Joan of Arc was born in Domremy, Champagne,.
of five children born to Jacques d" Arc, who, though.
any other, taught by her mother the skills a woman.
needed, but untroubled with book-learning; remark-.
able only for early and intense love of prayer, which.
did not prevent her playing the usual children's .
games round the village "fairy tryee". She grew up.
against the chaotic background of the wars between.
France and the English and Burgundian alliance, .
and though Domremy lay alongside Burgundian.
territory it had always been loyal to the French.
When she was about thirteen there came the first of.
those experiences which she was afterwards to call.
her voices; to begin with, it was a voice, but later,.
presences manifested themselves who she knew to.
be St. Michael, St. Margaret and St. Catherine. Like.
St. Teresa of Avila, she was reluctant to talk of these.
things. Little by little her apparently preposterous.
mission was defined, and by May 1428 she was .
fully persuaded that she must now act in the king's.
affairs, and that, initially, this meant tackling Robert.
Baudricourt, who commanded at Vaucouleurs .
nearby. Her reception was coldly hostile, and he.
sent her home packing to her father, suggesting a .
whipping of good measure.
God's Calling to Jeanne d" Arc .
During the Hundred Years" War, when the English.
were about to capture Orleans, the "voices".
exhorted her to help the Dauphin, later Charles VII,.
king of France. Charles, because of both internal.
strife and the English claim to the throne of France,.
had not yet been crowned king. Joan succeeded in .
convincing him that she had a divine mission to save.
France. A board of theologians approved her claims,.
and she was given troops to command. Dressed in.
armor and carrying a white banner that represented.
God blessing the French royal emblem, the fleur-de-.
lis, she led the French to a decisive victory over the.
English. At the subsequent coronation of the Dauphin.
In the cathedral at Reims, she was given the place of.
