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(#4) Was Joan A Secret Royal Love Child?
Could Joan have gotten to such high office without royal help? Probably not, but some have said she had really intense kingly connections – so much so that she was actually a secret royal love child! One theory suggested Joan wasn't born a peasant girl, but she was really Charles VII's illegitimate half-sister/cousin, the child of his mother, the famously licentious Queen Isabeau of Bavaria, and her lover/his uncle, Louis, Duke of Orléans.
This was supposedly the reason Joan was able to pick out the Dauphin from amongst a bunch of his courtiers upon meeting him for the first time. Sadly for conspiracy theorists, this probably wasn't true. But that doesn't stop scholars from claiming it could have been the case every once in a while.
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(#3) She Fought Alongside A Satanist And Child Murderer
One of Joan's most trusted and important soldiers was a guy named Gilles des Rais, who met her the first time she showed up to meet the Dauphin. He led some of her troops and aided Joan when she was injured at Orléans, but, in reality, he wasn't that great of a guy. As it turns out, de Rais was probably one of the first recorded serial killers. He was said to have been guilty of torturing, raping, and murdering hundreds of kids in a dungeon, as well as worshipping the Devil.
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(#2) Did Joan Fake Her Own Death?
After being burned at the stake on May 30, 1430, Joan was dead... or was she? Some scholars theorize that it was at least possible that a substitute maiden could've been burned in Joan's place, with Joan assuming a new identity after the fact. And the legacy of the Maid of Lorraine lived on, so much so that a bunch of pretenders dressed up as Joan and said "La Pucelle" was still alive. This was pretty common during this time, but one woman really stood out: Claude des Armoises. In one version of this history, Claude was a real-life wife and mother who was supported by Joan of Arc's real-life brothers. They supposedly recognized her at first sight as their sister. But she didn't last long in the role of Joan, eventually confessing her guilt. However, in the alternate version of this tale, Claude is the identity the real Joan took on after the bait and switch at the stake.
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(#11) She Had An Epic Temper And Righteous Anger
Joan was what you might call an intense teenager, and she wasn't afraid to bring down the mighty sword of her moral righteousness on the adult male soldiers she was leading. Allegedly, she didn't put up with swearing, licentiousness, or failure to attend mass. She drove mistresses and prostitutes out of camp with her sword. Once, when a Scottish dude confessed to eating stolen meat, she attempted to slap him in retribution. Not a nice way to reward a guy who was probably just hungry during wartime...
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(#12) Joan Called Herself "La Pucelle," AKA "The Maid"
Rather than just going by "Joan," this warrior woman dubbed herself "La Pucelle," best translated from medieval French as "The Maid" or "The Girl." In fact, she favored that nickname instead of her regular name, perhaps because of its religious connotations (and she loved associations with purity, especially with regards to her own virginity and the Virgin Mary). Also, Joan probably liked the moniker because it distinguished her from many of the other women hanging around soldiers – AKA prostitutes.
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(#5) Joan Might Have Confessed After Being Threatened With Rape
After her capture by the English, Joan of Arc was charged with a host of wrong doings – witchcraft, horse theft, and cross-dressing, to name just three – but she pled not guilty to most of them. That is, until the guards depriving her of basic creature comforts threatened her with rape. According to Joan, they never carried out their horrible threat, but such a heinous act probably led to her pleading guilty to a number of her charges. Promised life imprisonment instead of death, she agreed to sign a guilty confession. But then she revoked it and consigned herself to being burned at the stake.
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About This Tool
Joan of Arc is a French national hero. She was an ordinary girl, but she claimed to be revelated by the Lord when she was 13. Afterward, Joan leaded troops to regain lost land occupied by England and successfully lifted the Siege of Orleans in 1429. She defeated the British army many times and supported the crown of Charles VII.
Joan of Arc has become an important role in Western culture. Politicians, writers, and composers, including Shakespeare, Voltaire, Schiller, etc. have created works about her, and a large number of movies, plays, and music based on her have been popular until now. The random tool shares 12 interesting facts about Joan of Arc that most people did not know.
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