Frustrated with the king's inaction, Joan raised her own small army. This transformed her from a divine messenger serving the crown into a leader of a "free company," a role associated with bandits and mercenaries, which was a very bad look for her holy reputation.

Despite their desperation, the Dauphin's court didn't blindly trust Joan. They subjected her to a rigorous vetting process, including a physical examination to confirm her virginity and a theological inquiry by scholars at Poitiers. This was a form of medieval due diligence to mitigate the immense risk of backing a fraud or heretic.

Contrary to the popular image, Joan of Arc was not a shepherdess and displayed a degree of class consciousness about it. During her trial, she insisted she was a spinner and sewer—a more respectable trade—and challenged the court women to match her skill, revealing a pride in her higher-than-lowest-peasant status.

Her authority was tied to two specific goals: relieving Orléans and crowning the king. After achieving these, her continued push for war lacked the same clear divine mandate. This perceived mission creep eroded her support at court and led to failures like the assault on Paris.

The trial's primary goal was not justice but to delegitimize Charles VII. By convicting Joan as a witch, the English hoped to prove that Charles's coronation was a "satanic fraud," thereby restoring the legitimacy of their own claimant to the French throne.

The Dauphin's court did not accept Joan in a vacuum. Decades-old prophecies foretelling that a virgin would save France provided the political and cultural cover necessary to support her seemingly outlandish mission. This pre-existing narrative made her claims plausible and her backing politically defensible.

Her primary miracle, the relief of Orléans, was a stunning military success, not a supernatural event. By attributing it to God's will, she created a powerful narrative of divine favor that shattered English morale and galvanized French forces, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The court ritual where Joan "identified" the Dauphin she had already met was a deliberate piece of political theatre. This staged "pantomime" was not a genuine test but a public relations exercise designed to cement the narrative of her divine gifts and the Dauphin's legitimacy in the minds of the entire court.

Joan's dictated letter to the English was not a negotiation but a divine ultimatum. By positioning herself as a "captain of war" sent by the "King of Heaven," she reframed the political conflict as a holy war, a powerful psychological tactic designed to demoralize her opponents by presenting her victory as inevitable.