Joan of Arc in Battle
Joan of Arc is known in two different senses around the world.
She is the saint who heard the voice of God that told her she
would lead the French to victory, and she is the young woman who
led men across the battlefield with a leadership that few seemed
to have matched in the following 550 years since her death.
Joan of Arc in battle and her leadership there have taken on
near legendary status. Through the wars and warriors that were
involved with Joan of Arc, she has become an icon of the terrible
time known as the One Hundred Years War. When Joan of Arc
was in battle, she defied the cautious strategy that was well-known
in the leadership of the French. During the siege of Orleans,
there was only one attempted move on the castle, which ended horribly.
However, when Joan of Arc came along, she attacked and captured
the fortresses of Saint Loup and Saint Jean le Blanc. She continued
to defy the war council and took fortress after fortress during
the siege of Orleans.
Her legendary status as a leader was cemented when she took an
arrow to the neck, but returned wounded to lead her troops in
the final charge. For her troops, involved with wars and warriors,
Joan of Arc was a true leader in battle. With that type of leadership,
she was able to get near super-human results from her troops,
which led to her victories.
After her victory at Orleans, there were many ideas for where
to attack next, and the English assumed she would attempt an attack
on Paris or Normandy. Naturally, she did not go the way everyone
thought she would and she persuaded Charles VII to grant her co-command
of the army to take over Reims. This was an unbelievable proposal
because the city was deep in enemy territory and twice as far
away as Paris. She would eventually take Reims and everything
in between, making her a well-known force and making the English
fear Joan of Arc in battle.
In battle, she wore men’s clothing and the armour of a
knight when Joan of Arc was in battle. The reason for this was
that she wanted to keep from being molested by male troops while
camped in the field, thereby preserving her chastity. On top of
that, she could command more respect from the men by dressing
as one of them because they would be less likely to think of her
as a ‘delicate’ woman or sex object as a result.
No matter what she wore, or how she cut her hair, Joan of Arc
in battle made the names Joan of Arc and Hundred Years War intertwined.
She was brave beyond that of most warriors in her army and she
had the respect of all the men who served under her. In
fact, if you summed up Joan of Arc in battle into two words, they
would be leadership and bravery. Not bad for a girl barely into
her teens.
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