Joan of Arc, Rehabilitation trial

As the Hundred Years' War wound to a conclusion in the middle of the 15th century, the French forces of Charles VII entered the city of Rouen, the former administrative capital of the English in France. As a result, the records of the 1431 Trial of Joan of Arc on charges of heresy became available to the French.

Charles owed his crown to Joan who, in obedience to what she asserted to be a command from God, had intervened on behalf of France two years prior to that to lift the English seige of Orleans and turn the tide of the war at the very moment when it appeared that the Anglo - Burgundian alliance would finally prove victorious. The outcome of the trial, which convicted Joan of heresy and had her burnt at the stake, left Charles in a position where it appeared that he owed his crown to a convicted heretic. This was, at least in part, the motive for the trial.

In order to remove this stain from his crown, Charles set in motion an investigation of the earlier trial which would, after a few years' time, lead to a re-opening of the case and a complete reversal of the previous verdict and the vindication of Joan in what has come to be known as the Rehabilitation Trial of Joan of Arc (also sometimes referred to as the Nullification Trial of Joan of Arc).

Royal Commission

As a first step in examining the case of Joan of Arc, Charles appointed a Royal Commission headed by Guillaume Boulle and charged them with examining the Trial record to ascertain the facts about the trial.