Alternative historical interpretations of Joan of Arc Joan of Arc facts and trivia covers topics of specialized interest that pertain to the life and legacy of Joan of Arc . For art , literature , and popular culture references see Cultural depictions of Joan of Arc . History . Portrait . The only surviving image of Joan of Arc that was made during her lifetime is a doodle by Clément de Fauquembergue in the register for the Parlement of Paris . This accompanied the news of her victory at Orléans . She had never been near Paris at that point in her career , so he could not have known what she looked like . Fashion . Joan of Arc ' s short haircut had a profound effect on women ' s hairstyles in the twentieth century . In 1909 , the Paris hairdresser Antoine took Joan of Arc as the inspiration for the bob , which ended centuries of taboo against women who cut their hair . The style became popular in the 1920s and was associated with liberated women . Nearly all subsequent Western hair fashions are designed for women who cut their hair at least occasionally . Such haircut is still known in French as " coupe à la Jeanne d ' Arc " ( Joan of Arc ' s haircut ) . Duel . Joan of Arc inspired a nineteenth - century duel between Henri Rochefort and Paul de Cassagnac . The two men disputed a published article about her . Mexican history . During the Cristero War in 1927 , a group of female Cristeros named themselves after Joan of Arc . They obtained money , supplies , and intelligence for the male combatants . They often smuggled weapons into war zones and cared for the wounded . By the end of the war they had 35 , 000 participants . Relics and sites . The Joan of Arc museum at Chinon , France has a charred bone fragment reputed to belong to Joan of Arc . Its authenticity is unconfirmed and appears to be unlikely , given the circumstances of her death . Indeed , forensic analysis has indicated that the bone is actually from an Egyptian mummy . The English ordered her body burned to ashes and the ashes cast into the River Seine . The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has a helmet in its Arms and Armor collection with a legendary attribution to Joan of Arc . The museum makes no claims that this legend is true , but notes that the helmet dates from the right time period . Several locations associated with Joan of Arc still exist , including the house where she was born , at Domrémy - la - Pucelle . The site has been converted to a museum . The adjacent church has undergone extensive alterations since the fifteenth century but still contains a fourteenth - century statue of St . Margaret , before which Joan of Arc probably prayed . By contrast , the royal castle at Chinon is now a ruin . Little more than the outer wall remains . One wall remains of the great hall where she met Charles VII . Alternative historical interpretations . The following interpretations are sometimes advanced to the public but do not gain significant acceptance among academic historians . Royal bastard . In 1805 Pierre Caze published his interpretation that Joan of Arc was the illegitimate daughter of the Queen , Isabeau of Bavaria , and Duke Louis of Orléans . According to Caze ' s reasoning , the queen hid their daughter in the countryside with the d ' Arc family . When Joan of Arc met the future King Charles VII she would have given him a private sign that she was his half sister . It has been theorized that the coat of arms he later granted her included a sword as a baton of bastardy . Although this would provide an explanation for how she gained the trust of Charles VII in early 1429 , this hypothesis has too many other difficulties to be taken seriously . Foremost among them is that the duke of Orleans died on November 23 , 1407 . Isabeau of Bavaria delivered a son on November 10 , 1407 . The likelihood of conceiving a daughter in the interim is exceedingly small . Assuming Joan of Arc was born the following year , she would have been 23 years old at her trial in 1431 . She estimated her own age at 19 and all but one of the 115 witnesses at the trial of rehabilitation concurred with that age . Furthermore , if the sword in Joan of Arc ' s coat of arms represented a baton of bastardy , then it would be unique in heraldry ; it is inconsistent with the laws of heraldry that a sword " party per pale " ( see " Coat of Arms of Jeanne d ' Arc " ) be considered a sign of illegitimacy . It would also mean that Joan of Arc and several witnesses perjured themselves about her birth . In the words of Regine Pernoud and Marie - Veronique Clin , " Yet amateur historians still insist that all these people - as well as Charles VII , the duke of Alençon , Dunois , Bertrand de Poulengy - carried out an intricate plot to disguise Joan ' s authentic royal parents . This thesis lacks credible documentation . " Survival . Several impostors claimed to be Joan of Arc after the execution date . The most successful was Claude des Armoises . Claude des Armoises married the knight Robert des Armoises and claimed to be Joan of Arc in 1436 . She gained the support of Joan of Arc ' s brothers . She carried on the charade until 1440 , gaining gifts and subsidies . One chronicle states , " In this year there came a young girl who said she was the Maid of France and played her role so well that many were duped by her , and especially the greatest nobles . " Some modern authors attempt to revive this claim by asserting that some other victim was substituted for Joan of Arc at the stake . The likelihood of this is extremely thin , since the trial of nullification records sworn testimony from numerous witnesses who were present at the execution and confirmed her identity .