Joan of Arc is one of those historical figures about whom it cannot be said that little is known. Not only has she been mythologised by, among others, William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw, but the process of turning her into an icon began in her own lifetime, mainly by herself. Joan was a pivotal figure in my own childhood; like many Catholic girls, she was singled out as patron saint upon my confirmation. Most Saturdays, when I went to church for choir practice, I would stop at her statue and light a candle at her feet of stone. I have long since turned my back on Joan and, indeed, on religion itself. Yet I still went to see the National Theatre’s production of Saint Joan three years ago with the marvellously powerful Anne-Marie Duff in the title role.
It seems there is no escaping Joan – the girl who led the French to victory in battle against the English in 1429. A recent trip to Paris again confronted me with her ubiquity – go into any French art institution and there will be at least an etching of her here and a drawing of her there. There are so many books on Joan that it seems ludicrous that we have yet another. However, Larissa Juliet Taylor succeeds in presenting Joan differently – as a girl, first and foremost, and not simply as a saint in the making which is what many previous biographers and hagiographers have done. Taylor also shines a spotlight on the role played by Yolande of Aragon, the older female who helped Joan take centre stage but who pulled many of the strings at court, setting in motion the process of turning Joan into an icon.
But, as Taylor tells us, Joan was far from being a saint or a religious fanatic. She also challenges the theory that Joan was mad or anorexic or both although Joan’s eating habits, or eating disorders, were a subject for comment even then. Louis de Coutes, a page assigned to her, remarked how “frequently she would eat only a morsel of bread the whole day; it was astonishing how little she ate”.
There have been suggestions that she was psychotic, or a witch, yet Joan was not an odd ball in her own time. Taylor takes great care to emphasise that Joan did not partake in the fasting undertaken by other religious women. Indeed, at court, the same page said “when she was in her lodgings, she ate only two meals a day”, yet there were many Medieval women who were lucky to get two meals a day and who would not have been considered in the same light.
The psychological disorder claims could also give the lie to Joan’s consistent desire to go into battle against the English. There was simply no room for doubt which, however, could be said to be a sign of some psychological disorder. And, of course, there is Joan as feminist icon, taking up a man’s role in leading the French into battle, which would be astonishing even now in the 21st century.
Yet this was a woman who seems to have had contempt for other women, although perhaps this was just loose women because her soldiers, of course, had many enthusiastic females following them in the hope of earning a crust from their lust. Joan, it is said, would charge after the women with her sword in attack mode, and some theorists will no doubt find it telling that Joan used the ultimate phallic symbol of power to chase these poor girls away. Joan also told the soldiers that if they wanted to sleep with the women, then they must wed them first. Based on all this, many would say that Joan was an insufferable, violent prude. Yet whatever theories are ascribed to this girl, and that is really what she was, they are just an example of projecting our own modern preoccupations onto her.
Joan may not always be listened to by theorists in our time, but what is clear is that she was certainly listened to in her own, no doubt helped by her “sharp wit and self confidence”. What we are left with, then, is a girl who had that rare thing, absolute certainty in her own power, unconstrained and heedless of the limitations that were put her way.
Perhaps there will come a time when books on Joan will cease investigating her, and focus on the psychology of those in power who actually listened to a 14 year old girl who heard voices. This account, however, is a clear, concise and illuminating one, which goes some way to present Joan in a more human light. It certainly renewed my interest in a young woman who was once an unbearably constant icon.
