The Trial of Joan of Arc. Why Was She Sent to the Stake?

A nineteen-year-old visionary whose military successes contributed to the coronation of the French monarch faced an ecclesiastical tribunal controlled by English occupiers. Though heresy was never proven, she died at the stake in 1431 as a victim of political intrigue. A quarter-century later, the Church nullified the verdict, declaring the trial fraudulent.

Capture and Sale to the English

The Burgundians captured Joan in May 1430 during fighting over Compiègne. John of Luxembourg, vassal to the Duke of Burgundy allied with the English, treated his prisoner as a source of profit. For several months, negotiations continued regarding her fate and ransom value.

In autumn 1430, the transaction was completed for a sum of ten thousand livres. The English purchased Joan and transported her to Rouen, which served as their main power base on occupied French territories. The city became the site of her imprisonment and future trial.

For English commanders, capturing the girl was not sufficient victory. They wished to destroy her reputation and undermine the legitimacy of Charles VII, whose coronation at Reims owed much to her intervention. The trial was meant to serve political purposes as strongly as religious ones.

Tribunal Under English Control

Authority over the trial rested with Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais and devoted supporter of the English cause. Cauchon counted on English backing in his path to the cardinalate and conducted proceedings according to the occupiers’ interests. The tribunal was also supported by the pro-English University of Paris, providing theological legitimization.

The court’s composition included approximately one hundred thirty clerics and theologians aligned with the English side. Canon law required those accused of heresy to be held in church prisons under the care of nuns. Joan, however, was kept in a secular castle, bound in chains and guarded by English soldiers.

Proceedings began in January 1431, with public interrogations starting in February. The initial indictment numbered seventy articles, later reduced to twelve main charges. These included claims of demonic visions, wearing male clothing, and refusing submission to the Church.

Forced Abjuration and the Trap

Interrogations did not produce the expected effect, as Joan consistently defended the divine source of her voices. The tribunal decided on intimidation tactics to force admission of guilt. In May 1431, the girl was led to the cemetery at Saint-Ouen church, where a pyre and executioner were prepared.

Under threat of immediate burning, Joan agreed to renounce her beliefs and sign a document recanting claims of revelations. As an illiterate, she marked it with a cross instead of a signature. Her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on bread and water, and she donned a woman’s dress.

The English were not satisfied with this solution and desired her death. Joan was returned to the secular prison, where guards deliberately left her only male clothing. After three days, it was discovered she was again wearing male attire, giving the tribunal a pretext for charging her with relapse into heresy.

Execution and Later Rehabilitation

Donning male clothing was considered relapsus, or return to heresy. Inquisitorial law prescribed automatic death penalty in such cases without possibility of defense. Sentence was issued on May 29, with execution scheduled for the following day.

Joan was taken to the Old Market Square in Rouen on May 30, 1431. She was allowed to receive communion, and an English soldier made her a makeshift cross from two pieces of wood. Brother Isambard de la Pierre held a processional cross before her during the burning. After the execution, the English ordered her ashes thrown into the Seine to prevent veneration of relics.

King Charles VII ordered an investigation into the trial after recapturing Rouen in 1450. Pope Callixtus III mandated formal rehabilitation, conducted in 1455-1456 based on testimony from one hundred fifteen witnesses. The tribunal declared in July 1456 that the original trial was corrupt, procedurally flawed, and based on false accusations.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Joan-of-Arc/Capture-trial-and-execution
• https://www.thecollector.com/joan-of-arc-death-trial/
• https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/joan-arcs-trial-begins
• https://www.historyhit.com/joan-of-arc-the-trials-that-forged-a-martyr/