Joan of Arc lifts the siege of Orleans and is later burned at Rouen
A teenage peasant turns the Hundred Years' War, then dies for it
Quick facts
- Location
- Orleans and Rouen, France
- Key people
- Joan of Arc, Charles VII
- Death
- Burned at the stake, 30 May 1431
What happened
Joan of Arc, a peasant girl from Domremy who said she received visions instructing her to save France, convinced the disinherited dauphin Charles to give her troops, and in May 1429 she led the relief of the besieged city of Orleans, breaking a siege that had lasted since October 1428. She went on to secure Charles's coronation as Charles VII at Reims that July, but was captured by Burgundian allies of the English in 1430 and sold to them. An English-influenced ecclesiastical court tried her for heresy and cross-dressing, and she was burned at the stake in Rouen on 30 May 1431 at about nineteen years old.
Why it matters
Joan's intervention reversed the momentum of the Hundred Years' War at its lowest point for France, and Charles VII's legitimized coronation gave the French crown the authority it needed to eventually drive English forces out of France entirely by 1453. A retrial ordered by the pope in 1456 annulled her conviction, and she was canonized a saint in 1920.
How we know
The full transcript of Joan's 1431 trial survives in the original Latin and French, recording her own testimony in her words as transcribed by court notaries, making it one of the most detailed firsthand records of any medieval individual's own voice.
Sources
- Fordham Internet Medieval Sourcebook (trans. W.P. Barrett). Joan of Arc Trial Transcript · Primary source (author-declared)sourcebooks.fordham.edu · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Joan of Arc · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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