Joan of Arc Breaks Siege at Orléans

A crossbow bolt struck Joan of Arc between the neck and shoulder as she led an assault on the Tourelles fortification at Orleans on May 7, 1429. She pulled the iron point from her flesh, pressed a cloth to the wound, and returned to the fighting. By nightfall, the English garrison had abandoned the fortification, and the siege that had strangled Orleans for seven months was broken. Joan was seventeen years old. The Siege of Orleans was the critical military engagement of the Hundred Years' War's final phase. England and its Burgundian allies controlled northern France, and the Dauphin Charles, uncrowned heir to the French throne, held only scattered territories south of the Loire. Orleans, positioned on the river's north bank, was the last major obstacle to an English advance into the Dauphin's remaining strongholds. If Orleans fell, France's cause was likely finished. Joan arrived at the besieged city on April 29 after convincing the Dauphin's court at Chinon that God had sent her to save France. She had no military training. She was an illiterate peasant girl from Domremy who claimed to hear the voices of Saints Michael, Catherine, and Margaret. The Dauphin, desperate and politically cornered, gave her armor, a banner, and a small escort. The military situation was less hopeless than legend suggests. English forces numbered only about 5,000 and were spread across a series of fortified positions surrounding the city. French reinforcements and supplies had been arriving before Joan's appearance. What Joan provided was not strategy but something military commanders could not manufacture: moral transformation. The French garrison, which had been passive and demoralized for months, attacked with reckless aggression once she arrived. The assault on the Tourelles on May 7 was the decisive action. French troops stormed the fortified bridgehead from both sides of the river while Joan, visibly wounded and refusing to withdraw, rallied the attack. English commander Sir William Glasdale drowned when the drawbridge collapsed under retreating soldiers. The remaining English positions were abandoned within two days. Orleans was free, and Joan led the Dauphin to his coronation at Reims Cathedral two months later.