Joan of Arc in the Hundred Years' War

Joan of Arc (141265438+1October 6-1431May 30) translated by Jean Ducker. French heroine, strategist, Catholic saint (female called saint). Born in a farmhouse. In the Hundred Years' War between Britain and France (1337-1453), she led an army composed of French civilians to resist the British invasion. She was called "Miss Orleans" and became the flag of the patriotic struggle of the French people. Finally, due to the betrayal of the feudal Lord, he was captured and executed.

Joan was originally just an ordinary little girl, born in Dulumi village at the junction of Champaign and Lorraine provinces in France. At that time, northern France was occupied by Britain, and Britain allied itself with the Principality of Burgundy. At that time, East Remy belonged to Barre, Duke of the pro-British-Burgundy Alliance.

She claimed that one day when she was sixteen, she met the angel Saint Michael and Saint Maguire Ryder under the big tree behind the village, which made her "inspired by God" and asked her to lead troops to recover the French lost land occupied by the British at that time. Later, after many twists and turns, he gained the military power, lifted the siege of Orleans in 1429, and led the troops to repel the British invaders many times, which further contributed to the coronation of Charles VII, who had the right to inherit the throne on July 16 of the same year. But Joan of Arc was captured by the Principality of Burgundy in the Battle of 1430 Compiè ne, and was bought by the British for a large sum of money soon (14 July). The inquisition under the control of British authorities sentenced her to the stake for heresy and witch, and she was publicly executed in Rouen, France on May 30th, 143 1. The Inquisition led by Charles VII rehabilitated her in 1456 and was canonized by the Pope in 1920.

Joan of Arc was born in Doremus, a small village in Champaign, in 14 12. My father farmed for a living, and my mother was kind-hearted and raised five children. Joan has been studying sewing and textile at home since she was a child. She said: "In sewing and spinning, it will never be worse than any woman."

Since childhood, Joan has been fond of chanting and praying, diligently taking communion and picking flowers for the temple. Serving patients and poor tourists, Joan is a very kind child and everyone in the village likes her.

When Joan was a child, her family life was very happy. Unfortunately, the situation in that country is deteriorating day by day. British King Henry V invaded and occupied Normandy in an attempt to overthrow the throne of French King charles vi. There was a civil war between the French king and duke of burgundy. After the duke was assassinated, the Burgundy allied with the British and rebelled against the French king.

The kings of Britain and France died one after another, and the Duke of beaufort of England continued to fight the French army as Regent. The French army was defeated, and major cities fell one after another. The French New Charlie Wang VII (who was not crowned at that time) saw that the tide was gone and was depressed. He drinks every day, and his plan to recover lost ground has long been forgotten.

When Joan of Arc 14 years old, she began to get transcendental enlightenment. At first, she heard a voice talking to her nearby; What the eyes see is a strange light. Later, there were more and more voices, and gradually, she could distinguish the face of the revealer. Among them are Saint Michael, Sangalli, Saint Magdalene and other saints. Now she is beginning to realize that an arduous and great task awaits her; She, a peasant girl, should shoulder the heavy responsibility of resisting strong enemies and defending the country. Without hesitation, she went to Huagu Liucheng to meet General Bahrain. The general laughed it off when he saw the village girl bragging.

At that time, the French army was at the end of its rope, and the last fortress of France, Orleans, was surrounded by the British army and could fall at any time. When she returned to Doremus, Joan's magical voice urged her to go to Orleans to command the army. Joan said, "I am a weak woman. I can neither ride a horse nor use a weapon." How can I command the army? " The strange voice said to her, "It's not you who command the war, it's God." So Joan went to see General Balingu again. Last time, Joan met with Bahrain in ancient times and predicted that the French army would be defeated. This prophecy has been completely fulfilled. So this time, Balingu looked at Joan with new eyes. He sent three warriors to escort Joan to the king's palace. Joan changed into men's clothes, and a group of four people arrived at King's Garden on March 6th 1429. On the day of the audience, the king specially modified it and mixed it with the ministers, but Joan recognized him at a glance. This magical voice told Joan a secret in Charlie's heart. This matter, which only Charlie knows, is now hit home by Joan of Arc, and I can't help but admire him very much, convinced that Joan of Arc is the special envoy of God. Joan asked Charlie to assign an army to lead her to Orleans to clear the way. All the court ministers expressed their opposition to the plan. They suspected that the country girl might be insane, and they asked theologians to test whether Joan's words were credible.

After three weeks of detailed examination, theologians agreed that Joan's words were credible and suggested that the king adopt them. An army, quickly organized and ready, has a special flag with two holy names "Jesus, Mary" written on it, and a holy face painted with the Holy Father. Two gods kneel and hold lilies.

The troops set out from Poirot on April 27th and arrived in Orleans two days later (April 29th). Before May 8, the British forts surrounding Orleans were conquered one after another, and Joan herself was wounded by an arrow. All these were predicted by Joan of Arc in advance and will be fulfilled one by one. Joan pursued the enemy and wiped out the main force of the enemy. The road to rice has been completely opened. Joan urged King Charles to come to Les for the coronation ceremony.

1429 In July, Charlie was crowned in Les. When she was crowned, Joan stood beside the king with a military flag. Now Joan's task has been completely completed.

The war was temporarily deadlocked. 1430 In May, the war resumed, the Burgundy people launched an offensive, the city of Compiegne was in an emergency, and Joan led the army to reinforce. On May 23rd, the armies of both sides started fighting, and Joan led several soldiers back to the city. Unexpectedly, the suspension bridge outside the city gate has been demolished, and the enemy soon surrounded her. Joan is alone and gives in easily. Ungrateful Charlie, knowing that Joan was caught, didn't want to save her at all. /kloc-in July of 0/4, the Burgundy handed Joan of Arc to the British. Prisoners of war could not be sentenced, so they accused Joan of witchcraft.

Two days before Christmas, Joan went to Lu Hong. She was locked in a small room, shackled and guarded by soldiers day and night. 1431February 2 1 day, at the beginning of the trial, the judge repeatedly questioned the nature of the magic sound and tried to sentence Joan of Arc to death on charges of Luo Zhi. Joan of Arc, an illiterate village girl, was able to argue with Confucianism and refute the judges speechless.

As a result of the trial, the court convicted Joan of heresy. Those who refuse to repent shall be handed over to administrative organs for handling according to law. Joan firmly denied that she had committed heresy, and repentance was of course rejected. In prison, she claimed that she was sent by God and the magical voice came from heaven. It's all true.

1431May 29th, the judge pronounced that Joan of Arc should be handed over to the administrative organ. At 8 am on the 30th, Joan of Arc was sent to the execution ground. Joan was calm and brave on the execution ground, which moved people to tears. When the firewood was lit, a Dominican priest stepped forward and held the cross high. The flame rose, just surrounding the saint's body. People heard her shouting the holy name of Jesus, and the ruthless flame swallowed up this heroic woman with a sense of loyalty and heaven, and a fragrant soul ascended to heaven.

Joan of Arc was less than 20 when she died. Her ashes were thrown into the Seine. But at that time, many people in the audience expressed sympathy for the virgin. These people are represented by King Henry's secretary, Daisa: "We are in trouble. We killed a saint. "

Twenty-three years later, Joan's mother and brother applied for a retrial of her case. 1456, the pope ordered the organizing Committee to conduct a review. The result of the review is that Joan of Arc is unanimously found innocent, and the so-called heresy charges are all made out of nothing. 1920 may 16, Joan of Arc was honored as a sacred product.

At the Joan of Arc Festival in Reims, France, people dressed up as various images of people living in this land of France in the Middle Ages to remember this historical hero and their ancestors. It is said that more than 2000 people take part in this kind of parade every year. Looking at this long parade in disguise, you seem to have crossed a place you just visited and arrived in medieval France. On this land, Gauls, Romans, Franks, Burgundy, Goths, Vandals, etc. all left their marks. For those who visit this festival for the first time, it is really dazzling to look at this figure with different styles and spanning different historical periods.

the Hundred Year's War

(English: the war of happy years; French: Guerre de Cent Ans) refers to the war between Britain and France, and Burgundy, which was later joined, was the longest war in the world from 1337 to 1453, and lasted intermittently 1 16. During the Hundred Years War, many new tactics and weapons were developed.

Vikings have harassed and invaded the French coast for a long time. During the Carolingian dynasty, Charles III, the Frankish ruler, agreed that these northern Europeans would settle in Normandy on the French coast, and they later established the Principality of Normandy. 1066, normans successfully invaded England under the command of William the Conqueror. From then on, the English court in 150 years was full of French-speaking Anglo-Norman nobles. They ruled England and Normandy. 12 16 The Anglo-Norman rulers lost control of Normandy, but they still controlled some areas along the English Channel in France until the Hundred Years' War.

/kloc-In the 4th century, the French tried to drive the British away from the southwest of France, thus unifying France. Of course, Britain does not want to quit, but wants to recapture the ancestral lands of Normandy, Mann and Anjou. At that time, Britain and France competed for Flanders for trade interests, which deepened the contradiction between the two sides. Because Flanders belongs to France on the surface, it is actually managed separately and often trades wool with Britain. The fuse of the war was that King Edward III of England wanted his next of kin to inherit the French throne when Capello was orphaned in France, but it was finally won by Philip VI, so Edward III declared war on France to seize the French throne. At that time, the Holy Roman Empire and the princes of Flanders sided with Britain, while Scotland and the Pope supported France. At that time, the British army was a mercenary system, consisting of infantry, archers and hired cavalry, under the unified command of the king himself, while the French army was mainly composed of feudal knights. According to the change of the situation, the Hundred Years' War can be roughly divided into four stages.

First stage

The first stage (1337- 1360) was the battle between Flanders and Keane. First of all, in the Battle of Schloss in 1340, the British defeated the French army, seized the sea power and stopped the French invasion. Subsequently, in the battle of keresey in August 1346, the British army gained land superiority, and after a siege of 1 1 month, it successfully occupied the French coastal defense fortress Calais. With the victory, Britain defeated the Scottish invasion in the Battle of Neville Cross and captured the pro-French king David II of Scotland, which greatly reduced the threat of Scotland to Britain. 1348 the black death swept through Europe, and the two countries stopped fighting for ten years, until 1356 Britain went to war again and captured Keith and Gasconi in southwest France. Then he used the same strategy to defeat the French again in the battle of Poitiers. Because of the British blackmail and the economic collapse of France, French civilians launched an uprising. As a result, France was forced to sign an extremely unequal peace treaty in Bretigny in 1360, ceding all the territory from the south of the Loire River to the Pyrenees to Britain.

stage Ⅱ

The second stage (1360- 1400) happened because French king Charles V wanted to avenge himself and recapture the area occupied by Britain. Charles V reorganized its army, hired infantry to replace most cavalry, established field artillery and rebuilt its fleet. Major reforms have also been carried out in the internal affairs, and the tax system has been rectified to appease the people. When the time was ripe, he appointed B. Duguesclin as the commander-in-chief of the army, attacked the British army by surprise and guerrilla tactics, and defeated the British army in many battles. By 1380, the British army had been forced to retreat to the coastal areas. In order to avoid the total loss of French territory, the British king signed an armistice agreement with France, leaving only five ports, namely Bordeaux, Bayonne, Brest, Cherbourg and Calais, and some connecting areas between Bordeaux and Bayonne.

The third stage

In the third stage (14 15- 1429), when there was a conflict between the French Burgundy faction and the Oman Jacques faction, Britain resumed the war, and farmers and citizens also rebelled. 14 15, the British defeated the French in the battle of Ginkul, and then allied with duke of burgundy to capture most of northern France. Unable to organize effective resistance, charles vi, king of France, had to sign a peace treaty in Trouvat on May 26th, 2 1 year, which was almost equivalent to acknowledging the subjugation of France-the Trouvat Peace Treaty. Turn France into a part of Britain and France. King Henry V of England immediately declared himself Regent of France, and he was entitled to inherit the French throne after charles vi's death. However, in 1422, charles vi and Henry V died in the same year. As a result, Charles VII, the new king of France, and Henry VI, the new king of England, once again competed for the French throne, and the Hundred Years' War entered the fourth stage.

The fourth stage

In the fourth stage (1429- 1453), the French people could not bear the oppression of the British army and organized guerrilla warfare in succession, which helped the French army a lot. Guerrillas often set ambushes to catch British tax collectors and destroy the British army, thus achieving the effect of containing Britain. Although in 1428 10, Britain and Burgundy attacked Orleans and surrounded the city, which made the situation of the French army greatly unfavorable, but at this time, Joan of Arc, the savior praised by the ages, appeared in France. Under her command, the French army lifted the British siege of Orleans in May 1429 and won a great victory, thus reversing the situation of the whole war. Although Joan of Arc was quickly captured by the British army and executed for witch crime, it aroused the indignation of the whole country in France and made the French army counterattack on a large scale. 1437, the French army recaptured the capital Paris, 144 1 year regained champagne, 1450 liberated the Marne and Normandy, and then 1453 recaptured Guine. Finally, in June of 1453 65438+ 10/9, the British troops in Bordeaux surrendered, and France recovered all the territories except Calais, thus ending the Hundred Years' War completely.

The Hundred Years' War was a disaster for both the British and the French. It was the time when the Black Death was prevalent. Under the double blow of war and epidemic disease, the economies of Britain and France suffered great trauma and the people were miserable. A western historian once pointed out: "The Hundred Years' War is a massacre game that lasts for a hundred years. When the royal nobles of the two countries celebrated for their own interests, innocent civilians who lost their homes and relatives could only cry silently. The war was fought for a hundred years, and the people cried for a hundred years. "This statement can be said to hit the nail on the head, hit the nail on the head. Because the war was fought on the land of France, France became a land of plenty and many people were homeless. However, France finally achieved the great cause of national reunification because of this war, which laid the foundation for its future expansion in the European continent. After the Hundred Years' War, Britain not only gained nothing, but also lost almost all its territory in France, forcing it to give up its attempt to dominate the mainland and turn to the ocean, thus embarking on the road of maritime empire.

The Hundred Years' War lasted from the middle of the Middle Ages to the fifteenth century, and its end year was also considered as one of the signs of the end of the Middle Ages. In the course of the war, the weapons, equipment and tactical ideas of both sides have undergone slow and profound changes, and the process of the war has also prompted the adjustment of the war system of the warring parties.

/kloc-at the beginning of the war in the 0/4th century, the two sides mainly adopted the aristocratic military system in medieval western Europe, and the lords raised troops. As an expeditionary British, because this traditional military service system limited the time for lords to serve the king, they began to use mercenaries from lower-class nationals and corresponding longbow tactics in the war. Similarly, for France, the continuous large-scale war forced the ruling class to gather forces to deal with foreign enemies, prompting the royal family to pay more attention to its own power instead of distributing it to the following lords. Therefore, when the war finally ended, both warring parties successively embarked on the road of centralization.

Britain's several victories in the war were also considered as serious challenges and broke the characteristics of western European aristocratic cavalry occupying a military monopoly. Since then, although France, the victorious country, has retained a large number of traditions of heavy cavalry, the awareness that infantry can defeat cavalry has been fully popularized, which has influenced and promoted the further major transformation of infantry status in the15-16th century. In the initial large-scale campaign, the French insisted on using heavy cavalry to attack directly, but in the battle of Ginkul in the15th century, they also partially accepted their opponents' ideas and began to dismount the cavalry and fight on foot, which could explain the subtle changes in the status of cavalry and infantry in the war. In the Hundred Years' War, the French army, representing knights and nobles, suffered repeated battles and defeats in large-scale battles. Finally, Joan of Arc, a commoner, inspired morale and won the final victory, which also marked the retreat of aristocratic chivalry and the rise of national war consciousness.

In the past 100 years, the weapons and equipment of both sides have also undergone improvement and evolution. /kloc-At the beginning of the war in the 4th century, the best armor at that time was still chain mail, which had been used in the history of Europe for 1000 years. In the middle and late period of the war in the 5th century, the new plate armor had become a common equipment for noble knights. Compared with the former, this new equipment greatly improves the protection ability. 15 13 The battle of Floden made the British longbow tactics, which had ruled for 300 years, face the plate armor, and it has lost its effectiveness. In the continuous siege war, both sides also attach importance to the design and application of siege weapons. Later, the French army began to use gunpowder and artillery as weapons on a large scale and won, and it had a leading position in science and technology in these new weapons, which prompted a new form of war.