On 30th May 1431 an illiterate peasant girl from the small, simple town of Domremy in Northeastern France was put to death by burning. This petite young woman was St Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc in French). But why was St Joan of Arc burned to death?
Why Was St Joan Of Arc Burned To Death?
“I had a daughter, born in legitimate marriage, whom I fortified worthily with the sacraments of baptism and confirmation and raised in the fear of God and respect for the tradition of the Church…Nevertheless, certain enemies betrayed her in a trial concerning the Faith, and, without any aid given to her innocence, in a perfidious, violent, and iniquitous trial, without shadow of right, they condemned her in a damnable and criminal fashion and made her die most cruelly by fire.” — Joan’s mother, Isabelle Romée, speaking about her daughter’s death | Why Was St Joan Of Arc Burned To Death?
Any biography of Joan of Arc will inform you that her appearance onto the scene of the Hundred Years’ War in 1429 caused an uproar in Western Europe. She was loved by the French who were loyal to the Dauphin Charles VII, admired by other Europeans such as the Italian poet Christine de Pizan, and hated by the Burgundians and the English.
It could be said that, in some sense, she was the marmite of the 15th Century. Depending on who you were (and whose side you were on), you either loved or loathed her.
Even for some of the French social elites who were on her side politically, she proved somewhat of a difficulty. Being a peasant farming girl with no military experience, she undoubtedly had her own skeptics even among those loyal to Charles VII.
