Episode 50: Joan of Arc P3 (The Time for Miracles Has Passed)

Picking up from where we left off...

It is the summer of 1429 and Charles Valois, the dauphine and would-be king, is finally marching north to claim his birthright, the crown of France. His campaign, once viewed to be nearly hopeless, has been revived and supporters are flocking to join his army or, at the very least, catch a glimpse of his triumphant procession. However, it is not only him that they have come to see.

Across the French countryside, word has spread of the extraordinary girl who travels with the prince; a sixteen-year-old peasant, dressed in gleaming armor, bearing a standard of pure white. She claims to be the right hand of God in this war against the English, and her miraculous victory at Orleans has proven her divine claims in the eyes of many. To her supporters, Joan la Pucelle (as she has become known) is their savior, sent to deliver them from tyranny.

In the eyes of her enemies, the English and Burgundians, Joan is viewed to be an ignorant puppet for the Armagnac cause, or perhaps she is a whore who has slept her way to her place of power and influence, or... even more troubling, she might be a witch who converses with demonic forces rather than the divine.

Yet, as far as Joan is concerned, she does not care much for the politics of court, the games of war, or the praises of the people who line the streets to see her. She cares only for her divine mission, commanded to her by God, to unite the people of France and drive the English from her shores.