Orléans was freed nine days after Joan of Arc arrived

Joan of Arc entered besieged Orléans on the evening of 29 April 1429, and nine days later, on 8 May, the English abandoned a siege they had maintained since October 1428. She did not command the relief: formal command lay with Jean, Bastard of Orléans, later Count of Dunois, and Joan rode with only a vague status as a commander. Her decisive contribution was pushing cautious captains to attack.

The numbers explain why attacking could work. The English had fewer than 5,000 men at hand, scattered among forts around a walled city of perhaps 40,000 people including refugees; their commander, John Talbot, was waiting for it to starve. Dunois had about 2,000 soldiers and 2,000 militia, too few to strike — until a 4,000-strong relief force left Blois on 27 April with Joan in it.

• 29 April: Joan rides in through the eastern gate, escorted by Dunois and other captains.
• 4 May: The captains attack Saint-Loup, an English fort east of the city, without telling Joan; she arrives unplanned and rallies the faltering French.
• 6 May: South of the Loire, Joan plays a leading part in taking the fort of Les Augustins near the end of the bridge.
• 7 May: At the Tourelles towers guarding the bridge, an arrow wounds her in the shoulder, but she forces Dunois to keep up the assault until they fall.
• 8 May: The English offer battle, are refused, and march away.

It was less of a miracle than it looked. Only a few hundred men died on each side, and EBSCO’s account judges that the odds clearly favoured the French once she arrived. The effect on morale was the point — enough, as the English regent Bedford reported to London, to disquiet his side — and by 17 July Charles VII had been crowned at Reims. Less than a year later Joan was captured at Compiègne.

The city never forgot. Every year from 29 April to 8 May, Orléans holds the Fêtes de Jeanne d’Arc — the 2026 edition was the city’s 597th — listed since 2018 as French intangible cultural heritage.