Jeanne des Armoises (fl. 1438)

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Jeanne des Armoises (fl. 1438)

Captain in the French army. Name variations: Joan of Armoises. Flourished in 1438 in France; married and mother of two.

A few years after the death of Joan of Arc , another Joan came to prominence in France's fight against England. Mother of two and married when she began her military career, Jeanne des Armoises was a soldier from the peasantry. Whether her inspiration to join in the war was true patriotism or a chance for an adventurous life far removed from the drudgery of the peasant woman's life is not known; either way, she fought well and the king's marshal rewarded her by making her a captain in the army.

Jeanne had the support of the soldiers she led as well as the support of the people, but her warrior life did not please the clergy, who successfully pushed for the king to arrest her as an impostor of Joan of Arc. Ironically, the lives of Jeanne des Armoises and Joan of Arc are indeed similar, in that both women risked their lives for the benefit of their country, and both were arrested and condemned for it.

Laura York , Riverside, California

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