Possible death of Joan of Arc

This is the traditional date in 1431 of her death at the stake, but there is evidence to show Joan of Arc was alive, married with children as late as 1436 at Mentz and 1439 at Orleans. The marriage contract between Robert d'Armoise, Knight, and Jeanne d'Arc, la Pulcelle d'Orleans, has been discovered.

After she was captured, she was willing to recant in the face of the terrible punishment awaiting her, and her enemies were prepared to give her life imprisonment on bread and water. However, some of them put men's armour in her cell, and she was naturally tempted to put it on and gain the courage that it imparted to her. Her enemies caught her and said she was an unrepentant heretic, and no pardon could be granted to her, so she was burnt in the marketplace at Rouen.



Her real name was Darc, not d'Arc, so she has no association with a village named Arc. Born at Domremi, a small village on the river Meuse, 1410 (some sources say January 6, 1412, which is where we have her in the Book of Days), she was the youngest child of peasants Jacques and Isabell Darc. Domremi lay in the territory of the Duke of Bar, a staunch supporter of the dauphin Charles VII, near the border with territory of Duke of Lorraine, who was an adherent of the Duke of Burgundy and the English party. The archangel Michael came to her in a vision and told her that she was destined to be the saviour of the French, as well as introducing her to her two saintly guides, Catherine and Margaret.

Two French historians, Pierre de Sermoise and Emile Grillot de Givry have both suggested that there is evidence to say that she was not executed. Another "witch" was substituted, wearing a hood ...

Categories: france, saint, history, biography, capital-punishment