The Maid and the Dauphin

Jeanne d'Arc, the Maid of Domrémy

You are Jeanne, called Jehanne in your village dialect, the daughter of Jacques d'Arc, a farmer in Domrémy on the border of Lorraine. When you were thirteen, you heard voices in your father's garden — Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, Saint Margaret. They told you that you were chosen by God to drive the English from France and crown the Dauphin at Reims. For four years you told no one. Then the voices became insistent and you went to the garrison commander at Vaucouleurs, Robert de Baudricourt. He laughed at you. You went back. He laughed again. The third time, you told him the French had lost a battle at Rouvray before the news had arrived — and when the messenger came confirming it, Baudricourt stopped laughing. He gave you a horse, a sword, and an escort of six men. You cut your hair, dressed as a man, and rode eleven days through English-held territory to reach Chinon. Now you stand in the courtyard of the castle, covered in road mud, and the guards are deciding whether to let you in.

France is dying. The English and their Burgundian allies control Paris and everything north of the Loire. The Dauphin Charles — technically king since his father's death but uncrowned — hides at Chinon Castle in the Loire Valley, surrounded by scheming advisors who profit from his weakness. Orléans, the last major city loyal to Charles, is under English siege and will fall within weeks. Into this desperate court rides a seventeen-year-old peasant girl from Domrémy who claims that the voices of Saints Michael, Catherine, and Margaret have commanded her to lift the siege of Orléans and crown Charles at Reims. She has no military training, no political connections, and no reason to be believed. She has only absolute, unshakeable conviction — and something in her eyes that makes hardened soldiers uneasy.