To understand how Joan of Arc was so different from other young women her age during the Middle Ages, it is important to know something about her background. Joan of Arc was born to a farm family in 1412 and christened Jehanne (Joan). War with England was renewed in 1415, when Jehanne was three. In 1422 Henry V and Charles VI died within two months of each other, leaving the infant Henry VI as the nominal ruler of both kingdoms. His regent in France, the Duke of Bedford, spent the next few years cementing alliances with the Dukes of Brittany and Burgundy, and engaging Armagnac forces in the field. The military situation swung in Bedford's favor with major victories at Cravant on July 31, 1423 and at Verneuil on August 17th of the following year, during which the Dauphin's Scottish allies were cut to pieces in a smaller-scale version of AginÃSourt. The Scots lost some of their enthusiasm for the war after that point. In the wake of defeat and frustration, demoralization set in within the Armagnac faction. Around that time, perhaps in the summer of 1424, the young farm girl from Domrémy said she began to experience visions. She would later explain: "I was in my thirteenth year when I heard a voice from God to help me govern my conduct. And the first time I was very much afraid. And this voice came, about the hour of noon, in the summer time, in my father's garden (Williamson, 2002).

             She said the first of these visions was Saint Michael the Archangel: "It was Saint Michael, who I saw before my eyes; he was not alone, but was accompanied by many angels from Heaven. I saw them with my bodily eyes, as well as I am seeing you; and when they left, I wept and greatly wished that they should have taken me with them. "Saint Michael, when he came to me, told me that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret; would come to me and that I should act on their advice; that they were instructed to lead and advise me in what I had to do; and that I should believe in what they would say to me, for it was by God's order" (Pernoud, 1966).