Month: February 2012

Joan of Arc: Teenage Warrior and Saint

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Joan of Arc was still a teenager when she appealed to her local lord to meet with Charles and fight to put him on the French throne. The lord didn’t decide to help Joan right away. Eventually, however, he gave in and sent Joan to see the Dauphin Charles. When she finally met Charles, she told him, “I bring you news from God, that our Lord will give you back your kingdom, bringing you to be crowned at Rheims, and driving out your enemies…Do you set me bravely to work, and I will raise the siege of Orleans.” Charles had her tested by churchmen to decide if her voices were real and if she could really help him take the throne. She convinced the priests that her instructions came from God, and Charles agreed to prepare Joan for battle. Once again, Joan found herself in a position that few medieval women ever had—leader of an army.

As Joan got ready for battle, she wore men’s clothes and was fitted for a suit of armor. She didn’t care if people gossiped about the way she dressed because even as a child she did what she thought was right. Now she believed the right thing was to help the French city of Orleans, which was surrounded by English troops.

She marched to Orleans with a force of 4,000 men. Though others thought her strange, her troops respected her because she traveled for miles with them and never complained. She arrived with her troops in April 1429. She met with Count Jean de Dunois, the defender of Orleans. Together, they won small skirmishes with the English outside the city before attacking English forces that surrounded Orleans. Though wounded by an arrow, Joan continued to urge her troops on. She shouted to them “Courage! Do not fall back: in a little the place will be yours.” Once again she was correct and English forces marched away from the city.

After a few more French victories, Joan accompanied Charles to Rheims, the city where French kings were crowned. On July 17, 1429, with Joan at his side, Charles VII became king of France. It was a triumphant moment for Joan, whose voices proved to be correct; however, she desired to drive the English out of France completely. She disagreed with Charles that English allies, the Burgundians, could be trusted to make peace. She led her men to an area around Paris, which was held by the English. Although she managed to convince some of the townspeople to pledge their loyalty to Charles, the voices that had always promised good things now warned her that she would be captured.

While trying to attack another city near Paris, Joan was taken prisoner by the Burgundians. After spending months in prison, the Burgundians sent Joan to the English for her trial. The churchmen conducting the trial were sympathetic to the English and did not want Joan to go free so she could inspire her countrymen to fight again. They accused her of being a heretic, which meant that her religious beliefs went against the wishes of the church. Joan was convicted and sentenced to be burned in the marketplace in the town of Rouen. When Joan of Arc died, a bystander correctly observed, “we are lost; we have burned a saint.”

The Making of a Warrior: The Childhood of Joan of Arc

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When most historians write about Joan of Arc, they tell us about her achievements, but don’t focus much on her childhood. Yet her childhood experiences contributed to the brave warrior she later became.

Joan was born around January 1412 to a farmer and his wife in northeastern France. Both of Joan’s parents, Jacques and Isabelle, earned the respect of the village of Domremy. Joan’s father was the local sergeant with a reputation for fairness. Villagers admired Isabelle because she completed a religious pilgrimage to Rome. Bad roads and bands of robbers made traveling in the Middle Ages dangerous for anyone, but especially for women. Considering her reputation, it is not surprising that Isabelle raised at least one adventurous daughter.

Most children during the Middle Ages did not go to school. As a farmer’s daughter, Joan learned to spin wool and do household chores from her mother. Sometimes she helped her father with the livestock. The most important lessons Joan learned were her prayers. She later said, “From my mother I learned ‘Our Father,’ ‘Hail Mary,’ and ‘I believe.’ And my teaching in my faith I had from her and no one else.”

The religious instruction she received from her mother made a great impact on Joan. Other children in the village played games when they finished their chores, but Joan usually went to church instead. She liked to visit the village’s shrine of the Virgin Mary and she prayed a lot. Her friends teased her about going to church so much, but Joan didn’t mind. Even as a girl, Joan decided to do whatever she thought she should without worrying about other people’s opinions.

The simple life Joan had as a farmer’s daughter changed in 1425 when some English foot soldiers and their allies, the Burgundians, attacked her village. Joan’s family was spared, but much of the village was set on fire. Domremy lay in an area of France that both the English and French wanted to control. At the time, the English were winning most of the skirmishes while the French Dauphin [heir to throne] Charles was pushed aside.

Soon after the raid, Joan started to hear voices that she believed came from Catholic saints. She said when she first heard the voices, she “was terrified.” At first, St. Michael told her only to be good and pray. Eventually, however, St. Catherine and St. Margaret also spoke to her and they told her to do something medieval women never did. They said that she must “go to succor [help] the King of France” by “raising a siege.” She protested that she was only a girl who knew nothing about warfare, but the voices insisted. Determined to listen to God’s will and help her country, Joan decided to visit her local lord. She needed to convince him to give her soldiers so she could plan her siege and restore the French king to power.

George Washington and the American Press

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As we prepare to celebrate President’s Day and George Washington’s Birthday, it’s tempting to think of our first president as an icon who was beloved by the American people at all times. As the victorious general in the American Revolution and the first president, much of the public admired Washington. Like all presidents who came after him, however, even George Washington could not escape criticism in the press.

In the late eighteenth century, newspapers didn’t claim to stick to the facts or be objective. One particular paper, the National Gazette, criticized President Washington throughout his presidency. Every time Washington threw a birthday party for himself, the Gazette complained about it. After his sixty-first birthday, the Gazette stated, “who will deny, that the celebrating of birth days is not a striking feature of royalty? We hear of no such thing during the republic of Rome.” Perhaps the Gazette failed to realize that most people in ancient Rome did not live to be sixty-one. Anyway, the paper was determined to label Washington as wishing to act as a king—an idea that horrified revolutionaries who had just escaped the rule of the King of England.

Another paper, the Aurora, published rumors about Washington’s disloyalty to America when he served as General of the Army. The letters portrayed him as a “lukewarm patriot”, which was untrue. Even when the army suffered from bad weather or defeat in battle, Washington was determined to defeat the British. The paper did not bother to check the source of the letters as might be expected today. Instead the paper’s owner printed what he liked, and he liked to criticize Washington.

The usually mild-mannered Washington lost his temper with these attacks on his character. According to Thomas Jefferson, he once swore at an article in the Aurora, something he rarely did in front of others. Even before becoming president, Washington had never been a fan of the press. As a general he complained that reporters hurt the American cause by revealing too much information. As president, he publicly pretended not care what the press said, though in letters to friends he wrote that he was tired of being attacked “by a set of infamous scribblers.” Personal attacks by his countrymen hurt him in a way that no enemy ever had.

Some historians claim that Washington retired from the presidency after two terms to show the press that he did not want to become king, though other reasons like ill health also played a role. Still, by retiring to his plantation, Washington could finally silence critics who wanted to portray him as a man obsessed with power. Now the press would have to turn its wrath on another president.

The Customs of Valentine’s Day: Sending Valentines

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If your school has a Valentine’s Day party, you may be looking forward to sharing valentines with your classmates next week. Or maybe you’re planning to give a special valentine to a boy or girl you really like. Whoever you send your valentines to this year, you probably haven’t heard the history of Valentine’s Day cards.

The Duke of Orleans, a French nobleman who was captured by the British during a war, wrote the first valentine in 1415. He missed his wife very much and sent her love letters during his captivity. He filled his letters with poems that had rhyming verses.

The concept of sending similar letters caught on as more people learned to read and write. By the 1800s, the handmade Valentine’s Day card became popular in Britain. Many of the valentines made during the reign of Queen Victoria, known as Victorian valentines, had fancy ribbons and lace on them. At this stage, the cards were still made on single sheets of paper. The British postal service was always busy on Valentine’s Day delivering handmade cards.

In America, Valentine’s Day was not popular right away. Part of the reason was that few women came to the colonies in the early days so men had no sweethearts who expected cards. By the mid-1700s, some Americans exchanged handmade Valentine’s Day cards. Though not as sophisticated as British valentines, colonists found clever ways to make cards attractive. For example, women might use their sewing needles to poke tiny holes around a romantic verse, creating a pinprick border. If someone couldn’t write poetry, they could still send valentines thanks to British imported booklets that offered stumped lovers the verses they needed for a card.

In the mid-1800s, creating Valentine’s Day cards became a commercial business. Esther Howland designed the first commercial valentines in the U.S. Although businesswomen were rare in the 1800s, Esther set up her own workspace and sold valentines in her father’s stationary store. She used fine materials like lace and embossed paper.

Today sending valentines is still very popular, and people can choose from a wide variety of romantic, funny, or sweet cards to send to sweethearts or friends. In fact, in the U.S. Valentine’s Day is second only to Christmas in greeting card sales.Machine-made valentines appeared around 1880. Though the cards were cheaper they were also not as personal as early valentines. By the 1900s, valentines were often hinged so they could stand and be displayed. Some had moveable parts. For example,  one card showed a cherubic girl whose eyes moved with the pull of a tab.

Wife of the Pharaoh: The Role of Ancient Egyptian Queens

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The pharaohs decided how much we know about their queens because men commissioned the building of monuments like temples and tombs. Unfortunately, most wives did not have much written about them. Yet the Egyptians left us with a blueprint for the perfect Egyptian queen in the story of their goddess Isis and her husband Osiris. After her husband’s brother killed Osiris so he could steal the throne of Egypt, Isis searched for Osiris’ body. She brought him back to life long enough so they could have a son named Horus. Isis then protected her son from her jealous brother-in-law until he was old enough to reign as pharaoh.

Like Isis, Egyptian queens were supposed to support their husbands and bear children. Yet in times of crisis, they could be called upon to act on behalf of their husband or son. Some queens ruled their country temporarily while their husbands were away on military campaigns. Others stepped in as Queen Regent for a son who inherited the throne at a young age. Mainly, however, a queen’s role was defined by her relationship with the king.

Following the tradition of Isis and Osiris, all pharaohs were expected to marry.  Pharaohs married wives that were chosen for them, but there is no record of how they were picked. Many came from the royal family so the king would have a wife who was trained to help in a crisis and who was supposedly trustworthy. Queens like Nefertiti and others were born commoners, however, so the idea of a non-royal wife for a pharaoh was apparently acceptable. Perhaps commoners received acceptance because in the story of Isis and Osiris, relatives were not always loyal.

In ancient Egypt, the word queen is translated as King’s Wife. Yet Egyptian pharaohs were polygamous, meaning they had more than one wife. Polygamy demonstrated the wealth of the pharaoh and provided insurance that he would have an heir. Only one wife, known as the King’s Great Wife, would be featured in official records. She hoped to earn the title King’s Mother by giving birth to a son who would become pharaoh. If she did not accomplish this, another lesser wife might receive the title.

While she lived, however, the King’s Great Wife served as the embodiment of Isis—the perfect complement to her husband who was thought to be half god and half human. Together, she and the king would serve the gods and rule their people, keeping order in their kingdom.