Changes

==Background==

==Background==

Joan stepped onto the stage of world history during the [[Hundred Years' War]] with England at a point in time when French fortunes were at a low ebb. The English and their Burgundian allies had confined the faction of the uncrowned and disinherited King Charles VII (the Dauphin) to southwest France and had laid seige to Orleans, the fall of which would have premitted the English to invade Charles' remaining French territory.

Joan stepped onto the stage of world history during the [[Hundred Years' War]] with England at a point in time when French fortunes were at a low ebb. The English and their Burgundian allies had confined the faction of the uncrowned and disinherited King Charles VII (the Dauphin) to southwest France and had laid siege to Orleans, the fall of which would have permitted the English to invade Charles' remaining French territory.

==Siege of Orleans and beyond==

==Siege of Orleans and beyond==

==Capture, trial, and execution==

==Capture, trial, and execution==

In the Spring of 1430, Joan was captured at the town of Compiegne while leading troops attempting to defend against an English seige. She was held for much of the remainder of that year by her Burgundian captors, but then was sold to the English after which she was transferred to Rouen where she was put on trial in proceedings governed by the Inquisition.<ref>Years after the trial of condemnation, in testimony during the rehabilitation proceedings, Guillaume Manchon, the chief notary at the 1431 Trial, testified that in spite of pressures exereted upon him and his assistants to alter the court records to Joan's disadvantage, he and other witnesses maintained that record, including the Latin translation of Thomas de Courcelles, was a reliable account of what had happened at the Trial.

In the Spring of 1430, Joan was captured at the town of Compiegne while leading troops attempting to defend against an English siege. She was held for much of the remainder of that year by her Burgundian captors, but then was sold to the English after which she was transferred to Rouen where she was put on trial in proceedings governed by the Inquisition.<ref>Years after the trial of condemnation, in testimony during the rehabilitation proceedings, Guillaume Manchon, the chief notary at the 1431 Trial, testified that in spite of pressures exerted upon him and his assistants to alter the court records to Joan's disadvantage, he and other witnesses maintained that record, including the Latin translation of Thomas de Courcelles, was a reliable account of what had happened at the Trial.

''As regards the official record of the trial, which, so far as the Latin version goes, seems to be preserved entire, we may probably trust its accuracy in all that relates to the questions asked and the answers returned by the prisoner. These answers are in every way favourable to Joan. Her simplicity, piety, and good sense appear at every turn, despite the attempts of the judges to confuse her.'' (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08409c.htm  Joan of Arc)</ref>

''As regards the official record of the trial, which, so far as the Latin version goes, seems to be preserved entire, we may probably trust its accuracy in all that relates to the questions asked and the answers returned by the prisoner. These answers are in every way favourable to Joan. Her simplicity, piety, and good sense appear at every turn, despite the attempts of the judges to confuse her.'' (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08409c.htm  Joan of Arc)</ref>