Death of Joan of Arc | Trial of Joan of Arc the Martyr | Joan of Arc burned at the steak | Joan of Arc hear voices before she died. Joan of Arc in Battle  Music & Movies  Patronage  Messenger Joan of Arc  Medals  Biography  Death of Joan  Feast Day  Life of Joan  The Passion of Joan of Arc  Timeline  Novena to Joan of Arc  Prayers  Paintings  About Me The Death of Joan of Arc May 30, 1431 would be a day that would forever live in infamy in France. For it was on this day that the death of Joan of Arc be conducted through burning Joan of Arc at the stake. Joan of Arc's death would prove to be one of the greatest injustices in the Middle Ages, and it was not until 25 years later that she was found innocent of all heresy charges by the Pope himself. Since heresy was a capital crime only when it was a repeat offense, the court of the English for the trial of Joan of Arc stated that Joan of Arc had heard voices a second time while in prison.

On top of that, she had stopped wearing men's clothing while in prison until she was molested, after which she began to wear men's clothing again, helping the charge of the English against her for heresy. The death of Joan of Arc would be conducted, with Joan of Arc at the stake, on May 30, 1431. She was tied to a tall pillar in the Vieux-Marche in Rouen, where she asked two of the clergy present to hold a crucifix before her. Feeling pity for her, a peasant made a small cross that Joan of Arc put in the front of her dress. When Joan of Arc burned at the stake, witnesses said she met it with composure and bravery, causing many to feel that there was a horrible injustice against this young woman. After Joan of Arc died, the English raked the coals and ashes to expose her charred body to show that she had not escaped alive. They needed Joan of Arc's death to be proven beyond a doubt to keep her from becoming Joan of Arc the Martyr. Then, the English burned the body twice more to ashes to prevent the collection of ashes from the death of Joan of Arc.

After Joan of Arc was burned at the stake two times, they took the ashes and threw them into the Seine as a final injustice against this woman who had attempted to free her people. Heresy was the charge during the trial of Joan of Arc; many believed she had actually spoken to God. Even the executioner, Geoffroy Therage, later said that after Joan of Arc died, he greatly feared being damned for his part to play in helping Joan of Arc be burned at the stake. Joan of Arc's trial and Joan of Arc's death at the stake would forever be seen as examples of someone dying for something they believe in and being remembered throughout history for it. How old was joan of arc when she died? When did joan of arc die? Where did joan of arc die? Why did joan of arc die? Join us on Joan of Arc martyred - May 30, 1431 - HISTORY.com Joan of Arc martyred Publisher A+E Networks At Rouen in English-controlled Normandy, Joan of Arc, the peasant girl who became the savior of France, is burned at the stake for heresy.

Joan was born in 1412, the daughter of a tenant farmer at Domremy, on the borders of the duchies of Bar and Lorraine. In 1415, the Hundred Years War between England and France entered a crucial phase when the young King Henry V of England invaded France and won a series of decisive victories against the forces of King Charles VI. By the time of Henry’s death in August 1422, the English and their French-Burgundian allies controlled Aquitaine and most of northern France, including Paris. Charles VI, long incapacitated, died one month later, and his son, Charles, regent from 1418, prepared to take the throne. However, Reims, the traditional city of French coronation, was held by the Anglo-Burgundians, and the Dauphin (heir apparent to the French throne) remained uncrowned. Meanwhile, King Henry VI of England, the infant son of Henry V and Catherine of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI, was proclaimed king of France by the English.

Joan’s village of Domremy lay on the frontier between the France of the Dauphin and that of the Anglo-Burgundians. In the midst of this unstable environment, Joan began hearing “voices” of three Christian saints—St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret. When she was about 16, these voices exhorted her to aid the Dauphin in capturing Reims and therefore the French throne. In May 1428, she traveled to Vaucouleurs, a stronghold of the Dauphin, and told the captain of the garrison of her visions. Disbelieving the young peasant girl, he sent her home. In January 1429, she returned, and the captain, impressed by her piety and determination, agreed to allow her passage to the Dauphin at Chinon. Dressed in men’s clothes and accompanied by six soldiers, she reached the Dauphin’s castle at Chinon in February 1429 and was granted an audience. Charles hid himself among his courtiers, but Joan immediately picked him out and informed him of her divine mission.

For several weeks, Charles had Joan questioned by theologians at Poitiers, who concluded that, given his desperate straits, the Dauphin would be well-advised to make use of this strange and charismatic girl. Charles furnished her with a small army, and on April 27, 1429, she set out for Orleans, besieged by the English since October 1428. On April 29, as a French sortie distracted the English troops on the west side of Orleans, Joan entered unopposed by its eastern gate. She brought greatly needed supplies and reinforcements and inspired the French to a passionate resistance. She personally led the charge in several battles and on May 7 was struck by an arrow. After quickly dressing her wound, she returned to the fight, and the French won the day. On May 8, the English retreated from Orleans. During the next five weeks, Joan and the French commanders led the French into a string of stunning victories over the English. On July 16, the royal army reached Reims, which opened its gates to Joan and the Dauphin.

The next day, Charles VII was crowned king of France, with Joan standing nearby holding up her standard: an image of Christ in judgment. After the ceremony, she knelt before Charles, joyously calling him king for the first time. On September 8, the king and Joan attacked Paris. During the battle, Joan carried her standard up to the earthworks and called on the Parisians to surrender the city to the king of France. She was wounded but continued to rally the king’s troops until Charles ordered an end to the unsuccessful siege. That year, she led several more small campaigns, capturing the town of Saint-Pierre-le-Moitier. In December, Charles ennobled Joan, her parents, and her brothers. In May 1430, the Burgundians laid siege to Compiegne, and Joan stole into the town under the cover of darkness to aid in its defense. On May 23, while leading a sortie against the Burgundians, she was captured. The Burgundians sold her to the English, and in March 1431 she went on trial before ecclesiastical authorities in Rouen on charges of heresy.

Her most serious crime, according to the tribunal, was her rejection of church authority in favor of direct inspiration from God. After refusing to submit to the church, her sentence was read on May 24: She was to be turned over to secular authorities and executed. Reacting with horror to the pronouncement, Joan agreed to recant and was condemned instead to perpetual imprisonment. Ordered to put on women’s clothes, she obeyed, but a few days later the judges went to her cell and found her dressed again in male attire. Questioned, she told them that St. Catherine and St. Margaret had reproached her for giving in to the church against their will. She was found to be a relapsed heretic and on May 29 ordered handed over to secular officials. On May 30, Joan, 19 years old, was burned at the stake at the Place du Vieux-Marche in Rouen. Before the pyre was lit, she instructed a priest to hold high a crucifix for her to see and to shout out prayers loud enough to be heard above the roar of the flames. As a source of military inspiration, Joan of Arc helped turn the Hundred Years War firmly in France’s favor.

By 1453, Charles VII had reconquered all of France except for Calais, which the English relinquished in 1558. In 1920, Joan of Arc, one of the great heroes of French history, was recognized as a Christian saint by the Roman Catholic Church. Her feast day is May 30. Related Videos Rouen, place where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake - Travel Photos by Galen R Frysinger, Sheboygan, Wisconsin Joan of Arc Joan of Arc, Saint, in French, Jeanne d'Arc (1412-1431), called the Maid of Orlï¿½ans, national heroine and patron saint of France, who united the nation at a critical hour and decisively turned the Hundred Years' War in France's favor. church in Rouen at the site of Joan being burned at the stake Joan was born of peasant parentage in Domrï¿½my (now Domrï¿½my-la-Pucelle). When she was 13 years old, she believed she heard celestial voices. As they continued, sometimes accompanied by visions, she became convinced that they belonged to St.

Michael and to the early martyrs St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Margaret. Early in 1429, during the Hundred Years' War, when the English were about to capture Orlï¿½ans, the "voices" exhorted her to help the Dauphin, later Charles VII, king of France. Charles, because of both internal strife and the English claim to the throne of France, had not yet been crowned king. Joan succeeded in convincing him that she had a divine mission to save France. A board of theologians approved her claims, and she was given troops to command. Dressed in armor and carrying a white banner that represented God blessing the French royal emblem, the fleur-de-lis, she led the French to a decisive victory over the English. At the subsequent coronation of the Dauphin in the cathedral at Reims, she was given the place of honor beside the king. Although Joan had united the French behind Charles and had put an end to English dreams of hegemony over France, Charles opposed any further campaigns against the English. Therefore, it was without royal support that Joan conducted (1430) a military operation against the English at Compiï¿½gne, near Paris.

She was captured by Bourguignon soldiers, who sold her to their English allies. The English then turned her over to an ecclesiastical court at Rouen to be tried for heresy and sorcery. After 14 months of interrogation, she was accused of wrongdoing in wearing masculine dress and of heresy for believing she was directly responsible to God rather than to the Roman Catholic church. The court condemned her to death, but she penitently confessed her errors, and the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Because she resumed masculine dress after returning to jail, she was condemned again-this time by a secular court-and, on May 30, 1431, Joan was burned at the stake in the Old Market Square at Rouen as a relapsed heretic. the spot where Joan was burned at the stake in the Old Market Square at Rouen Twenty-five years after her death, the church retried her case, and she was pronounced innocent. In 1920 she was canonized by Pope Benedict XV; her traditional feast day is May 30. water running off the roof of the Saint Joan church on market square Joan of Arc has been widely depicted in literature and art.

Notable examples include the statue by the French sculptor Franï¿½ois Rude, in the Luxembourg Museum, Paris, and that by the American sculptor Anna Vaughn Hyatt (also known as Anna Huntington, 1876-1973), on Riverside Drive, New York City. A painting of Joan by the French painter Jules Bastien-Lepageis in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. She has been the subject of such plays as Die Jungfrau von Orleans (1801) by the German dramatist Friedrich von Schiller; Saint Joan (1923) by the British playwright George Bernard Shaw; and Joan of Lorraine (1946) by the American playwright Maxwell Anderson. The Swiss composer Arthur Honegger wrote of her in his oratorio Joan of Arc at the Stake, which was first performed in 1938.

The American writer Mark Twain wrote the biography The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896); she was the major figure in a notable chapter of the History of England (1754-1762) by the Scottish philosopher David Hume; and the French philosopher Voltaire commemorated her in his narrative poem La pucelle d'Orlï¿½ans (The Maid of Orlï¿½ans, 1756). Text from Microsoft Encarta SparkNotes: Joan of Arc: Important Terms, People, and Events Important Terms, People, and Events Important Terms, People, and Events → Abjuration - · An oath by which one renounces a previous belief or oath Domremy - · The French village where Joan of Arc was born Reims - · A city in northeastern France. This was the traditional place where French kings were crowned. Joan of Arc was obsessed with the need for Charles, the Dauphin, to have a formal coronation in Reims, which was controlled by Anglo-Burgundian forces at the time.

Rouen - · French city northwest of Paris, where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake People Duke of Alencon - French Duke who almost always supported Joan of Arc's ideas Burgundy - Philip the Good, also known as the Duke of Burgundy, or "Burgundy" for short, competed with the Valois king Charles during the Hundred Years' War for control over certain French territories. Those who supported Philip against the claims of the pro-Charles party (the Armagnac party) were called "Burgundians." Pierre Cauchon - The bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon presided over Joan of Arc's trial for heresy and witchcraft, resulting in her burning at the stake. Charles VII - French King from 1422 to 1461, during much of second phase of the Hundred Years' War. Because at the time of his father's death the traditional site of coronations, Reims, was under English control, he assumed control without being ceremonially crowned. Thus Joan of Arc called him the "Dauphin," the name for the crown p rince of France, until 1429, when the coronation finally could take place at Reims.

Charles was the Valois claimant to the kingship of the War's disputed lands, and those who supported him were called "Armagnacs." Gilles de Rais - A wealthy nobleman who fought at Joan of Arc's side at the Siege of Orleans. Years later, Gilles de Rais managed to squander his massive fortune and was hanged after a trial for Satanism, abduction, and murdering children. John of Luxembourg - One of the Duke of Burgundy's star commanders, John of Luxembourg captured Joan at the Battle of Compiegne. La Hire - French military commander along with Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais at the Siege of Orleans. Pierre of Arc - Joan's brother, who went with her to the Battle of Compiegne Saint Catherine - Saint Catherine of Alexandria was a martyred saint who was the patron of philosophers and scholars. Joan of Arc claimed that one of the "voices" she heard was Saint Catherine's. Saint Margaret - A saint whose voice Joan of Arc claimed to hear. Saint Michael - One of the saints Joan of Arc claimed to hear speaking in her head. Events Battle of Compiegne - Battle in which Joan of Arc was captured by John of Luxembourg, in May of 1430.

Hundred Years' War - Period of sporadic fighting between England and France between 1337 and 1453 (actually more than 100 years), over who should rule certain French territories. During Joan of Arc's time the two candidates were the Valois king Charles, supported by the French Armagnacs, and the Duke of Burgundy, who was allied with England. The Siege of Orleans in 1429 was an important turning point in this battle. Siege of Orleans - Crucial battle in the Hundred Years' War, from October 12, 1428 to May 8, 1429. The French pro-Charles forces (the Armagnacs) managed to break the stalemate after Joan of Arc's arrival lifted their spirits. Battle of Patay - A June 1429 battle in which the French Armagnac forces thoroughly routed the Anglo-Burgundian forces, helping to open the way to Reims for the Dauphin's coronation.

More Help Today in History: 30 May 1431: English Burn Joan of Arc at the Stake France Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by English authorities in the French city of Rouen. Nicknamed "The Maid of Orleans," she claims to have received visions from God that contained instructions on how to help the French army beat back the English invaders. Accepted by at least some on the French side, she changes the army's tactics from passive and defensive to offensive, scoring a number of quick and important victories. After her capture, she is placed in the hands of a pro-English bishop who sees her execution as a way to undermine the authority of King Charles VII, on whose behalf she has been fighting. Video Joan of Arc - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com Google Joan of Arc’s Early Life Born around 1412, Jeanne d’Arc (or in English, Joan of Arc) was the daughter of a tenant farmer, Jacques d’Arc, from the village of Domrémy, in northeastern France. She was not taught to read or write, but her pious mother instilled in her a deep love for the Catholic Church and its teachings.

At the time, France had long been torn apart by a bitter conflict with England (later known as the Hundred Years’ War), in which England had gained the upper hand. A peace treaty in 1420 disinherited the French crown prince, Charles of Valois, amid accusations of his illegitimacy, and King Henry V was made ruler of both England and France. His son, Henry VI, succeeded him in 1422. Along with its French allies (led by Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy), England occupied much of northern France, and many in Joan’s village, Domrémy, were forced to abandon their homes under threat of invasion. Did You Know? In a private audience at his castle at Chinon, Joan of Arc won the future Charles VII over by supposedly revealing information that only a messenger from God could know; the details of this conversation are unknown. At the age of 13, Joan began to hear voices, which she determined had been sent by God to give her a mission of overwhelming importance: to save France by expelling its enemies, and to install Charles as its rightful king. As part of this divine mission, Joan took a vow of chastity.

At the age of 16, after her father attempted to arrange a marriage for her, she successfully convinced a local court that she should not be forced to accept the match. Joan’s Journey to Orléans In May 1428, Joan made her way Vaucouleurs, a nearby stronghold of those loyal to Charles. Initially rejected by the local magistrate, Robert de Baudricourt, she persisted, attracting a small band of followers who believed her claims to be the virgin who (according to a popular prophecy) was destined to save France. When Baudricort relented, Joan cropped her hair and dressed in men’s clothes to make the 11-day journey across enemy territory to Chinon, site of the crown prince’s palace. Joan promised Charles she would see him crowned king at Reims, the traditional site of French royal investiture, and asked him to give her an army to lead to Orléans, then under siege from the English. Against the advice of most of his counselors and generals, Charles granted her request, and Joan set off for Orléans in March of 1429 dressed in white armor and riding a white horse.

After sending off a defiant letter to the enemy, Joan led several French assaults against them, driving the Anglo-Burgundians from their bastion and forcing their retreat across the Loire River. Downfall of Joan of Arc After such a miraculous victory, Joan’s reputation spread far and wide among French forces. She and her followers escorted Charles across enemy territory to Reims, taking towns that resisted by force and enabling his coronation as King Charles VII in July 1429. Joan argued that the French should press their advantage with an attempt to retake Paris, but Charles wavered, even as his favorite at court, Georges de La Trémoille, warned him that Joan was becoming too powerful. The Anglo-Burgundians were able to fortify their positions in Paris, and turned back an attack led by Joan in September. In the spring of 1430, the king ordered Joan to confront a Burgundian assault on Compiégne. In her effort to defend the town and its inhabitants, she was thrown from her horse, and was left outside the town’s gates as they closed.

The Burgundians took her captive, and brought her amid much fanfare to the castle of Bouvreuil, occupied by the English commander at Rouen. Joan of Arc: From Witch to Saint In the trial that followed, Joan was ordered to answer to some 70 charges against her, including witchcraft, heresy and dressing like a man. The Anglo-Burgundians were aiming to get rid of the young leader as well as discredit Charles, who owed his coronation to her. In attempting to distance himself from an accused heretic and witch, the French king made no attempt to negotiate Joan’s release. In May 1431, after a year in captivity and under threat of death, Joan relented and signed a confession denying that she had ever received divine guidance. Several days later, however, she defied orders by again donning men’s clothes, and authorities pronounced her death sentence. On the morning of May 30, at the age of 19, Joan was taken to the old market place of Rouen and burned at the stake. Her fame only increased after her death, however, and 20 years later a new trial ordered by Charles VII cleared her name.

Long before Pope Benedict XV canonized her in 1920, Joan of Arc had attained mythic stature, inspiring numerous works of art and literature over the centuries and becoming the patron saint of France. Tags Saint Joan of Arc | French heroine | Britannica.com Saint Joan of Arc Alternative Titles: La Pucelle d’Orléans, Sainte Jeanne d’Arc, The Maid of Orléans Saint Joan of Arc Olivier de Clisson Saint Joan of Arc, byname the Maid of Orléans, French Sainte Jeanne d’Arc or La Pucelle d’Orléans (born c. 1412 ce, Domrémy, Bar, France—died May 30, 1431, Rouen; canonized May 16, 1920; feast day May 30; French national holiday, second Sunday in May), national heroine of France, a peasant girl who, believing that she was acting under divine guidance, led the French army in a momentous victory at Orléans that repulsed an English attempt to conquer France during the Hundred Years’ War .

Captured a year afterward, Joan was burned to death by the English and their French collaborators as a heretic . She became the greatest national heroine of her compatriots, and her achievement was a decisive factor in the later awakening of French national consciousness . Joan of Arc at the Coronation of Charles VII in Reims Cathedral, by … Archivo Iconografico, S.A./Corbis Overview of Joan of Arc’s life. Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz Research into Joan of Arc’s appearance. Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz Joan was the daughter of a tenant farmer at Domrémy , on the borders of the duchies of Bar and Lorraine . In her mission of expelling the English and their Burgundian allies from the Valois kingdom of France, she felt herself to be guided by the voices of St. Michael , St. Catherine of Alexandria , and St. Margaret of Antioch . Joan was endowed with remarkable mental and physical courage, as well as a robust common sense, and she possessed many attributes characteristic of the female visionaries who were a noted feature of her time.

These qualities included extreme personal piety, a claim to direct communication with the saints , and a consequent reliance upon individual experience of God’s presence beyond the ministrations of the priesthood and the confines of the institutional church. Joan’s mission The crown of France at the time was in dispute between the dauphin Charles (later Charles VII ), son and heir of the Valois king Charles VI , and the Lancastrian English king Henry VI . Henry’s armies were in alliance with those of Philip the Good , duke of Burgundy (whose father, John the Fearless , had been assassinated in 1419 by partisans of the Dauphin), and were occupying much of the northern part of the kingdom. The apparent hopelessness of the Dauphin’s cause at the end of 1427 was increased by the fact that, five years after his father’s death, he still had not been crowned. Reims , the traditional place for the investiture of French kings, was well within the territory held by his enemies. As long as the Dauphin remained unconsecrated, the rightfulness of his claim to be king of France was open to challenge.

Britannica Stories Scientists Ponder Menopause in Killer Whales Joan’s village of Domrémy was on the frontier between the France of the Anglo-Burgundians and that of the Dauphin. The villagers had already had to abandon their homes before Burgundian threats. Led by the voices of her saints, Joan traveled in May 1428 from Domrémy to Vaucouleurs, the nearest stronghold still loyal to the Dauphin, where she asked the captain of the garrison, Robert de Baudricourt, for permission to join the Dauphin. He did not take the 16-year-old and her visions seriously, and she returned home. Joan went to Vaucouleurs again in January 1429. This time her quiet firmness and piety gained her the respect of the people, and the captain, persuaded that she was neither a witch nor feebleminded, allowed her to go to the Dauphin at Chinon . She left Vaucouleurs about February 13, dressed in men’s clothes and accompanied by six men-at-arms. Crossing territory held by the enemy, and traveling for 11 days, she reached Chinon.

Exploring Italy and France: Fact or Fiction? Joan went at once to the castle of the dauphin Charles, who was initially uncertain whether to receive her. His counselors gave him conflicting advice; but two days later he granted her an audience. As a test Charles hid himself among his courtiers, but Joan quickly detected him; she told him that she wished to go to battle against the English and that she would have him crowned at Reims. On the Dauphin’s orders she was interrogated by ecclesiastical authorities in the presence of Jean, duc d’Alençon , a relative of Charles, who showed himself well-disposed toward her. She was then taken to Poitiers for three weeks, where she was further questioned by eminent theologians who were allied to the Dauphin’s cause. These examinations, the record of which has not survived, were occasioned by the ever-present fear of heresy following the end of the Western Schism in 1417. Joan told the ecclesiastics that it was not at Poitiers but at Orléans that she would give proof of her mission; and forthwith, on March 22, she dictated letters of defiance to the English.

In their report the churchmen suggested that in view of the desperate situation of Orléans, which had been under English siege for months, the Dauphin would be well-advised to make use of her. Joan of Arc answering the questions of the prelates. © Photos.com/Jupiterimages Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Joan returned to Chinon. At Tours , during April, the Dauphin provided her with a military household of several men; Jean d’Aulon became her squire, and she was joined by her brothers Jean and Pierre. She had her standard painted with an image of Christ in Judgment and a banner made bearing the name of Jesus . When the question of a sword was brought up, she declared that it would be found in the church of Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois, and one was in fact discovered there. Action at Orléans French troops numbering several hundred men were mustered at Blois , and on April 27, 1429, they set out for Orléans. The city, besieged since October 12, 1428, was almost totally surrounded by a ring of English strongholds.

When Joan and one of the French commanders, La Hire, entered with supplies on April 29, she was told that action must be deferred until further reinforcements could be brought in. On the evening of May 4, when Joan was resting, she suddenly sprang up, apparently inspired, and announced that she must go and attack the English. Arming herself, she hurried to an English fort east of the city, where she discovered an engagement was already taking place. Her arrival roused the French, and they took the fort. The next day Joan addressed another of her letters of defiance to the English. On the morning of May 6 she crossed to the south bank of the river and advanced toward another fort; the English immediately evacuated in order to defend a stronger position nearby, but Joan and La Hire attacked them and took it by storm. Very early on May 7 the French advanced against the fort of Les Tourelles. Joan was wounded but quickly returned to the fight, and it was thanks in part to her example that the French commanders maintained the attack until the English capitulated . Next day the English were seen retreating, but, because it was a Sunday, Joan refused to allow any pursuit.

Victories and coronation Open Door policy From Gien, where the army began to assemble, the Dauphin sent out the customary letters of summons to the coronation . Joan wrote two letters: one of exhortation to the people of Tournai , always loyal to Charles, the other a challenge to Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy. She and the Dauphin set out on the march to Reims on June 29. Before arriving at Troyes , Joan wrote to the inhabitants, promising them pardon if they would submit. They countered by sending a friar , the popular preacher Brother Richard, to take stock of her. Although he returned full of enthusiasm for the Maid and her mission, the townsfolk decided to remain loyal to the Anglo-Burgundian regime. The Dauphin’s council decided that Joan should lead an attack against the town, and the citizens quickly submitted to the next morning’s assault. The royal army then marched on to Châlons, where, despite an earlier decision to resist, the count-bishop handed the keys of the town to Charles. On July 16 the royal army reached Reims, which opened its gates.

The coronation took place on July 17, 1429. Joan was present at the consecration, standing with her banner not far from the altar. After the ceremony she knelt before Charles, calling him her king for the first time. That same day she wrote to the duke of Burgundy, adjuring him to make peace with the king and to withdraw his garrisons from the royal fortresses. St. Joan of Arc, French heroine and martyr, kneeling before the dauphin Charles (later Charles VII, … © Photos.com/Jupiterimages Ambitions for Paris Charles VII left Reims on July 20, and for a month the army paraded through Champagne and the Île-de-France . On August 2 the king decided on a retreat from Provins to the Loire, a move that implied abandoning any plan to attack Paris . The loyal towns that would thus have been left to the enemy’s mercy expressed some alarm.

Joan, who was opposed to Charles’s decision, wrote to reassure the citizens of Reims on August 5, saying that the duke of Burgundy, then in possession of Paris, had made a fortnight’s truce, after which it was hoped that he would yield Paris to the king. In fact, on August 6, English troops prevented the royal army from crossing the Seine at Bray, much to the delight of Joan and the commanders, who hoped that Charles would attack Paris. Everywhere acclaimed, Joan was now, according to a 15th-century chronicler, the idol of the French. She herself felt that the purpose of her mission had been achieved. Near Senlis , on August 14, the French and English armies again confronted each other. This time only skirmishes took place, neither side daring to start a battle, though Joan carried her standard up to the enemy’s earthworks and openly challenged them. Meanwhile Compiègne, Beauvais , Senlis, and other towns north of Paris surrendered to the king. Soon afterward, on August 28, a four months’ truce for all the territory north of the Seine was concluded with the Burgundians.

Joan, however, was becoming more and more impatient; she thought it essential to take Paris. She and Alençon were at Saint-Denis on the northern outskirts of Paris on August 26, and the Parisians began to organize their defenses. Charles arrived on September 7, and an attack was launched on September 8, directed between the gates of Saint-Honoré and Saint-Denis. The Parisians could be in no doubt of Joan’s presence among the besiegers; she stood forward on the earthworks, calling on them to surrender their city to the king of France. Wounded, she continued to encourage the soldiers until she had to abandon the attack. Though the next day she and Alençon sought to renew the assault, they were ordered by Charles’s council to retreat. Further struggle Charles VII retired to the Loire, Joan following him. At Gien, which they reached on September 22, the army was disbanded. Alençon and the other captains went home; only Joan remained with the king. Later, when Alençon was planning a campaign in Normandy , he asked the king to let Joan rejoin him, but La Trémoille and other courtiers dissuaded him.

Joan went with the king to Bourges , where many years later she was to be remembered for her goodness and her generosity to the poor. In October she was sent against Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier; through her courageous assault, with only a few men, the town was taken. Joan’s army then laid siege to La Charité-sur-Loire; short of munitions, they appealed to neighbouring towns for help. The supplies arrived too late, and after a month they had to withdraw. Joan then rejoined the king, who was spending the winter in towns along the Loire. Late in December 1429 Charles issued letters patent ennobling Joan, her parents, and her brothers. Early in 1430 the duke of Burgundy began to threaten Brie and Champagne. The inhabitants of Reims became alarmed, and Joan wrote in March to assure them of the king’s concern and to promise that she would come to their defense.

When the duke moved up to attack Compiègne , the townsfolk determined to resist; in late March or early April Joan left the king and set out to their aid, accompanied only by her brother Pierre, her squire Jean d’Aulon, and a small troop of men-at-arms. She arrived at Melun in the middle of April, and it was no doubt her presence that prompted the citizens there to declare themselves for Charles VII. Joan was at Compiègne by May 14, 1430. There she found Renaud de Chartres, archbishop of Reims, and Louis I de Bourbon, comte de Vendôme, a relative of the king. With them she went on to Soissons , where the townspeople refused them entry. Renaud and Vendôme therefore decided to return south of the Marne and Seine rivers; but Joan refused to accompany them, preferring to return to her “good friends” in Compiègne. Capture, trial, and execution On her way back to Compiègne, Joan heard that John of Luxembourg , the captain of a Burgundian company, had laid siege to the city.

Hurrying on, she entered Compiègne under cover of darkness. The next afternoon, May 23, she led a sortie and twice repelled the Burgundians but was eventually outflanked by English reinforcements and compelled to retreat. Remaining until the last to protect the rear guard while they crossed the Oise River , she was unhorsed and could not remount. She gave herself up and, with her brother Pierre and Jean d’Aulon, was taken to Margny, where the duke of Burgundy came to see her. In telling the people of Reims of Joan’s capture, Renaud de Chartres accused her of rejecting all counsel and acting willfully. Charles, who was working toward a truce with the duke of Burgundy, made no attempts to save her. St. Joan of Arc (c. 1412–31), French heroine and martyr. She was captured while trying … © Photos.com/Jupiterimages John of Luxembourg sent Joan and Jean d’Aulon to his castle in Vermandois. When she tried to escape in order to return to Compiègne, he sent her to one of his more distant castles.

There, though she was treated kindly, she became more and more distressed at the predicament of Compiègne. Her desire to escape became so great that she jumped from the top of a tower, falling unconscious into the moat. She was not seriously hurt, and when she had recovered, she was taken to Arras, a town adhering to the duke of Burgundy. News of her capture had reached Paris on May 25, 1430. The next day the theology faculty of the University of Paris , which had taken the English side, requested the duke of Burgundy to turn her over for judgment either to the chief inquisitor or to the bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon , in whose diocese she had been seized. The university wrote also, to the same effect, to John of Luxembourg; and on July 14 the bishop of Beauvais presented himself before the duke of Burgundy asking, on his own behalf and in the name of the English king, that the Maid be handed over in return for a payment of 10,000 francs .

The duke passed on the demand to John of Luxembourg, and by January 3, 1431, she was in the bishop’s hands. The trial was fixed to take place at Rouen . Joan was moved to a tower in the castle of Bouvreuil, which was occupied by the earl of Warwick, the English commander at Rouen. Though her offenses against the Lancastrian monarchy were common knowledge, Joan was brought to trial before a church court because the theologists at the University of Paris, as arbiter in matters concerning the faith, insisted that she be tried as a heretic . Her beliefs were not strictly orthodox, according to the criteria for orthodoxy laid down by many theologians of the period. She was no friend of the church militant on earth (which perceived itself as in spiritual combat with the forces of evil), and she threatened its hierarchy through her claim that she communicated directly with God by means of visions or voices. Further, her trial might serve to discredit Charles VII by demonstrating that he owed his coronation to a witch, or at least a heretic. Her two judges were to be Cauchon, bishop of Beauvais, and Jean Lemaître, the vice-inquisitor of France.

The trial Beginning January 13, 1431, statements taken in Lorraine and elsewhere were read before the bishop and his assessors; they were to provide the framework for Joan’s interrogation. Summoned to appear before her judges on February 21, Joan asked for permission to attend mass beforehand, but it was refused on account of the gravity of the crimes with which she was charged, including attempted suicide in having jumped into the moat. She was ordered to swear to tell the truth and did so swear, but she always refused to reveal the things she had said to Charles. Cauchon forbade her to leave her prison, but Joan insisted that she was morally free to attempt escape. Guards were then assigned to remain always inside the cell with her, and she was chained to a wooden block and sometimes put in irons. Between February 21 and March 24 she was interrogated nearly a dozen times. On every occasion she was required to swear anew to tell the truth, but she always made it clear that she would not necessarily divulge everything to her judges since, although nearly all of them were Frenchmen, they were enemies of King Charles.

The report of this preliminary questioning was read to her on March 24, and apart from two points she admitted its accuracy. When the trial proper began a day or so later, it took two days for Joan to answer the 70 charges that had been drawn up against her. These were based mainly on the contention that her behaviour showed blasphemous presumption: in particular, that she claimed for her pronouncements the authority of divine revelation; prophesied the future; endorsed her letters with the names of Jesus and Mary , thereby identifying herself with the novel and suspect cult of the Name of Jesus; professed to be assured of salvation ; and wore men’s clothing. Perhaps the most serious charge was of preferring what she believed to be the direct commands of God to those of the church. On March 31 she was questioned again on several points about which she had been evasive, notably on the question of her submission to the church. In her position, obedience to the court that was trying her was inevitably made a test of such submission. She did her best to avoid this trap, saying she knew well that the church militant could not err, but it was to God and to her saints that she held herself answerable for her words and actions.

The trial continued, and the 70 charges were reduced to 12, which were sent for consideration to many eminent theologians in both Rouen and Paris. Meanwhile, Joan fell sick in prison and was attended by two doctors. She received a visit on April 18 from Cauchon and his assistants, who exhorted her to submit to the church. Joan, who was seriously ill and thought she was dying, begged to be allowed to go to confession and receive Holy Communion and to be buried in consecrated ground. They continued to badger her, receiving only her constant response, “I am relying on our Lord, I hold to what I have already said.” They became more insistent on May 9, threatening her with torture if she did not clarify certain points. She answered that even if they tortured her to death she would not reply differently, adding that in any case she would afterward maintain that any statement she might make had been extorted from her by force. In light of this commonsense fortitude , her interrogators, by a majority of 10 to three, decided that torture would be useless.

Joan was informed on May 23 of the decision of the University of Paris that if she persisted in her errors she would be turned over to the secular authorities; only they, and not the church, could carry out the death sentence of a condemned heretic. Abjuration, relapse, and execution Apparently nothing further could be done. Joan was taken out of prison for the first time in four months on May 24 and conducted to the cemetery of the church of Saint-Ouen, where her sentence was to be read out. First she was made to listen to a sermon by one of the theologians in which he violently attacked Charles VII, provoking Joan to interrupt him because she thought he had no right to attack the king, a “good Christian,” and should confine his strictures to her. After the sermon was ended, she asked that all the evidence on her words and deeds be sent to Rome. Her judges ignored her appeal to the pope and began to read out the sentence abandoning her to the secular power. Hearing this dreadful pronouncement, Joan quailed and declared she would do all that the church required of her. She was presented with a form of abjuration, which must already have been prepared.

She hesitated in signing it, eventually doing so on condition that it was “pleasing to our Lord.” She was then condemned to perpetual imprisonment or, as some maintain, to incarceration in a place habitually used as a prison. In any case, the judges required her to return to her former prison. The vice-inquisitor had ordered Joan to put on women’s clothes, and she obeyed. But two or three days later, when the judges and others visited her and found her again in male attire, she said she had made the change of her own free will, preferring men’s clothes. They then pressed other questions, to which she answered that the voices of St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Margaret of Antioch had censured her “treason” in making an abjuration. These admissions were taken to signify relapse, and on May 29 the judges and 39 assessors agreed unanimously that she must be handed over to the secular officials. The next morning, Joan received from Cauchon permission, unprecedented for a relapsed heretic, to make her confession and receive Communion. Accompanied by two Dominicans , she was then led to the Place du Vieux-Marché.

There she endured one more sermon, and the sentence abandoning her to the secular arm—that is, to the English and their French collaborators—was read out in the presence of her judges and a great crowd. The executioner seized her, led her to the stake, and lit the pyre. A Dominican consoled Joan, who asked him to hold high a crucifix for her to see and to shout out the assurances of salvation so loudly that she should hear him above the roar of the flames. To the last she maintained that her voices were sent of God and had not deceived her. According to the rehabilitation proceedings of 1456, few witnesses of her death seem to have doubted her salvation, and they agreed that she died a faithful Christian. A few days later the English king and the University of Paris formally published the news of Joan’s execution. St. Joan of Arc (c. 1412–31), French patriot and martyr. Tried for heresy and sorcery, … © Photos.com/Jupiterimages Almost 20 years afterward, on his entry into Rouen in 1450, Charles VII ordered an inquiry into the trial.

Two years later the cardinal legate Guillaume d’Estouteville made a much more thorough investigation. Finally, on the order of Pope Calixtus III following a petition from the d’Arc family, proceedings were instituted in 1455–56 that revoked and annulled the sentence of 1431. Joan was canonized by Pope Benedict XV on May 16, 1920; her feast day is May 30. The French parliament, on June 24, 1920, decreed a yearly national festival in her honour; this is held the second Sunday in May. Character and importance Joan of Arc’s place in history is assured. Perhaps her contribution to the history of human courage is greater than her significance in the political and military history of France . She was victimized as much by a French civil conflict as by a war with a foreign power. The relief of Orléans was undoubtedly a notable victory, which secured the loyalty of certain regions of northern France to the régime of Charles VII.

But the Hundred Years’ War continued for a further 22 years after her death, and it was the defection of Philip the Good of Burgundy from his alliance with the Lancastrians in 1435 that provided the foundation upon which the recovery of Valois France was to be based. The nature of Joan’s mission, moreover, is a source of controversy among historians, theologians, and psychologists. Innumerable points about her campaigns and about the motives and actions of her supporters and enemies are subject to dispute: for instance, the number and dates of her visits to Vaucouleurs, Chinon, and Poitiers; how she was able to win the confidence of the Dauphin at their first meeting at Chinon; whether Charles’s perambulations after his coronation at Reims represented triumphant progress or scandalous indecision; what her judges meant by “perpetual imprisonment”; whether, after her recantation, Joan resumed men’s clothes of her own free will and at the bidding of her voices or, as one later story has it, because they were forced upon her by her English jailers.

Later generations have tended to distort the significance of Joan’s mission according to their own political and religious viewpoints rather than seeking to set it in the troubled context of her time. The effects of the Western Schism (1378–1417) and the decline of papal authority during the Conciliar Movement (1409–49) made it difficult for persons to seek independent arbitration and judgment in cases relating to the faith. The verdicts of the Inquisition were liable to be coloured by political and other influences; and Joan was not the only victim of an essentially unjust procedure, which allowed the accused no counsel for the defense and which sanctioned interrogation under duress. Her place among the saints is secured, not perhaps by the somewhat dubious miracles attributed to her, but by the heroic fortitude with which she endured the ordeal of her trial and, except for one lapse toward its end, by her profound conviction of the justice of her cause, sustained by faith in the divine origin of her voices. In many ways a victim of internal strife within France, condemned by judges and assessors who were almost entirely northern French in origin, she has become a symbol of national consciousness with whom all French people, of whatever creed or party, can identify.

Joan of Arc: 1431 Joan of Arc Photo Archive Joan of Arc, a devout saint of God, was burned at the stake in May of 1431 on charges of heresy. After a long trial that lasted over a year, three major indictments were made against her. The first of these was that she used magic because she claimed to hear voices from St. Michael, St. Margaret, and St. Catherine. It was these voices which told her to dress as a boy and fight for the French in the Hundred Years War against the English. The charge against her stated that the voices were actually demons instead of saints. They accused her of being linked to the devil. Back to Hundred Years War Chronology The second indictment affirmed what was actually true--that she was headstrong in speaking out for her faith. The reason this was a crime is because she acted inappropriately as a woman in the church in her time. She dressed as a boy, fought in war, took communion as a male, all of which horrified the judges and people of her time. Courtesy of Natural Bridges The third set of accusations reflects Joan of Arc's pure obedience to God.

It was said, "'she does not submit herself to the judgment of the Church Militant, or to that of living men, but to God alone,' whom, [the University of Paris] said, she claimed to know through her diabolical voices." On these charges, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in the Old Market Place of Rouen, near the church of Saint-Sauveur. She was only 18 or 19 years old, and her death was a powerful witness of her commitment to God. When her sentence was to be carried out, she asked to face the cross from the church, and to hold a small, wooden cross until she died. While her body was burning, she kept repeating the name of Jesus over and over to give her strength. "...in giving up the ghost and bowing her head, [she] uttered the name of Jesus as a sign that she was fervent in the faith of God." Sources: Barstow, Anne Llewllyn, Joan of Arc--Heretic, Mystic, Shaman. (Lewiston/Queenston; The Edwin Mellen Press, 1986) p. 83.

Hyarns, Edward, translator, Joan of Arc: by Herself and Her Witnesses. (New York; Stein and Day Publishers, 1966) p. 232. Edited by: Nathan L. Seldomridge Researched by: Jill E. Luckow Written by: Erica E. Olson December 14, 1996

Question: Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake in which French city?
Answer: Rouen