Video narration
Could one teenage girl change a war that had dragged on for decades-like someone joining a losing team and making everyone believe again? The Hundred Years' War-the war between England and France-began in 1337, as England's Edward III claimed the French throne. France was weakening: its king struggled as powerful nobles fought each other. Then Joan of Arc appeared: a peasant from Domremy with no army, but a message that gave French soldiers a reason to keep fighting. She helped lift the siege of Orleans, freeing a city surrounded by English forces, and helped Charles VII, France's king, reach his coronation. Suddenly, defeat did not feel inevitable. But Joan was captured, tried, and executed at nineteen. Yes, she helped France regain hope and win key victories-but she did not end the war. It continued until 1453, more than twenty years after her death.