Domrémy-la-Pucelle (, ) is a commune in the Vosges department in

Grand Est Grand Est (; ) is an Regions of France, administrative region in northeastern France. It superseded three former administrative regions, Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine, on 1 January 2016 under the provisional name of Alsace-Champagne-A ...

in northeastern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The village, originally named Domrémy, is the birthplace of

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc ( ; ; – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...

. It has since been renamed ''Domrémy-la-Pucelle'' after Joan's nickname, ("the Maid of Orléans").

Geography

Domrémy is positioned along the Upper

Meuse The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a total length of . History From 1301, the upper ...

Valley, north of the town of Coussey. The village land includes a small wooded hill to the west of the houses, which rises to a height of , known as the Domrémy Wood. This overlooks the small adjacent settlement of Les Roises.

History

Domrémy and Greux were exempted from taxes "forever" by Charles VII in 1429. It was the sole request made of the king by

when Charles asked her how he could show her his appreciation for seeing him crowned; Joan felt that taxes burdened the villagers. Moreover, he wished to do a good deed for her success in fighting the English during the

Hundred Years' War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a conflict between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France and a civil war in France during the Late Middle Ages. It emerged from feudal disputes over the Duchy ...

. Taxes were imposed upon Domrémy and Greux again during the French Revolution; the residents have paid taxes since. Until 1766, Domrémy was part of the Duchy of Bar (within a section of the duchy which owed fealty to the Crown of France although the other half of the duchy was part of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

)."Chapter II"
''Joan of Arc'' by Francis Cabot Lowell; Houghton Mifflin Company (1896), p. 16; via

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

; retrieved May 21, 2017 In that year, the Duchy, part of which had become a

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

of the

Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the Middle Ages, medieval and Early modern France, early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe from th ...

in 1301, escheated to the crown fully upon the death of its last duke, Stanisław Leszczyński.

Demographics

Gallery

Image:Maison natale Jeanne d'Arc 023.jpg, Birthplace of Joan of Arc File:Basilique du Bois Chênu.JPG, Basilica of Bois Chênu Image:France Domremy Countryside.jpg, Countryside around Domrémy-la-Pucelle Image:Domrémy - l'église.JPG, Church of St. Remi of Rheims in Domrémy-la-Pucelle

References

External links