On our third crossover post in “fashion statements that made history” with myself and Katie McGowan, I am featuring Joan of Arc and her male attire for battle.
Jeanne d’Arc, aka “the Maid of Orleans,” was highly conscientious about the way gender played into her self-perception as the military leader chosen by God to lead the French monarchy into victory over the English who threatened her homeland. Born in 1412, Joan was about thirteen years old when she claimed to see holy visions from saints and an archangel who gave her directions to approach the French King Charles VII and ask him for an army to lead against the English. Amazingly, he did, setting up one of the rarest events in all history — when a peasant girl successfully commanded a militia to topple a major invading force.
Although Joan’s sex certainly was atypical for military leaders, it was in no way incidental to the way she finagled her way into power. She very much played off the fact that she was a young virgin, allowing her body to be examined numerous times for verification: her purity gave her troops high morale and made them feel morally justified in their cause.
But Joan also dressed like men in battle, and this enraged her opponents. When she was finally captured and put on trial, her Inquisitor repeatedly asked her “did (God) command you to wear man’s clothes?” Although Joan expressed frustration at this interest, saying that “the clothes are a trifle, the very least of things,” she continued to wear them. In fact, putting on the male attire while in prison was one of the main indicators to her jailers that the Maid had refused to surrender — Joan had answered all questions about her religious beliefs right in line with the Church’s teachings, so it was difficult to indict her based on heresy.
Why the male clothing? Warfare was, after all, the traditional domain of men, and this was the world Joan had entered. But perhaps the clothing was a sort of protection for her – Joan’s men attested that they were not tempted to ravish her, and maybe the clothing kept them reminded of her role. The image shown here is from a manuscript painted 74 years after her execution at age 19.
Source(s): Image: _Les vies des femmes celebres_ d’Antoine Dufour, me. 17, folio 76 verso, Nantes, musee Dobree, 1504-1506, Wikimedia commons. “Tendering the Master Narrative of Medieval Military History,” unpublished conference paper, Christine Senecal 2008.
