Joan as Leader of Men

In is article “A Woman as Leader of Men: Joan of Arc’s Military Career” Kelly DeVries provides an argument on why the soldiers in Joan’s army chose to be loyal to a young peasant woman.  It would seem to be counterintuitive for the French soldiers to be okay with having a woman as their captain. However, Joan ended up being one of the most influential captains in the Hundred Year’s War. Her soldiers followed her into battle and seemed to have no ill feelings about this, as they all remembered her and her military capabilities fondly years later at the Rehabilitation Trial. DeVries points out that women leaders were rare in the Middle Ages and could even have been used against Joan. He states that “Often, too, the rumor of a woman leading an opposing army had been used by eaters to incite their troops against the obvious heresy, sorcery and immorality of their opponents” (DeVries 4). This is exactly what the English did in response to Joan. One soldier at Orleans asked whether they were expected to surrender to a woman and called her soldiers “unbelieving pimps” (DeVries 4). 

DeVries goes on to argue that Joan shares many similarities with a mercenary captain, who would command large numbers of soldiers who were very loyal and who in return received various forms of payment. In explaining this idea, DeVries says that “Joan did not offer her troops terrestrial possessions; she offered them religious possessions, in particular salvation” (DeVries 5). Joan’s religious presence was very important to her military success. Her faith and the holiness that she represented seemed to make her soldiers that much more loyal to her. DeVries states that Joan’s soldiers “seemed to have welcomed the holiness that she represented, and in fact some marveled and even relished the spirituality of their own existence when with her” (DeVries 12). 

Joan leading the attack on the Tourelles. 

                           By Jules Levenpeu

My research paper is about Joan and other Medieval female warriors. Part of my paper will focus on how Joan was atypical in the fact that she was not only accepted and liked by her fellow soldiers but that she was also respected and followed. DeVries’ analysis of why Joan’s military career was so successful directly relates to my argument. In comparison to other female warriors at the time, Joan did not already command respect because of her family, but she garnered more respect on the battlefield anyway due to her natural talents in warfare, but also because of her religious position. It is easy to prescribe her military success to her military capabilities, but, as DeVries points out, her religious standing is just as important.

 DeVries, Kelly. “A Woman as Leader of Men: Joan of Arc’s Military Career”. In Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc edited by Bonnie Wheeler and Charles T. Wood, 3-18. New York: Garland Publishing, 1996.