Jeanne D’Arc (Joan of Arc)

Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl and heroine, was labelled a heretic, fraud, sorceress and cross-dresser, and was burned at the stake in 1431 at the age of 19. Joan of Arc claimed to hear divine voices instructing her courses of action in helping France regain its sovereignty, and she was held in high regard by the towns she helped to liberate. She wore white armour and rode a white horse, rejecting the authority of the church in favour of a belief in direct divine communion.