French soldier Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc) was BOTD in 1412. Born in Lorraine to a peasant farmer family, she claimed as a teenager to receive visions from Saints Michael, Catherine of Alexandria and Margaret of Antioch. In 1429, she travelled to Chinon to meet the dauphin Charles (later King Charles VII), offering to lead a battle against the English and promising to have him crowned as king. Dressed in men’s clothes and armour, she led an extraordinary victory against the English, leading to her nickname “The Maid of Orléans”. Weeks later, she led her army to the cathedral at Reims, where Charles was crowned king. After an unsuccessful attempt to conquer Paris, Joan returned to the Loire where she was ennobled by Charles. In 1430, she was captured by the Duke of Burgundy during a military campaign and handed over to the English. In 1431, she was tried for heresy and witchcraft, defending herself with remarkable courage and eloquence. Found guilty, she was burned to death, aged 19. Her sentence was posthumously revoked in 1456, and she was declared a saint of the Catholic Church in 1920. The patron saint of France, she has also become a feminist heroine, noted for her androgynous appearance and subversion of gender roles. A popular subject in art, literature and pop culture, she was memorably played by Maria Falconetti in Carl Theodor Dreyer‘s 1928 silent film La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (The Passion of Joan of Arc), by Ingrid Bergman in 1947’s Joan of Arc and Jean Seberg in Otto Preminger’s 1957 film Saint Joan