Episode 3: Joan of Arc - The Girl Who Saved France

A teenage girl from a village no one had heard of walks into a royal court and tells the King of France she has been sent by God to save his kingdom.He listens.In the spring of 1429, Joan of Arc arrived at the court of the embattled dauphin Charles with an impossible mission: lift the siege of Orléans, lead him through enemy territory, and deliver him to Reims to be crowned King of France. She was seventeen years old, had no military training, no title, and no right to be in any room she walked into.She did it anyway.This episode tells the full story of Joan of Arc, from her extraordinary journey from Domrémy to the court at Chinon, through the siege of Orléans and the decisive victory at Patay, to the coronation at Reims and the slow betrayal that followed. And it tells the story of what happened when the most powerful legal and theological minds in Europe tried to destroy her, and discovered they couldn't do it honestly.In this episode:The Hundred Years War and how France found itself on the brink of collapseThe University of Paris and why Joan was an ideological threat as much as a military oneWhat it meant to be a woman in fifteenth century France, and what Joan faced before she ever reached a battlefieldThe siege of Orléans and the battle that turned the tide of the warThe victory at Patay: Agincourt in reverseThe march through Burgundian territory and the coronation at ReimsCharles VII: the king she made, and how he repaid herThe capture at Compiègne and whether Joan was betrayedPierre Cauchon and the rigged trial at RouenThe cedula fraud and how they manufactured her downfallThe nullification trial, and the convenient timing of Charles VII's conscienceMusic Gnossiennes No.1 by Erik Satie, performed by Chase Coleman. Recording sourced from IMSLP under Creative Commons licence. Pavane Op.50 by Gabriel Fauré. Recording sourced from IMSLP under Creative Commons licence. When I Am Laid in Earth (Dido's Lament) by Henry Purcell. Recording sourced from IMSLP under Creative Commons licence. Explore more stories from French history on the website: https://letrangerpodcast.com/  Follow for updates and new episodes on Bluesky: @letrangerpodcast.bsky.social