Certain leadership virtues transcend time and space.

Joan of Arc's belief in herself, ability to inspire others and willingness to challenge standard thinking crystallize today's leadership ideals.

Born to a peasant family in a French village called Domremy, now part of the Lorraine region, Joan (1412-31) rose to lead the French army and lift the siege of Orleans from the English at age 17.

Two years later, an English church court in Normandy put her to death.

Before her execution, Joan succeeded in crowning France's King Charles VII at a time when he and the country were in desperate straights. Her defeat of the English, who occupied a number of French territories, contributed to the turning of the tide of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453).

When Joan was born, France and England held a shaky truce. But a civil war broke out between two factions of the French royal family, sparking another English invasion.

One French side was called Orleanist, or Armagnac. The rivals were known as the Burgundians, who were pro-English. The Duke of Burgundy agreed to recognize King Henry V of England as the legal heir to the French throne, thereby rejecting the rightful successor who Joan later crowned as Charles VII, wrote Allen Williamson, founder of the Historical Association for Joan of Arc Studies.

Joan was religious from a young age. She went regularly to mass and confession. Williamson wrote that when she was 12, she began to have visions and hear voices of Christian martyrs and of St. Michael the Archangel, a patron saint of the French royal army and the biblical leader of heaven's armies in the war against Satan.

Loud And Clear

When she was a teen, Joan said the voices and visions intensified, telling her that she had the task to lead the royal army to Orleans and free the city from the English.

Joan convinced her second cousin to take her to the captain of the nearest French stronghold. After several attempts, her persistence paid off. The captain agreed to send her to the future King Charles VII.

She traveled 11 days through enemy territory and finally met him. Williamson wrote that Joan presented herself to Charles with great humility and simplicity. She related the details of his private prayer in which he asked God to help him in his cause if he was the rightful heir to the French throne.

This certainly impressed the king, but he first wanted her examined for her claim of virginity and theological correctness. After several weeks of questioning and deliberation, the king decided to let her march on Orleans.

Her first tactic was to send a peaceful message to the English to withdraw their troops. She told them that Jesus Christ supported Charles' claim to the throne and proposed two options: Go away, or she would drive them out of France.

When the English detained the two messengers and ignored the warning, Joan turned to her next tactic: Battle.

She moved fast, asking to have a suit of armor made exactly to her body and a banner showing "Our Savior" with two angels at the sides.

"The military colleagues who accompanied her didn't believe in her in the beginning," said Larissa Taylor, a professor of history at Colby College in Maine who's writing a biography titled "The Maid of Lorraine: A Life of Joan of Arc."

"I think it's her belief in herself, that she communicated whatever she believed in from God and a personal charisma that was very strong, that she seemed to be able to inspire people around her.

"She was very good at what she did, she was a very quick study. She was able to manage a horse, be on a horse with armor . . . and be in the thick of battle."

Joan also reformed the troops. She tossed prostitutes from the camp, forbade swearing and required soldiers to go to mass and confess.

"Joan of Arc required the unquestioning respect of her soldiers and companions," said Kathleen Hall, founder and CEO of The Stress Institute, a think tank in Atlanta, and a former professor who taught church history. "She earned their respect because her life emulated humility, honesty, compassion and simplicity. Her soldiers were mesmerized by her devoted sense of calling, reverence and holiness."

In April 1429, Joan road up with her banner, leading her spirited soldiers through several English-occupied territories. Legend has it that after the first town fell, the troops, the future king and the rest of the French people got a new sense of confidence that the peasant virgin girl was indeed sent by God.

Several other English-occupied territories fell with minimal fighting and casualties to the French, or were abandoned before Joan's troops arrived.

"Her leadership skills were absolutely amazing," Taylor said. "The thing that is a key to her personality is she believed in herself."

Joan certainly shunned fear of battle. To encourage any demoralized troops, she refused to quit after getting struck in the plates of her armor between her left shoulder blade and her breast bone.

"She insisted the arrow be pulled out, and she was back on her horse the same day," said Taylor.

The French, who had almost given up, were inspired to march on Orleans. And the enemy was awed, believing Joan had risen from the dead. "Grown men, three times her age, said that she did what they couldn't do," Taylor said.

Taylor relates that when those soldiers spoke of Joan 25 years after her death, they lauded her great military skills.

Those skills led to France's victory in Orleans, and Charles VII was crowned king. But soon he wanted to pursue a more political avenue in his negotiations with the English.

That pushed Joan off the hunt. He cut back on troops, undermining her attempt to take Paris in September 1429.

She was later captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English. Her church trial took place in France, where the court was manipulated by Englishmen who wanted her dead. They accused her of heresy, wrote Williamson. She got a shaky defense, and when she asked to appeal to the pope, the answer was no. Under pressure from the Duke of Bedford, regent for England's King Henry VI, she was burned at the stake in May 1431.

"She had a good death in terms that she was crying to Jesus toward the end," Taylor said. "And the people who witnessed it said that almost everyone was crying, even the people who had been the strongest against her. So even then, in her death, she inspired a lot of people."

Toward Sainthood

At the urging of clergymen, the king reopened proceedings to look at the original trial, once he held Normandy in the 1450s. The king claimed the court was manipulated, and her sentence was annulled.

Her beatification began in 1869, and the Catholic Church declared her a saint in 1920.

"Joan of Arc was an extraordinary individual in that she challenged many of the gender norms of her society — she was a woman who led men in battle, cross-dressed and advised men in power," said Kate Staples, assistant professor of history at West Virginia University.

"What makes her equally fascinating is that at the same time she also represented medieval society — she was pious and fought for her religious and political beliefs, like many medievals, and was a woman who actively and dynamically shaped the world around her."

BY MARIE BEERENS