Joan of Arc and Christine de Pizan’s Ditie

Grounded in a close reading of the records of Joan’s trial and rehabilitation, on the early letters announcing her arrival at Chinon, and on three literary works; Christine de Pizan’s Ditie, Martin le Franc’s Le Champion des dames, and Alain Chartier’s, Traite de l'Esperance, this controversial work argues that serious historians should accept that Joan was trained. It proposes that she was identified and taught how to behave in the expectation of the fulfillment of the Charlemagne Prophecy and other prophecies from the Joachite tradition. It explores the possibility that Christine de Pizan, who had been promoting these prophecies from the beginning of the century, had some hand in the process that resulted in Joan’s appearance and demonstrates, at the very least, that there are many links connecting Christine de Pizan to the knights who fought with Joan.