Joan of Arc

Born around 1412 to a peasant family in northeast France, Joan arrived at the court of Charles VII in 1428, testifying that the archangel Michael and two saints had sent her to save France from the English. At seventeen, she was dispatched to the besieged city of Orléans with a relief force in April 1429. The English withdrew nine days later. She pressed the Loire Campaign forward to a decisive win at Patay, then stood beside Charles at his coronation in Reims - victories that restored French morale after decades of losses. But after failed sieges at Paris and La Charité, the court's confidence wavered. Captured by Burgundian allies of England at Compiègne in May 1430, she was sold to the English and tried for heresy by Bishop Pierre Cauchon on charges that included wearing men's clothing and claiming demonic visions. She was burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, about nineteen years old. Twenty-five years later, a church court overturned the verdict as fraudulent. Canonized in 1920, she became a patron saint of France.