Joan of Arc's relief of the siege of Orléans in April–May 1429 was a decisive turning point in the Hundred Years' War, raising French morale and beginning the reversal of English advances in France. The city of Orléans, its walls and towers besieged by English and Burgundian forces, was saved by a teenage girl claiming divine inspiration who led the French forces in a series of bold assaults on the English fortifications. The event transformed Joan into a national heroine and eventually a saint.

Joan of Arc became one of the most written-about figures in world literature, her story inseparable from the fortifications she fought over. Christine de Pizan wrote an immediate celebratory poem, 'Ditié de Jehanne d'Arc', the only contemporary literary tribute by a woman — making it a landmark in the history of female literary voice. Voltaire mocked her in La Pucelle; Schiller celebrated her in Die Jungfrau von Orleans; Southey wrote his epic Joan of Arc. The fortress as the site of female heroism entered the literary tradition.