This card shows Joan of Arc, who was a symbol to many of the suffragette women and featured on many banners. Some even dressed as her in parades and demonstrations, and rode along with the foot soldiers. She was certainly a topical figure, for she had been beatified only recently. More than that, as our card shows, she was but a simple girl, who rose to the call, and conquered, even though she died, or more correctly, was killed in the attempt.
However there is a greater connection to Joan of Arc and the Suffragettes than some of you may know. This concerns Emily Davison Wilding, who was very enamoured with the Saint. One night in 1913 she had laid a wreath on a statue of her - and the very next day she travelled to the Derby. We will find out more about that tomorrow.
At her funeral banners were draped across her grave, which said 'Fight on and God will give Victory". These were Joan of Arc's last words, and had been requested as an epitaph by Emily Davison Wilding. However in the end this did not happen, and instead her grave bears a verse from the Bible, John 15:13 in the King James Version, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
Our card is the Dutch version of this set, and, sadly I know very little Dutch, but the title is "De stemmen zegden mij: Ga im Frankrijk". Luckily there is also a French version, which has the title of this card as "Les voix me disaient: Va en France", and that means "The Voices told me. They said : Go to France`. So our title must be the same, with "De stemmen" meaning the voices and "mij" being me. And of course "Frankrijk" must be France.
There was another Liebig set on Joan of Arc, but much earlier. That was issued in 1890, and it is actually the set I to our set II. It is called "Jungfrau von Orleans", this meaning "Young Woman of Orleans", and it has German text. The codes on that are Fada F.269 and Sanguinetti S.270.
Strangely this earlier set has a single, more religious figure speaking to her, closely resembling an angel, whereas our set they look more like ghosts. Not sure why that should be.
And there is another fact which you might not be aware of, and that is when this first set was issued Joan of Arc was not a Saint. She may have been declared a martyr, very early on, in 1456, but it was only in 1909 that she was beatified, which means that the Church admitted she was in Heaven, and able to hear your prayers. However her sainthood was only granted in 1920, by Pope Benedict XV.