Why was St. Joan of Arc commanded to fight the English?

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In her account, Saint Joan spoke of how at the age of 13 she was visited by Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret and instructed to drive out the English and crown the Dauphin. She accomplished the first goal and made major headway in the second before being captured by the Burgundians, handed over to the English, and martyred.

My question about this saints relates to the beginning of her journey, and her visions. I can not wrap my head around why God would want Charles VII to be King. Charles VII was suspected of not being Charles VI’s son (his mother Isabeau had affairs with other noblemen in court) and of ordering the murder of John the Fearless (he called John to a parlay and one of his men killed John there - without his orders, he claimed); while neither of those charges were proven, they seem more likely than not and were seen as serious enough for him to be disinherited. Apart from that it’s beyond doubt that Charles VII was an adulterer, having mistresses throughout his reign.

Now you could argue that Joan’s visions disprove the accusations against Charles VII, because God would know if they were false. You could also argue that being a sinner doesn’t preclude Charles VII’s from God’s favor, as even King David was favored by God. But I’m still having trouble seeing why God would choose a side in the Hundred Years War, and especially why He would decide the flagrant sinner was a more worthy a King than Henry VI (who at the time was still an innocent child).

Does anyone have any ideas on this?
 
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Well for one since GOD is GOD (Pardon the redundancy 😄) why second guess HIM. HE must have had very very very good reasons to prefer that outcome.
In the Bible there is a passage that says:
Romans 11:33 Oh, the depths of the richness of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable are his ways!
11:34 For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?
Possibly we will find out the why’s when the day of the final judgement comes and all will be disclosed.
Peace!
 
All will be disclosed at the final judgement IF God wills it. Meanwhile, we simply must trust Him. He had his reasons, and most certainly, they were righteous.
 
Human minds are beyond feeble compared to God. God is good. Whatever reasons he has for orchestrating a particular outcome no matter how incomprehensible it is to us God will make it work for good. I recently discovered that the grandson of Rodrigo Borgia a.k.a. Pope Alexander VI is St. Francisco Borgia. A man of great faith and 100% SAINT.

Also, I would argue that God knows the unseen and he is not bound by the laws of space and time so he knew that beyond all doubt that having Charles VII on the throne of France no matter his flaws was better for mankind than the destruction of France as a Kingdom to be absorbed by England. Scotland and Ireland would have fallen to England much sooner. It would only be a matter of time before a power hungry English King similar to Henry VIII taking the throne and executing all those who opposed his dominion over not just secular matters but also spiritual. In such a world what would have been the fate of Spain? Germany? Denmark? Norway? America? The devastation to Christianity would have been enormous.

As far as I can tell Joan had a profound impact on everyone who met her. Both friend and foe. I think Charles VII became the great king he was meant to be because of Joan. He wasn’t a Saint but he was still a good king. Vive le Roi
 
Duke12VonFalkenburg said:
Human minds are beyond feeble compared to God. God is good. Whatever reasons he has for orchestrating a particular outcome no matter how incomprehensible it is to us God will make it work for good.
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That’s all well and good, but there are those who seek to paint Joan as a charlatan or as mentally deranged. If we are to defend her sainthood against doubt then we need a better explanation for why she did what she did than “God works in mysterious ways”.
Duke12VonFalkenburg said:
Also, I would argue that God knows the unseen and he is not bound by the laws of space and time so he knew that beyond all doubt that having Charles VII on the throne of France no matter his flaws was better for mankind than the destruction of France as a Kingdom to be absorbed by England. Scotland and Ireland would have fallen to England much sooner. It would only be a matter of time before a power hungry English King similar to Henry VIII taking the throne and executing all those who opposed his dominion over not just secular matters but also spiritual. In such a world what would have been the fate of Spain? Germany? Denmark? Norway? America? The devastation to Christianity would have been enormous.

As far as I can tell Joan had a profound impact on everyone who met her. Both friend and foe. I think Charles VII became the great king he was meant to be because of Joan. He wasn’t a Saint but he was still a good king. Vive le Roi
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This is a reasonable answer. An English Empire could very well have been a major threat to the Church, especially if that country still broke away from the Church as it did in our timeline.
 
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This is one thing about this that I have always thought.
If the English became entrenched as rulers of France, Henry VIII would have destroyed the Church in France, just as he did in Britain.
 
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mdgspencer said:
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This is one thing about this that I have always thought.
If the English became entrenched as rulers of France, Henry VIII would have destroyed the Church in France, just as he did in Britain.
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This. Looking back, God is wiser than us. The English fell away, so the French falling away too would have been devastating for the Church.
 
This is actually a very good question. I love St. Joan of Arc, she’s possibly my favourite saint and Mark Twain’s novel on her one of my favourite books, but I have no clear answer! However I do think what others have mentioned is probably true - England, the invading force, was soon to become protestant/lose the faith, and if France had still been under it’s rule at that time, it would have been horribly oppressed and the faith possibly destroyed. Look at what happened in Ireland during English occupation. So God was faithful in advance to a nation that had always been faithful to Him!
 
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France was a sovereign nation and I suppose the defense of the homeland was justified. God must have known, all things considered, which king would be a better king. Not necessarily a good king, but a better king.

There was of course the future schism in England but that in of itself wouldn’t be why God commanded it, because the ends do not justify the means. The act itself must have been justified, independent of any future events.
 
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Of course, and because the ends did justify the means - defending your country against an invading force is just - I think God’s knowledge of what was to come was a a key factor, possibly even more important than the first.
 
I don’t believe this was from God at all. More likely the hallucinations of someone led astray by Lucifer. Seriously, since Jesus was born and after He ascended into Heaven when have we EVER heard anything from his true Messengers or His Mother saying it’s good to take up arms and kill the enemy. The people of Faith whom I’ve known have never said God told them to kill Nazis for example. Jesus, as the Prince of Peace, cries when we war, and of course there is always the battle between good and evil, but this is an Old Testament type of validation of our warring nature. Don’t overthink the issue. She was quite crazy and her faith was questionable but she was a literal warrior for Christ which is about as mutually exclusive a concept as you can obtain. When we hear of other religions speak of holy war we rightfully reject the idea. We should also reject it here. So why is she still such a powerful figure? She’s a French hero and is part of a national theo/political ideology and so is above approach. If an Angel came to me and ordered me to lead an army to kill for God I would, in no uncertain terms, reject this as an attempt by the devil to deceive. Why we still honor Joan is beyond me and is an embarrassment. But, she is profitable as the business of Joan of Arc. Satan, as the prince of lies is wily, is he not?
 
I probably shouldn’t even respond to this but I’ll take the bait.

First of all, there is just war theory, and the Catholic Church teaches that just war is moral. What should we have done during World War II, let Hitler take over the world, slaughter and torture Jews, handicapped people, black people, Catholics, etc. and not raise a hand to stop him? That would have been immoral. Taking up arms against him was not only moral, but required.
The Catholic Church has canonised many saints who were engaged in warfare. God was not a different God in the Old Testament, either. If you do not accept the judgements and teachings of the Catholic Church, that is not my problem to address.
 
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Maelstrom1 said:
I don’t believe this was from God at all. More likely the hallucinations of someone led astray by Lucifer. Seriously, since Jesus was born and after He ascended into Heaven when have we EVER heard anything from his true Messengers or His Mother saying it’s good to take up arms and kill the enemy. The people of Faith whom I’ve known have never said God told them to kill Nazis for example. Jesus, as the Prince of Peace, cries when we war, and of course there is always the battle between good and evil, but this is an Old Testament type of validation of our warring nature. Don’t overthink the issue. She was quite crazy and her faith was questionable but she was a literal warrior for Christ which is about as mutually exclusive a concept as you can obtain. When we hear of other religions speak of holy war we rightfully reject the idea. We should also reject it here. So why is she still such a powerful figure? She’s a French hero and is part of a national theo/political ideology and so is above approach. If an Angel came to me and ordered me to lead an army to kill for God I would, in no uncertain terms, reject this as an attempt by the devil to deceive. Why we still honor Joan is beyond me and is an embarrassment. But, she is profitable as the business of Joan of Arc. Satan, as the prince of lies is wily, is he not?
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She’s a canonized saint, not a servant of the devil or deluded. She’s not the only one who was canonized during a military conflict. Here in North America, there were people beatified during the Mexican revolution of the 1920s.

God never takes pleasure in an armed conflict under any circumstances but that is a separate issue from whether or not he accepts a certain action as justified.
 
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Did those people who were canonized claim that God called them to violence?
 
There is a huge difference between being engaged in warfare and called by God to warfare.t
 
If the Bible is the absolute Word of God and all teachings are correct Jesus wouldn’t have spoken along the lines of …Moses taught this but I say otherwise…
 
Perhaps God loves Crêpes Suzette and hates Black Pudding?

Bon appétit,
Deacon Christopher
 
So, you were there at that time, and you’re certain about everything you have alleged? You were inside of Joan’s soul and listening to the private revelations and instructions being given her? And you know exactly what was in her mind and heart, because you were there at that time, and inside of her soul and hearing what she heard firsthand? You seem to think you’re quite the authority on this, commenting on it over 500 years after it happened. You must have some remarkable abilities.
 
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