Joan of Arc’s interrogation was conducted not by “an English ecclesiastical court” (Royal appeal saves Joan’s ring for France, 27 August) but a French one. Under the presidency of the bishop of Beauvais, her prosecutors, assessors and judges were members of the Norman clergy and of the University of Paris. The court was a tribunal of the French Inquisition. No attempt was made by her own side to save her. The whole miserable story is one from which no one, French or English – except the victim herself – emerges with any credit. And the recently sold finger ring attributed to her, which has no secure or solid provenance whatsoever, seems to be one of those objects, venerated as relics, that suddenly came to light during the Joan of Arc mania that led to her canonisation in 1920. Perhaps the theme park, to which it has been sold, is the best place for it.
Malcolm Vale
St John’s College, Oxford
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