CHAPTER 1
A Hundred Years of War
Joan of Arc was born in the village of Domrémy, France. It is believed that her birthday is January 6, 1412, but there is no official record. Her family called her Jehanne, but she eventually came to be known by the English form of her name: Joan. Joan’s father was Jacques d’Arc. Her mother was named Isabelle. Joan had three older brothers, Jacquemin, Jean, and Pierre, and a sister, Catherine.
As a girl in Domrémy, Joan was taught to sew and spin wool into yarn. Joan, her brothers, and her sister carried water from the village well to the house, and they helped care for the family’s cattle and sheep. Like many of the other children in the village, she never learned to read or write. She dressed like an ordinary country girl of the time, in a simple dark red dress.
In the woods outside her village stood an old beech tree that was said to have once been the meeting spot for a fairy and the man she loved. Villagers called it the fairy tree. In springtime, boys and girls hung flowers there and danced. They said the stream nearby was magic and could cure illness.
Whatever magic beliefs there were in Domrémy, the official religion was Roman Catholic—the people were Christians. Joan was a good Catholic. She prayed every day and went to church every Sunday.
Life in Domrémy should have been peaceful, but the country was torn apart by war. In 1420, when Joan was eight, the French king, Charles VI, signed an agreement with England’s King Henry V. It said that Henry’s son—who was Charles’s grandson—would rule both France and England. Many French people felt betrayed by the treaty. They did not want an English king—even one who was part French—to rule them. They believed their true king was Charles VI’s own son Charles, whom they called the dauphin (say: doe-FAN). But not all French people liked the dauphin. Some wanted to be ruled by the English king. When Charles VI died in 1422, everyone fought over who was the true king.
Growing up, Joan saw many boys from Domrémy fight with boys from the neighboring towns over who should win the war and who should rule France.
One day in 1425, thirteen-year-old Joan was working in her family’s garden. She heard someone speak her name. When she turned to see who it was, she saw only a bright light. Joan was terrified! She ran away. Not long after, the voice returned. By the third time she heard the voice, Joan was certain who it was: It was an angel. It was Michael, the archangel, who led God’s armies in heaven. Saint Michael was considered to be the guardian angel of Domrémy.
In Joan’s time, most people believed in angels. Visions from God did not seem so extraordinary. Joan didn’t think she was imagining things. The archangel Michael continued to visit her. He told her to be a good girl, to go to church, and to obey her parents. Joan did her best. Soon the spirit of Saint Michael was joined by two others: Saint Margaret of Antioch and Saint Catherine of Alexandria.
When Joan was sixteen, the saints told her something new. She was destined to help the dauphin become king. Joan was stunned. How could she, a young girl, expect to help the prince of France? How could she win back his kingdom from an invading army? It seemed impossible. But Joan had strong faith. She believed in her visions. And she believed that with God’s help, anything was possible.
The first problem was to figure out a way to meet the prince. She knew her parents would not let her leave home by herself. But as she said later, “Since God had commanded me to go, I must do it. And since God had commanded it, had I had a hundred fathers and a hundred mothers, I would have gone.” She had never even been very far outside her own village. Joan was not sure how she was going to do it, but she was determined to save France.