La Gallerie des Femmes

1665

De Beer Fb 1665 L

Paris: Compagnie des Marchands Libraires du Palais

Joan of Arc (1412-1431), seen here under the title La Pucelle d’Orléans (‘The Virgin of Orléans’), experienced visions of saints from a young age. These compelled her to fervently support Charles VII’s bid for the crown during the Hundred Years’ War against England. Be it through military prowess or divine right, Joan claimed victory for the French at the siege of Orléans. Two years later, aged 19, she was captured by the English and burnt at the stake under the contrived conviction of ‘cross-dressing’. In the posthumous retrial of 1456, she was declared innocent. Joan was canonised as a patron saint of France in 1920.