Was Joan of Arc ever in hand-to-hand combat, or was she only commanding while in battle?

by Broyourfacegoddamnit

Did she have any training in sword fighting? Did she ever kill an enemy personally? I know that she got shot with an arrow, but was she ever in combat?

TheGreenReaper7

She was in combat fairly frequently (she was captured 'in arms' outside Compiègne). If you mean did she fight with her sword? No. It's not even an accusation levelled at her during the Rouen Trial (1431). She had bodyguards and squires in her service and they were her guardians. For the most part her role seems to have been as a military leader (although to what extent she was just a figurehead is debatable). Virgin prophetesses don't tend to take up the sword themselves - it somewhat detracts from the 'God is acting through me' argument.

Joan of Arc owned at least four swords during her life (which she apparently used the flat of to beat camp-followers), armour (which she offered at St. Denis), and led the charge on the Tourelles at Orleans (bearing the standard), and she ordered the Burgundian Captain Franquet d'Arras beheaded (much to the chagrin of the Burgundians) but she did not swing the sword personally.

My old tutor, when we were going through the primary sources, told us to keep an eye out for how many times Joan received a wound in battle. While it is certainly true she received a fair few, if she had been struck with as many arrows as the record states then she would have barely been in one piece!

Anyhow, I hope that answers the question. It's fairly straightforward, unlike most other debates surrounding Joan. If you're interested in her role as a military leader I'd recommend Kelly DeVries' Joan of Arc: A Military Leader, Gloucestershire, 1999. It's a very focused book eliding many of the debates surrounding Joan, but DeVries is a wonderful military historian. It is worth double-checking his sources in case he is skipping over a massive can-of-worms.