1 00:00:09,700 --> 00:00:12,000 On the 8th May 1429, 2 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,480 the town of Orleans in France erupted in celebration. 3 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:21,000 For seven long months, it had been under siege by the English, 4 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:25,200 but now, after just four days of fighting, 5 00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:27,560 the town had been liberated 6 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:32,600 and the people of Orleans knew they had witnessed a miracle. 7 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:41,160 The speed of their liberation was astonishing enough, 8 00:00:41,160 --> 00:00:46,160 but what confirmed it as a miracle was the identity of their liberator. 9 00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:54,320 Her name was Joan. 10 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:58,600 She was a truly extraordinary figure - a female warrior 11 00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:01,200 in an age that believed women couldn't fight, 12 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:02,280 let alone lead an army. 13 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:05,880 Take care what you do, for in truth, 14 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:09,240 I am sent by God and you put yourself in great danger. 15 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:15,800 These are Joan's own words, recorded in a contemporary manuscript. 16 00:01:15,800 --> 00:01:18,200 Six centuries after her death, 17 00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:22,000 her words transport us back into her life and times. 18 00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:28,520 To understand Joan's story, we need to explore a world 19 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:30,920 where God and the Devil are real. 20 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:33,720 Today, we're more aware than we've been, perhaps for centuries, 21 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:36,800 of the power of faith to drive people 22 00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:40,440 to do extraordinary things for good or ill. 23 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:44,720 And in a world where God's will is at work, anything is possible. 24 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:02,360 # Tu dis que tu es mon juge 25 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:04,560 # Mais je ne te crois pas 26 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:09,040 # Alors tu dis que je suis une sainte 27 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:11,480 # Mais ce n'est pas moi 28 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:13,200 # J'entends des voix... # 29 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:16,680 Over the centuries, Joan has become an icon to almost everyone - 30 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:20,400 to the left and the right, to Catholics and Protestants, 31 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:23,360 traditionalists and feminists. 32 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:24,920 # Joan of Arc 33 00:02:24,920 --> 00:02:26,640 # Jeanne d'Arc, ah-ooh 34 00:02:26,640 --> 00:02:29,760 # Tell the boys their time is through 35 00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:31,800 # Joan of Arc 36 00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:33,400 # Jeanne d'Arc, ah-ooh... # 37 00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:36,800 She's captured the imagination of novelists, playwrights, 38 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:41,760 artists and musicians and her fame has spread all over the world, 39 00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:44,240 taking her from France to Hollywood. 40 00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:46,200 # Joan of Arc 41 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:47,560 # Jeanne d'Arc, ah-ooh 42 00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:51,280 # Tell the boys I'll follow you 43 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:52,520 # I'll follow you... # 44 00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:55,600 I've been studying the medieval world for almost 30 years 45 00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:59,480 and I feel pretty confident in saying she's had more pop songs written about her 46 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:01,440 than anyone else from the Middle Ages. 47 00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:07,000 But for all the images of Joan that have been created since her death, 48 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,200 only one picture of her survives which was made in her own lifetime. 49 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:16,760 And it's here - a drawing, almost a doodle, 50 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:19,800 in the margin of the records of the Paris parliament. 51 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:24,360 It shows what a remarkable and troubling figure Joan was. 52 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:26,480 The clerk knew that the army at Orleans 53 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:31,400 had a young woman with them, who was carrying a banner and a sword. 54 00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:33,520 But he'd never seen her. 55 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:36,920 Either he didn't yet know or couldn't quite believe 56 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:41,760 that Joan actually, shockingly, had short hair and wore mail armour. 57 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:46,680 Instead, he's made her look as a woman should, with long hair, 58 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:48,560 modestly wearing a dress. 59 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:56,520 But while there's only this one faint image of Joan, 60 00:03:56,520 --> 00:04:00,600 unusually for anyone in the Middle Ages, let alone a lowborn woman, 61 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:04,640 a great deal was written about her by her contemporaries. 62 00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:07,920 Even more importantly, her own words have reached us 63 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:12,280 through the centuries with an astonishing strength and clarity. 64 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:15,880 And one of the most remarkable and revealing documents of all 65 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:20,280 is the transcript of Joan's trial for heresy in 1431. 66 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:27,040 This is the most detailed record 67 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:29,000 that survives from any medieval trial 68 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:32,800 and through it, we can hear Joan's own voice. 69 00:04:33,920 --> 00:04:38,960 Here, she describes the first time she heard a message from God 70 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:41,400 when she was just 13 years old. 71 00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:51,640 At first, I was very afraid. 72 00:04:51,640 --> 00:04:55,360 The voice came at midday in the summertime in my father's garden. 73 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:00,720 The voice came from the right-hand side towards the church 74 00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:03,200 and I seldom hear it without a light. 75 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:06,200 The light comes from the same side as the voice, 76 00:05:06,200 --> 00:05:08,720 but all around, there is a great light. 77 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:10,720 It seemed to me to be a worthy voice 78 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:13,000 and I believe it was a voice sent from God. 79 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:18,080 Once I heard the voice three times, I knew it was the voice of an angel. 80 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:27,560 We might ask, "Was Joan mad or ill?" 81 00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:29,720 But for the people of the Middle Ages, 82 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:32,000 the issues were entirely different. 83 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:37,000 They knew that angels and demons DID communicate with people of completely sound mind. 84 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:41,920 The problem wasn't how to explain Joan hearing voices that weren't there. 85 00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:43,360 The problem was how to tell 86 00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:46,720 whether the voices came to her from God or the Devil. 87 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:53,920 Joan received her first vision 88 00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:56,640 when she was living with her family in Domremy, 89 00:05:56,640 --> 00:05:58,800 a small village in the east of France. 90 00:05:59,920 --> 00:06:02,280 But the France that Joan was born into 91 00:06:02,280 --> 00:06:04,200 wasn't nearly as peaceful as it looks now. 92 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:07,200 It was a country torn apart by war. 93 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:12,400 For generations, England and France had been fighting 94 00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:14,920 in what we call the Hundred Years' War. 95 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:17,520 Land, including the countryside where Joan lived, 96 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:19,880 was fought over by the two sides. 97 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:23,640 And the English even claimed the crown of France. 98 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:28,760 During Joan's childhood, France was very much on the back foot. 99 00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:31,800 In 1415, when she was three, 100 00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:35,040 the French suffered a dreadful defeat at the hands of Henry V 101 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:37,520 on the battlefield of Agincourt. 102 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:41,600 The French army vastly outnumbered the English, 103 00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:44,520 but as the flower of the French nobility advanced, 104 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:48,360 they were mown down by a barrage of English arrows. 105 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:52,880 History has attributed the English victory at Agincourt 106 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:54,480 to the supremacy of their archers, 107 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:57,760 but at the time, the French saw it differently. 108 00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:02,880 For the people who were there, 109 00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:07,600 the explanation for this astounding victory was the will of God. 110 00:07:07,600 --> 00:07:10,560 Henry claimed that God was on the English side, 111 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:12,800 but the French knew that couldn't be right. 112 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:15,920 So how were they to explain this bloody defeat? 113 00:07:15,920 --> 00:07:19,640 Perhaps it was God's punishment for their sins 114 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:22,800 because France was convulsed in civil war. 115 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:26,600 The old king, Charles VI, was mad and incapable of ruling. 116 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:30,080 Two factions, known as the Burgundians and the Armagnacs, 117 00:07:30,080 --> 00:07:32,680 were fighting for control of his government. 118 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:39,560 In the medieval world, everything came down to God. 119 00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:41,040 Whose side was he on? 120 00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:44,360 Just five years after Agincourt, 121 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:46,160 France was so bitterly divided 122 00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:48,800 that the Burgundians were prepared to believe 123 00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:52,440 that God did back the English and made an alliance with them. 124 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:55,680 But Joan and her family supported the Armagnacs, 125 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:58,440 led by the French king's son, the Dauphin, 126 00:07:58,440 --> 00:08:00,440 and believed God was with them. 127 00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:05,160 And so the civil war went on. 128 00:08:05,160 --> 00:08:07,520 For eight years, defeat followed defeat 129 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:11,320 until the Dauphin and his Armagnac supporters were pushed back, 130 00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:13,800 south of the great curve of the River Loire. 131 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:18,320 For Joan, as for the rest of the people of France, 132 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:21,440 the war was a frightening reality. 133 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:24,240 Her home, Domremy, was an Armagnac village 134 00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:27,240 surrounded by English and Burgundian territory. 135 00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:33,440 At one point, the village was attacked by enemy soldiers 136 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:37,840 and Joan, her family and friends had to take refuge for a few days in a nearby town. 137 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:42,760 So, perhaps it's no surprise that when Joan began to hear voices, 138 00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:46,960 they talked about the war. They said she must go to the Dauphin. 139 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:48,440 He would give her an army 140 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:51,160 and then she must drive the English out of France 141 00:08:51,160 --> 00:08:53,800 and lead the Dauphin to his coronation. 142 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:07,720 Joan wasn't unique in claiming to hear heavenly voices. 143 00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:10,920 She wasn't the only person in 15th-century France 144 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:13,000 who came forward with a message from God. 145 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:17,520 What was remarkable was what Joan's voice was telling her to do - 146 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:19,880 to fight and to lead. 147 00:09:21,680 --> 00:09:24,160 This was an impossible proposition. 148 00:09:24,160 --> 00:09:27,200 Joan was young, she was poor and she was female. 149 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:29,640 And to put her mission into action, 150 00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:31,680 she had to reach the Dauphin 151 00:09:31,680 --> 00:09:33,920 across more than 250 miles of enemy territory. 152 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:37,280 Surely, it couldn't be done? 153 00:09:40,400 --> 00:09:44,000 At some point during 1428, Joan managed to reach here, 154 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:45,360 the town of Vaucouleurs, 155 00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:47,760 a little more than ten miles north of Domremy, 156 00:09:47,760 --> 00:09:51,640 which housed the nearest garrison loyal to the Dauphin. 157 00:09:51,640 --> 00:09:54,800 But its captain sent her away with a flea in her ear. 158 00:09:54,800 --> 00:09:57,240 "The girl was clearly a fantasist. 159 00:09:57,240 --> 00:10:00,880 "Her family," he said, "should take her home and give her a few slaps." 160 00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:06,400 But Joan wouldn't give up. 161 00:10:06,400 --> 00:10:08,040 Word of her mission began to spread 162 00:10:08,040 --> 00:10:12,040 and when she came back to Vaucouleurs in February 1429, 163 00:10:12,040 --> 00:10:15,920 the captain agreed to send her to the Dauphin's court. 164 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:23,440 What had happened to change his mind? 165 00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:26,160 The evidence isn't at all clear. 166 00:10:26,160 --> 00:10:28,520 When Joan eventually set off from Vaucouleurs, 167 00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:32,640 the people here gave her a horse and an outfit of men's clothes 168 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:35,200 to keep her safe on her dangerous journey. 169 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:37,400 Clearly, THEY believed in her. 170 00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:41,480 But that wouldn't be enough to secure access to the Dauphin himself. 171 00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:44,960 We can't be sure exactly what happened, 172 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:47,440 but there is one more clue. 173 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:50,960 One of the six men who were given the job of escorting Joan 174 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:53,680 was a messenger from the Dauphin's court. 175 00:10:53,680 --> 00:10:56,760 It seems that someone there had heard of Joan's claims 176 00:10:56,760 --> 00:10:59,560 and now the Dauphin wanted to hear more. 177 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:03,840 Like all medieval leaders, 178 00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:07,320 the Dauphin knew that his authority was bestowed on him by God. 179 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:10,400 He went to Mass twice a day 180 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:14,240 and looked for signs of God's will in the world around him, 181 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:16,080 wherever they came from. 182 00:11:16,080 --> 00:11:18,680 The truth is the Dauphin was also desperate 183 00:11:18,680 --> 00:11:21,160 and it had to be said that by now, anything, 184 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:24,200 even the ravings of a peasant girl, was worth a try. 185 00:11:29,760 --> 00:11:34,080 As Joan set out on her perilous journey to the Dauphin's court in Chinon, 186 00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:37,200 the situation for the Armagnacs was getting worse. 187 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:40,600 For five months, the English had been besieging Orleans, 188 00:11:40,600 --> 00:11:45,400 a key Armagnac stronghold on the River Loire. 189 00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:49,000 If Orleans fell, the Dauphin's lands in the south of the kingdom 190 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:51,000 would lie open to English attack. 191 00:11:52,720 --> 00:11:55,520 On the 12th of February, 1429, 192 00:11:55,520 --> 00:11:59,360 a skirmish between the two sides ended in a massacre. 193 00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:03,440 More than 400 of the Dauphin's soldiers died that day. 194 00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:06,240 The English casualties numbered just four. 195 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:11,600 The Dauphin was here in his fortress at Chinon 196 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:14,400 when he heard the terrible news. 197 00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:18,000 He redoubled his prayers, but the siege went on. 198 00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:32,920 And then, just 11 days after the massacre, 199 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:36,960 a little band of six armed men, dusty from the road, 200 00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:40,200 arrived here at his great castle of Chinon. 201 00:12:41,560 --> 00:12:46,560 With them rode a girl dressed as a boy, her dark hair cut short. 202 00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:49,720 She'd come, she said, with a message from God. 203 00:12:54,320 --> 00:12:57,640 Amid the luxury and ceremony of the Armagnac court, 204 00:12:57,640 --> 00:13:02,600 this village girl dressed as a boy was an extraordinary sight 205 00:13:02,760 --> 00:13:05,960 and her message was as startling as the girl herself. 206 00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:08,240 If the Dauphin would give her an army, 207 00:13:08,240 --> 00:13:11,400 she would save his kingdom and bring him his crown. 208 00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:16,200 But the Dauphin had a problem. 209 00:13:16,200 --> 00:13:21,240 Her words were intoxicating and terrifying at the same time. 210 00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:28,320 his kingdom of France would be lost for ever. 211 00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:30,520 But if he rejected a true prophet, 212 00:13:30,520 --> 00:13:33,320 the result would be equally disastrous. 213 00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:35,760 Could Joan really have been sent by God? 214 00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:43,280 How to tell whether visions came from God or the Devil 215 00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:45,800 was a hot topic of theological debate. 216 00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:54,600 The greatest contemporary French theologian, 217 00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:56,240 a man called Jean Gerson, 218 00:13:56,240 --> 00:13:59,120 had even written a book on the subject. 219 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:03,760 This is a 15th-century copy 220 00:14:03,760 --> 00:14:06,560 of Gerson's work De Probatione Spirituum - 221 00:14:06,560 --> 00:14:09,520 "On The Proving Of Spirits". 222 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:12,880 It's a kind of manual to guide investigators through the process 223 00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:17,440 of establishing whether visions might truly have come from God. 224 00:14:17,440 --> 00:14:19,680 It offers a helpful Latin check list 225 00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:22,800 which sets out the basics of the examination. 226 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:27,440 "Ask who, what, why, to whom, what kind, whence" - 227 00:14:27,440 --> 00:14:30,440 in other words, ask what the nature of the vision shows 228 00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:32,440 about where they might come from 229 00:14:32,440 --> 00:14:35,440 and what the nature of the person having the vision 230 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:38,000 suggests about how authentic they might be. 231 00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:47,320 So, 17-year-old Joan was questioned for three weeks 232 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:50,400 by the best theologians Armagnac France could muster. 233 00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:56,240 From the outset, Joan deeply troubled these men. 234 00:14:57,400 --> 00:14:59,560 Her message was shocking enough. 235 00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:03,040 She dared to say that she had been sent to make war on the English, 236 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:06,680 despite the fact that God hadn't made women to be soldiers. 237 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:11,000 But what's more, she wore men's clothes 238 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:14,320 and the Old Testament said that a woman in men's clothing 239 00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:16,560 was "an abomination unto the Lord". 240 00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:21,080 But one person who doesn't seem to have been anxious, 241 00:15:21,080 --> 00:15:24,560 remarkably enough, was Joan herself. 242 00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:27,960 Here she was, an uneducated village girl, on her own, 243 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:29,960 hundreds of miles from home, 244 00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:33,560 being questioned for weeks by courtiers and clerics. 245 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:37,520 It should have been a profoundly intimidating situation. 246 00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:41,240 But in all the contemporary accounts of what Joan did and said, 247 00:15:41,240 --> 00:15:44,000 there's no sign of fear or doubt. 248 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:47,520 The essence of her message was, "God has sent me. 249 00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:50,720 "I know what I need to do. Let me go and do it." 250 00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:54,360 And it was Joan's certainty 251 00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:57,040 that offered a way out of the problem she posed. 252 00:15:58,200 --> 00:16:01,080 The theologians could find no fault with her conduct, 253 00:16:01,080 --> 00:16:03,120 but they needed a sign, they said, 254 00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:07,840 to prove that her voices truly came from Heaven. 255 00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:10,040 They asked how she would carry out her promise 256 00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:13,280 to take the Dauphin to be crowned at the ancient cathedral of Reims, 257 00:16:13,280 --> 00:16:16,800 given that the besieged town of Orleans lay directly in the way. 258 00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:20,040 Joan's answer was simple. 259 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:22,280 She would raise the siege herself. 260 00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:32,040 Suddenly, for the Dauphin 261 00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:36,520 and his court at the great fortress of Chinon, everything was clear. 262 00:16:36,520 --> 00:16:39,040 Orleans would be a test of Joan's mission. 263 00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:43,840 If she succeeded, it would be a sign from God 264 00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:45,920 that everything she claimed was true. 265 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:50,440 If she failed, Orleans would still be under siege, 266 00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:53,480 just as it was now and the Dauphin would know for sure 267 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:56,280 that her promises were nothing but a delusion. 268 00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:01,240 And so, the theologians reached their verdict. 269 00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:02,560 The Dauphin, they said, 270 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:05,680 should not prevent her from going to Orleans with his soldiers, 271 00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:09,120 but should have her escorted there honourably, 272 00:17:09,120 --> 00:17:11,000 placing his faith in God. 273 00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:14,640 And now that the decision had been made, 274 00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:18,640 preparations for the task ahead began in earnest. 275 00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:23,480 There were soldiers to muster and supplies to collect. 276 00:17:23,480 --> 00:17:26,080 Clerks scoured the archives for prophecies 277 00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:28,240 that might foretell Joan's coming 278 00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:32,560 and Joan herself asked the Dauphin to send to the nearby town of Fierbois 279 00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:37,280 for a sword that she said lay hidden there in the Church of St Catherine. 280 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:40,000 Sure enough, and to everyone's amazement, 281 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:42,520 the sword was found where she predicted. 282 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:48,240 The symbolism was lost on no-one. 283 00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:52,840 Christian warriors, from King Arthur to Charlemagne, carried holy swords 284 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:57,080 and this one appropriately came to Joan from St Catherine, 285 00:17:57,080 --> 00:17:59,760 the patron saint of young virgins. 286 00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:04,600 How did Joan know where the sword was? 287 00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:09,640 She said her voices had told her so was this her first miracle? 288 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:12,160 Well, that's one way of reading the evidence. 289 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:15,960 On the other hand, she had stopped in Fierbois on her way here 290 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:18,680 and St Catherine's Church was a place where, over the years, 291 00:18:18,680 --> 00:18:22,280 soldiers had left many offerings, including their swords. 292 00:18:22,280 --> 00:18:26,400 But however Joan had come to know about this sword in particular, 293 00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:29,760 the point was that Joan herself and her supporters 294 00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:33,000 believed it was miraculous proof of her mission. 295 00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:46,040 The Dauphin ordered a fine suit of armour 296 00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:48,400 to be specially made for her slender frame 297 00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:51,480 and a banner for her to carry into battle, 298 00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:52,920 made of shining white silk 299 00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:56,840 with a painted Christ flanked on either side by angels. 300 00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:01,200 During these weeks of preparation, 301 00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:05,760 Joan had a chance to practise riding a horse among soldiers, 302 00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:07,200 to get used to her armour 303 00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:10,160 and to find out more about the war she had come to fight. 304 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:16,120 But she was no less impatient than when she'd first arrived at Chinon 305 00:19:16,120 --> 00:19:19,240 and now she sent her first challenge to the English. 306 00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:26,280 The challenge came in the form of a letter. 307 00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:29,280 Joan couldn't write so she dictated it to a clerk 308 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:33,320 and its text survives here in the transcript of her trial. 309 00:19:33,320 --> 00:19:36,440 Joan's fearlessness is unmistakable. 310 00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:39,320 The village girl from Domremy speaks for God 311 00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:43,120 so she has no hesitation in addressing the King of England, 312 00:19:43,120 --> 00:19:44,600 "le Roi d'Angleterre". 313 00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:50,200 Restore to the maid who is sent here by God, the King of Heaven, 314 00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:54,960 the keys to the fine towns that you have taken and violated in France. 315 00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:57,280 King of England, if you do not do this, 316 00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:01,000 I am the military leader and wherever I find your men in France, 317 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:04,040 I will make them leave, whether they want to or not. 318 00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:07,640 And if they do not obey, I will have them killed. 319 00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:20,520 With her challenge dispatched, Joan and her military convoy 320 00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:24,000 set off along the River Loire towards Orleans. 321 00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:29,920 On the 26th of April, Joan approached the town itself 322 00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:31,480 and for the first time, 323 00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:35,320 the English army at Orleans set eyes on the teenage girl in armour. 324 00:20:39,280 --> 00:20:43,640 To the English, a girl in men's clothes riding among soldiers 325 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:47,160 could only be a whore and a sign of the Dauphin's desperation. 326 00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:50,560 But to the people of besieged Orleans, 327 00:20:50,560 --> 00:20:53,480 she was a saviour come to rescue them. 328 00:20:56,640 --> 00:20:58,480 The English had too few troops 329 00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:01,120 to enforce a total blockade around Orleans 330 00:21:01,120 --> 00:21:04,280 and Joan was able to slip into the town on the eastern side. 331 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:09,840 She was welcomed "like an angel from God," one of the townsmen said 332 00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:12,440 and delirious crowds reached out to touch her 333 00:21:12,440 --> 00:21:14,440 as she rode through the streets. 334 00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:18,320 But while Joan smiled at the hopeful crowds, 335 00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:22,040 privately she was incandescent with fury. 336 00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:26,680 She wanted to attack the English, 337 00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:30,960 but the Dauphin was still so unsure of what form her miracle might take 338 00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:34,520 that he'd ordered her soldiers back to their base. 339 00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:37,480 So, she found herself inside the besieged town 340 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:40,560 with no army to break the siege as she'd promised. 341 00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:46,000 Joan was left kicking her heels, 342 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:48,920 climbing the town walls to shout to the English 343 00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:51,120 that they should surrender to God. 344 00:21:51,120 --> 00:21:52,920 All she got in return was abuse. 345 00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:55,520 Did she really think, they jeered, 346 00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:58,560 that they should give themselves up to a woman and her pimps? 347 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:03,320 The Dauphin's captain was in a fix. 348 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:06,400 The people of the town expected Joan to save them, 349 00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:09,200 but without an army, she could do nothing. 350 00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:10,920 So, he slipped out of the town 351 00:22:10,920 --> 00:22:14,280 and rode to the Dauphin to beg him to send the soldiers back. 352 00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:20,480 It took him four days, but his argument was irrefutable. 353 00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:22,240 How could God send a sign 354 00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:25,400 if Joan had no way of putting her mission to the test? 355 00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:31,440 By the fourth of May, Joan had her soldiers 356 00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:33,800 and at last, the battle for Orleans could begin. 357 00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:48,960 Joan led her men from the front, 358 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:52,240 carrying her banner and urging them on. 359 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:54,640 Medieval warfare was brutal and bloody 360 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:58,920 and for the first time, she saw death in battle at first hand. 361 00:23:02,560 --> 00:23:05,640 That night, her mood was sombre and the next day, 362 00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:09,800 she wrote again to the English enemy, demanding their surrender. 363 00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:12,520 She attached the letter to an arrow 364 00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:15,040 and had it fired into the English camp. 365 00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:16,400 When it dropped to the ground, 366 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:19,000 the shouts could be heard in the distance. 367 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:20,840 "News from the Armagnac whore!" 368 00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:28,480 But for all the abuse they hurled her way, 369 00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:31,840 after two more days of fighting, the English were rattled 370 00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:36,160 and finally, on the 7th of May, their day of reckoning had come. 371 00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:40,240 The decisive battle of Orleans was fought here, 372 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:43,520 where the English held a fortified tower known as the Tourelles. 373 00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:51,680 If Joan could take the Tourelles, 374 00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:53,680 the English hold on Orleans would be broken. 375 00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:58,640 Once again, Joan was up at dawn. 376 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:01,680 She said her prayers and then led her men into battle. 377 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:06,360 English missiles rained down from the ramparts 378 00:24:06,360 --> 00:24:09,760 as the Armagnac soldiers hurled themselves into the fight. 379 00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:17,360 Hours passed, but still Joan urged them on 380 00:24:17,360 --> 00:24:21,080 until an arrow caught her between the neck and shoulder. 381 00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:24,560 As they saw her staggering and bloodied, the Armagnacs faltered. 382 00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:28,000 Was this the moment when God would disown the Maid? 383 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:30,440 But a flesh wound couldn't stop Joan's mission. 384 00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:31,920 She brandished her banner 385 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:34,920 and pressed forward into the ditch at the foot of the tower. 386 00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:40,640 As her soldiers followed her into the attack, 387 00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:42,560 sudden fear gripped the English. 388 00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:47,200 Their captain lost his footing and toppled fully armed into the river. 389 00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:52,440 As he drowned, panic spread among his men 390 00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:56,400 and by sundown, Joan had won a famous victory. 391 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:01,120 After seven months of siege, 392 00:25:01,120 --> 00:25:04,920 the Maid had freed Orleans in just four days. 393 00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:07,240 Who could doubt Joan now? 394 00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:10,960 This was proof that God intended her to pursue her mission 395 00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:13,560 and as she and the Dauphin's other captains 396 00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:16,920 prepared to drive the English from the Valley of the Loire, 397 00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:19,520 news of her miracle began to spread. 398 00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:29,640 Just three days after the battle, 399 00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:33,040 an Italian merchant in Bruges wrote to tell his father in Venice 400 00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:37,360 what this maiden shepherdess had done. "It seems," he said, 401 00:25:37,360 --> 00:25:41,520 "that she may be another St Catherine come down to earth." 402 00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:53,760 In February, she had been a simple village girl. 403 00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:57,120 Now it was June and a young nobleman who met her 404 00:25:57,120 --> 00:26:01,760 was dazzled by her charisma, by the presence of one sent by God. 405 00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:05,800 "It seemed to me a gift from Heaven that she was there," he said, 406 00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:08,280 "and that I was seeing and hearing her." 407 00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:15,600 And Joan's determination to pursue her mission was stronger than ever. 408 00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:19,600 Orleans had been her test and victory her sign. 409 00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:23,080 Now came her true purpose - to crown the Dauphin 410 00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:25,760 and to drive the English out of France for ever. 411 00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:32,320 For centuries, French kings had been crowned 412 00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:34,240 in the great cathedral at Reims 413 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:37,720 and Joan was determined to see her Dauphin crowned there, too. 414 00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:44,000 But Reims lay more than 100 miles north-east of Orleans, 415 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:47,200 in the heart of English and Burgundian France. 416 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:50,480 It had been years since the Dauphin had even thought 417 00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:52,320 of riding to war in person. 418 00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:56,120 Now, the Maid was going to take him deep into enemy territory. 419 00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:06,120 Joan and the Dauphin rode at the head of the biggest army he could muster 420 00:27:06,120 --> 00:27:09,200 and the combination of thousands of soldiers, 421 00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:14,200 with Joan's implacable will driving them on, proved irresistible. 422 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:22,080 Joan's momentum was unstoppable. 423 00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:24,760 Some towns held out for a few days, 424 00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:27,160 others opened their gates straightaway. 425 00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:31,640 On the 16th of July, 1429, 426 00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:35,600 just two and a half weeks after leaving the Loire Valley, 427 00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:39,600 Joan, the Dauphin and the Armagnac army arrived in Reims. 428 00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:43,960 At last, the Dauphin could be crowned 429 00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:46,120 as the Most Christian King of France. 430 00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:50,640 Here in the cathedral in Reims was kept a flask of holy oil 431 00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:54,480 that had been sent from Heaven to France's first Christian king 432 00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:56,520 almost 1,000 years before. 433 00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:00,560 Every French king since then had been anointed with it 434 00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:03,560 during the sacred ritual of his coronation 435 00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:06,400 and now the Dauphin would be no exception. 436 00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:13,280 CHOIR SINGS 437 00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:23,680 A coronation would usually take weeks of preparation, 438 00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:26,120 but there was no time to lose. 439 00:28:26,120 --> 00:28:29,160 The Dauphin's servants worked through the night 440 00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:31,920 and at nine the very next morning, 441 00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:35,760 he entered this sacred space to receive his crown from God. 442 00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:00,080 Just four months earlier, 443 00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:03,240 the Armagnac cause had been at its lowest ebb. 444 00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:04,960 Now, the Dauphin had been anointed 445 00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:08,680 and crowned as King Charles VII of France. 446 00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:11,000 And beside him stood Joan the Maid, 447 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,400 in her shining armour with her banner in her hand. 448 00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:17,200 When the ceremony was over, she knelt at his feet. 449 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:21,360 "Noble king," she said, "God's will is done." 450 00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,280 BELLS RING 451 00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:34,680 It was a triumph, but Joan's mission was far from finished. 452 00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:40,240 Joan wanted to drive the English out of France for ever. 453 00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:42,920 To do this, she needed to unite the country 454 00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:45,120 under the newly-crowned king. 455 00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:48,640 And France was still divided by civil war. 456 00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:51,640 The Burgundians, under the Duke of Burgundy, 457 00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:55,200 looked to the King of England as their sovereign. 458 00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:57,800 So, Joan wrote to the Duke to ask him 459 00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:01,600 to acknowledge her king as the rightful King of France. 460 00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:04,920 I bring you word from the King of Heaven that you will win 461 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:07,320 no battle against loyal Frenchmen, 462 00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:10,600 and all those who wage war against the holy Kingdom of France 463 00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:14,720 wage war against King Jesus, the King of Heaven and the whole world. 464 00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:17,360 Know surely that no matter how many men you bring against us, 465 00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:19,280 they will win nothing at all, 466 00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:22,480 and great sorrow will be the result of the great battle. 467 00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:29,000 The Duke of Burgundy didn't deign to respond to this presumptuous letter. 468 00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:32,360 Any change in his position would be on his own terms, 469 00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:34,080 not those of a peasant girl. 470 00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:39,000 As for Joan's king, he was in a stronger position 471 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:42,000 than he could have dreamed of just a year earlier, 472 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:45,680 and, behind-the-scenes, courtiers from both sides were beginning 473 00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:47,440 to make diplomatic overtures. 474 00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:51,920 But Joan had no interest in compromise. 475 00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:54,160 She was doing God's work 476 00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:57,320 and the mission he'd given her was not yet complete. 477 00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:05,120 With all the certainty of faith and youth - 478 00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:07,040 she was still only 17 - 479 00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:09,800 she saw the world in black and white. 480 00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:12,720 If the Duke of Burgundy would not submit to her king, 481 00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:14,960 he'd find her ready to fight. 482 00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:18,240 The kingdom's capital remained in Burgundian hands. 483 00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:20,520 It was time for another miracle. 484 00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:24,320 Just as Joan had taken Orleans, now she would take Paris. 485 00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:33,040 Reluctantly, Joan's king agreed to give her the chance, 486 00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:36,560 but Paris was a very different challenge from Orleans. 487 00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:40,480 It was the most heavily fortified city west of Constantinople. 488 00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:48,040 This is one of the few remaining sections 489 00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:50,960 of the massive walls that surrounded Paris. 490 00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:54,720 There were fortified towers and gun placements on top of the walls, 491 00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:58,680 which lay behind an immense ditch that encircled the whole city. 492 00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:03,120 And it was defended by English soldiers 493 00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:07,560 and native Parisians, who hated the Armagnac whore every bit as much 494 00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:11,480 as the people of Orleans had welcomed her as a delivering angel. 495 00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:17,240 But Joan didn't hesitate. 496 00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:22,000 As always, her strategy was simple - attack in the name of God. 497 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:25,440 And the day of the assault could only be a good omen - 498 00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:29,920 8th September, the holy feast day of the Nativity Of The Virgin. 499 00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:38,240 As at Orleans, she led the way into the great ditch, 500 00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:41,320 brandishing her banner while a storm of arrows and stones 501 00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:43,280 rained down from above. 502 00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:50,640 After hours of brutal fighting, 503 00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:54,600 Joan called urgently to the enemy soldiers on the walls above. 504 00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:58,920 Surrender quickly in the name of Jesus, 505 00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:01,280 for if you do not surrender before nightfall 506 00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:03,880 we will come in there by force, whether you like it or not. 507 00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:06,760 And you will be put to death without mercy. 508 00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:10,880 "Shall we, you bloody tart?" 509 00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:15,120 came the response, and a crossbow bolt ripped through her thigh. 510 00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:21,960 Joan staggered and fell. 511 00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:25,800 Her standard bearer took an arrow in the face and died beside her. 512 00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:29,440 She didn't stop shouting for her soldiers to continue the attack, 513 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:31,880 even when the trumpet sounded the retreat 514 00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:35,680 and she was carried, bleeding, from the field of battle. 515 00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:39,000 Joan wanted to continue the fight, to attack the next day, 516 00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:41,400 but her king wouldn't allow it. 517 00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:45,720 He'd given her just one day to take the great city of Paris. 518 00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:49,520 It was an impossible task, but this had been her chance, 519 00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:51,240 and she'd failed. 520 00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:53,200 She was distraught. 521 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:57,320 How could she, how could anyone, understand what had happened? 522 00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:12,720 Was this a sign that God had abandoned the Armagnac cause? 523 00:34:12,720 --> 00:34:15,720 For Joan's king that was unthinkable. 524 00:34:15,720 --> 00:34:18,880 It was far more likely that God had abandoned Joan. 525 00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:23,880 Heaven's help had brought triumph at Orleans and Reims, 526 00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:27,800 perhaps now God expected the King to help himself. 527 00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:30,160 And if diplomacy was the way forward, 528 00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:34,160 then Joan's determination to fight was fast becoming a liability. 529 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:39,040 By the end of September, a six-month truce was agreed, 530 00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:41,120 a breathing space for the Armagnacs 531 00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:43,800 and the Burgundians and their English allies, 532 00:34:43,800 --> 00:34:46,640 and Joan had little choice but to limp back 533 00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:49,800 to the safety of the Armagnac lands south of the Loire. 534 00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:56,200 After the failure of her attack on Paris 535 00:34:56,200 --> 00:34:59,800 it suddenly becomes hard to trace Joan's movements. 536 00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:03,480 We do know that she was sent on some minor skirmishes but 537 00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:07,040 it seems as though the King didn't quite know what to do with her. 538 00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:09,800 If Joan were no longer performing miracles, 539 00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:13,000 then what place did a woman have in an army? 540 00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:15,880 Perhaps he hoped that the Maid might choose this moment 541 00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:18,120 to retire gracefully from the public stage. 542 00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:23,160 But Joan herself had no doubts, whatever anyone else might think. 543 00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:25,720 Her mission still stood. 544 00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:31,560 And when the truce expired in the spring of 1430 545 00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:36,000 she was ready to fight, wherever she had the chance. 546 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:39,640 In May, news reached Joan that the Duke of Burgundy had attacked 547 00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:42,960 the Armagnac town of Compiegne, north of the capital. 548 00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:47,640 Undeterred by the fact that she no longer had the clear support 549 00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:50,400 of her king or a royal army of thousands, 550 00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:54,520 Joan believed that God still wanted her to complete her mission. 551 00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:58,720 So, she rode here, to Compiegne, with a group of loyal followers. 552 00:36:00,400 --> 00:36:04,840 Joan arrived under cover of darkness on the night of the 22nd May. 553 00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:11,840 The next morning, she called for her banner and gathered her little band 554 00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:14,680 of soldiers to attack the enemy outside the gates. 555 00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:22,320 Joan rode out across the bridge and charged at the Burgundians. 556 00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:26,960 She drove her men on and on, 557 00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:28,960 calling out that God was with them. 558 00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:36,000 But another detachment of enemy soldiers closed in behind her 559 00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:37,720 and cut her off from the bridge. 560 00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:43,160 Surrounded by the enemy, Joan was pulled from her saddle. 561 00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:49,280 Now, she was a prisoner. 562 00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:54,520 This was not how Joan's mission was supposed to end. 563 00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:58,600 And for the Armagnacs, the fault could only lie with Joan herself. 564 00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:02,280 Charles was still the true king, anointed by God, 565 00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:06,080 but Joan, they said, had become too proud and wilful 566 00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:09,120 and so God had allowed her to be taken. 567 00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:12,960 Keeping the Armagnac faith meant abandoning Joan to her fate. 568 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:16,000 But what would that fate be? 569 00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:26,680 The Burgundians and the English wanted Joan 570 00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:30,480 to be discredited for all to see, but deciding what to do with her, 571 00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:34,800 who should try her and on what charges, was no simple matter. 572 00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:38,000 It took months, and for all that time, 573 00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:41,040 Joan was kept in captivity and ignorance. 574 00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:48,240 These were Joan's darkest days. 575 00:37:48,240 --> 00:37:51,400 She knew that God had sent her to save France from the English 576 00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:54,320 and the false French who supported them, 577 00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:59,400 but now God had delivered her into those same enemies, what did it mean? 578 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:02,880 Perhaps God meant her to help herself. 579 00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:04,920 During the long months of her captivity, 580 00:38:04,920 --> 00:38:07,160 Joan tried and failed to escape. 581 00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:09,560 And then, seeing no other way out, 582 00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:12,840 she jumped from the window of the tower in which she was locked. 583 00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:16,720 She survived the fall but her injuries took some time to heal. 584 00:38:16,720 --> 00:38:18,680 And she was still a prisoner. 585 00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:26,160 In December 1430, Joan was taken to Rouen in Normandy, 586 00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:28,640 the capital of English France. 587 00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:32,880 It would be here that she would be tried and her fate decided. 588 00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:37,840 What happened next was carefully written down 589 00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:40,640 and we can follow it all, word for word, 590 00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:42,840 through the transcript of her trial. 591 00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:50,160 Joan's fame was so great that the eyes of the world were on this case. 592 00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:53,960 Joan was put on trial by her enemies 593 00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:56,240 but she wasn't accused of war crimes. 594 00:38:56,240 --> 00:38:58,720 This was a show trial about faith, 595 00:38:58,720 --> 00:39:02,320 a process designed to get at the truth as her enemies saw it, 596 00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:05,160 to demonstrate that God was not on Joan's side. 597 00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:09,280 And for us it's an astonishing source. 598 00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:11,520 Through this unique text, we can trace, 599 00:39:11,520 --> 00:39:14,360 question by question and answer by answer, 600 00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:17,800 the interrogations to which Joan was subjected. 601 00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:20,040 It takes us right into the courtroom. 602 00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:26,040 Her main interrogator was a man named Pierre Cauchon. 603 00:39:27,640 --> 00:39:31,520 He had supported the Burgundian cause since the beginning of the civil war, 604 00:39:31,520 --> 00:39:35,400 and he was a loyal counsellor of the English King of France. 605 00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:41,800 But Cauchon was also a bishop. 606 00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:45,280 For him, this wasn't just a matter of politics, 607 00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:47,560 it was a matter of faith. 608 00:39:50,720 --> 00:39:53,440 Cauchon's faith was as strong as Joan's. 609 00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:56,400 He wanted to prove that Joan was a heretic, 610 00:39:56,400 --> 00:40:00,440 that she'd deviated dangerously from Church doctrine. 611 00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:03,160 And if he could get her to admit her guilt, 612 00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:06,480 he might even save her soul from eternal damnation. 613 00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:13,960 On 21st February, 1431, Cauchon was ready. 614 00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:16,720 At eight that morning, 615 00:40:16,720 --> 00:40:20,480 Joan was brought from her cell to face a panel of judges. 616 00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:23,400 The might of the Church was ranged against her. 617 00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:27,680 Silence fell, and suddenly she was there, 618 00:40:27,680 --> 00:40:30,920 a girl dressed as a boy, with her hair cut short. 619 00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:32,360 42 men of the Church 620 00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:36,000 were gathered there with Cauchon to hear her speak. 621 00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:39,680 She was the only woman in the room, by far the least educated, 622 00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:42,080 and the youngest by years. 623 00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:46,080 But she'd got used to all that since leaving Domremy. 624 00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:49,040 Joan's judges might be ready, but so was she. 625 00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:58,200 And the words they spoke were all recorded in the trial transcript. 626 00:41:01,440 --> 00:41:04,520 Will you swear an oath, touching the holy Gospels, 627 00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:08,080 to tell the truth about the things we ask you that concern the faith 628 00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:10,320 and all other things that you know? 629 00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:12,560 I don't know what you want to question me about. 630 00:41:12,560 --> 00:41:14,760 Perhaps you might ask me things I will not tell you. 631 00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:21,040 For both sides, her revelations from God were the heart of the matter. 632 00:41:21,040 --> 00:41:24,240 Those, she said, she had only ever told her king, 633 00:41:24,240 --> 00:41:26,360 and she wouldn't speak of them now. 634 00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:31,560 Cauchon's first day of questions yielded very little, 635 00:41:31,560 --> 00:41:34,560 and the second day started the same way. 636 00:41:34,560 --> 00:41:37,720 I took an oath for you yesterday, that should be enough. 637 00:41:38,720 --> 00:41:42,240 I advise you to swear, for no-one who is questioned 638 00:41:42,240 --> 00:41:46,080 on a matter of faith, not even a prince, can refuse to take an oath. 639 00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:47,840 You burden me too much. 640 00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:54,800 In the end she swore a limited oath, and the questions started slowly 641 00:41:59,760 --> 00:42:03,160 Often she answered, but sometimes, from one question to the next, 642 00:42:03,160 --> 00:42:05,320 she blankly refused. 643 00:42:06,840 --> 00:42:11,160 Was it well done to attack the city of Paris on a holy feast day? 644 00:42:11,160 --> 00:42:12,160 Move on. 645 00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:17,160 But as the judges wove their web of questions around her, 646 00:42:17,160 --> 00:42:21,320 gradually, little by little, something began to shift. 647 00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:24,480 They wanted to prove that her revelations were false, 648 00:42:24,480 --> 00:42:27,000 but Joan, who was back on the battlefield, 649 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:29,480 even if this was a different kind of war, 650 00:42:29,480 --> 00:42:31,440 wanted to prove that they were true. 651 00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:34,080 So now, despite her protests, 652 00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:36,920 she began to talk about her messages from God. 653 00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:42,040 The voice came at midday in the summertime in my father's garden. 654 00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:45,920 The voice came from my right-hand side towards the church 655 00:42:45,920 --> 00:42:47,560 and I seldom hear it without a light. 656 00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:51,600 The light comes from the same side as the voice, 657 00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:53,920 but all around there is a great light. 658 00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:55,960 It seems to me to be a worthy voice, 659 00:42:55,960 --> 00:42:59,000 and I believe it to be a voice sent from God. 660 00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:04,200 And once she'd begun, the thread was there to be pulled. 661 00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:07,360 Bit by bit, as they asked and asked again, 662 00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:11,400 she began to offer up more details of the voice she heard, 663 00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:15,160 and on the fourth day of the trial, what she said was extraordinary. 664 00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:18,960 Is the voice that speaks to you the voice of an angel 665 00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:22,320 or the voice of a saint? Or does it come directly from God? 666 00:43:23,560 --> 00:43:26,120 It is the voice of St Margaret and St Catherine, 667 00:43:26,120 --> 00:43:28,960 and their forms are crowned in beautiful crowns, 668 00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:31,240 very rich and very precious. 669 00:43:31,240 --> 00:43:34,600 Which was the first voice that came to you when you were 13 or so? 670 00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:38,840 It was St Michael that came before me and he wasn't alone, 671 00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:41,160 but well attended by the angels from heaven. 672 00:43:41,160 --> 00:43:44,720 Did you see said Michael and the angels bodily and really? 673 00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:48,920 I saw them with my bodily eyes, just as I see you. 674 00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:52,800 When they left me I wept and truly wished they had taken me with them. 675 00:43:54,440 --> 00:43:57,880 This was exactly what Cauchon wanted to hear. 676 00:43:57,880 --> 00:44:02,240 The Church accepted that angels and demons could be seen by humans, 677 00:44:02,240 --> 00:44:05,440 but it was a tricky thing to know which was which. 678 00:44:05,440 --> 00:44:08,680 After centuries of debate, the theological principle 679 00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:12,760 accepted by the Church was that an angel was not a physical being 680 00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:17,120 but a spiritual one, so the more real, physical details 681 00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:21,320 Joan described, the more like a demon her vision sounded. 682 00:44:21,320 --> 00:44:25,440 But Joan stood no chance of understanding this scholarly argument, 683 00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:29,480 and as she tried to demonstrate the truth of her visions, by adding 684 00:44:29,480 --> 00:44:33,800 more and more detail, she damned herself in the eyes of her judges. 685 00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:44,600 Cauchon was inching closer to proving that Joan's messages 686 00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:48,440 came from the Devil, not from God. But he wanted more. 687 00:44:49,720 --> 00:44:52,480 It was time for a change of tactics. 688 00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:55,600 For a week, Joan was left to wait in her cell, 689 00:44:55,600 --> 00:44:57,840 alone with her English guards, 690 00:44:57,840 --> 00:45:00,360 her feet chained even when she slept. 691 00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:04,080 Then, there was a knock at the door. 692 00:45:04,080 --> 00:45:08,560 The interrogations would continue, but now the court had come to her. 693 00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:15,840 Cauchon had decided that he would deny her a public stage. 694 00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:18,560 Now, he and a handful of colleagues would crowd her 695 00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:21,600 in the confines of her own prison. 696 00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:25,000 Here, surely, they would make the pressure tell. 697 00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:29,160 Cauchon believed that when Joan first went to her king 698 00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:33,320 she must have given him proof of her Heaven-sent mission. 699 00:45:35,200 --> 00:45:38,880 What sign did you give your king when you came to him? 700 00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:43,840 One that is fair and honourable and most believable and good, 701 00:45:43,840 --> 00:45:46,080 and the riches that there is in the world. 702 00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:48,080 Does the sign still exist? 703 00:45:48,080 --> 00:45:50,400 It will last for 1,000 years and more. 704 00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:52,960 The sign is in my king's treasury. 705 00:45:54,480 --> 00:45:56,120 Is it gold or silver? 706 00:45:56,120 --> 00:45:58,160 Precious stone or a crown? 707 00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:00,840 I will not tell you anything more about it. 708 00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:03,400 No-one can describe a thing as rich as the sign is. 709 00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:09,480 And, in any case, the sign you need is that God will deliver me 710 00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:13,960 from your hands, and it's the most certain one that he can send you. 711 00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:21,120 Joan's words make it heartbreakingly clear that she still believed 712 00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:24,920 that help was coming, that God would perform another miracle 713 00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:27,080 and save her. 714 00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:30,200 But Cauchon knew he was getting closer. 715 00:46:30,200 --> 00:46:32,920 He pushed again on his next visit to her cell 716 00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:34,960 and then again the next day, 717 00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:37,960 and finally, she offered up her story. 718 00:46:39,720 --> 00:46:44,400 She said that when she'd first been at Chinon after Easter in 1429, 719 00:46:44,400 --> 00:46:49,200 an angel had come to bring her king a crown of pure gold. 720 00:46:49,200 --> 00:46:53,000 The angel had walked up the stairs into the King's chamber 721 00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:56,000 with a company of other angels that only Joan could see. 722 00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:58,040 Joan had said to the King, 723 00:46:58,040 --> 00:47:00,920 "Sire, here is your sign, take it." 724 00:47:02,160 --> 00:47:05,360 And this crown from God meant that the Kingdom of France would be 725 00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:09,320 restored to him if he would give Joan soldiers and put her to work. 726 00:47:11,640 --> 00:47:14,880 For Cauchon, this was a breakthrough. 727 00:47:14,880 --> 00:47:17,760 An angel who could physically walk up stairs, 728 00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:20,800 speak to the King's court, and hand over a crown? 729 00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:23,240 This must be the conjuring of the Devil. 730 00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:27,000 This, like her descriptions of her saints, 731 00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:29,840 was a story Joan had never told before. 732 00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:31,560 Why was she telling it now? 733 00:47:33,040 --> 00:47:36,960 Alone under interrogation she needed to vindicate her mission, 734 00:47:36,960 --> 00:47:41,160 to give detailed proof of the truth of what she claimed. 735 00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:45,320 But for Cauchon, the Devil was literally in these details, 736 00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:49,600 and it was the details in the end that proved what the bishop already knew, 737 00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:52,160 that Joan was guilty of heresy. 738 00:47:58,200 --> 00:48:00,760 The punishment for heresy was clear. 739 00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:03,480 She would be burned at the stake. 740 00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:06,920 But there was a chance that Joan might still live. 741 00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:11,000 Cauchon's hardest task lay ahead. 742 00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:13,800 If he could persuade Joan to admit her guilt, 743 00:48:13,800 --> 00:48:17,400 he would save both her life and her immortal soul. 744 00:48:18,720 --> 00:48:22,720 For two weeks, Cauchon tried everything to win Joan round. 745 00:48:22,720 --> 00:48:25,760 Kind persuasion, reason and argument, 746 00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:28,720 and eventually, even the threat of torture. 747 00:48:28,720 --> 00:48:30,880 Joan was led to a room in the castle 748 00:48:30,880 --> 00:48:34,280 where terrible implements were laid out, ready for use. 749 00:48:34,280 --> 00:48:36,800 But Joan was unmoved. 750 00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:41,120 In truth, if you were to have me torn limb from limb 751 00:48:41,120 --> 00:48:44,200 and my soul separated from my body, I wouldn't tell you anything more. 752 00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:46,560 And if I did tell you anything else about it, 753 00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:49,480 afterwards, I would always say that you made me say it by force. 754 00:48:51,720 --> 00:48:54,840 Cauchon knew that Joan meant what she said. 755 00:48:54,840 --> 00:48:57,080 He sent her back to her cell. 756 00:48:57,080 --> 00:48:59,320 Time was running out. 757 00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:03,800 The Church had done its work, but it couldn't take a life. 758 00:49:03,800 --> 00:49:06,920 The sentence would be carried out by the English, 759 00:49:06,920 --> 00:49:09,440 as they were impatient to get on with it. 760 00:49:11,080 --> 00:49:14,440 On the morning of 24th May, 1431, 761 00:49:14,440 --> 00:49:17,280 Joan was brought from her prison in Rouen Castle 762 00:49:17,280 --> 00:49:20,640 to this square in front of the Abbey of Saint-Ouen. 763 00:49:20,640 --> 00:49:23,720 Here, in public, she would be sentenced 764 00:49:23,720 --> 00:49:26,720 and then handed over to the English authorities to be burned. 765 00:49:27,800 --> 00:49:30,280 Everyone would see the fate of a heretic. 766 00:49:35,120 --> 00:49:38,800 The whole of Rouen turned out to watch as Joan was bound 767 00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:43,000 on a tall platform, with the executioner's cart standing by. 768 00:49:44,080 --> 00:49:47,480 A sermon was preached, and once again, Joan was asked 769 00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:50,120 if she would submit to Holy Mother Church. 770 00:49:51,520 --> 00:49:54,560 Joan had been so sure that God would rescue her, 771 00:49:54,560 --> 00:49:57,040 but still help hadn't come. 772 00:49:57,040 --> 00:49:58,640 She needed to buy time. 773 00:49:59,880 --> 00:50:02,160 But there was no more time. 774 00:50:02,160 --> 00:50:04,960 Cauchon began to read the final sentence, 775 00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:08,000 and suddenly Joan raised her voice. 776 00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:10,240 I wish to obey the church of my judges. 777 00:50:11,760 --> 00:50:14,080 The Church says my visions are not to be believed 778 00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:15,480 so I will not uphold them. 779 00:50:17,200 --> 00:50:20,040 I submit to Holy Mother Church, I submit. 780 00:50:26,600 --> 00:50:28,240 There was uproar. 781 00:50:28,240 --> 00:50:30,720 The Maid was recanting. 782 00:50:30,720 --> 00:50:33,880 Cauchon asked if she was ready to confess her sins, 783 00:50:33,880 --> 00:50:36,880 and an official of the court stepped forward with a document 784 00:50:36,880 --> 00:50:40,080 acknowledging her heresy and a pen for her to sign it. 785 00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:42,320 She made her mark on the paper. 786 00:50:43,520 --> 00:50:45,160 It was done. 787 00:50:47,120 --> 00:50:50,120 Now, Cauchon delivered a different sentence. 788 00:50:50,120 --> 00:50:54,520 Joan would live, but she would be kept imprisoned for the rest of her life, 789 00:50:54,520 --> 00:50:57,040 doing penance for the sins she had committed. 790 00:50:58,560 --> 00:51:01,240 Joan was bundled back to her cell. 791 00:51:01,240 --> 00:51:03,360 Her submission was complete. 792 00:51:03,360 --> 00:51:06,400 After more than two years of dressing as a man, 793 00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:09,400 she took off her male clothes and put on a dress 794 00:51:09,400 --> 00:51:12,960 and she bowed her head so that her short hair could be shaved off. 795 00:51:14,640 --> 00:51:17,880 There could be no clearer sign that her mission was over. 796 00:51:19,960 --> 00:51:21,920 Cauchon's work was done. 797 00:51:21,920 --> 00:51:24,200 The Maid's soul was saved, 798 00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:27,520 and now her misguided claims could be safely forgotten. 799 00:51:29,360 --> 00:51:33,400 That should have been it, but there are more pages still to turn. 800 00:51:34,960 --> 00:51:39,880 Here on 28th May, four days after the dramatic events at Saint-Ouen, 801 00:51:39,880 --> 00:51:42,680 Cauchon was called back to the castle. 802 00:51:42,680 --> 00:51:46,080 It says that he found Joan "habitu virili" - 803 00:51:46,080 --> 00:51:48,360 dressed once again as a man 804 00:51:48,360 --> 00:51:51,280 and her state of mind was profoundly disturbed. 805 00:51:51,280 --> 00:51:53,840 Here the bishop questions her again, 806 00:51:53,840 --> 00:51:57,160 but all Joan's calmness and confidence had gone. 807 00:51:57,160 --> 00:52:01,080 Now, her answers are tangled and much harder to follow. 808 00:52:02,640 --> 00:52:05,840 Something had happened in those few days. 809 00:52:05,840 --> 00:52:09,960 Later, witnesses suggested that once she was dressed in women's clothes, 810 00:52:09,960 --> 00:52:12,680 she'd been assaulted or raped in her cell. 811 00:52:13,840 --> 00:52:17,200 But what's clear above all is the overwhelming distress 812 00:52:17,200 --> 00:52:21,240 she felt at having given up on her truth and denied her voices. 813 00:52:22,680 --> 00:52:25,880 And the clerk noted in the margin that what she said next 814 00:52:25,880 --> 00:52:28,720 was the "responsio mortifera" - 815 00:52:28,720 --> 00:52:30,480 her fatal reply. 816 00:52:33,280 --> 00:52:37,160 God has sent me word of the great pity of my betrayal. 817 00:52:37,160 --> 00:52:39,560 I have damned my soul to save my life. 818 00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:43,480 If I had said that God hadn't sent me, 819 00:52:43,480 --> 00:52:46,560 then I would be dammed for I was truly sent by God. 820 00:52:48,160 --> 00:52:52,080 My voices tell me I have done harm by saying what I did is wrong. 821 00:52:54,680 --> 00:52:58,680 Whatever I said and recanted, I did it only through the fear of fire. 822 00:53:01,520 --> 00:53:05,560 This time Cauchon knew there could be no going back. 823 00:53:05,560 --> 00:53:08,080 Joan was a relapsed heretic, 824 00:53:08,080 --> 00:53:10,960 she would be handed over to the English to be burned. 825 00:53:12,120 --> 00:53:14,280 Early in the morning of 30th May, 826 00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:16,480 Cauchon and some of his fellow clerics 827 00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:18,800 visited Joan in her cell for the last time. 828 00:53:20,240 --> 00:53:23,840 Her life was now beyond hope, but perhaps there was still a chance 829 00:53:23,840 --> 00:53:27,560 that her soul could be saved if she would finally tell the truth. 830 00:53:28,720 --> 00:53:32,400 And this record of what Joan said in the last hours of her life 831 00:53:32,400 --> 00:53:34,960 is extraordinarily moving. 832 00:53:34,960 --> 00:53:37,400 All her certainties are gone. 833 00:53:37,400 --> 00:53:39,480 Rescue hasn't come. 834 00:53:39,480 --> 00:53:43,160 She knows she'll die. And yet, telling the truth 835 00:53:43,160 --> 00:53:46,120 means she can't let go of her voices and visions. 836 00:53:54,560 --> 00:53:59,320 Is it true that you heard voices and received apparitions? 837 00:54:00,600 --> 00:54:02,000 Yes. 838 00:54:03,840 --> 00:54:06,960 Whether they were good or evil spirits, they appeared to me. 839 00:54:09,520 --> 00:54:13,400 I heard the voices most of all when the church bells rang in the morning and the evening. 840 00:54:15,080 --> 00:54:17,840 And the apparitions? The angels? 841 00:54:19,280 --> 00:54:22,280 They came in a great multitude of the tiniest things. 842 00:54:23,680 --> 00:54:27,600 What of the angel who gave the one you call your king a crown? 843 00:54:29,280 --> 00:54:30,640 I was the angel. 844 00:54:34,120 --> 00:54:38,360 I promised my king that if he put me to work, I would see him crowned. 845 00:54:48,200 --> 00:54:51,800 Over the centuries, there have been as many ways of reading 846 00:54:51,800 --> 00:54:54,840 Joan's trial as there are people to read it. 847 00:54:54,840 --> 00:54:57,600 It's even been suggested that this last conversation 848 00:54:57,600 --> 00:55:00,400 on the morning of her death was a fabrication, 849 00:55:00,400 --> 00:55:03,120 made up by Cauchon to undermine her message. 850 00:55:04,440 --> 00:55:07,160 But, to me, there's a truthfulness to it. 851 00:55:07,160 --> 00:55:11,280 Joan's story of an angel bringing her king a golden crown 852 00:55:11,280 --> 00:55:15,400 doesn't seem plausible to us, and it didn't to her judges either. 853 00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:19,440 But if Joan was the angel, and the crown, her promise of a coronation, 854 00:55:19,440 --> 00:55:24,280 it makes much more sense, as a way for Joan, alone among her enemies, 855 00:55:24,280 --> 00:55:27,520 to make her mission real in the world. 856 00:55:27,520 --> 00:55:31,560 But Joan's truth and Cauchon's were incompatible. 857 00:55:31,560 --> 00:55:34,000 And that's why Joan had to die. 858 00:55:42,600 --> 00:55:45,880 Joan was brought here to the marketplace in Rouen, 859 00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:47,920 where a pyre had been prepared. 860 00:55:49,440 --> 00:55:52,160 A cap was placed on her head, bearing the words, 861 00:55:52,160 --> 00:55:56,080 "Relapsed heretic, apostate, idolater." 862 00:56:09,320 --> 00:56:12,800 Joan was tied to a stake on a high scaffold 863 00:56:12,800 --> 00:56:14,880 so that everyone could see her burn. 864 00:56:19,080 --> 00:56:20,720 As the flames took hold, 865 00:56:20,720 --> 00:56:23,920 she called the name of Jesus over and over again. 866 00:56:25,400 --> 00:56:28,160 Once she was dead and her clothes had burned away, 867 00:56:28,160 --> 00:56:30,320 the executioner raked back the fire 868 00:56:30,320 --> 00:56:32,600 to show the crowd that she was just a woman. 869 00:56:33,880 --> 00:56:38,320 Then he stoked the flames so there'd be nothing left of her but ashes. 870 00:56:48,360 --> 00:56:50,480 Joan's body was gone. 871 00:56:50,480 --> 00:56:52,840 But her story wouldn't die. 872 00:56:52,840 --> 00:56:55,080 Her belief in her visions 873 00:56:55,080 --> 00:56:58,920 and her extraordinary courage remained an inspiration. 874 00:57:00,560 --> 00:57:04,400 By 1456, just 25 years after her death, 875 00:57:04,400 --> 00:57:06,960 the political tide had turned. 876 00:57:06,960 --> 00:57:10,440 France was reunited under Joan's Armagnac king 877 00:57:10,440 --> 00:57:14,000 and Joan's case was heard in court once again. 878 00:57:14,000 --> 00:57:17,600 This time, Joan was found not guilty of heresy. 879 00:57:19,760 --> 00:57:23,920 Since then, Joan has become a legend, and an icon. 880 00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:27,240 In 1920, she was even made a saint. 881 00:57:29,160 --> 00:57:31,760 Now, she is almost an empty vessel 882 00:57:31,760 --> 00:57:34,280 into which we pour our own preoccupations, 883 00:57:34,280 --> 00:57:36,480 whatever they may be. 884 00:57:38,280 --> 00:57:41,120 But if she becomes all things to all people, 885 00:57:41,120 --> 00:57:43,400 we risk losing the human being. 886 00:57:43,400 --> 00:57:45,880 The girl who burnt in this place 887 00:57:45,880 --> 00:57:50,000 was a ferocious champion of one side in a bloody civil war. 888 00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:52,560 She was able to do what she did, 889 00:57:52,560 --> 00:57:55,800 to achieve what should have been impossible for someone of her class 890 00:57:55,800 --> 00:58:00,040 and sex, because she and all those around her believed 891 00:58:00,040 --> 00:58:02,880 they were fighting a war in which God's will was at work. 892 00:58:04,120 --> 00:58:05,800 And perhaps it's there, 893 00:58:05,800 --> 00:58:08,640 in the possibilities that faith can create, 894 00:58:08,640 --> 00:58:10,840 and in the violence it can bring, 895 00:58:10,840 --> 00:58:15,720 that Joan's world and ours don't seem so very far apart.