Joan was born January 6, 1412 to a peasant family in Domremy, a small town near Vaucouleurs, the last town in the east still loyal to Charles VII. As long as I lived at home, she said at her trial in 1431, I worked at common tasks about the house, going but seldom afield with our sheep and other cattle. I learned to sew and spin: I fear no woman in Rouen at sewing and spinning.
Some time in 1425 Joan began to have visions: When I was thirteen, I had a voice from God to help me govern myself. The voice was that of St. Michael, who, with St. Catherine and St. Margaret, told me of the pitiful state of France, and told me that I must go to succor the King of France. Joan twice went to Robert de Baudricourt, the captain of Vaucouleurs, asking for an escort to Charles VII at Chinon. The third time she was granted an escort, and she set out in February 1429, arriving 11 days later at Chinon. She was immediately examined for orthodoxy and two days later was allowed to see the King.
A contemporary described her: This Maid ... has a virile bearing, speaks little, shows an admirable prudence in all her words. She has a pretty, womans voice, eats little, drinks very little wine; she enjoys riding a horse and takes pleasure in fine arms, greatly likes the company of noble fighting men, detests numerous assemblies and meetings, readily sheds copious tears, has a cheerful face... Joan appears to have been robust, with dark brown hair, and, as one historian succinctly remarked, in the excitement which raised her up from earth to heaven, she retained her solid common sense and a clear sense of reality. She was also persuasive. In April 1429 Charles VII sent her to Orleans as captain of a troop of men--not as leader of all his forces. With the Duke dAlencon and Jean, the Bastard of Orleans , Joan relieved the city, thus removing the greatest immediate threat to Charles and for the first time in his reign allowing him a military triumph.
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