Joan of Arc - Biography and Historiography

Between history and myth, Joan of Arc is a key figure in the history of France, although its role in the events of the Hundred Years War was ultimately secondary, at least compared to Charles VII, the real winner of the English long after the death of the Maid. His myth is maintained since the end of the stake in lots of theories more or less reasonable, credible, its origins, its supporters, or even the reality of his death. Besides a huge bibliography (which overrides all other major figures of the Middle Ages, Charlemagne and St. Louis included), the story of Joan of Arc has given birth to many different interpretations and recoveries, and that since the fifteenth century , to this day. It therefore seems more interesting, after returning quickly to his biography, classical historiographical interest in his fate.

A biography of Jeanne d'Arc

If we stick to what is most serious historians agree, Jeanne was born January 6, 1412 (although other dates have also advanced), to Domremy, a village dependent Vaucouleurs, so close of the Empire. From a family of laborers relatively affluent, well-known pious very young Joan hears voices in his first 1425. St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret, revered in the country of Bar, urge him to go to Charles VII to help "end" the English out of France.

At the time, the prophets and prophetesses abound, but Charles VII finally agreed to receive it in March 1429. On the advice of the Duke of Alencon, who believes in the divine mission of Jeanne, he ordered a double examination of the girl: Medical (pou see if it is blank as she claims), and theology (beliefs are they orthodox?). Jeanne passes both tests. Although it does not seem to have totally given in to messianism very willful of the Virgin, the King listened to him and agrees to send the siege of Orleans. Jeanne would have predicted a victory, as the coronation of Charles and the resumption of Paris. The siege of Orleans is actually lifted May 8, 1429, despite the "tactical" Jeanne unorthodox doubtful that leave some French captains. Other victories followed, as the battle of Patay (June 18, 1429) and Joan persuades the king to cross the land of the enemy Burgundy to go to be crowned at Reims. This was done July 17, 1429.

Then things get complicated for Jane. His failure to Paris, where she is injured, undermines the reality of his prophecies, and Charles VII turns away from it gradually, influenced by Georges de la Trémoille. While Jeanne and her family ennobled late in 1429, she soon inherit more than minor missions, and finally is sent to Compiègne in May 1430. On 23, she falls into a trap, and finally sold to the English. After a highly political trial led by Pierre Cauchon, Joan of Arc was burned alive for heresy, idolatry and relapse, May 30, 1431. Charles VII was never really tried to recover it. The ashes of the Maid are scattered in the Seine to prevent a cult. It failed.

A myth now?

A special feature of Joan of Arc is that it sparked the passions of his life. Indeed, it is on one side celebrated by Jean Gerson and Christine de Pisan, and the other accused of being a witch by the English (the Duke of Bedford in the lead) and the Burgundians. It is named "the whore of the Armagnacs" (Robert Baudricourt, captain of his castle-home, is Armagnac party).

The British quickly realized the potential symbolism of the Maid, and that is why they do not hesitate to buy it to Jean de Luxembourg, and send it to Rouen, the capital of occupied France. The fact of believing in a religious trial, as he is above all a political trial is intended for the same logic, in addition to the myth Jeanne hit the legitimacy of his sovereign, Charles VII. But this trial, like the scattering of ashes, do not prevent the myth to grow, however. The absence of body is the perfect excuse to the thesis of Joan alive after that fateful May 30, 1431, so three false Jeanne appeared between 1436 and 1460, and it seems to be enough today to attest to certain its "no death" in Rouen ...

The King knows full benefit of the myth of the one that brought his coronation, and then built its legitimacy. He ordered a trial of rehabilitation in the year 1450, and manages to put the episode Jeanne in a war against a foreign state, broke with the theme of civil war Armagnacs / Burgundians, reconciliation between the two parties act to have been Treaty of Arras (1435). But if Jeanne is still celebrated by Francois Villon or in the Mysteries (a theatrical genre) to the late fifteenth century, the death of Charles VII's slowly falling into oblivion. And in modern times is not the ideal time to celebrate a medieval prophetess ...

Joan of Arc, "silly" and "pious deceit"

Of course, a time Jeanne is recovered in the sixteenth century by the Leaguers, but its image is deteriorating with the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and more, periods unkind with all that is "medieval."

For Du Bellay, it is only an instrument of the court, while Gerard of Hailsham is up to question her chastity. The most violent, however the philosophers of the Enlightenment, so Voltaire sees in it a "miserable idiot", both victims of the King and the Church, while Montesquieu sees that "pious deceit." It must be done until the nineteenth century that Jeanne back, not the odor of sanctity, but as popular icon.

A popular Republican icon

The myth of Jeanne resurfaced with renewed historiography of the nineteenth century Romanticism and the much more open to medieval themes and "Gothic" is Enlightenment.

The most characteristic is obviously Jules Michelet, who in 1856 wrote in his inimitable style: "let us remember always, the French, that in our country was born of a woman's heart, his love and his tears , the blood she shed for us. " Joan of Arc, the people, both simple and bold. The Maid is then one of the most powerful tools in the construction of myth and romance of national Republicans. The prophetess become an icon secular, who would have thought?

Joan of Arc Holy

It is a disciple of Michelet, Jules Quicherat, indirectly pushing the Church to reclaim Jeanne. Indeed, anti-clerical historian, he rediscovers the primary sources and publishes in the decade 1840. In his preface, Quicherat "charge" King Charles VII, who was accused of having abandoned the young woman, just as the Church accomplice. Has not been burnt for heresy? Two Catholic historians are trying to get Joan, drawing on the work of the German Guido Gorres (The Maid of Orleans, 1834). First Henri Wallon, who in 1860 published his Joan of Arc. He stressed the piety of the young woman, but at the same time concedes that it has been abandoned, for him, Joan was a saint and a martyr. Wallon will contact Monsignor Dupanloup that work for the canonization of the Maid. Bishop of Orleans, Felix Dupanloup acts in a context of de-Christianization and crisis of faith, he knows that the Church needs strong symbols. In 1869 he formally claimed the canonization in a eulogy in honor of the Maid.

The political context of the second half of the nineteenth century was also instrumental in the recovery of Joan of Arc by Catholics, even if it is still a popular icon and Republican. The first turning point occurs in 1878, on the anniversary of the centenary of Voltaire. He who was so despised that "silly" of Jeanne, and more broadly the Church is obviously hated by Catholics. In response to the celebration of the philosopher, the duchess called the women of France to lay wreaths at the foot of the statue of Joan of Arc, instead of the Pyramids. Anticlerical Republicans do not intend to abandon the Republican icon and call for an against-event. Finally, none of all, both banned by the prefecture. But this is the first milestone of this reappropriation of Jeanne by Catholics, especially the fundamentalists. Others followed, during the crisis Boulangist 1880s, then during the Dreyfus Affair (1898), who sees the emergence of a national law, too, wants his Jeanne. The final and decisive phase is the reaction of the pope: he agreed to reopen his case in 1894 and Joan of Arc was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920. The Maid was (finally?) Recovered by the Catholics, and even more by the nationalist right and the extreme right.

J Eanne national heroine of Arc

The twentieth century, and for now the twenty-first century, are a Jeanne gradually abandoned by the Republic, and celebrated by nationalists and the far right. The Maid is embedded in a mixture of nationalism, anti-parliamentarism, royalist and Catholic fundamentalism, laced with anti-Semitism. To the far right, Jeanne is the mythical figure that contrasts the Jew, especially after the Dreyfus affair. It must be one that saves the order and tradition, but also the army. In 1939, a postcard celebrating the 500th anniversary of the liberation of Orleans is hit a "Joan of Arc against the Jews." Obviously, the Vichy regime also appropriated the icon.

The late '40s seem to see a return to the bosom of Joan Republican De Gaulle as the PC's celebrate a time after the war. But the effect fades, and it was not until the 1980s that the Maid reappears as a national symbol, especially nationalist, when Jean-Marie Le Pen decided to celebrate again in 1988. However, even if the left protests, the character of Joan of Arc is gradually becoming a secondary figure in the history of France, it barely mentions in school curricula, and even historians do not tear more really about it.

Joan of Arc was a myth in his lifetime and has since been the issue of religious and political recovery, which did not facilitate the work of historians. It is therefore difficult to know who was really Joan, but it now seems clear that its role was secondary to the events of the Hundred Years War. In fact after she took a real importance. Even if it triggers less passion than before, more or less far-fetched theories that come out regularly about it clearly shown that there is always some public interest. And commemoration of 600 years of its birth in the election year of 2012 could revive things.

Bibliography

- B. Bove, the time of the Hundred Years War (1328-1453), Belin, 2010.

- G. Faces, the Hundred Years War, Tempus, 2008.

- C. Gauvard, France during the Middle Ages from the fifth to the fifteenth century, PUF, 2001.

To go further:

- C. Beaune, Joan of Arc, truths and legends , Tempus, 2012.