The focus is French history from Agincourt in 1415 to the end of the Hundred Year's War in 1453, particularly on the divide between the Armagnacs the group of French nobles who supported the Dauphin (who, with Joan's help, was crowned Charles VII of France) and the Burgundians, who supported the English monarch Henry V's claim to the French throne. Rather than concentrating on the life of Joan of Arc, readers learn about the historical Joan the Maid (as she referred to herself and was known in her own time), focusing the narrative on the stage on which Joan's drama played out: a France not only at war with England but divided against itself.Ĭastor maintains that it's impossible to truly understand Joan's role without an awareness of the historical backdrop, and goes to great lengths to explain the complicated relationships that created the political crisis into which Joan emerged. While many biographies of this extraordinary woman have been written, Castor takes a unique approach. Most readers will be familiar with the story of Joan of Arc: An uneducated French peasant girl hears voices from God, convinces the Dauphin (the heir apparent to the French throne) that based on this holy mandate she can lead his armies to victory against the English and then does so, is captured by her enemies and burned at the stake as a heretic, and is canonized for her actions centuries later. Helen Castor brings us to the heart of the action, to a woman and a country in turmoil, a world where no-one - not Joan herself, nor the people around her, princes, bishops, soldiers or peasants - knew what would happen next.In this non-fiction account, Helen Castor brings to life the political volatility of fifteenth-century France and the factors that contributed to Joan of Arc's remarkable role in history. Joan and her world are brought vividly to life in this refreshing new take on the medieval world.

And it is also the story behind the myth we all know, a myth which began to take hold at her trial: that of the Maid of Orleans, the saviour of France, a young woman burned at the stake as a heretic, a woman who five hundred years later would be declared a saint. Here is a portrait of a 19-year-old peasant who hears voices from God a teenager transformed into a warrior leading an army to victory, in an age that believed women should not fight.

Instead of the icon, she gives us a living, breathing young woman a roaring girl fighting the English, and taking sides in a bloody civil war that was tearing fifteenth century France apart.

Acclaimed historian Helen Castor brings us afresh a gripping life of Joan of Arc.

Joan of Arc by Helen Castor