Of course Joan has to be in any list of the most amazing girls in the world.  The question is, was she nuts, or did she really hear God talk to her?  Another question is, she was so scorchingly rad, does it even matter?

Born in 1412 in Eastern France during the Hundred Years’ War between the English and the French, Joan first became famous as a teenager, when she claimed that angels and God had spoken to her.  According to Joan, God wanted her to ensure that the dauphin, otherwise known as the future Charles VII, King of France, was crowned in Reims, France.  As Charles’s right to the throne was being contested because of the war, he asked her to help out at the siege of Orleans, where the English were annihilating the French. 

Joan road out to the site of the conflict, where French citizens were hiding in terror behind the city walls as the English bombarded them. Joan inspired the French soldiers to fight to the death, and cut a wild, fierce figure in her shining armor.  Though Joan wasn’t a master swordswoman herself, she ran out to the heat of the battle, screaming at the French to defend Orleans; under her guidance, her army killed more than 100 English soldiers, their first victory against the English in the Hundred Years’ War.  The English, for their part, literally thought that Joan was supernatural, because they didn’t think it was possible that a girl could ever show so much bravery.  Afraid that they were going to get struck down either by God or the Devil, they fled. 

Soon after, Joan was able to accompany Charles to Reims, and stand by as he was crowned.So, what do you think happened?  Was Joan given a castle and a bunch of servants and pretty pony?  Did the King say “Gee, thanks Joan, you’re so totally great and I love you?”  No.  Joan was far too powerful a figure, and threatened Charles’s own supremacy.  So, when she was captured by the Burgundians (at the time, they were a separate state from France), he didn’t intervene, or offer to pay her ransom, as was customary for great warriors at the time.  Instead, the Burgundians sold Joan to the English, who then tried her as a witch.  Among other “crimes” they accused her of committing was refusing to wear women’s clothing, as she preferred to don a soldier’s gear.  Obviously, a girl in pants was a sorceress.Yup, they burned her. 

Though Joan paid for her stubbornness and courage with her life, her stellar reputation as a leader, stylish cross-dresser, visionary, and fierce warrior never waned.  The Catholic church changed her mind about her, and she was canonized as a saint on May 16, 1920.  They were only 500 years too late.