Joan of Arc for France is, one might say, a key historical figure. Like Minin and Pozharsky in Russia, Garibaldi in Italy and Cromwell in England and the like. A man who, in fact, saved the state and brought it out of a long-term impasse.
Joan's activities allowed the French throne to finally, after 80 years of defeats, triumphantly end the Hundred Years War and force the English upstarts to go home. A simple girl made the king believe her and put her at the head of the army. She was able to liberate Orleans - one of the key cities of the state.
But it was not only a matter of military victory. Inspired by Joan's successes, the rest of France realized that the British could be defeated and the war, which had seemed hopelessly lost a long time ago, began to boil with renewed vigor. And the success was no longer accompanied by the invaders.
In the end, they decided to liquidate Jeanne through the betrayal of the Burgundians, who had never been special patriots. These gentlemen simply took and gave Jeanne to England. As one of her associates later said: "Only their own could betray that way." Then she was accused of heresy and burned at the stake.
It seems that everything is clear. The heroic girl gave her life for her homeland. Find fault, as if there is nothing. But from the very beginning, a lot of questions arise. For example, how did an ordinary peasant woman manage to get an audience with the king? To understand the impossibility of such an event. Even a middle-class nobleman had to wait not for an audience, but just for a fleeting nod of the royal head: royal attention was very expensive.
Even if we assume that the king did accept Joan, then giving her army during the war, and not the weakest part of it (freeing Orleans for that time is about how to take Berlin in the Great Patriotic War) - all this was very strange.
Jeanne could have been an English spy, and with such power, she could have caused France a lot of trouble. The king did not just risk, he risked suicidal in the literal sense.
However, he was not such a simple person: a special spy, Marshal of France Gilles de Rais, was appointed to watch Jeanne and her actions. Although, to put it mildly, the spy is so-so. Firstly, they very quickly "sang" with Jeanne and de Rais never parted with her. There is even an opinion that they were lovers. When Joan was killed, and the king personally denied de Re his plans for revenge, de Re, in protest, refused the marshal's post, broke with the court and went to his castle, never again taking part in any state affairs.
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And secondly … Gilles de Rais, as it turned out later, was a maniac with sadistic inclinations. For 15 years of his vacation in the estate, he raped and killed more than 150 people of local youth, leaving far behind even the maniacs of the future. Subsequently, he will become the prototype of the fairytale character of Bluebeard …
But back to our heroine. Another, very interesting question, which, in fact, lies on the surface, but practically no one pays attention to it: the noble prefix "de". We all remember that the hero of The Three Musketeers, d'Artagnan, was a nobleman, in fact, this is reflected in his last name. Where did this prefix in the surname of a "simple peasant woman" come from then? And not only her. Officially, her father is Jacques d'Arc, and her mother is Isabella de Vouton. Some kind of "non-peasant" surnames and names.
Further more. The king bestows upon Jeanne the coat of arms. The coat of arms has two colors - blue and gold, which is very, very difficult, because according to the unspoken rule of heraldry, the fewer colors, the "cooler" its owner. But this is not enough for the king. In the coat of arms of Jeanne there is a crown, but, more importantly, two royal lilies. And this outweighs all other arguments. Fleur-de-lis in the coat of arms speaks of the "state" significance of Jeanne, and the state at that time meant the royal power. Only kings and members of their families had the right to lilies in the coat of arms, as the main figures.
And here we can assume that Jeanne was not just a noblewoman, but, most likely, was of royal origin. Indirectly, this is indicated by her title "The Maid of Orleans". At that time, it was fashionable to give titles by type of location, not only for heroic deeds, but also for something else. For example, illegitimate children of kings, if they got a job somewhere in a "warm place", always received the title of count, and sometimes a duke. At any time, the posts of certain local nobles were empty (due to the death of all members of the clan, or merger due to marriage and other events), therefore, in the power of the king, it was possible to scatter the titles of any "Dukes of Toulouse" right and left, if there were real applicants for this the place was not.
Therefore, monarchs often attached their bastards to certain noble orders. It is possible that Jeanne was the illegitimate daughter of the father of the current king, Charles VI the Mad. That is, the king was Jeanne's half-brother.
In this case, the king could not be afraid of Joan. Even if she wanted to take his place, she would not have succeeded. Salic law did not allow women to rule France and the entire Valois dynasty only thanks to this right, and occupied the French throne.
And one more interesting point: there are as many as 5 dates of Jeanne's death. That is, in five different sources (quite serious to themselves) there are five different dates of her death. They are quite well "smeared" on the calendar: the first falls on May 1431, the last - on February 1432. Such discrepancies would be appropriate in Ancient Greece, but in the late Middle Ages, when judicial, tax and archival services were already in full swing, it seems absolutely incredible.
Or maybe Jeanne was not burned at the stake at all? Could the king of France let his half-sister die? Moreover, it does not even pose any danger for him in terms of rights to the throne … Hardly.
And one more interesting point. Three years after Jeanne was "burned" at the stake, France and Burgundy officially reconciled. This seems completely incredible, since the Burgundians were against France all the time. These were very ancient opponents and competitors in the struggle for the French throne: the dukes of Burgundy and the family of Valois. Both families were descended from the Carolingians, but Valois were a little closer to him. The struggle began long before the Hundred Years War and, in fact, the alliance concluded between the king and the then Duke of Burgundy was very, very strange: in fact, Burgundy refused any encroachment on dominance in France, giving way to Paris and the Valois dynasty.
The then ruler of Burgundy was Philip III, who ruled the province for almost 40 years, with strange ease went to such an agreement. And another oddity was in his successor, Karl the Bold, who was born, by an amazing coincidence, a year after the "execution" of Jeanne.
Officially, he was the son of Philip III and some Portuguese princess, but … But the fact is that the princess had serious problems with childbirth, all her children died in infancy, and, most likely, she was not Karl's mother. But she could well have been Jeanne, who actually took her place, after Isabella was sent to the monastery under the guise.
The king could well marry Joan to his rival, giving him certain guarantees of the autonomy of Burgundy as part of France, and backing it all up with the dynastic marriage of his half-sister. Philip, too, could understand - there are no children, but here is such a chance. After it became clear that the heir survived and nothing threatens his health, the Duke of Burgundy agrees to the king's terms …