From her sudden burst upon the scene in the spring of 1429 to her humiliating execution at the stake in Rouen in 1431, Joan of Arc achieved astonishing feats that changed the face of the kingdom of France. In this text, Edward Lucie-Smith charts the action of her brief life - the journey from rural Lorraine to the tensions of the Dauphin's court, the siege of Orleans, the coronation in Reims and Joan's trial and execution, providing a humanitarian biography of the Maid of Orleans.