Joan of Arc Is Captured at Compiègne
On this day · 23 May 1430
A teenage commander who had turned the Hundred Years' War was pulled from her horse and handed to her enemies.
On 23 May 1430, Joan of Arc rode out of the besieged northern French town of Compiègne to strike the Anglo-Burgundian camp ringing its walls. The sortie went badly. As her troops fell back toward the town’s fortified bridge, an archer seized her gold cloth cloak and dragged her from her horse, leaving the teenage commander stranded outside the closing gates.
Her captors served Burgundy, the French faction allied with England against King Charles VII. Joan had already broken the English siege of Orléans the year before and escorted Charles to his coronation, making her an extraordinary prize. The local historical society notes the capture is often misdated to 24 May, but contemporary accounts place it firmly on the 23rd.
Held for months, she was eventually sold to the English for a ransom and tried for heresy.
Convicted by a church court at Rouen, Joan was burned at the stake in 1431, aged about nineteen. A later retrial annulled the verdict, and she was canonized a saint in 1920.
Sources & references
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