Talk:Miley Cyrus vs Joan of Arc/Rap Meanings/@comment-24353761-20131229163721

Howdy. My childhood fascination with Jeanne d'Arc brought me here. :)

I just have two cents to add regarding Miley's line ("You're a cross-dressing peasant betrayed by those you defended") and the above explanation for it. Yes, King Charles VII completely neglected to come to Joan's aid or to negotiate for her release from English captivity, which was a betrayal in itself (considering that she helped promote him from dauphin to king in the first place). But let's not forget the other betrayers in her tale: the Burgundians.

The Burgundians were Frenchmen who lived in and swore fealty to the Duchy of Burgundy. The Duchy of Burgundy and the Duchy of Orléans got into a huge pissing contest over who was next in line for the King of France's throne. The Duke of Burgundy (John II, ever a power-hungry, Lannister-esque bastard) had the Duke of Orléans (Louis of Valois) assassinated, so Charles VII (who was descended from the House of Valois) became the dauphin, and his followers had John II assassinated. It was a huge, bloody mess.

The vast extend of England's invasion during the Hundred Years' War can be mostly attributed to the civil war between the Burgundians and the Crown; not only were the two houses so busy fighting each other that they pretty much let the English waltz right into France, but the Burgundians were so unwilling to lay down that old grudge that they betrayed France and joined the English--just to spite the House of Valois, while perhaps reasoning along the lines of "Fuck it!  If we can't have the Crown, no one can."

So the English, with the aid of those turncoat Burgundians, made even further headway into France, and Charles VII couldn't become the king while so many of France's major cities were under English control. Along came Joan of Arc, who vowed that she would free all of France from English control and impressed Charles VII so much that he handed her the reins and let her run a sizeable chunk of his army. And, as we all know, she ran that army like a pack of mad cats, punching English faces and liberating French cities right up until the Siege of Compiègne. Unfortunately, the French had to retreat from the combined English and Burgundian forces during that battle. And Joan, being the trooper that she was, held the line while the bulk of her army retreated, which led to her getting swamped and pulled off her horse by--you guessed it--those dastardly Burgundians.

When she first presented herself to Charles VII, Joan of Arc vowed to liberate all of France from English control. Unfortunately, "all of France" included the Duchy of Burgundy; the Burgundians, treasonous though they were, were Frenchmen nonetheless. And thus was Joan of Arc "betrayed by those [she] defended": Frenchmen who happened to be the Burgundians who brought her down, chained her up and handed her off to the English. So perhaps Peter and Lloyd had the Burgundians in mind--as well as King Charles VII and his court--when they gave Miley that line.

What do you think?