What’s a mother to do when her daughter is falsely accused of heresy and burned at the stake, you might ask, and I’m glad you did because just such a tale of a mother’s unending love began unfolding in 1431 when, Isabelle Romée’s daughter, affectionately known by history as Joan of Arc, was captured, awarded a corrupt trial, and subsequently burned alive when she was found guilty.
Becoming Joan
Born Jeanne d’Arc, “Joan” was raised in a small village in northeastern France by her parents: Jacques d’Arc and Isabelle Romée. Her family were farmers who raised Joan and her four siblings with a strong sense of religious and moral integrity.
She was not raised with the knowledge of reading or writing, however, instead, Joan was taught the same skill set as other peers of her gender and station—household and textile work; such as the spinning of wool.
A central role in young Joan’s life was, by all accounts, always her mother, Isabelle Romée. It is her mother that is credited with instilling Joan’s strong sense of right and wrong.
As a teenager, Joan began telling her family she was hearing advice from the Lord, and they initially reacted with some natural concern and confusion. Despite this, her family did not step in and prevent Joan from pursuing what she believed was her mission: leading decisive military campaigns against England on behalf of France.
Following her 1429 victories on the battlefield, a grateful nation’s elite awarded Joan and her family elevation in social circles after Joan was granted noble standing by the French royal crown.
However, in 1431 Joan was captured. A faux trial was held during which Joan was denied basic legal protections under the law, and she was summarily found guilty and executed. The church court who convicted Joan believed her to be subversive and condemned her as a political favor to England. Most hoped her story would end on a judicial pyre, but a mother’s love refused to allow the wrong against her child to stand.
Enter Isabelle Romée
A tough religious woman, Isabelle Romée completely disavowed the ruling.
The years unkind, Romée was widowed, elderly, and in poor health at the time of her daughter’s trial. After Joan’s execution, she devoted her entire life to clearing her daughter’s name. Every year she made the arduous trek to appeal to church authorities, generally making an annual nuisance of herself before the church demanding intervention from the papacy in her daughter’s conviction.
Her persistence led to a renewed legal examination of Joan’s trial and when church authorities finally addressed her daughter’s case in Paris, Romée made the journey to be there in person to see Joan’s name cleared. In spite of being unwell, Romée found the strength to personally address church officials, delivering an emotional statement defending her daughter’s faith, character, and innocence.
Thanks to Romée’s efforts, Joan’s case was reopened and appellate proceedings gathered testimony from more than a hundred individuals, including villagers, soldiers, and clergy connected to Joan’s life and trial. The review determined Joan’s original judgment was unjust and procedurally immoral. In 1456, the conviction was formally overturned, and Joan was declared a martyr rather than a criminal.
A mother’s love has no end
Fortunately, Joan’s story ends on the positive note that her staunchest supporter, her mother Isabelle Romée lived just long enough to hear this decision, dying two years later, finally able to rest in peace knowing the love she had for her child achieved a goal that would define her brave, feisty, tenacious daughter for decades.
Romée’s daughter will always be remembered as the courageous leader “Joan of Arc,” but in the quietness of her brilliant light, hovered the steady, resilient woman who made Joan possible: her mother. Romée’s lasting love for her child spurred her to secure her daughter’s legacy as one of a strong and faithful moral leader, while quietly showing the world the strength of a mother’s love, how long it endures, and its determination to defend their child’s honor—no matter the consequence—until the very end.