Saint Joan

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"1430 A.D. France is on the verge of defeat. The unstoppable English army has driven the forces of the Dauphin, the royal heir, to the edge of ruin. Even the Queen Mother has forsaken his cause. Then the commander of an isolated castle is visited by a seeming madwoman. She tells him she has been charged by God to take up the cause of France and the Dauphin. By rights he should throw her out on her ear, but the amazing effect she has on the men of his garrison prompts him to send her on to the Dauphin's camp... and Joan of Arc sets foot on the world's stage. In the simplicity of her faith and her courage she galvanizes the French court and its captains. But in her impossible victories, she arouses another emotion: envy. And fear: the fear that her example and her belief will undercut the French aristocracy and the Church itself as thoroughly as it has overthrown the English invaders. The Dauphin, now King Charles by Joan's hand, may have welcomed her as his rescuer, but he is not prepared to tolerate her as his conscience. Even her allies among the French warriors chafe at her uncompromising demands and certainty, while the clergy see her belief in her own conscience as a challenge to the authority of Rome. The wily Earl of Warwick, commander of the invading British, plays on these emotions to betray Joan into his hands...and those of the Inquisition. In a powerful trial scene, Joan defends her right to follow the dictates of her own faith and conscience, even in defiance of the men set above her by the world's secular powers and the religious authority of the Church. Her faith waivers with her condemnation and excommunication, but Joan rallies with a stirring affirmation of free will and personal devotion to God. She is led away to her doom ... but the courage and example of her death prove a shattering blow to the hopes of the English. Joan is dead, condemned ... but in a remarkable epilogue we are shown the true victory she has won ... and the battles yet to be fought. A marvelous exploration of the legend of Joan of Arc, at once sardonic and compassionate, with remarkable insight and understanding of the actions and motives of all the players in this amazing story where history and legend truly meet!" --Cover.