Joan d'Arc
“Wow,” was the collective gasp from the MarieClaire.com team when Zendaya stepped onto the red carpet at the Met Gala 2018. "Oh, my god, I'm in love", claimed Chloe Metzger. Zendaya Was Literally Joan d’Arc at the Met Gala and gorgeous she was (check it out here https://www.marieclaire.com/beauty/a20271733/zendaya-met-gala-2018-joan-of-arc/)
Who was Joan d’Arc? Despite having been beatified and today France’s patroness, she is the ultimate example of how far men’s perfidy and treachery can go.
She was born in the village of Domrémy, France in 1412 by the time of the English invasion during the War of the 100 Years (1337-1453). The daughter of relatively wealthy peasants, she was red-headed, religious and illiterate as usual at those times. Around the age of thirteen, he said he heard voices from Archangel Michael, from Saint Catherine of Alexandria and from Saint Margaret of Antioch; today she would have been admitted to the mad hospital, but at that time they took the holy visions seriously and the voices gave her four missions: to end the English siege at Orleans; to lead the new king to be crowned, according to the traditions, at Rheims; to expel the invaders from Paris; and liberate the duke of Orleans, cousin of the monarch.
It is important to frame Joan in her historical context. In 1328, the French king Carlos IV died without leaving heir. The English, being relatives closer to the last kings of the dynasty of the direct Capetian, that dominated France since 987, considered themselves legitimate heirs. Thus, they declared war on their cousins to conquer the French throne. In 1422, the French king Carlos VI died - and a good part of the country was already under British dominion and the new king, Carlos VII, still had not been crowned. It was under these circumstances that using shrewdness and feminine willpower she managed to open the doors of the castle to be heard by the prince in the castle of Chinon. She was questioned by royal counselors and theologians and had her virginity checked by midwives (virgin from men’s cocks I would say, giggles). The lords cherished the sincerity of the girl's faith, who then received from the king a sword, a banner written with the words "Jesus-Mary", and though she was not knighted, she joined the French soldiers bound for Orleans.
Joan fought alongside the French soldiers on several battlefields: bastille of Saint-Loup, tower of Augustins, tower of Tourelles, Jargeau and Patay. The fame of the warrior spread to cities like Gien, Mézilles, Auzerre and Saint Paul from where she marched to Reims, where Carlos VII was crowned the day 17 of July of 1429.
Joan was able to fulfill her first two goals. The third mission was to free Paris, which did not happen. Joan was wounded, her page killed, and French forces were defeated by the English in September 1429. Months later Joan was arrested by a bourgeois squire and sold to the King of England for £ 10,000.
More than 100 judges and experts participated in Joan's trial for witchcraft. Among them, only seven Englishmen - all the others were French. The interrogation lasted a month. Two (debatable) points condemned the reverse: the voices, which would come from the devil in the interpretation of the magistrates; and the stubborn use of men's clothing, unacceptable to a lady of the time. Convicted, Joan was burned alive at age 19, on May 30, 1431.
Four years later, the French nobility reconciled and turned the course of the war, which ended in 1453. Carlos VII had the case reviewed and negotiated with the Church, for he could not have his victory associated with a heretic. In 1455, Pope Callisto III accepted the request for revision of the d'Arc family, and in 1456, the conviction was annulled. In 1920, the maiden was canonized. Joana is since 1922 the patroness of France.
