Bishop's Book Review
Joan of Arc
A Military Leader
By Kelly Devries
1999, Sutton Press, 242 pages
Most of us have a hard time remembering the difference between “The Thirty Years War” and “The Hundred Years War.” Different centuries, different battles, different issues and different military leaders. However, one military commander sticks out in our memory. A woman. She was Joan of Arc. A brilliant general, creative tactician, devout Christian and only 16 years old when her military crusade began. While female, she was not a feminist, at least not in our 21st century sense. Her cause was justice and her goal was a free France.
Except for the Virgin Mary, no woman in recorded human history has attracted as much literary attention as Joan of Arc. In every century hundreds of books have been published exploring her life. This was quite a woman. Kelly Devries writes his book portraying Joan as a brilliant military general and tactician, mystic and woman possessed by what she experienced as God’s mission.
The Hundred Years War had been destroying 14th and 15th century France for eighty years when this small town French peasant girl claimed a series of visions that would inspire her to liberate the occupied city of Orleans from the English invaders. This would change the course of history. In many ways the armed struggle convulsing Europe was a Civil War between competing French nobility groups each claiming the right to crown their King. Joan’s vision called her to support the French dauphin, Charles VII, and to free France from its English prison.
Without much formal education, without noble birth, with no financial support and no relationships with the ruling classes - Joan presented herself for leadership service. And the soon to be king of France accepted her and put her into the military leadership structure. In some ways, she was an Old Testament prophet proclaiming justice with a sword, possessing only charismatic leadership. One of the great unanswered questions of history is how could this have happened? How could this young unprepared woman become the greatest military leader in the Hundred Years War? Without a doubt her determination and supreme confidence in her calling by God convinced the tired and losing French that she was a great leader. Indeed, she would prove to be their military savior.
Joan’s most significant triumph came early. The royal troops, now under her personal charisma, lifted the siege of Orleans and defeated the English and their French allies. This victory changed everything. Joan’s leadership became mythical and thousands flocked to her banner. She was now proclaimed the “Maid of Orleans” — a title that continues to surround her to this day. While personally leading troops into battle, she was wounded at least twice. Joan changed the way medieval battles were fought. Her leadership brought innovate military strategies and tactics and the use of propaganda as a battle tool.
There were would be defeats (the siege of Paris was a failure) and even her tremendous skills could not keep political intrigue and jealous rivals from undermining her and leading to her capture by French rebels after less than two years in the military. She would be sold to the English who wanted her very much dead. Staging a show trial she was convicted of heresy and also the crime of cross dressing! She wore men’s military uniforms. Joan of Arc was executed famously by burning at the stake in 1431 in the city of Rouen. She was only 19 years of age.
Devries has returned to the original sources of what we know about Joan from the Latin and the French. His study of both the heresy trial conducted by the English and the posthumous exoneration trial, convened by her French compatriots, add greatly to this sensational story. Joan of Arc is portrayed by Devries as a woman possessed by the Call of God. Her calling was not as a priest nor as a social worker but as a soldier and a leader of men. She is seen in this volume as uncompromising and totally unyielding to anything except military success. Joan of Arc captures the imagination as does anyone who is eager to die for a cause bigger than oneself. For at least another thousand years, her mysterious life will be studied and her faithfulness proclaimed.
+Thomas A. Skrenes, Bishop