She Actually Convinced Them

Joan traveled to the royal court and somehow talked her way into a private audience with Charles VII. What she told him remains one of history's great mysteries — but whatever she said, he believed her, and he handed an untrained teenager command of an army.

She dictated a letter to the English demanding they leave France. They laughed. Within months, nobody was laughing. Joan led the French to a stunning victory at Orleans, breaking a siege that veteran commanders had failed to lift for seven months.