Joan of Arc, Saint

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Joan of Arc, Saint (1412–31) ( Jeanne d'Arc, Joan of Lorraine or the Maid of Orléans) National heroine of France. A peasant girl, she claimed to hear heavenly voices urging her to save France during the Hundred Years' War. In early 1429, she led French troops in breaking the English siege of Orléans. She drove the English from the Loire towns and persuaded the indecisive dauphin to have himself crowned at Reims as Charles VIII. In 1430 she was captured and handed over to the English. Condemned as a heretic, she was burned at the stake.

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