Joan of Arc2 
Although Joan had united the French behind Charles and had put an end
to English dreams of hegemony over France, Charles opposed any further campaigns against
the English. Therefore, it was without royal support that Joan conducted (1430) a military
operation against the English at Compiegne, near Paris. She was captured by Burgundian
soldiers, who sold her to their English allies. The English then turned her over to an
ecclesiastical court at Rouen to be tried for heresy and sorcery. After 14 months of
interrogation, she was accused of wrongdoing for wearing masculine dress and of heresy for
believing she was directly responsible to God rather than to the Roman Catholic Church.
The court condemned her to death, but she penitently confessed her errors, and the
sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Because she resumed masculine dress after
returning to prison, she was condemned again—this time by a secular court—and,
on May 30, 1431, Joan was burned at the stake in the Old Market Square at Rouen as a
relapsed heretic.
THANKS TO CHILDSTARLET.COM ,CBS.COM and Microsoft Encarta.