Rouen
City on the Seine in Normandy. Joan of Arc was tried in its castle in 1431, abjured in the cemetery of Saint-Ouen and was burned in the Old Market. The sentence that annulled her trial was read in the archbishop’s palace there in 1456.
The trial of Joan of Arc opened on 21 February 1431 in the chapel royal of the castle of Rouen, where she was also held prisoner (Trial of Condemnation, 21 February 1431 (Murray, pp. 3–8)). On 24 May she was brought to a public assembly in the cemetery of the abbey of Saint-Ouen, and on 30 May to the Old Market, near the church of Saint-Sauveur, where the final sentence was read (Trial of Condemnation, 24 and 30 May 1431 (Murray, pp. 127, 142)). The judges of 1456 gave their sentence in the archbishop’s palace and ordered it published that day in the square of Saint-Ouen and the next day in the Old Market, with a cross to be set up there in her memory (Nullification Trial, sentence of 7 July 1456 (Murray, pp. 327–328)). See the Trial of Joan of Arc.
What happened here
- 30 May 1431, firm dateThe Trial of Joan of Arc
A church court at Rouen under Bishop Pierre Cauchon tries Joan of Arc for heresy, and on 30 May 1431 she is burned as relapsed. In 1456 judges appointed by Pope Callixtus III declare that trial and its sentences null. Both verdicts are known from the courts’ own records.