Joan of Arc - A History

When I was growing up, my older brother was captivated by Joan of Arc.  I can remember reading children's books about her, and if I'm not mistaken, even a Classics Illustrated comic book version of her story.  But I must admit, until I read Helen Castor's Joan of Arc - A History (#497), I never really had a good grasp of how or why her fate befell her. 

Ms. Castor has done an excellent job of explaining who was fighting whom in France, and how Joan herself played her role and was played in return.  The book itself is divided into three sections.  The first section begins at the end of the day of the Battle of Agincourt, fourteen years before Joan makes her appearance.  The politics and the enmities and the alliances are all concisely laid out so that the modern reader can make sense of the political situation in France, England and the rest of Europe at that time.  As key players died and their successors struggled for power in the ensuing years, France was a battleground.  Joan was sent to Charles, the Dauphin, at a crucial moment in his quest for the throne.  The second section of Ms. Castor's book deals with this period of her rapid ascent into a popular figure with the people, and her early, seemingly miraculous, victories over the English and Burgundians.  It wasn't long before the English put a price on her head, and after her capture their Catholic allies prosecuted Joan as a heretic and unnatural woman for wearing men's clothing.  She became a political pawn of the enemy until she was executed by them.  The third section of Joan of Arc deals with the aftermath of Joan's trial and execution, and her subsequent reinstatement as a national icon just as World War I was about to consume Europe.

If you are looking for a hagiography with rapturous descriptions of her three heavenly visitors, this is not the book for you.  If you want to read an interesting and thought-provoking analysis of Joan of Arc's place in history, and the extraordinary role she played in shaping modern Europe you won't be disappointed.