A teenage peasant girl claims God is speaking directly to her—and medieval Europe has a problem.
In Part 1 of The Maid’s Divine Politics, we rewind to the winter of 1429, when France is on the brink of extinction and the Hundred Years’ War looks all but lost. Into that collapse walks Joan of Arc: seventeen, illiterate, unheard of—and utterly convinced that saints are commanding her to save a kingdom. This episode follows Joan from a burned border village to the halls of power, tracing how private religious visions become a public political weapon powerful enough to terrify kings, theologians, and generals alike.
This isn’t the Joan of stained glass and slogans. This is Joan as a revolutionary idea—someone who proves that authority doesn’t only flow from crowns or churches, but can be claimed by ordinary people appealing to something higher. We explore the violence that shaped her childhood, the voices that drove her forward, and the moment she walks into the Dauphin’s court and does something that should have been impossible.
In this episode:
This is the beginning of a four-part deep dive into how faith becomes politics, prophecy becomes power, and how one girl rewrites the rules of legitimacy forever.
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