Today we kick off a week of celebrations for a certain victory, by a certain person, over a certain country.
Who was the person?
Which country was defeated?
When did it happen?
As a clue here is the poster advertising the celebrations and plastered all over Orléans.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Since the illustration is clearly Manga, and you live on a different planet from the sensible people here, it’s clearly
Hana Yori
The alien invaders who do all that wierd stuff like abducting people – when did they let you go, btw,
The Japanese style of art chosen suggests the French are trying to appeal to a wider audience than the French, in particular to appeal to the young.
it is very much a festival for the young. The heroine is a 17 year old teenager.
We seek to influence our young people and make sure they do not forget our history.
Ah so.
花より男子 Hana Yori Dango – ‘Boys over Flowers’. Thank you Bravo.
The best-selling shōjo manga in Japan of all time. Very popular in downtown Orléans, on croit.
Do you remind your young that Charles VII did absolutely nothing to ransom her from the Burgundians… or are they just taught hatred of the English for burning her?
Well the tart in white, trussed up to a pyre looks like the winner in that shot to me.
The french always did have a funny idea about winners. MoO, as a general rule the winner is the one who does not end up dead. 🙂
Boadicea, I understood that it was in fact the Catholic church that burned the girl. The English commander was horrified by this, but of course the church could not condone a peasant girl claiming that God spoke to her when He should have been chatting to bishops and cardinals. Does this count as child abuse, do you suppose?
Not if a priest does it, Sheona. That’s just spreading the love of God. 😦
Sheona. Trials for heresy were conducted in Church courts – but the Church did not carry out sentences which involved ‘loss of limb or life’. Those found guilt of heresy were ‘relaxed’ to the secular authority for punishment.
There is no doubt, well not in my mind, that the court which convicted her was exceedingly partisan and the proceedings highly suspect. The Pope ordered an investigation of the proceedings in 1452, and more or less said that the bishop in charge of the court was a heretic for convicting an innocent woman for secular reasons.
She had several things against her: she was a woman, she was a peasant – and worst of all she led an army which had beaten the English. She really had no chance.
An example of man’s inhumanity to man.
Sorry Sheona – missed your last bit. She was held in a secular prison (she should have been held in an ecclesiastical prison) and there seems to be clear evidence that she was raped during her imprisonment.
We are taught that a few burgundians, who were not French and were the English allies, were corrupted by the English who bought her. We are the told that the English pulled all the strings behind the scenes during the trial, corrupting all and sundry and put on a show trial. Nothing much has changed in 500 years.
My sons were and my wife is a teacher.
I see the euro is bang in trouble, I wonder if france will be dropped in it, when the crash comes I may buy a little flat in Paris as they will be going for peanuts, thank goodness Great Britain stayed out of the whole sorry eurozone.
You really can’t help it can you RoO? I give, what I consider to be an unbiased account, which more or less matches yours – but you just have to twist the tale to include a snipe at England.
I suppose it’s understandable that you’re a bit bitter – it must be dispiriting to have to go back nearly 600 years to find a victory to celebrate…
Thanks for the extra information,Boadicea. It’s a pleasure to read it, unlike the idiocy of madoforleans. Next thing we know, he’ll be telling us that all the French bankers involved in credit crunch problems were in fact descendants of those Burgundians “corrupted by the English”.
The idea that the Catholic Church allowed anyone to “pull its strings behind the scenes” is of course just ludicrous.
Boa I did appreciate your post, thank you. And as you say I got things pretty much right.
RoO – I’m proud of being English, but I’m not so blind as to think that England has always acted ethically. I did warn you that you might be surprised at my attitude towards Jeane.
I understand the ‘objectives’ behind the poster that you have reproduced here. But it really quite stunned me – I think that it trivialises her, her achievement and her sacrifice. But, of course, that’s only the opinion of an Englishwoman who has a great admiration for a Frenchwoman… 🙂
I’ve just recognised the girl in the poster. It’s Jinx, as in Wendy and Jinx, characters in a girls’ magazine many years ago. It’s the same hair colour and cut. Well Wendy and Jinx were always getting out of scrapes and solving problems, so I’m glad she’s managed to help Orleans too.