Joan of Arc

8 minute lives · Jul 19, 2026 · 7m

Hi there, and welcome to 8 minute lives.Joan of Arc was a teenage girl from a small village in northern France who helped turn the tide of a war, frightened kings and commanders, and then was burned alive at the age of nineteen. Her story sounds almost impossible, which is probably part of why it has lasted for centuries. But the real Joan of Arc is even more interesting than the legend: a peasant daughter who stepped into a brutal national crisis and, for a brief, extraordinary moment, made history move around her.She was born around 1412 in Domrémy, a farming village on the borderlands of…