Rehabilitated and Remembered

Joan's reputation transformed after her death. In 1456, a papal investigation overturned her conviction and declared her innocent. Over the following centuries she became France's most powerful national symbol, claimed by monarchists, republicans, and nationalists alike.

She was finally canonized as a saint in 1920, nearly 500 years after her execution. Writers as different as Mark Twain, Shakespeare, and George Bernard Shaw have retold her story, each reshaping it to fit their era. Yet the original — an illiterate teenager who led armies — still stands at the center of every version.