At the coronation of Charles VII, Joan of Arc stood proudly by his side with the flag she had carried into battle. Her banner was given a prominent place of honour during the ceremony.
Her inquisitors later questioned her about it: why had her flag received more honour than those of the other captains?
Joan's response was remarkable: “It had borne the burden; it was quite right that it should have the honour.”
In other words: I did the work. I deserve the recognition.
There is something extraordinary about a teenage girl in fifteenth-century France so unapologetically claiming her worth.
Joan lived in a world governed by rigid hierarchies of gender, class and authority. A peasant girl was not supposed to advise kings, challenge military leaders, lead men into battle or claim a place of honour alongside them.
And yet, Joan did all of it.
She said she heard voices that she understood to be divine, calling her to help liberate France and restore Charles VII to the throne. For centuries, we've tried to explain those voices for her: divine revelation, hallucination, illness, madness.
But our fascination with explaining Joan can distract us from something more interesting:
Joan knew what she believed, knew what she was worth and had the conviction to act accordingly.
She remained true to that inner knowing even when it contradicted almost everything the world around her told her about who she was allowed to be.
In this Garden of Even™ portrait, Joan is reclaimed as a young person who stepped beyond the boundaries of gender, class and authority assigned to her because she trusted what she knew about herself and what she believed she was called to do.
