Joan of Arc and the end of the war

Charles VI of France had a son (another Charles). Men called him the Dauphin, which was always the title of the French kings' eldest son. When Charles VI died, some Frenchmen fought on for the Dauphin. They did not have much hope, for he was a weak and idle youth.

Then Joan of Arc appeared. Joan was a peasant girl from Domrémy in eastern France. She said that she had heard voices and seen visions of the saints. The voices told her to go to the Dauphin at the castle of Chinon and help him to save Orléans from the English.

The courtiers at Chinon laughed at Joan. But the Dauphin gave her arms, and sent her with 4,000 men to relieve Orléans (make the English give up the siege). Joan beat the English in battle, and drove them back to the north. The Dauphin was crowned King Charles VII in Rheims cathedral.

Then Joan was captured by the duke of Burgundy (England's ally), and put on trial by the English. They said she was a witch - she had seen and talked to devils. She was found guilty and burned to death in the market-place at Rouen in May 1431.

Killing Joan of Arc did not save the English. As Henry VI grew up, it was clear that he was not a soldier. In any case, England could not afford the long war and lost its chief ally, the duke of Burgundy. In 1453, the French took Bordeaux, and the war was over. Calais was the only part of France left in English hands.

Walter Robson: Medieval Britain; Oxford University Press, 1991/2000, page 63