ChronoFive
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Setting the scene
Joan of Arc, born around 1412 to a peasant family in Domrémy, claimed that from age 13 she heard voices of Saints Michael, Catherine, and Margaret telling her to save France. By 1429, the Hundred Years' War was going badly—English and Burgundian forces controlled northern France, and the Dauphin Charles was uncrowned at Chinon. Joan convinced local officials to take her to Charles, whom she persuaded of her divine mission. Given troops, she relieved the siege of Orléans in May 1429, then won at Patay, enabling Charles's coronation at Reims in July.
What happened
Joan's military career lasted only a year. In May 1430, she was captured by Burgundians at Compiègne and sold to the English for 10,000 livres. The English, eager to discredit Charles's coronation as the work of a witch, arranged an ecclesiastical trial at Rouen. Bishop Pierre Cauchon, a pro-English cleric, presided over a trial for heresy, witchcraft, and cross-dressing. The trial violated church law—Joan was denied counsel, held in a military prison rather than ecclesiastical custody, and interrogated about her visions. She defended herself with remarkable intelligence, but was convicted.
Why it still matters
On May 30, 1431, Joan was burned at the stake in Rouen's marketplace, aged about 19. She was executed as a relapsed heretic for resuming male clothing (which she said was necessary for protection against rape). The English intended to destroy her reputation, but the execution backfired—witnesses reported her courage, and her ashes were thrown in the Seine to prevent relic collection. In 1456, a retrial nullified the verdict. Joan was canonized in 1920 and remains France's patron saint, a symbol of national identity, faith, and resistance. Her trial transcript remains a unique window into medieval belief and misogyny.【7252250693502151534†L5-L7】
Background
She later became a French national symbol. Even centuries later, this episode remains a reference point for how empires rise, fracture, and transform.