Francophiles may be excused from this exercise. I say this because the French have been known, at times, to use the guillotine. Only hard-core Anglophiles need read on.

     What would you say if I even hinted that Joan of Arc was not burned at the stake? Please note that I'm not detracting from her considerable accomplishments, or her faith, or the possibility of Divine inspiration. For an illiterate peasant girl to have prevailed against the better judgment of rulers and military commanders, and lead the battle-weary French forces to victory after victory might well be considered miraculous. However, evidence has come to light that the patron saint of France may not have been martyred for sorcery.

     In the late 19th century, M. Octave Delepierre published Doute Historique, in which he contended that not only did Joan not burn, but that she, in fact, married and mothered a family. He said that during the 17th century, there was found at Metz, a certificate of marriage between "Robert des Armoise, knight, and Jeanne D'Arcy, surnamed the Maid of Orleans." Further, in 1740, there were found in the archives of the Maison de Ville (Orleans), records to indicate payments from Joan to her brother John, bearing the dates 1435 and 1436. Also recorded was an entry of a presentation made to Joan in 1439, for her services during the siege of Orleans, ten years earlier.

     It was Monsieur Delepierre's argument that the story of Joan's martyrdom was invented to hang added villainy on the English, for having ravaged France during the Hundred Years War. (I can't imagine why.)

     If you're of British extraction, now you know. If not, remember it was a Frenchman who came up with all this in the first place...Vichy, no doubt.
   
 

Acknowledgments: 2, 4

© Russ Brown, 1998