domrémy near the northeastern French city of Champagne. Joan of Arc had three older brothers and an older sister, her parents owned about 50 acres of land, ran a farm, and her father was a leading figure in a local village. Although Joan of Arc jr. had no worries about food and clothing, the village was also devastated by the war. Like most villagers, Joan of Arc was a devout Catholic.
In 1424, Joan of Arc encountered the first miracle, and a voice in her ear told her to drive out the English and lead the crown prince to Reims for the coronation. In December 1428, Joan of Arc heard the news of the siege of Orleans, believing that this was the moment to fulfill her mission. Joan of Arc asked her relative Durand Lassois to take her to a nearby garrison, explain her intentions to the military commander of the fortress, and was blasted out.
In January of the following year, Joan of Arc, accompanied by two soldiers who supported her, went again. After successfully predicting the defeat of the French army near Orléans, the generals began to pay attention and introduced Joan of Arc to the crown prince. Joan of Arc cut her hair short, changed into the clothes of a servant, and dressed as a man, crossed enemy territory and arrived in Chinon on 23 February 1429 to meet crown prince Charles. Joan of Arc, whom she had never met, recognized at a glance, in order to test her Charlie who had mixed with the nobility. Joan of Arc asked Charles to send an army to her command to relieve the siege of Orleans.
At the crucial moment, the absurdity of handing over the army to the command of an illiterate peasant girl immediately aroused the dissatisfaction of the government and the public, not only the veterans with rich military experience, but also Charles's mother-in-law, duchess d'Anjou, began to wonder whether Joan of Arc had seduced the crown prince and arranged for doctors to examine Joan of Arc's virginity to prove her loyalty to God.
After receiving his approval, Joan of Arc was given a suit of armor, a flag embroidered with the names of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, a painting (depicting the holy face of the Father, two gods kneeling with lilies), an entourage, and a small army. On 29 April 1429, Joan of Arc arrived in Orléans to join the French army led by Marshal Jean de Brosse. Joan of Arc brought supplies that gave Orleans, who had run out of ammunition, regain hope. Joan of Arc cut off her long hair and put on white armor, as if a divine angel had descended on earth, and she aroused the morale of the army and ignited the patriotism of the originally negative and pessimistic soldiers.
In terms of the ability to actually fight and kill the enemy, Joan of Arc is certainly inferior to Mulan, but in terms of courage, she is not inferior to the latter. Joan of Arc often bravely rushed to the front line, observing the situation and being able to make bold and wise decisions. Joan of Arc's banner is her signboard, and many people are willing to follow her when they see this banner. After nine days of a series of battles, Joan of Arc, who had no experience in military command, actually broke through Orleans, which had been surrounded by the British army for 209 days, and then Joan of Arc took advantage of the victory to pursue and expand the results of the battle.
After a series of victories, both the British and the French believed that the next goal would be to liberate the capital, Paris. Surprisingly, Joan of Arc persuaded Charles VII, who had long since established himself as king, to be crowned at Reims, the coronation of the kings of France. Joan of Arc arrogantly refused, and King Charles VII gave him the title of nobility, with only one request: "exemption from taxes in the village of Don Remy".
Joan of Arc was not the supreme commander officially appointed by the King of France, but her past experience made her the face of the whole of France. Joan of Arc had the right to object to military plans made by nobles larger than her, and soldiers and civilians were more willing to listen to her dispatches. The king was so jealous that Joan of Arc was so powerful that he could not control it, and began to isolate Joan of Arc.
In August 1429, Joan of Arc met the main English army led by the Duke of Bedford and drew a draw. In September, she was wounded in the leg in the rush to attack Paris, but still insisted on commanding the battle, and the King and the nobles demanded that Joan of Arc withdraw her troops. In May 1430, during a battle in Compiègne, Joan of Arc was at the end in order to ensure a complete retreat of the troops. However, out of fear of the ensuing enemy, the defenders withdrew the drawbridge outside the city gates before all their troops could enter the city, and Joan of Arc and some of the soldiers became prisoners of the Duchy of Burgundy after a brief revolt.
According to the custom of treating prisoners of war at that time, as long as a certain ransom was paid, the family of the prisoner could pay the ransom for replacement. But apparently the Burgundians did not want to spare the big fish in this way, and King Charles VII of France was accused of not doing his best, and in the end Joan of Arc was sold to his sworn enemy England for ten thousand livres.
Joan of Arc was taken to Rouen, in the Inquisition under the control of the English authorities, and sentenced her to burn at the stake for "dressing as a man" and "seducing the public with witchcraft". The French say that Joan of Arc is the messenger of the virgin God, and the English say that Joan of Arc is a lascivious slut, a witch who deceives the masses. Under pressure in various ways, the illiterate Joan of Arc signed a copy, a public rejection book that she could not understand at all. On 30 May 1431, joan of Arc, who was only nineteen years old, was tied to a stake and publicly executed. Before his execution, Joan of Arc shouted a famous phrase that has been passed down to this day: "For the sake of France, I regard death as a homecoming!" "The English burned Joan of Arc to ashes, fearing that it would not be clean, and burned it again. To avoid anyone burying her, the British threw the remaining ashes into the Seine. Four years after Joan of Arc's death, Charles VII and King Philip III, the "good man", reconciled, and the two sides were brothers and sisters again.
Afterlife
Joan of Arc died, but the enthusiasm of the French to expel the British army continued. The national consciousness of the French people was awakened, and the people spontaneously organized rebel armies, and the French, which had a population of three or four times that of Britain, won successive victories. Paris was recaptured, Rouen was recaptured, even the king belonged to England for a hundred or two hundred years, the conqueror William I's hometown of Normandy, and Henry II's wife's family of Aquitaine were all recaptured. By 1453, all the lost lands of France had been recovered on the entire European continent except for the port of Calais, and the Hundred Years' War between England and France was completely over. Britain lost all its territory on the European continent, and it was difficult to cross the English Channel to intervene in the affairs of other countries, and finally "withdrew from Europe".
More than 20 years later, the English army was completely expelled from France. Joan of Arc's elderly mother, who finally persuaded Pope Calixte III, to retry Joan of Arc's case. In 1456, the Holy See revoked Joan of Arc's sentence. In 1920, Pope Benedictus PP. XV) canonized Joan of Arc as a saint. The High Court of Justice in Paris stipulates that the second Sunday of May every year is the National Day of Joan of Arc. From the French Emperor Louis XIII to Napoleon, and even to the Vichy government in France during World War II, and even the leader of the Resistance Movement, General de Gaulle, will interpret Joan of Arc from different angles and sell his political ideas by the way. In the 21st century, when English is spoken all over the world, France is still proud to be the European country with the worst Level of English.
For the next 400 years, Joan of Arc became a semi-legendary character. No medieval figure, male or female, could be studied as widely as Joan of Arc, and many famous artists left works on the subject of Joan of Arc for future generations. With the exception of Shakespeare's association of joan of Arc with sensuality and evil in Henry VI, subsequent works all depict Joan of Arc positively from different angles, including the French writer La Pucelle d'Orléans of Voltaire, the German playwright Die Jungfrau von Orleans, the Italian composer Giovanna d'Arco of Verdi, and the Russian musician Tchaikovsky's Орлеанская дева, american novelist Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, etc., have all written works about Joan of Arc, and a large number of films, plays, and music based on her have continued to develop to this day.
Joan of Arc was born in the low tide of France, at a poetic age, created great miracles, awakened a sleepy nation, dragged France back from the line of life and death, and is the well-deserved Goddess of Liberty in the hearts of the French people. The days of heroes are over, but the stories of heroes will continue to be passed on.
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