At Rouen in English-controlled Normandy, Joan of Arc, the
peasant girl who became the saviour of France, is burned at the
stake for heresy. Joan was born in 1412, the daughter of a
tenant farmer at Domremy, on the borders of the duchies of Bar
and Lorraine. In 1415, the Hundred Years War between England and
France entered a crucial phase when the young King Henry V of
England invaded France and won a series of decisive victories
against the forces of King Charles VI. By the time of Henry's
death in August 1422, the English and their French-Burgundian
allies controlled Aquitaine and most of northern France,
including Paris. Charles VI, long incapacitated, died one month
later, and his son, Charles, regent from 1418, prepared to take
the throne. However, Reims, the traditional city of French
coronation, was held by the Anglo-Burgundians, and the Dauphin
(heir apparent to the French throne) remained uncrowned.
Meanwhile, King Henry VI of England, the infant son of Henry V
and Catherine of Valois, the daughter of