The Welcome back, everyone to one thousand one heroes, legends, histories, histories, and mysteries podcast.

Today's story, the incredible true story of Joan of Arc. Part 1. The Prophecy.

The beginning of the true story of the young girl who saved France in its hour of need,

and the prophecy that foretold it.

Her short life was well documented.

The details over every movement and action from her birth in the little village of Don Remy in 1412,

until her death in 1431, having been

compiled through trial testimony involving hundreds of witnesses before and after her death,

from her inquisition, from royal archives, and from public accounts. She is known in English as

Joan of Arc, but she was known and called by the French Jean Dark. She is known in English as Joan of Arc, but she was known and called by the French Jean Dark.

She is today heralded as being one of the most remarkable figures in the story of the human race,

and her extraordinary life is a fascinating tale of devotion, faith, and courage.

In the year 1415 in Europe, the independent nation of France was down on its knees

and very close to surrendering to English rule. They had been at war with France since 1337, a war

which became known as the Hundred Years' War, although it actually lasted 118 years. The war actually began as a conflict over succession

between the English Plantagenet family and the French House of Valois. A series of battles and

broken treaties followed between 1337 and 1412, at which point England had the upper hand. But a stubborn, young, rightful French king,

buoyed up by the will of many of the French people, stood in the way of England, adding France

to their crown. By 1412, the rightful inheritor of the kingship of France, by their code of law,

was the eldest son of the French king, known to the French

as the Dauphine. His name was Charles. He had a host of problems to deal with, among them,

one, it was rumored that he was the illegitimate son of the king, a product of an affair

...