Orleans occupied a position of extraordinary strategic and symbolic importance. Sitting on the Loire, it was the last major obstacle between English-controlled northern France and the Dauphin's remaining territories in the south. The English regent, John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, understood that taking Orleans would effectively end French resistance. The Dauphin Charles, disinherited by the Treaty of Troyes and recognized as king only in unoccupied southern France, could not afford to lose it. The siege began on 12 October 1428 when the Earl of Salisbury arrived with an English army and began constructing fortified positions around the city. Salisbury was mortally wounded by a cannonball on 27 October while surveying the city from a captured tower -- one of the first notable casualties of gunpowder artillery in the Hundred Years' War -- and died a week later on 3 November 1428. Command passed to the Earl of Suffolk, then to Lord Talbot, but the ring of English bastilles continued to tighten.

The English approach at Orleans was unconventional. Rather than surrounding the city completely -- they lacked the manpower for a full encirclement -- they built a series of fortified bastilles at key points around the walls, particularly controlling the bridge over the Loire at the southern end. The bridge itself was partially destroyed, with the English holding a massive fortification called Les Tourelles at its southern terminus. French convoys could still slip supplies into the city through gaps in the English lines, but each month the noose drew tighter. Inside Orleans, the garrison mounted sorties and kept communication open with the Dauphin's court, but morale was eroding. An attempt to intercept an English supply convoy resulted in the humiliating Battle of the Herrings in February 1429, where the English successfully defended their wagons loaded with Lenten provisions. The city sent desperate appeals to the Dauphin, to the Duke of Burgundy, to anyone who might help.

Joan of Arc reached Orleans on 29 April 1429 after a remarkable journey from the Dauphin's court at Chinon, where she had convinced Charles to give her a military command. She arrived with a supply convoy that entered the city from the east, exploiting a gap in the English siege lines. Her presence electrified the garrison and the citizens. Joan was not a military strategist in the conventional sense -- her captains provided tactical expertise -- but she brought something the French had lacked for years: absolute conviction that they would win. She immediately began pushing for offensive action against the English bastilles, overriding the caution of experienced commanders who preferred to wait for reinforcements. On 4 May, the French attacked and captured the bastille of Saint-Loup east of the city. On 6 May, they crossed the Loire and assaulted the fortifications on the south bank. The decisive moment came on 7 May, when Joan led an attack on Les Tourelles itself.

During the assault on Les Tourelles, Joan was struck by a crossbow bolt between her neck and shoulder. She withdrew briefly to have the wound dressed, then returned to the fighting. Her reappearance on the battlefield, visibly wounded but pressing forward, shattered whatever remained of English confidence. The French stormed the fortification. The English commander, William Glasdale, drowned when the drawbridge he was retreating across collapsed after French fire ships ignited it from below. The fall of Les Tourelles severed the English position south of the Loire. The next morning, 8 May 1429, the remaining English forces formed up in battle order outside the city walls. The French came out to face them, and the two armies stared at each other across the field. After about an hour, the English withdrew. They marched away without a fight, abandoning the siege they had maintained for nearly seven months. The city that contemporaries believed would decide the fate of France was free.

The relief of Orleans transformed the war. From a military standpoint, it broke the English stranglehold on the Loire and opened the path for the campaign that would recapture Jargeau, Meung-sur-Loire, Beaugency, and culminate in the devastating French cavalry victory at Patay. From a political standpoint, it made possible the march to Reims, where the Dauphin was crowned King Charles VII on 17 July 1429 -- the coronation that legitimized his claim and undermined the English-backed dual monarchy. From a psychological standpoint, it proved that the English could be beaten, shattering the aura of invincibility that had hung over English arms since Agincourt. Joan of Arc would be captured by Burgundians in 1430, sold to the English, tried for heresy, and burned at the stake in Rouen on 30 May 1431. She was nineteen years old. But the siege she broke in nine days had already decided the outcome of the Hundred Years' War. France would never again be seriously threatened with complete English conquest.