They lived their lives with the power of man. One fiction, one fact, and they still held me in awe and idolism: Jeanne d’Arc du France (Joan of Arc) and the controversial Alison, the Wife of Bath.

Each woman was a leader in her own domain. Through the power of love, the Wife of Bath was able to control and manipulate her many husbands to do as she pleased and give in to her demands. Joan of Arc led armies of men to fight for their country through the power of religion and her saintly air.

By the Church, Alison is first wed, and so to is Joan given command of an army. It was the age of twelve that fed the women, for that is the year the Wife of Bath marries. As for Joan, it is the year which begins her dreams that turn her into an unexpected leader.

Joan was a proud virgin because it was God’s intent that she be. “I will keep my virginity as long as it pleases God,” is what she was recalled saying. Her nickname was La Pucelle, or the virgin. “J’ai nom Jehanne la Pucelle” (”I am called Joan the Maiden”).

Alison, quite the opposite, was perfectly content at being practiced in the art of marriage. She happily engaged in intercourse where she said, in marriage, “God is not displeased”. She continued by saying, “I have the power, during all my life/ over his very body, and not he”. Sex was her manipulative tool of choice. “And truly, as my husbands have all said/ I was the best thing there could be in bed.”

Joan wielded her sword over many. She disguised her feminine figure in armor made exactly for her body ro protect her from her enemies. She was a prowess in the form of a woman: a dream-inspired lynx who slipped her way to the top. She battled against England, while the English Wife of Bath could no doubt relate to her religious convictions.

Both women easily found a control over men. Alison was able to lull even strangers with her tales and teachings of love and lust. She was able to offer them knowledge that they did not have, therefore becoming their teacher. She justified all of her opinions using religious references which gave the men information they could relate to. An example of her control is when the pardoner speaks, “Now, Madame, if you’re willing, I suggest,/ as you began,/ continue with your tale, and spare no man./ Teach us young men your practice as our guide”.

Joan of Arc threatened as only a man would have the audacity to do during the time period. She used religion to justify her comments, and she had a whole country to enforce her opinions. “You, men of England, who have no right to this Kingdom of France, the King of Heaven orders and notifies you through me, Joan the Maiden, to leave your fortresses and go back to your own country; or I will produce a clash of arms to be eternally remembered. And this is the third and last time I have written to you; I shall not write anything further.” Her threats extreme to any one man of the time, but she continued further by sending them straight to the King of England. “I would have sent you my letter more properly, for you have detained my herald called ‘Guyenne’. Please send him back to me, and I will send some of your men captured in the fortress of Saint Loup, for they are not all dead”.

During her fourth marriage, the experienced wife fell deeply in love with another. It was a different kind of feeling for her. She said “What matter if on every bone he’d beaten me!/ He’d have my love so quickly he could sweeten me.” But la pucelle knew better than to trust the situation. She was recalled saying, about her final battle, that she would be captured.

And so they were ensnared. The Wife of Bath was captured by her lover, while Joan of Arc sat in prison. Joan was forced to wear a dress instead of her armor and raped for doing so. Alison had to suffer the stories of devious women being traitors to their husbands. Their roles were switched back to the societal norm and, once again, they were at the mercy of men.

In an act of desperation, the Wife of Bath was caught deaf by a strike to the ear which she explained “… He jumped up, he was made for ire/ As a mad lion, and caught me on the head./ With such a blow I fell dead”. At this, Joan of Arc refused to wear her dress and put back on her armor. She was charged as being a repeat heretic and was hung from a tall pillar and burned to death for no reason but spite and trickery. At this, Alison cried out, “You’d kill me for land? Before I die,/ False thief… I’ll give you a last kiss!”