After “The Making of Joan of Arc,” the married couple Caroline and Thierry Dehayes proceed their investigations into the Maid of France as much as the citadel of Jaulny (54) the place one can nonetheless admire the portrait of Joan des Armoises.
They’re academics, historical past and literature professors in Le Mans. However Caroline and Thierry Dehayes may simply as nicely have been cops conducting meticulous investigations in quest of the perpetrator(s) of sordid crimes, monitoring down drug trafficking networks, or searching down the massive pictures of mafia networks. Nothing of the kind. Their analysis focuses on a unprecedented historic determine who modified the course of our historical past and whose life and loss of life stay shrouded in thick thriller. Who was this medieval lady who dared to interrupt free from all of the codes and taboos of her time and whom we mistakenly name Joan of Arc?
A fantasy fabricated from entire fabric
To reply this straightforward query, Caroline and Thierry Dehayes went searching. They searched libraries, private and non-private archives, visited dozens of castles and cathedrals, and questioned witnesses (from that period). And at last, they revealed two works.
The primary, in 2021, is titled “The Making of Joan of Arc.” The authors reveal, with supporting proof, that the parable of the little Lorraine shepherdess who saved the King of France was fabricated from entire fabric. A legend designed to feed the nationwide narrative. No, Joan, referred to as “of Arc,” was not born in Domrémy, she was not a shepherdess, she was not burned at Rouen on an amazing pyre. Nor was she the daughter of poor laborers, however a princess of royal blood. Joan of the Lily, Maid of France, was the daughter of the Queen of France, Isabeau of Bavaria, and her infamous lover, Louis of Orléans.
A Second Life
The second work titled “The Second Lifetime of Joan of Arc, A Lorraine Firebrand,” revealed in June 2025, is the logical sequel to the primary. The authors talk about with ample element and irrefutable paperwork the lifetime of Joan after Wednesday, Might 30, 1431, the date of the well-known pyre of Rouen, till her loss of life presumably in 1449.
The Maid of France reappears in 1436; she is acknowledged by all, notably by her brothers Pierre and Petit Jean, but in addition by the residents of Metz, the bourgeois of Orléans, by Bishop Regnault de Chartres—the exact same who topped King Charles VII at Reims. And even by the king! The paperwork are there. Incontestable. The authors go even additional; they study Joan’s banner beneath a magnifying glass, her coat of arms, the assorted statues and pictures of the Maid left over time. The clues are quite a few. Each confirms the beforehand gathered parts and opens towards new leads, every another stable than the final.
Sculptures on the Beams
As much as the citadel of Jaulny, in Meurthe-et-Moselle, the place Joan of the Lily, Maid of France, who turned Girl Joan des Armoises, lived. It’s right here that one can nonetheless admire her portrait in medallion on the fireside of the ceremonial salon, dealing with her husband, the knight Robert des Armoises.
Caroline and Thierry Dehayes additionally found on the beams of the outdated citadel enigmatic sculptures for an uninformed eye. However which, for them, consult with a determine from the king’s entourage. The ornamentation of the medieval beams brings us again to Joan and her illustrious lineage.
The authors proceed their quest for clues all the best way to the church of Pulligny-sur-Madon (54), then their investigation leads them to the royal basilica of Cléry-Saint-André.
No, Joan of Arc just isn’t the little uneducated and virtually idiotic shepherdess of our historical past books, as Caroline and Thierry Dehayes brilliantly reveal. However a girl of excessive delivery with a powerful character whose religion and braveness modified the course of Historical past.
“The Making of Joan of Arc” by Thierry and Caroline Dehayes (Atlande Publishing) €19
“The Second Lifetime of Joan of Arc, A Lorraine Firebrand,” by Caroline and Thierry Dehayes (Atlande Publishing). Preface by the brand new house owners of Jaulny citadel, Emmanuel Pénétrat and Aurore Thiébaut. June 2021. €21
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