Joan of Arc

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In an apostolic letter, Pope Pius XI declared Joan one of the patron saints of France on 2 March 1922. In Chapters VI through VIII, de Conte recounts seeing Joan converse with a divine entity, then learning (from her explanation) that she has been chosen by God to "win back France, and set the crown upon the head of His servant that is Dauphin and shall be King. At the end of Chapter XXI, readers may think that de Conte insinuates Joan d'Arc was raped in prison by the English guards due to the vague wording.

Joan has been described as a model of an autonomous woman who challenged traditions of masculinity and femininity [379] to be heard as an individual [380] in a patriarchal culture [380]—setting her own course by heeding the voices of her visions. For here at last is the true Joan, glorious in the flower of her strength, leading her men to victory after victory. On July 5, the English forces surrender at Rheims, allowing the Bloodless March and coronation of Charles to take place. This is based on a letter by Perceval de Boulainvilliers [ fr], a councillor of Charles VII, stating that Joan was born on the feast of the Epiphany, [12] but his letter is filled with literary tropes that make it questionable as a statement of fact.

She was then taken to Rouen's Vieux-Marché (Old Marketplace), where she was publicly read her sentence of condemnation. If she answered positively, she would have been charged with heresy; if negatively, she would have confessed her own guilt.

Witnesses at the rehabilitation trial stated that Joan was subjected to mistreatment and rape attempts, including one by an English noble, [249] and that guards placed men's clothes in her cell, forcing her to wear them. In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church and, two years later, was declared one of the patron saints of France.The Burgundians controlled Reims, the traditional site for the coronation of French kings; Charles had not yet been crowned, and doing so at Reims would help legitimize his claim to the throne. This caused rumors that the Dauphin was not King Charles VI's son, but the offspring of an adulterous affair between Isabeau and the murdered duke of Orléans. She was viewed as a religious figure in Orléans after the siege was lifted, and an annual panegyric was pronounced there on her behalf until the 1800s. The novel is presented as a translation by "Jean Francois Alden" of memoirs by Sieur Louis de Conte, a fictionalized version of Joan of Arc's page Louis de Contes.