This episode contains descriptions of violence and might not be suitable for everyone.

Listener discretion is advised.

Hello and welcome to a new series of Legacy.

This time we're talking about a young woman, a girl even,

who helped change the course of French history. She's been called the Saviour of France,

a she warrior. A saint to some, a heretic to others, a young woman of incredible courage and

determination. In her day, revered and hated in equal measure.

May the 30th is her Saints' Day, still marked 600 years after her death at the age of just 19.

And it was that death, an appalling, cruel and public end, that helped form her legend.

Was she sent from God to free France and to put the rightful king on the throne? What drove her, real or imagined, can still be debated,

but hers is a legend that's endured through the centuries.

Music From Wondery and Goalhanger, I'm Peter Franka Pan.

I'm F. Wahirsch.

And this is Legacy, the show that tells the lives of the most extraordinary men and women ever to have lived, and asks if they have the reputation that they deserve.

This is Joan of Arc, Episode 1, The Maid of Orillon.

Thank you. This is Joan of Arc, Episode 1, The Maid of O'Leon.

The sun is beginning to go down and the still air is cooling.

A young girl, maybe 13, in a faded red dress, is walking down the dry track towards the field,

where her father is cutting corn.

From the village, she can hear the church bell ringing. I'll have to bake Warden Perrin cake, she thinks to herself.

It is only my cakes that help him remember to ring the mass bell,

and we must remember our services.

...