Joan’s Trial and Execution
The English put Joan on trial on the capital charge of heresy and witchcraft. During the trial, the ordinary country girl amazed the court with her articulate defence of her actions and her great knowledge of theology. During her imprisonment, she was ill-treated and threatened with torture. Many times she was threatened with rape. In May 1431, the tribunal announced that Joan of Arc was guilty of heresy. It claimed that the voices that she heard were demonic and that she was in reality, a witch. On the morning of May 30, she was taken to Rouen public square and burned at the stake. She was placed on a huge pile of wood and died to a stake. She was offered the chance of an easy death, by strangling, if she admitted that she was a witch. Joan refused she genuinely believed that she has received visions from God to save France.
The English set fire to the wood and Joan was burned alive. It was a horrible death. However, the young girl still only a teenager did not cry out or beg for her life.
Joan was only nineteen years old. She died bravely, protesting her innocence.
“My Voices did come from God and everything that I have done was by God’s order”.