Joan of Arc was a strong female warrior as implied by the Hundred Years War, but is she really a great general? First, this essay will define what a general is and what really speaks clearly of the situation proving that a person is a great general along with the beliefs of the people and the country involved respectively. It is said that being a general bears a strong resemblance by fighting for justice for the good of the people in true service for the Nation.[1] The term General is a military rank regarded as the highest rank, as in the navies of the world, the equivalent rank is Admiral.[2] Basically, it was believed that Joan of Arc was a well-known fighting woman in history which can be an implication that Joan of Arc was a great general because she motivated her troops to drive the enemies from her homeland even if Joan knew nothing about warfare; she claimed to be guided by visions of saints.[3] Thus, only a few people believed her; many thought she used sorcery but her inspiration lived on after her death. She had fought for her king and her country as a whole. [4]
There was a new idea to the people at that time and it helped unite them in victory and off course, Joan was a great ‘’General’’ as her nature depicts on full battle armor. In any case, the nature of Joan’s general-ship has been the subject of the arguments. The French had a very capable commander whose name and title at the moment who quite possibly actually commanded Joan’s armies.[5] This is not to downplay the moral significance of her presence on the battlefield. She was a young peasant female with zero military experience. It is quite likely she simply sat in the rear with the real general and provided moral support and encouragement for him and his army, with our without armor.[6] She was there to convince the garrison commander to give her military escort to Charles Valois, as Joan cornered him in the market place when she had approached him with the same fool’s mission. The gist of it was that Joan of Arc was the only one in the world who could save France. Moreover, it is important to note that the Hundred Years War was not a national conflict between England and France in the contemporary wisdom.[7]
Furthermore, Joan has the essential qualities as a good general that was reflected in her audacity and nerve when the army arrived; she counted upon her Captains to lead an immediate attack. They instead advised her to be prudent. Scrupulously avoiding profanity, she told them to go to hell.[8] She mounted her war-horse, donned a magnificent white and gold mantle, and with her heralds trumpeting, gathered the army and led it to the gates of the city for a sortie. There, she was met by the mayor who blocked the gate and refused to lower the drawbridge. Joan drew her sword and threatened to cut his head off right then and there.[9] Joan’s personally led the assault upon the stronger English positions and was wounded for the first time she advised her captains to let them retreat and the men obeyed. Then, Joan exhibited for the first time her essential grasp of grand strategy, the strategic imperative was the relief of the fortress. This was the turning point not only in the whole war but also for Joan as a great general – military commander.[10] Amicably, it is difficult to grasp that a young girl might be so endowed with wisdom that she could immediately see long-term strategic as well as tactical goals while experienced statesmen and soldiers did not.
There are principles of military action which are discernible to some people the way brilliant grasp the essential strategic and tactical principles of the situation.[11] The military men who dealt intimately with Joan during her campaigns and whose reminiscences were recorded in the documents of the retrial were several. The two highest-ranking of them were Jean, Count of Dunois and Jean, Duke of Alençon, a kinsman of the Dauphin and eventually King of France, Charles VII. It is clear that the stunning impact of Joan’s leadership was the way in which her charismatic personality hauled the morale of the often-defeated French army up from the pit of cynicism and despair to a fevered high of renewed enthusiasm and collective ardor for battle and that once her reputation for bringing victory to the French became established, her presence infected the heretofore invincible English with doubt and fear.[12] However, she immediately set about making the force of her personality felt throughout the army in terms of both morals and morale, continued to stress the importance of righteous conduct of the soldiers throughout.
It is remarkable that the chronicler of her foes would accord her such honor in his account of her last battle even if Joan’s military role was nothing more than that of a “cheerleader” she was a cheerleader of superb tenacity and fortitude. Intangible moral factors are of consummate importance on the field of battle.[13] The soldiers’ will to fight often means weapons technology, tactics in determining the outcome. Joan’s moral impact in favor of the French and against the English was immediate and blatant. Her effect on the soldiers who could see her or hear her was obvious and to her own discomfort, during her lifetime and at the same time as her military victories, she became the center of a personality cult that embraced France.[14] The power of Joan incited the masses to take action and fight for a country that they were beginning to consider their own. In a few days, she inverted what had been the established moral order on the battlefields of the Hundred Years’ War. She made an army of habitual losers believe in themselves as winners. For the French army with Joan, the belief in victory and the fact of victory became mutually reinforcing. Renewed belief in victory brought with it a new will to fight and the will to fight brought the first victories and those victories stoked ever hotter will to fight. Joan’s military role as an inspirational creator of the will to fight is obvious and indisputable.
Establishing to what degree she was more than just a “super cheerleader” to what degree she was a true general who made decisions and gave orders concerning the strategic and tactical conduct of the war.[15] Joan ascribed the source of her strategic and tactical insights to divine guidance. Whether Joan was sincere in the claim of divine guidance as a means to win the credibility that an illiterate peasant girl could never command on her own is something that must forever remain unknown. There is no way to gauge to what extent, Joan was involved in the tactical details of arranging the troops on the ground in these struggles but her influence over general strategy was paramount.[16] She was present when key decisions were being made in councils of war and she repeatedly forced those decisions to reflect her expressed will. To what extent her strategic and tactical opinions were the product of her own rational military calculations of her belief in otherworldly inspiration can never be known. High intelligence under stress is necessary in a military leader.
The strongest unambiguous evidence of Joan’s s amazing powers of mind comes from the transcripts of her trial. Joan’s brilliance at her trial does not have a bearing on her skill as a military leader, the ability to think quickly and creatively under conditions of horrific stress is essential in a successful leader of forces in battle.[17] Joan’s conduct proves that she had gray matter in abundance to quickly master the rudiments of the art of war with no prior training. Joan’s ability to articulate what had to be done in the crisis of war was one of her great general and leadership attributes. She understood perfectly that God’s guidance was not to be confused with God’s doing the work beyond her incredible force of will that empowered her to surmount obstacles, that made thousands of armed men want to follow her.[18] Joan’s ability to join the elite should have been crippled three times over she was hardly more than a child, she was a peasant, and she was female. It is one of the miracles of her career that she was able to transcend these handicaps to become not only accepted but admired by the French warrior nobility of her day. After a military female has displayed the strength and courage to win the acceptance and respect of her male peers, the fact that she is a female may become an asset rather than a liability to her.
When a military female has shown herself good enough to be “one of the guys,” may find the juxtaposition of her masculine and feminine traits the more endearing before battle, Joan was ferocious in councils of war as she constantly demanded that the army attack.[19] During battle, she was ferocious as she placed herself at the head of every assault, heedless of danger and her own wounds. But after battle, the little girl in her came out as she spent as much time weeping over the English dead as the French. In the aftermath of the Battle of Patay, she even held a dying English soldier’s head in her lap to hear his confession and comfort him as he died. She was strong and fierce when her men wanted a warrior comrade who was strong and fierce.[20] She was gentle and kind when they most needed to be near a woman who was gentle and kind. Finally, it must be admitted, there were more prosaic reasons for Joan winning her ascendancy over people and events.
It was a simple matter of the cliché about being in the right place at the right time coming true. Joan was lucky in that the conditions of her time and place gave her the opening to do what she did. Joan was lucky in that the nature of armies and war in her time helped to magnify the effect of her style of inspirational leadership. Her soldiers went into battle standing shoulder to shoulder in packed masses, not spread out to mitigate the effects of modern machine guns and high explosive. Her battles were fought out on battlefields that could be covered by a few football fields as opposed to modem battles being fought across dozens of miles of Normandy beaches.[21] A modern-day general can only make inspirational speeches to his entire army via an assortment of electronic media and most of his soldiers will probably only hear recorded versions of the speech after the battle is over. Any modem-day general who leaves his headquarters to put on a display of physical courage will be seen by only a tiny and insignificant percentage of his men. The story of his brave display will only seep slowly through the rest of his army. Joan was fortunate that the nature of armies and the nature of battle in her day ensured that her style of leadership would have the greatest possible impact.[22]
Today, a brilliant military amateur is someone who has the potential to do well as she progresses through the intense and protracted technical training required to turn him or her into a military professional. Joan could only have done what she did in the medieval period in which she lived. Whether Joan’s leadership role was that of a true battle general in between, whether she was propelled by her own will and genius by some force beyond material explanation, one thing will always be clear and that Joan was exactly what she needed to be to bring her people victory.[23] Joan was a great general because she was good at leading. Joan had the ability to get soldiers and captains to listen to her and do as she wanted them to do. She achieved this through her confidence, determination and courage.[24] As a great general, Joan distinguished herself with her courage and her morals as she was above reproach, both in her ideals and in her abilities. Joan rose to her positions of leadership from being a simple peasant, rather than from a background of nobility. Joan’s capture reveal a woman who could frustrate seasoned politicians and theologians and who was done to death only by their dishonesty and illegal haste to consign her to fire.[25]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bernard Shaw, Saint Joan: A Chronicle Play in Six Scenes and an Epilogue. Ed. Dan H. Laurence. (London: Penguin Books, 2001)
Bonnie Wheeler and Charles T. Wood A Woman as Leader of Men: Joan of Arc’s Military Career,” in Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc, (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1996), 3.
Daniel Hobbins, The Trial of Joan of Arc. Harvard University Press, 2005
Deborah Fraioli, Joan of Arc: The Early Debate. (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2000)
Deborah Fraioli, Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years War. (Conneticut: Greenwood Press, 2005)
Don Nardo, The Trial of Joan of Arc. California: Lucent Books, Inc., 1998
Edouard Perroy, The Hundred Years War, trans. W. B. Wells (New York: Capricorn Books, 2000), 283.
Frances Gies, Joan of Arc: the legend and the reality. (New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. 1981).
Frances Gies, Joan of Arc: The Legend and the Reality, (Harper & Row, 1981).
Nottridge, Harold, Joan of Arc, Bookwright Press, 1988
Georges Duby, France in the Middle Ages, Juliet Vale, trans., (Oxford,1991) 289-90.
Joseph Jobé, ed., Guns: An Illustrated History of Artillery (New York: Crescent Books, 1971), 41.
Lucie-Smith, 116; and Jay Williams, Joan of Arc (New York: American Heritage/Harper and Row, 1963), 56.
Jules Michelet, Joan of Arc. (Binghamtom, N.Y: Vail-Ballou Press, Inc. 1841).
Kelly DeVries, Joan of Arc: A Military Leader. (Phoenix Mill: Sutton Publishing Limited, 1999)
Mary Gordon, Joan of Arc. New York: Lipper/Viking, 2000
Nadia Margolis, Joan of Arc in History, Literature, and Film (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1990), 69-70.
Polly Schoyer Brooks, Beyond the Myth: The Story of Joan of Arc, (Lippincott, 1990).
Régine Pernoud and Marie-Véronique Clin , Jeanne D’Arc. (Fayard 1986).
Régine Pernoud and Marie-Véronique Clin, Joan of Arc: Her Story. (New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999)
Regine Pernoud, The Retrial of Joan of Arc: The Evidence at the Trial for Her Rehabilitation, 1450-1456, (New York, 1955) 85-6.
Regine Pernoud and Marie Veronique Clin, Joan of Arc: Her Story, Jeremy duQuesnay Adams trans., (New York, 1998), Appendix I, “The Letters of Joan of Arc,” 247-64.
Regine Pernoud, Joan of Arc: By Herself and Her Witnesses, Edward Hyams, trans. (New York, 1966) 123.
Tia Kolbaba Regine Pernoud and Marie-Veronique Clin. Joan of Arc: Her Story: Teaching History: (Emporia State University, 2003) 97 Gale Group
Tracy Christopher, Joan of Arc, (Chelsea Juniors, 1993).
Will Durant, The Story of Civilization: The Reformation. New York: Simon
and Schuster, Inc., 1957
Willard Trask, Joan of Arc: In Her Own Words. (New York: Turtle Point Press, 1996).
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[1] (wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)
[2] (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General)
[3] Polly Schoyer Brooks, Beyond the Myth: The Story of Joan of Arc, (Lippincott, 1990).
[4] Tracy Christopher, Joan of Arc, (Chelsea Juniors, 1993). 46-47
[5] Gies, Frances, Joan of Arc: The Legend and the Reality, Nottridge, Harold, Joan of Arc, (Bookwright Press, 1988). 23-24
[6] Regine Pernoud, The Retrial of Joan of Arc: The Evidence at the Trial for Her Rehabilitation, 1450-1456, (New York, 1955) 85-86.
[7] Georges Duby, France in the Middle Ages, Juliet Vale, trans., (Oxford,1991) 289-90.
[8] Georges Duby, France in the Middle Ages, Juliet Vale, trans., (Oxford,1991) 289-90.
[9] Gies, Frances, Joan of Arc: The Legend and the Reality, Nottridge, Harold, Joan of Arc, (Bookwright Press, 1988). 26-27
[10] Regine Pernoud, Joan of Arc: By Herself and Her Witnesses, Edward Hyams, trans. (New York, 1966) 123.
[11] Regine Pernoud and Marie Veronique Clin, Joan of Arc: Her Story, Jeremy duQuesnay Adams trans., (New York, 1998), Appendix I, “The Letters of Joan of Arc,” 247-64.
[12] Edouard Perroy, The Hundred Years War, trans. W. B. Wells (New York: Capricorn Books, 2000), 283.
[13] Bonnie Wheeler and Charles T. Wood A Woman as Leader of Men: Joan of Arc’s Military Career,” in Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc, (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1996) 3.
[14] Regine Pernoud and Marie Veronique Clin, Joan of Arc: Her Story, Jeremy duQuesnay Adams trans., (New York, 1998), Appendix I, “The Letters of Joan of Arc,” 255
[15] Bonnie Wheeler and Charles T. Wood A Woman as Leader of Men: Joan of Arc’s Military Career,” in Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc, (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1996) 3.
[16] Joseph Jobé, ed., Guns: An Illustrated History of Artillery (New York: Crescent Books, 1971) 41.
[17] Tia Kolbaba Regine Pernoud and Marie-Veronique Clin. Joan of Arc: Her Story: Teaching History: (Emporia State University, 2003) 97 Gale Group
[18] Lucie-Smith, 116; and Jay Williams, Joan of Arc (New York: American Heritage/Harper and Row, 1963) 56.
[19] Nadia Margolis, Joan of Arc in History, Literature, and Film (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1990) 69-70.
[20] Willard Trask, Joan of Arc: In Her Own Words. (New York: Turtle Point Press, 1996). 75-77
[21] Regine Pernoud, Joan of Arc: By Herself and Her Witnesses, Edward Hyams, trans. (New York, 1966) 127.
[22] Nadia Margolis, Joan of Arc in History, Literature, and Film (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1990), 73-75.
[23] Regine Pernoud and Marie Veronique Clin, Joan of Arc: Her Story, Jeremy duQuesnay Adams trans., (New York, 1998), Appendix I, “The Letters of Joan of Arc,” 269-271.
[24] Daniel Hobbins, The Trial of Joan of Arc. (Harvard University Press, 2005)
[25] Frances Gies, Joan of Arc: the legend and the reality. (New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. 1981). 21-22
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