MAY 7 - Siege of Orléans & Joan of Arc

On this day in 1429, Joan of Arc breaks the English siege of Orléans. The Siege of Orléans was a part of the Hundred Years’ War between between 12 October 1428 - 8 May 1429. The Hundred Years’ War had begun in 1337 when King Edward III of England decided to press his claim to the French throne. Following a major victory in 1415 at Agincourt, the English gained the upper hand, occupying much of northern France. According to the Treaty of Troyes of 1420, King Henry V of England would marry Catherine, the daughter of King Charles VI of France, would succeed Charles as King of France upon Charles death. This disinherited Charles’ son, the Dauphin of France. As the capital of the duchy of Orléans, the city of Orléans held great symbolic significance and the dukes of Orléans rejected the Treaty of Troyes and supported the disinherited and banished Dauphin. The siege of Orléans formally began on 12 October 1428, and initiated with an artillery bombardment beginning 5 days later. The English attempted an assault on 21 October but where held back by French defenses. On 21 February 1429, the day of the Battle of the Herrings, Joan of Arc arrived for a meeting to try and explain her divinely-ordained mission to rescue the Dauphin and deliver him to his royal coronation at Reims. On 9 March she was finally presented to the Dauphin and was finally accepted into service on the 22nd. She was proved with a suit of plate armor, a banner, a pageboy, and heralds. During an assault days earlier, Joan had been wounded in the foot and was asked to sit out of the final assault on the Boulevart-Tourelles but she refused and went to join the French camp on the south bank, much to the joy of the people. In the afternoon of 7 May, after a period of quiet prayer, she returned to camp, grabbed a ladder and launched the frontal assault herself. Early in the assault, Joan was struck by an arrow and was quickly removed from the field. She returned later in the evening boosting French morale. The French forces pushed the English back into the last redoubt. In the morning of 8 May, the England troops demolished their outerworks and assembled in battle formation in the field near St. Laurent. The English withdrew from the field before any battle actually took place and Joan forbade attacking them as they retreated. The Siege was a decisive French victory with the English losing more than 4,000 troops. Joan of Arc would go on to when a series of swift victories which paved the way for the final French victory, the crowning of King Charles VII of France in Reims. In May of 1430, she was captured by a group of French nobles aligned with the English and burned at the stake on 30 May 1431. In 1456, an inquisitorial court authorized by Pope Callixtus III examined her trial and pronounced her innocent and declared a martyr. In 1920, she was canonized by the Catholic church, becoming 1 of the 9 secondary patron saints of France.

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