Over in Europe from the years 1337 to 1453 war was waging between England and France. The Hundred Years' War was raged amid what was arguably the worst century in the history of Western civilization. In France, crop failures, civil wars, invasion, and horrendous epidemics reduced the population by two-thirds. The war was going badly for France. The chance of the French being able to get ahead in the war seemed to get smaller and smaller until one day a girl came along. A girl named Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc, with her faith, helped to win the French faction of the war.
             In 1340 the French were defeated in a naval battle off Sluys securing the English Channel for the English. Following campaigns were fought on French soil, but with defeats at Crecy in 1346 and Poitiers in 1356. Civil war was even raging in France. The French king Charles VI, had gone mad. His brother, the duke of Orleans, was named regent, thereby arousing the envy of John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy. Burgundy was probably the most powerful of all the king's relatives.(Allmand 36) John arranged the assassination of Orleans in 1407 only to see another rival, Count Bertrand VII of Armagnac, put in his place. In the conflict that followed, Burgundy tried to ally himself with England, drawing back when he perceived the extent of Henry V's ambitions. It seemed as though the French would never have a chance to get ahead. The morale of the French was very low. It would take someone with great faith and courage to bring their morale back up.
             On the night of January 6, 1412, the eve of the Epiphany, Joan was born to the peasant Jacques d'Arc and his wife Isabelle in the village of Domremy on the borders of the provinces of Champagne and Lorraine. She was christened Jeanne, after her godmothers Jeanne Royer and Jeanne de Viteau. She was also known as the Maid of Orleans. Perceval de Boulainvilliers later said that the roosters of...