Question 1

True or false: Joan of Arc was killed in battle during a failed assault on Paris.

Accepted Answer

False. She survived the Paris assault but was captured later during a skirmish at Compiègne, then tried and executed by the English.

Question 2

True or false: Joan of Arc was only 17 years old when she led her first major military campaign.

Accepted Answer

True. She was about 17 when she led the army to lift the Siege of Orléans in 1429, a remarkable feat for a teenager with no experience.

Question 3

True or false: Joan of Arc was captured by Burgundian soldiers and sold to the English.

Accepted Answer

True. On May 23, 1430, Burgundian forces captured Joan of Arc at Compiègne. They later sold her to the English for 10,000 livres.

Question 4

True or false: Joan of Arc was actually a trained knight before leading the French army.

Accepted Answer

False. Joan was a peasant girl with no military training; her leadership came from divine visions and sheer conviction, not formal knighthood.

Question 5

True or false: Joan of Arc was officially a nun before her military career began.

Accepted Answer

False. She was a devout peasant girl who took no religious vows. Her visions inspired her mission, but she never became a nun.

Question 6

True or false: Joan of Arc's trial was later declared invalid by the Pope, clearing her name.

Accepted Answer

False. A posthumous retrial in 1456 overturned her conviction, but it was an ecclesiastical court, not the Pope directly, though he authorized it.

Question 7

True or false: Joan of Arc was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 1920.

Accepted Answer

True. Joan of Arc was declared a saint on May 16, 1920, by Pope Benedict XV—nearly 500 years after her death in 1431.

Question 8

True or false: Joan of Arc was a French noblewoman who commanded armies.

Accepted Answer

False. Joan of Arc was born a peasant in Domrémy. Despite leading troops, she had no noble title; she was a commoner.

Question 9

True or false: Joan of Arc claimed to receive visions from Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret.

Accepted Answer

True. Throughout her life, Joan of Arc said she was guided by voices from these three saints, who she believed told her to support Charles VII.

Question 10

True or false: Joan of Arc was executed for witchcraft.

Accepted Answer

False. Joan of Arc was convicted of heresy, not witchcraft. The charges included sorcery, but the official verdict was heresy, leading to her burning.

Question 11

True or false: Joan of Arc was 16 years old when she was burned at the stake.

Accepted Answer

False. Joan of Arc was born around 1412 and died on May 30, 1431, making her about 19—not 16—when she was executed.

Question 12

True or false: Joan of Arc personally wielded a legendary sword she found buried behind an altar.

Accepted Answer

True. She claimed voices told her to find a sword at the Church of Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois, which was indeed discovered there, rusted but intact.

Question 13

True or false: Joan of Arc never cut her hair and kept it long throughout her life.

Accepted Answer

False. Joan of Arc cut her hair short to wear men's clothing. Contemporary accounts describe her hair as cropped in a pageboy style.

Question 14

True or false: Joan of Arc was burned at the stake twice, as her body was re-burned to prevent relic collection.

Accepted Answer

True. After her first execution, the English ordered her remains burned again and ashes thrown into the Seine to stop people from keeping relics.

Question 15

True or false: Joan of Arc once predicted her own wounding by an arrow days before it happened.

Accepted Answer

True. She told soldiers she would be hit by an arrow near Orléans, and it came true—she was struck in the shoulder but continued fighting.

Question 16

True or false: Joan of Arc was illiterate and could not read or write.

Accepted Answer

True. Joan of Arc, a peasant girl, never learned to read or write. She dictated letters to scribes and signed documents with a cross.

Joan of Arc Trivia Questions