© Alex Duval Smith in Paris
Solved at last: the burning mystery of Joan of Arc
The Observer, Sunday 17 December 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/dec/17/france.alexduvalsmith
Catholic saint, national icon and one of the world’s most famous military leaders, Joanof Arc has been a subject of fascination for the French for almost six centuries. Nowacademics believe they are close to proving that controversial relics are actually thoseof the real-life Maid of Orleans.
Much is unknown about the life of the warrior. Facts have often been mixed with mythand theory. But what is generally agreed is that Joan’s body was burnt three times bythe English and ashes from the foot of the pyre were supposedly discovered in 1867,lurking in the Paris loft of an apothecary .
French scientists, who have been studying those ashes, confirmed yesterday that apiece of cloth found among the remains may have been a fragment of Joan of Arc’sgown. A new series of DNA tests of bones and tissue found among the ashes isexpected to confirm that they belong to a female.
These initial discoveries suggest recent controversial claims surrounding the death ofJoan of Arc are wrong. One theory, put forward by Ukrainian anthropologist Sergey Gorbenko, suggested Joan was not even burnt at the stake but lived to the age of 57.Another theory is that she was a man.
But the initial discoveries by forensic anthropologist Philippe Charlier, the project’sleader, indicate that the standard version of Joan of Arc’s death – by being burnt as awitch by the English – appears to be right, although the research has added intriguingdetail to the story of her execution. Further tests were needed, said Charlier.
Tests on one bone found in the relics showed it was the femur of a cat. The discoverytallies with the medieval practice of throwing a black cat on a witch’s pyre so as toappease the devil, according to Charlier.
‘However, this femur is not burnt – it just looksit – so maybe we are just dealing with a passing cat,’ he said.
Charlier said the most exciting discovery by his 18-strong team at the Hôpital RaymondPoincare near Paris was in the carbon-dating of the piece of cloth. ‘It is linen of highquality and we can confirm that it dates from the 15th century. It could have been a robe or a bag.’
According to historians, Joan of Arc was 19 when she was burnt at the stake inRouen by the English on 30 May, 1431. She died of smoke inhalation. The Cardinal ofWinchester is recorded as having ordered her to be burnt a second time. Her organsstill survived this fire, so a third burning was ordered to destroy the body completely.Her cinders and debris were to be thrown into the Seine.
However, in 1867 ashes that were said to include remains of Joan of Arc were found inthe Paris loft of an apothecary. These were transferred to a museum in Chinon wherethey are still kept.
Charlier said his team’s findings were preliminary and that work would continue at leastuntil February next year. He added that he expected his team would be able to establishthat the Chinon remains belonged to ‘a female juvenile who was burnt several timesat short intervals’. Charlier said pieces of wood among the relics, as well as the qualityand age of the linen cloth should allow his team to date them within a 30-year range ofaccuracy and establish which region of France they are from.
‘We are getting closer. Even though burning witches was a fairly common practice inthose days, it is not as though 1,000 women were burnt three times in Rouen in 1431.It is also helpful for us – in terms of determining whether the relics are fakes or not – thatthe cult that has grown up around Joan of Arc is relatively recent. No one took muchnotice of her for the preceding 400 years. So there aren’t dozens of boxes of relicskicking around, all claiming to be hers.’
Charlier came to prominence last year when he ascertained that Agnes Sorel, thefavourite of King Charles VII, died from mercury poisoning. He took an interest in Joanof Arc because her presumed remains were stored in the same Chinon museum asthose of Sorel.
An illiterate farm girl from Lorraine in eastern France, Joan of Arc disguised herself as aman in her campaigns. During her battles against the English and armies of the Duke ofBurgundy, Joan was said to hear voices from a trio of saints telling her to deliver Francefrom her enemies. She was finally captured and sold to the English, who had her triedfor witchcraft in Rouen.
Joan of Arc was declared a saint in 1920. During the Second World War, both VichyFrance and the French resistance claimed Joan of Arc as a national symbol for theircause.
Hits and myths
The Shroud of Turin was believed to be Christ’s burial garment from the time of itsemergence in 1354. At its first exhibition in 1389, it was denounced as a fake by the
Bishop of Troyes. Ever since its authenticity has been questioned. Carbon dating ofthe cloth in 1988 determined that it originated sometime between 1260 and 1390.
TheCatholic Church has accepted that the shroud may not be genuine, but says it shouldstill be revered because it bears an inspiring image of Jesus.
An exhibition in Russia in 2000 included a display of a fragment of Hitler’s skull.Organisers of ‘The Agony of the Third Reich: Retribution’ said the skull was authentic,but this claim has been rejected by some experts. Hitler shot himself in his Berlin bunkerin 1945, and his body was burnt and buried in a shallow grave. The facts about whathappened to his remains have not been fully established.
A coffin held in church in Padua since 1172 may contain the remains of St Luke. Testscarried out by scientists in 2001 confirmed it was of the same Syrian origin as the authorof the third Gospel. Carbon-dating tests suggested the body belonged to someone whodied in the period of Luke’s death, believed to be around AD 84.
Hair and fragments of the funeral cloth from the mummy of Ramses II were recentlyposted for sale on the internet. Police arrested the vendor, a postman from France, whosaid he had been given the pieces by his father, a researcher on a team that analysedthe mummy in the 1970s. Ramses the Great’s reign, between 1279 and 1213 BC, wasthe second longest in Egyptian history.Alan Power
