1431: Trial and death of Joan of Arc

After 1429, the struggle also turned on controlling narratives. The objective was no longer merely to defeat an army, but to undermine a legitimacy.

---

⚖️ Capture and trial

After a period of negotiations and truces between Armagnacs and Burgundians, the latter reopened hostilities. On 10 May 1430, Jean de Luxembourg besieged Compiègne. Alerted by its inhabitants, Joan of Arc came to their relief at the head of 400 lances. But falling into an ambush, she was taken prisoner by the Burgundians.

Sold to the English, she was judged at Rouen by an ecclesiastical tribunal presided over by the Bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon. The trial, which lasted from 21 February to 30 May 1431, ended in her condemnation for heresy and relapse. She was burned alive at the Place du Vieux-Marché in Rouen on 30 May 1431, at the age of 19.

---

⚖️ A political trial

The trial of Joan aimed to transform a figure of the reconquest into proof of illegitimacy: if Joan were condemned, the coronation and the royal camp would be presented as deceitful or impious.

King Charles VII, after liberating Rouen in 1449, would order an inquiry into the circumstances of her trial and execution. He obtained her solemn rehabilitation on 17 July 1456.

---

👑 The coronation of Henry VI in Paris

For his part, Henry VI of England was crowned, in turn, King of France at the age of nine in Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, on 16 December 1431, by the Cardinal of Winchester, surrounded by the Duke of Bedford and many English lords. This coronation aimed to counter the legitimacy acquired by Charles VII at Reims.

---

🔥 Rouen (1431) and legacy

Joan was executed at Rouen in 1431. The event shocked, but did not destroy the effect of 1429. On the contrary, the memory of Joan gradually became an instrument of cohesion and a symbol of resistance.

Historians agree on her role: she was not a military commander, but an auxiliary of victory, through her encouragement and her energy. On the political level, she admirably served the designs of King Charles VII, at a moment when he was discouraged by the enemy’s advances. This energetic and inspired young woman led the king toward a complete change of direction. She was at the origin of his definitive legitimation by having him crowned at Reims. She embodies the symbol of the resistance of the French people against the foreign occupier.

---

🧠 Key points

• The Hundred Years’ War was also a legal and symbolic war.
• 30 May 1431: execution of Joan of Arc at Rouen
• 16 December 1431: coronation of Henry VI at Notre-Dame in Paris
• The death of Joan did not erase the political shift of 1429.
• Joan of Arc became a symbol of French resistance and royal legitimacy.