Joan of Arc I

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Joan was born in the village of Domremy, France, in 1412. She lived in final stages of the so-called Hundred Years’ War, a series of sporadic conflicts fought on French soil between England and France from 1337 to 1453. Beginning with the Norman Invasion in 1066, the monarchs of England were French, often more interested in pursuing their destinies and expanding their territory on the continent than in England itself. Through marriage, the royal houses of the two countries had become linked and it was inevitable that at one point an English King would be able to make a convincing claim to the throne of France. In the 1330s it happened. With the death of French King Charles IV in 1328, the Capetian dynasty came to an end. Sixteen-year-old King Edward III of England had a strong claim to France through his mother, the dead French king’s sister. By artful manipulation French nobles blocked Edward’s claim and installed in his place a royal nephew, Philip of Valois. Edward acquiesced but in 1337 Philip confiscated the rich Duchy of Acquitaine, Edward’s vast holdings in southwestern France