2026-05-30

Joan of Arc died on May 30, 1431

    Joan of Arc burned as a heretic
Joan of Arc died on May 30, 1431, when she was burned at the stake in Rouen, France.

Captured by Burgundian forces and sold to the English, the 19-year-old was convicted of heresy by an English-backed tribunal, though her verdict was officially overturned decades later.

The English orchestrated a politically motivated heresy trial to invalidate the coronation of King Charles VII, whom Joan had helped crown.

She was accused of heresy, primarily for claiming her visions were divinely sent and for refusing to stop wearing men's military clothing.

She initially signed a confession to escape the fire but soon retracted it and resumed wearing male attire, which led to her immediate re-condemnation as an unrepentant heretic.

She died May 30, 1431 at the age of 19 years old at place du Vieux-Marché in Rouen, France from smoke inhalation and severe burns. It is said that her last words were continuously shouting the name "Jesus" through the flames and requesting a priest to hold a crucifix high for her to see. Since the English feared her followers would revere her bones, the executioners burned her body multiple times to ashes and had the remnants thrown into the River Seine.

In 1456, an inquisitorial court reinvestigated the charges at the request of her mother and Pope Callixtus III. The original verdict was overturned, and Joan was officially declared a martyr. Nearly five centuries later, the Roman Catholic Church canonized Joan of Arc as a saint on May 16, 1920.