Was Joan of Arc French?

star_gazer

Yes. Joan of Arc's parents' names were Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée in Domrémy, a village which was then in the duchy of Bar (and later annexed to the province of Lorraine and renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle). Her parents owned about 50 acres (0.2 square kilometers) of land and her father supplemented his farming work with a minor position as a village official, collecting taxes and heading the local watch. They lived in an isolated patch of northeastern territory that remained loyal to the French crown despite being surrounded by Burgundian lands. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc Feb 29 08, 2:44 PM

--simone--

Yes, Joan of Arc was French. "Joan of Arc, or Jeanne d'Arc in French, (c. 1412 – May 30, 1431) was a 15th century saint and national heroine of France. She was the only person ever recorded to have commanded the entire army of a nation at the age of seventeen; she was captured by the English and tried by an ecclesiastical court led by Bishop Pierre Cauchon, an English partisan, the court convicted her of heresy and she was burned at the stake by the English when she was nineteen years old. Twenty-four years later, the Vatican reviewed the decision of the ecclesiastical court, found her innocent, and declared her a martyr. She was beatified in 1909 and canonized as a saint in 1920." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc I've just found another site, that also confirms that Joan of Arc was born in Domremy, France, here is what it says: "Joan of Arc was born on January 6, 1412, in Domremy, France. She "heard voices" that led her to raise an army to free Orleans from a British seige. She was captured, tried as a witch, and burned at the stake. In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized a saint by the Catholic Church." http://library.thinkquest.org/12824/22-24.html Feb 29 08, 2:46 PM

wahoowa94

Yes. She was born in 1412 in Domremy. Joan of Arc's parents' names were Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée in Domrémy, a village which was then in the Duchy of Bar (and later annexed to the province of Lorraine and renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle). While it is true, this area of France (namely the Duchy of Bar and Lorraine) have changed hands over the years and even the Duchy of Bar took up arms against France in the 1300s, I think it would be considered to be in French hands when Joan was born there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc#Legacy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counts_and_Dukes_of_Bar Feb 29 08, 2:52 PM

zbeckabee

One site states: Joan of Arc wasn't French. She was born in Domremy, part of Bar, which was a part of Lorraine—which did not become a part of France until 1766. By the way, her name wasn't Joan, it was Jeanne. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_bar http://www.pen.eiu.edu/~mltaylor3/fallacies.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_arc http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/List_of_states_in_the_Holy_Roman_Empire Feb 29 08, 5:33 PM

Kabdanis

Jeanne d'Arc was French. She was born in the southern part of the village of Domrémy, which belonged to the "Barrois mouvant", a part of the Duchy of Bar located at the West of the River Meuse. That western part of the Duchy was a vassal state to the King of France since 1301 (abandoned to Philippe IV le Bel by Albert 1st of Germany). Also, the Duchy of Bar became part of Lorraine in 1480 only, fifty years after the death of Jeanne d'Arc. We can't say she was born in the Holy Roman Empire. On this page you will read about the distinction between the northern part of Domrémy, which belonged to the region of Champagne, France, and the southern part, which belonged to the "Barrois mouvant": http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domr%C3%A9my-la-Pucelle Barrois mouvant: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrois_mouvant You can still visit the house where she was born: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/musee.jeannedarc/domremy.htm Feb 29 08, 11:04 PM

author

I think I will side with the French here. The French Wiki site about Joan of Arc claims that her nationality is of Lorraine. (Is that called Lorrainean?) Lorraine was a duchy at the time, and could well count as a "country" with a "nationality". http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_d%27arc The ruler in the Duchy of Bar at the time (1430-1481) also happens to be the ruler of Lorraine (1431-1453). Joan of Arc died in 1431. I think it makes sense calling Joan of Arc a person of Lorrainian heritage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_I_of_Naples Feb 29 08, 11:07 PM

zbeckabee

The following goes a long way towards explaining why there is so much confusion over this issue: The village of Domremy was located in the Duchy of Bar (not, as is sometimes claimed, in the Duchy of Lorraine - an imperial territory across the border). It occupied the western bank of the Meuse river, surrounded by farmland, forests of pine, beech, and oak, the white blooms of cherry trees. Here in the confined space of this little village existed a political jigsaw puzzle of the type which so often resulted from the system of hereditary land ownership: the portion of the town lying along the river was in the Provostry of Montéclaire-Andelot and therefore subject to the French Crown; the southern part of the town was in the inheritance of Lord Pierre de Bourlémont, who in turn was subject to the Duke of Bar, who was allied, and closely related, to the pro-Burgundian Duke of Lorraine, whose duchy's western boundary enclosed the heights on the opposite bank. One portion of the town was therefore officially "Armagnac" and another portion nominally pro-Burgundian; ironically, the d'Arc family's home may actually have been in the "Burgundian" portion, depending on the exact course of the little stream that marked the boundary, a meandering rivulet called "le Ruisseau des Trois Fontaines." http://members.aol.com/hywwebsite/private/joanofarc_domremy.html Mar 01 08, 4:44 AM