Christine de Pizan, propagandiste de Jeanne (Anne D. Lutkus, Julia M. Walker)

To accept as factual the date of the last day of July 1429 in the last stanza of Christine de Pizan’s Ditié de Jehanne d’Arc is both to ignore the problem that the poem describes events that took place only two days earlier and to dismiss the political implications of the poet’s argument that Joan’s expressed desire to take Paris constitutes what is best for France. This essay argues that the poem is political propaganda supporting Joan of Arc rather than Charles VII on the issue of Paris.