In 1428, a young girl from a small French village approached the royal castle of Vaucouleurs with a now famous tale. Heavenly voices, she said, had told her to seek out the Dauphin of France, so that he might giver her an army with which to deliver France from its English occupiers. Given her troops, she was assigned to the army attempting to relieve the English siege of Orleans. The ensuing tale of Joan's military successes at Orleans and elsewhere is told in this volume, accompanied by illustrations. Where other works have concentrated on the religious and feminist aspects of Joan's career, this book addresses the issue of what it was that made her the heroine she became. Why did the soldiers of France follow a woman into battle when no troops of the Hundred Years War had done so before and how was she able to win? The English called her a whore and believed her to be possessed, but her own troops trusted her without any proof of her abilities.