Trial of Jeanne d'Arc

The Trial of Jeanne d'Arc was a 1431 legal proceeding against the French heroine Jeanne d'Arc. Ostensibly a trial on the charge of heresy, the whole affair had been engineered by the French Templars wanting access to Jeanne's Sword of Eden. Taking place over four and a half months in the town of Rouen, the trial ended with Jeanne's condemnation and sentenced her to , though her friend Fleur traded places with her before the execution.
==History==
After John, Duke of Bedford bought Jeanne's liberty from John of Luxembourg, she was taken to Rouen on 24 December 1430 to be tried. Bishop Pierre Cauchon was responsible for these negotiations, also angling for the spot of archbishop of Rouen.Assassin's Creed: Heresy – Chapter 30 On 21 February 1431, Rouen Castle's chapel was used for a session of her trial, with Cauchon and Jean d'Estivet as the overseeing judges and Fleur and Gabriel Laxart in attendance. Jeanne was brought out and interrogated for hours, though she managed to avoid incriminating herself in the judges' pointed and biased questions.Assassin's Creed: Heresy – Chapter 31
On 24 May 1431, the cemetery of the Abbey of Saint-Ouen was set up for Jeanne's public sentencing, presided by priest Guillaume Erard. Erard prefaced Jeanne's sentencing with a sermon where he railed against both Jeanne and Charles VII of France calling them heretics, among other insults. Erard had a fellow clergy member hand Jeanne a letter of —a statement forcing her to swear never to cut her hair short, don men's clothing, or take up arms again—in return, she would be taken into custody of the church.Assassin's Creed: Heresy – Chapter 32
When Jeanne asked that the clerks read the document out loud for her, Erard yelled at her, threatening her with immediate execution by fire, though the young clergyman that had handed her the letter ignored the priest and read it for Jeanne. Although Jeanne could write her name, she instead signed with a cross within a circle, signaling that she meant nothing by it and leaving herself a way out of it.
The church court informed Jeanne that she would be deemed a reformed heretic if she rejected men's clothing and other masculine behavior, promising she would be put in an ecclesiastical prison and not have to have leg irons or guards in her cell. But on Sunday morning, she woke to find that her guards had taken her dresses and left only men's clothes for her to wear, which historian Simon Hathaway attributed to Cauchon.
On 30 May, the day of Jeanne's execution came to be held in the old marketplace. Gabriel witnessed who he thought was Jeanne burning at the stake and tried desperately to reach her hoping that French Assassins would come to her rescue, but none did. However, it was not Jeanne upon the stake, instead it was Fleur who had come into contact with the Assassins, with whom she devised a plan to save her idol. After an unconscious Jeanne was smuggled away from her cell the day of her execution, Fleur had the Assassins beat her until her face was unrecognizable and took her place at the stake.Assassin's Creed: Heresy – Chapter 36 She was then executed by Geoffroy Thérage, who found in her remains the Heart of the Sword of Eden. Believing it to be "Jeanne"'s unburning heart, he threw it into the Seine.Assassin's Creed: Heresy – Chapter 34
==Appearances==
*Assassin's Creed: Heresy
==References==
Category:Timeline
Category:Hundred Years' War
Category:Templar conspiracies