Joan of Arc

People & Places

By: iMinds

Narrated by: Luca James Lee

Length: 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Learn about Joan of Arc with iMinds insightful audio knowledge series.It is said that when Joan of Arc was born on 6 January in 1412, the roosters in her village all crowed, even though it was midnight.

When Joan was 13 years old, something happened to change her life. She was working in the garden when she thought she saw a bright light coming from the church, and heard someone speaking French in a sweet, low, beautiful voice. The voice told her it was the angel Saint Michael, and that he had a message from God. He told her she had a great mission to fulfill, and that she would be the one to save France.

France had been at war with England for 92 years - what would later be known as the Hundred Years War. The English were trying to conquer France, and were succeeding. But the conflict had been raging for so long that there were barely any soldiers left, and both sides had to rely on mercenaries from Spain and Italy. Both countries were poor and exhausted, but there was no end in sight.

Perfect to listen to while commuting, exercising, shopping or cleaning the house.. iMinds brings knowledge to your MP3 with 8 minute information segments to whet your mental appetite and broaden your mind.

iMinds offers 12 main categories; become a Generalist by increasing your knowledge of Business, Politics, People, History, Pop Culture, Mystery, Crime, Culture, Religion, Concepts, Science and Sport. Clean and concise, crisp and engaging, discover what you never knew you were missing.

iMinds is the knowledge solution for the information age cutting through the white noise to give you quick, accurate knowledge .. Perfect your dinner party conversation, impress your boss - an excellent way to discover topics of interest for the future.

©2009 iMinds Pty Ltd (P)2009 iMinds Pty Ltd

Critic reviews

"I'm learning all sorts of stuff about stuff I didn't even know I didn't know. And it sticks. In a nutshell: wonderful." (Jonathon Margolis, Financial Times)

Joan Was Born and the Roosters Crowed

This seven minute listen is packed with information that I didn't know. For instance when she was born on 6 January in 1412 at midnight all the roosters in the small village crowed. A very interesting short, Joan of Arc explains the calling of a thirteen-year-old girl to save France. Everyone has heard of Joan of Arc, but few probably know the details included in this very informative listen. Don't miss it.

another short story

certainly not a book but a short wiki article, this did at least have some new to me info. still not worth what I paid. we are talking 20 minutes..

Reasons for Jeanne’s experience

Why didn’t the author include in possible reasons for Jeanne’s experience that she was telling the truth, and in fact the Archangel Michael may have spoken to her with voices from God?

Also dislike: the audio’s incomplete coverage of basic facts and possibly incorrect historical information. there are many, many original source documents, written by the clergy of the Catholic Church and separately written by both the French and English governments (the originals from the early 1400s are mostly in France today) that recorded in great detail Jeanne’s life, accomplishments and trials. She was tried by the English, by the Catholic Church and by the French monarchy at the time on allegations related to her military career (including testimony of her companions — a core group of men who fought by her side and tried to protect her — and other eye witnesses such as generals and soldiers she led into battles).

This audio story leaves out a lot of critical information — particularly about the years she spent requesting a very small army, so small it shouldn’t really be called an “army,” from a nobleman, the governor of her home region in France. She failed, was laughed at and called crazy for years, by both the governor and his associates and people in her hometown (who shunned or ostracized her). She was very persistent, and after years the governor granted her request for a small group of men or ‘tiny army’ to ride across hostile English-held territory to go speak with the King (not yet coronated) to convince him to let her lead France’s entire army to free France from England. England was going to win the 100 year war fought because the English King claimed France as one of England’s territories (the English King claimed the throne of France).

God gave her miraculous military victories against the English on her way to see the French King — that is the reason for the fake-King set-up and the French King’s decision to allow Jeanne to lead the French army in an attack against the English to reclaim French territory. For instance, a series of unlikely events (that Jeanne and her soldiers weren’t aware of at the time) all worked together perfectly in Jeanne’s favor to allow her to win against England, otherwise she and her tiny army would definitely have been defeated/killed in their encounter with the entire English army in France. No one knew or imagined that this particular series of events could occur, involving amazingly lucky timing for Jeanne over several days, bad decisions by the English General (which the General only made because of incorrect information given to him by an English soldier (who truly believed the misinformation through another unlikely series of events), and Jeanne following the voice of God even though she didn’t know at the time why the voice of God gave her directions she didn’t understand. Jeanne was able to win against a massively, massively larger English army and escape the English army when they regrouped and realized what had happened, by burning the only nearby bridge over a large river after she and her soldiers crossed it, so that the re-grouped English army could not pursue them.