From France Today: Jeanne d’Arc is back in the news. France is celebrating the 600th anniversary of the nation’s favorite folk heroine, beloved patron saint and—along with her great admirer Napoleon—perhaps the country’s most internationally famous historical character.

A series of commemorative events will honor the feisty young peasant girl who was guided by celestial voices to rouse her disheartened countrymen to “bouter”—an archaic term for “boot”—the invading English out of France. Her astonishing intervention changed the odds in the Hundred Years’ War, the ongoing territorial conflict between the ruling dynasties of France and England.

In May 1429, 17-year-old Jeanne led French troops into battle to lift the English siege at Orléans—her most significant feat and the source of her nickname, La Pucelle d’Orléans, the Maid of Orléans. She empowered the Dauphin, the rightful heir to the French throne, Charles VII, to claim his crown, opening the way for a complete French victory, finally gained in 1453.  Continue here.