Joan of Arc’s fall is one of the medieval world’s sharpest lessons: war is won in politics as often as on fields. After lifting the siege of Orléans and helping clear the way for Charles VII’s coronation, Joan was captured at Compiègne in 1430. She ended up in English custody and was taken to Rouen, where the English controlled the city and needed her destroyed as a symbol. Her trial opened in early 1431. Formally, it was a church court investigating heresy, presided over Bishop Pierre Cauchon,