Today, historians and commentators still argue fiercely about Joan. The Roman Church claims her as a champion of Catholic nationalism, while Protestants insist she was one of the first Protestants. If so, she and her contemporaries—given the state of 15th-century medical knowledge—had no idea that this was the case. Joan expressed no interest in changing her gender or passing as a man. How, in a society that was still essentially Catholic, did Joan of Arc reach the dizzying status of a maid in armor and reign there for a whole year, only to be dragged to a horrifying death as a heretic for wearing that same armor?
Is there more to her controversy than the story we get from standard history? Indeed there is. As a few historians point out, Joan was launched into leadership by a powerful ruling family, the House of Anjou, which had no problems with women warriors and protected her as long as they were able. By , from their seat in west-central France, the Angevins had muscled their way to the peak of European power.
With their English branch, the Plantagenets, they ruled hundreds of thousands of square miles from Ireland to the Mediterranean. Their domains included Provence in southern France—which made them patrons of the cult of Mary Magdalene, who was said to have spent the last years of her life in Provence. The Magdalene became a popular French figurehead for female-friendly dissenting mystical traditions, and the Angevins took her as a patron saint. In turn, that heterodox spirit made the family a hotbed of independent-spirited female rulers—women like Eleanor of Aquitaine, Marie of Champagne, and Margaret of Anjou.
Old Testament law had punished cross-dressing with the death penalty. Through it all, the Dukes and Duchesses of Anjou stayed linked to the French royals, the Valois, through marriage. When Joan of Arc burst onto on the scene in , the French Angevins were on the ropes, struggling to keep the English from grabbing not just the French throne but the Angevin heartland itself.
On the war-torn plains of northern France, the small duchy of Bar was struggling to remain loyal to the French royals. Capable and hard working, Joan grew up doing housework and farm work, and probably learned to ride the big horses of the region well enough to do the livestock herding that was staple to the region.
