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background, Orleans, and Reims
Her story has inspired numerous works of art, notably [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s 1923 play ''Saint Joan'' (considered one of his greatest plays) and Mark Twain's novel ''Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc'' (largely forgotten but believed by Twain to be his best work). Both are sympathetic and admiring depictions. In contrast, in Shakespeare's play ''Henry VI, Part 1,'' the character "Joan La Pucelle" is depicted as she was generally viewed by the English at the time: as a witch and sorceress who was justly executed.
Her story has inspired numerous works of art, notably [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s 1923 play ''Saint Joan'' (considered one of his greatest plays) and Mark Twain's novel ''Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc'' (largely forgotten but believed by Twain to be his best work). Both are sympathetic and admiring depictions. In contrast, in Shakespeare's play ''Henry VI, Part 1,'' the character "Joan La Pucelle" is depicted as she was generally viewed by the English at the time: as a witch and sorceress who was justly executed.
==Background==
Joan stepped onto the stage of world history during the [[Hundred Years' War]] with England at a point in time when French fortunes were at a low ebb. The English and their Burgundian allies had confined the faction of the uncrowned and disinherited King Charles VII (the Dauphin) to southwest France and had laid seige to Orleans, the fall of which would have premitted the English to invade Charles' remaining French territory.
==Siege of Orleans and beyond==
After a hazardous journey from her native Domremy through English held territory, Joan arrived at the court of the Dauphin in Chinon in early March of 1429 bearing her message that God had sent her to aid the French cause by lifting the siege of Orleans and leading the Dauphin to Reims to be coronated. After an inquiry by Churchmen at Poitiers had found nothing of madness or heresy in her, she returned to Chinon and was sent with a French army to attempt to relieve the besieged town of Orleans.
Although the other French military leaders did not, at least at first, hold Joan in high regard, she managed to gain the loyalty of much of the soldiery and pursued, over the objections of the more cautious French commanders, a strategy of aggressively attacking the besiegers. The result was the lifting of the siege of Orleans in early May of 1429 and, within the next month, the clearing of the remaining English held towns in the Loire River valley.
Following these spectacular military successes, Joan then led French forces northwards through English held territory to Reims where Charles was formally coronated.
== Trial ==
== Trial ==