In the spring of 1429, acting in obedience to what she said was the command of God, Joan inspired the Dauphin's armies in a series of stunning military victories which lifted the Siege of Orléans and destroyed a large percentage of the remaining English forces at the Battle of Patay, reversing the course of the Hundred Years' War.

Then, she was captured in May 1430 in the siege of Compiègne by the Burgundian faction led by Philip III, Duke of Burgundy, who was allied with the English.

In December of that same year, she was transferred to Rouen, the military headquarters and administrative capital in France of King Henry VI of England, and placed on trial for heresy before a Church court headed by Bishop Pierre Cauchon, a supporter of the English, in efforts to illegitimize King Charles's crowning.

These records were originally written in Middle French but were translated into Latin by Manchon and University of Paris master Thomas de Courcelles about four years after the trial.

They gave vivid memories of many incidents that are not recorded in the trial transcript, and described how the English government had manipulated the affair.

[6] In a letter dated 20 February 1431 sent to the assessors and others summoning them to appear the morning of the following day for the first public interrogation session of Joan, Pierre Cauchon cited the grant of jurisdiction within the city of Rouen by the chapter of the cathedral of Rouen for the purpose of conducting the trial against Joan.

He also stated that Joan was "vehemently suspected of heresy" and that "rumors of her acts and sayings wounding our faith had notoriously spread."

He also alluded to the expected absence of the Vice-Inquisitor for Rouen, Jean Le Maistre, whose presence was required by canon law in order to validate the proceedings.

In response to the summons of Bishop Cauchon on this same date, priest and bailiff Jean Massieu reported that Joan had agreed to appear in court, but she requested that ecclesiastics of the French side be summoned equal in number to those of the English party (as required by the Church's rules), and she asked that she should be allowed to hear Mass.

In response, promoter (prosecutor) Jean d'Estivet forbade Joan to attend, citing "especially the impropriety of the garments to which she clung" according to the Trial transcript (Barrett translation).

Her soldier's clothing increasingly became an issue as the trial progressed and the tribunal failed to find other grounds for a conviction.

After being brought before the court, the proceedings were explained to Joan and an exhortation was delivered to her by Bishop Cauchon, following which she was required to take an oath concerning her testimony.

She replied that she had learned to "spin [wool] and to sew", that she "confessed her sins once a year", sometimes more often, and "received the sacrament of the Eucharist at Easter".

"[8] Joan's response, neatly avoiding the theological trap, left the court "stupefied" according to one of the notaries, Boisguillaume.

She was in fact wounded by an arrow between the neck and left shoulder as she was helping to raise a ladder against the fortress of Les Tourelles.

Following the usual disagreements over the oath, the session then turned to certain letters exchanged between herself and the Count of Armagnac concerning which of the three Papal claimants was the true Pope.

She referred to the record of Poitiers, but did add that she had begun wearing soldier's clothing at Vaucouleurs, when she set out across enemy-held territory to travel to Chinon.

Joan was then asked about her meeting with Catherine de La Rochelle, a French mystic who likewise claimed to have revelations from God.

Finally, the session closed with some questions about Joan's escape attempt from the castle at Beaurevoir, where she was held for a number of months by her Burgundian captors.

Asked about the role of her saints in this action, Joan reported that "Easter week last, when I was in the trenches at Melun, I was told by my voices ... that I would be captured before St. John's Day," adding that "it had to be so" and that "I should not be distressed, but take it in good part, and God would aid me."

Later, when commenting on when she first heard her voices, Joan said that she "vowed to keep her virginity as long as it should please God" adding that she was then "thirteen years old, or thereabouts".

She stated that she went to Paris not at the behest of a revelation, but "at the request of nobles who wanted to make an attack" adding that "after it had been revealed to me ... at Melun that I would be captured, I usually deferred to the captains on questions of war."

The morning session of March 14 began with lengthy questioning concerning Joan's leap from the tower at Beaurevoir where she had been held captive prior to being delivered to the English.

The questioning ended for this session with Joan being asked whether, after hearing that revelation, she felt she could no longer commit mortal sin.

Joan qualified her earlier reply by adding that her belief in her salvation was "provided that I kept my oath and promise to Our Lord to keep safe my virginity of body and of soul."

Then the assessors read off a list of charges, all of which had been dealt with in previous examinations, and asked her, in reference thereto, whether or not she felt herself in mortal sin as a result.

If I had said or done anything, or if there were anything on my body that clerks could say was against the Christian faith the Lord established, I would not uphold it but would reject it.″[12] In nearly the last session, Joan answered questions about her Saintly voices as well as wearing men's clothes.

Joan was asked whether she had been in contact with any fairies, why she looked at her ring before battle, and why the banner was present at the Dauphin's coronation.

[citation needed] On May 24, Joan was taken to a scaffold set up in the cemetery next to Saint-Ouen Church, and told that she would be burned immediately unless she signed a document renouncing her visions and agreeing to stop wearing soldiers' clothing.

Eighteen years after Joan of Arc’s execution, an ecclesiastical tribunal initiated a retrial at the request of Charles VII.