Anne de Beaujeu
Joan was born on 23 April 1464 in the castle of , a trusted supporter of her grandfather, King Charles VII of France, at Nogent-le-Roi in the County of Dreux. She was the second daughter of King Louis XI of France and of his second wife Charlotte of Savoy; her surviving siblings were King Charles VIII of France and Anne of France. Shortly after her birth, the king signed an agreement to marry her to his second cousin Louis, the Duke of Orléans, later King Louis XII of France, who was aged two at the time. Joan was born sickly and deformed. In "Women Saints – Lives of Faith and Courage", Kathleen Jones says that Joan had a hump on her back and walked with a limp, suggesting that she had curvature of the spine.