Making a King

There is an enduring fascination with Joan of Arc, yet she is almost always seen alone, as a victim or martyr. A strikingly different person is heard in her letters and the testimony of her companions. To the king of England, she wrote, "e;I am a commander of war, and in whatever place I come upon your men in France, I will make them leave . . . And if they do not wish to obey, I will have them all killed."e; She wrote to the people of the towns she defended, giving them news and seeking their support. Her companions spoke of her intelligence, bravery, and military competence. Hers was a collective mission to rescue the people from the depredations of war.Focusing on her life rather than her death, Winnifred Fallers Sullivan offers an interpretation of Joan of Arc as a political thinker and actor who sought, during her meteoric presence in fifteenth-century France, to legitimate a king, channel God's word, convene a coronation, and speak for the people in an alternative legal order. She assembled sacred kingship, mystical experience, and the press of political and economic chaos into a vernacular political theology that still speaks to our moment. Making a King illuminates Joan's extraordinary life and vision-her conception of sovereignty from below, her form of female masculinity, and her power as kingmaker-and shows why she can help us find a deeper understanding of religion and politics today.