J'Accuse: A Medieval Crime and the Servant Girl Who Changed History

She was a servant with no voice. He was a predator with powerful friends. She refused to stay silent—and changed history.Normandy, 1429. The Hundred Years’ War rages, Joan of Arc is about to go on trial, and the English occupy the land. In the midst of this chaos, a young, low-born servant named Jeanne Corvière attends a hiring fair, hoping for a fresh start. Instead, she meets a sergeant of the law who lures her away with a lie about a wife in labor. What follows is a brutal assault in a dense forest and a shocking act of corruption. When Jeanne seeks justice, she discovers the investigation has been rigged by the relative of her attacker. But Jeanne Corvière is not like other women of her time. Instead of accepting defeat, she launches a decade-long legal battle that takes her to the high courts of Rouen. Her quest for justice puts her on a collision course with the medieval legal privilege that allows the clergy to liberate one prisoner a year, washing away all their crimes. When the clergy selects her rapist for freedom, Jeanne does the unthinkable: she screams the truth to the town. Based on the author’s discovery of a document in a French archive, this book reconstructs a 600-year-old case that deeply resonates in our time. It is the story we know all too well: predatory behavior of men of elite classes whose victims are women of a lower status, whose bodies they believe they could appropriate.Most women in Jeanne Corvière’s place may have given up, believing privilege wiped away the crime. But she did not.Due to that persistence, Jeanne not only won a civil settlement, but she also changed a centuries-long tradition. Jeanne Corvière’s legal victory became legal precedent and helped end a tradition of privilege. It was an important step in the fight that continues today.Set against the backdrop of Joan of Arc’s own trial and execution in the very same city, J’Accuse is a riveting true story of courage. For readers of historical true crime and women’s narratives, this is a moving and unforgettable journey into a past that lives today. Read more