Execution of Jeanne d’Arc in Rouen

Jeanne d’Arc’s captors moved her about France. Eventually she was sold by the Duke of Burgundy to the English and they brought her to Rouen, the capital of the English controlled Duchy of Normandy.

Rouen was one of the most prosperous cities in medieval Europe and it is a fascinating city to visit. Although extensively bombed during the Second World War, the city center offers many half-timbered buildings of traditional Normandy design, medieval churches, and the actual location of Jeanne’s execution.

03d Execution of Jeanne d’Arc in Rouen
Département: Seine-Maritime
Region: Haute-Normandie
Country: France

A French Battlefields “Virtual Battlefield Tour” [This battlefield is not included in Fields of War.]

Summary:  Jeanne d’Arc was bought from the Duke of Burgundy by the English ruler of occupied France, John Lancaster, Duke of Bedford. She was brought to Rouen on Christmas Day 1430 and imprisoned in the Château Bouvreuil built by Philip Augustus in 1205. After a lengthy trial, she was found guilty of heresy. On 30 May 1431 she was burned at the stake in the place du Vieux-Marché and her ashes were scattered in the Seine River.

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Siege of Orléans

03 Siege of Orléans: 12 October 1428 to 8 May 1429
Département: Loiret
Region: Centre
Country: France

A French Battlefields “Virtual Battlefield Tour”. This battle is more fully described in Fields of War: Fifty Key Battlefields in France and Belgium published by French Battlefields.

Summary: Orléans controlled one of the few bridges crossing the dangerous Loire River, a major commercial waterway. Capture of the city offered the English control of the entire Loire valley. The walled city was placed under siege by the Earl of Salisbury’s forces and, as winter changed into spring, the inhabitants were increasingly weakened by shortages of food and desertions. Jeanne d’Arc, then only a 17-year old peasant girl, convinced the French Dauphin to grant her an army to lift the siege. Personally leading successive attacks, she entered the city, stormed various English strongpoints, and finally overcame Les Tourelles. The siege was lifted.


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