SAINT JOAN OF ARC: TEENAGE PROJECT

By Chris Tobin

Contents

Video Clip Background Info Food/Diet Fashion Money/Lifestyle Punishment/Rules Culture Entertainment Education

Video

Background Information Saint Joan of Arc or The Maid of Orleans (French: Jeanne d'Arc). 1412 – 30 May

1431 is considered a national heroine of France and a Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed Divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII.

She was captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, tried by an ecclesiastical court, and burned at the stake when she was nineteen years old. Twenty-five years after the execution, Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, pronounced her innocent and declared her a martyr.

She was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920. She is, along with St. Denis, St. Martin of Tours, St. Louis IX, and St. Theresa of Lisieux, one of the patron saints of France. Joan asserted that she had visions from God which instructed her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege of Orleans as part of a relief mission.

She gained prominence when she overcame the dismissive attitude of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. Several more swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims and settled the disputed succession to the throne. Down to the present day, Joan of Arc has remained a significant figure in Western culture. From Napoleon onward, French politicians of all leanings have invoked her memory

Food/Diet

Joan , her friends , family and mostly everyone she knew (peasants) ate mainly barley. Sometimes they made their barley into bread, and sometimes into pancakes or pizza, and sometimes into barley porridge (like oatmeal) and sometimes into barley soup. But every day, breakfast, lunch and dinner, most of every meal was barley.

As much as they could, the poor people found other things to eat with their barley to make more of a verity. They grew carrots and onions and cabbage and garlic to put in their soup, and they made cheese to eat with their bread and melt on their pizza, and they gathered apples and pears and mushrooms as well, so they could make apple pies or baked apples. And they tried to get honey to sweeten their treats. They grew herbs like basil and rosemary to flavour their food. Mostly poor people drank ale or beer in England and Germany, wine in France and Italy and Spain. Even the beer was made from barley!

Fashion

Joan wore simple female peasant clothes as a young child but from her departure from Vaucouleurs she wore men's clothes. This raised questions in her own era and raised other questions in the twentieth century. The technical reason for her execution was a biblical clothing law. The nullification trial reversed the conviction in part because the condemnation proceeding had failed to consider the doctrinal exceptions to that stricture.

In terms of policy, she was safe to disguise herself as a page . People on her side at her trail said she continued to wear male clothing in prison to prevent “molestation” and rape.

Money/Lifestyle Joan was a simple village girl , she spent

most of her time at church. Her parents owned about 50 acres (20

hectares) 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 north-eastern territory that remained loyal to the French crown despite being surrounded by Burgundian lands. Several local raids occurred during her childhood and on one occasion her village was burned.

Joans Birthplace

Punishment/Ruels

Joan grew up in in patriarchal society, the church had many laws and rules which you had to abide by or be made to face the consequences.

Types of Crimes:-Witchcraft-Vagrancy-Theft-Smuggling

Types of Punishments :-Hanging-Burning-Pillory-Whipping-Branding-The Wheel

Culture

Medieval CultureIn the feudal system society was organized as a “pyramid”. The clergy and nobles were at the top, peasants at the bottom. Peasants, like Joan, worked on the land and lived in rough huts, which they often shared with their animals. They slept on straw mattresses on the floor. In the middle were the scientists, merchants, craftsmen and yeoman farmers.

Joan came under the two category's of

WomenWomen were seen as helpless, stupid but beautiful, and pure.

MerchantsMerchants bought and sold goods such as furs and wool. Some became very wealthy and started the first banks. Merchants and craftsmen formed powerful associations called guilds. They sold their goods at fairs where people gathered to trade and to have fun.

Entertainment

Because Joan was a peasant she would do things like , go to fairs ,and take part in festivals hosted by the church.

She was very religious and spent most of her time at the church.

Eduction

Joan was very under educated by the time of her death.

She would be on the farm working rather than learning to read and write , which was only open to rich , boys.