Joan of Arc led the relief of the besieged city of Orleans
On this day · 29 April 1429
On April 29, 1429, a teenage Joan of Arc rode through Orleans' eastern gate, reviving a starving city and turning the Hundred Years' War.
On the evening of April 29, 1429, a teenage peasant from Lorraine rode through the eastern gate of Orleans to the cheers of its exhausted defenders. The city had been under English siege since the previous autumn, and Joan of Arc, claiming a divine mission to save France, had convinced the dauphin’s commanders to let her join the relief effort.
Her arrival was as much a jolt to morale as a military reinforcement. A French sortie drew the English away on the far side of the city while Joan slipped in unopposed, bringing supplies and a conviction that the siege could be broken.
Within days the mood of a despairing city had been transformed.
Over the following week she pressed the captains to attack rather than wait, and on May 8 the English abandoned the siege and withdrew. The victory shattered the aura of English invincibility and is widely seen as the turning point of the Hundred Years’ War, setting France on the path to crown Charles VII at Reims that July.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
