![]() ![]() ![]() Driven from her home by heavenly voices, this adolescent, illiterate girl had succeeded in persuading France’s disinherited heir, the Dauphin Charles, to believe that she had been sent by God to save France from its English yoke. This was the culmination of a miraculous four-day battle in which Joan had effortlessly lifted a six-month siege imposed on Orléans by the usurping English. Then the English turned in retreat, leaving Joan and her troops in command of the city. For an hour the armies paused, immobile, outfacing each other in a battle of nerves. Around her, the French soldiers were eager to advance but she restrained them. She was on horseback, in full armour, her hair shorn like a boy’s, and she was the unlikely commander of several thousand men. O n, a 17-year-old French peasant girl sat facing the English army north of Orléans. ![]()
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