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1456–1461: Rehabilitation of Joan and end of reign

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Charles VII: Joan of Arc, Reconquest and Restoration of the State (1422–1461) · HIGH MIDDLE AGES

After the reconquest, the monarchy had to stabilise the memory of the war and the authority of the State. It was also a time of administrative and financial consolidation.

⚖️ 1456: The rehabilitation of Joan of Arc

King Charles VII, after liberating Rouen in 1449, ordered an inquiry into the circumstances of Joan of Arc’s trial and execution. He obtained for the one who had served him so faithfully a solemn rehabilitation on 17 July 1456.

This nullity trial annulled the condemnation of 1431 and cleared Joan of Arc of the charge of heresy. This gesture was not merely moral: it also served to reinforce the legitimacy of the coronation of 1429 and to close a political wound.

🪙 Governing after the war

The restoration of authority passed through economics and finances. The reign of Charles VII is often associated with servants of the State and with reorganisations that helped sustain the military effort and then the reconstruction.

💰 The Jacques Cœur affair (1451-1453)

In 1451, Jacques Cœur, the king’s Grand Master of the Treasury, was arrested, no doubt due to his creditors and debtors who were jealous of his personal success. He was exiled in 1453. This affair illustrated the tensions within the royal entourage and the difficulties of managing the kingdom’s finances after the war.

🖨️ The introduction of printing in France

In 1458, a protégé of Jacques Cœur, Nicolas Jenson, master engraver at the royal Mint workshop at Tours, was commissioned by Charles VII to travel to Mainz to learn the typographic art recently invented by Gutenberg. This mission was the prelude to the introduction of printing in France, an innovation that would profoundly transform European culture.

👑 Conflicts with Dauphin Louis (the future Louis XI)

The last years of Charles VII were troubled by the ambitions of his son, the future Louis XI, who had already made himself felt in the past by actively participating in the Praguerie in 1440.

Having conspired against Agnès Sorel and Pierre de Brézé, Dauphin Louis was expelled from the court in 1446 and took refuge in the Dauphiné. There, he pursued a personal policy, nurturing the ambition of building a vast fief on both sides of the Alps. To this end, he signed a mutual assistance treaty with Duke Louis I of Savoy and married his daughter Charlotte.

Furious at his actions, Charles VII sent an army to march on the Dauphiné. Louis had to flee and took refuge with the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good. Upon hearing the news, Charles VII declared:

“My cousin of Burgundy has received in his home a fox who will one day eat his hens.”

This sharp comment alluded to his son’s cunning and treacherous personality. Louis XI would not leave Burgundy until his father’s death in 1461.

🌍 1453: End of the classical Middle Ages

The year 1453 is considered by historians to mark symbolically the end of the classical Middle Ages, with two major events that profoundly transformed Europe:

⚔️ End of the Hundred Years’ War

  • 17 July 1453: decisive French victory at the Battle of Castillon
  • The English were definitively “driven out of France” (except for Calais)
  • End of a conflict that had lasted 116 years (1337–1453)
  • Consolidation of the French monarchical State under Charles VII

🏰 Fall of Constantinople

  • 29 May 1453: capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans under Mehmed II
  • End of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire)
  • Closure of overland trade routes to Asia
  • Exodus of Byzantine scholars to Italy, contributing to the Renaissance

These two events marked a historic rupture:

  • In the West: end of the great feudal wars, affirmation of nation-states
  • In the East: end of the Roman heritage, rise of the Ottoman Empire
  • Transition to the modern era and the Renaissance

⚰️ 1461: Death of the king

Charles VII died on 22 July 1461 at the château of Mehun-sur-Yèvre. He left behind a kingdom more cohesive than in 1422, even if political and social tensions did not disappear with victory.

🧠 Key points

  • 17 July 1456: solemn rehabilitation of Joan of Arc
  • 1451-1453: the Jacques Cœur affair, the king’s Grand Master of the Treasury
  • 1453: a pivotal year marking the end of the classical Middle Ages
    • 29 May 1453: fall of Constantinople (end of the Byzantine Empire)
    • 17 July 1453: end of the Hundred Years’ War (Battle of Castillon)
  • 1458: Nicolas Jenson sent to Mainz to learn printing
  • Conflicts with Dauphin Louis (future Louis XI) and his exile in Burgundy
  • 22 July 1461: death of Charles VII at Mehun-sur-Yèvre
  • 1461 closed a reign of reconquest and reconstruction of the State