Despite being mediated by scribes, the detailed records from Joan's trial and rehabilitation offer an exceptionally rare opportunity to hear the wit, courage, and personality of a 15th-century peasant girl in her own words. This direct voice is a primary source of her enduring historical power.

Despite their desperation, the Dauphin's court didn't blindly trust Joan. They subjected her to a rigorous vetting process, including a physical examination to confirm her virginity and a theological inquiry by scholars at Poitiers. This was a form of medieval due diligence to mitigate the immense risk of backing a fraud or heretic.

Joan's judges faced a theological quandary: if her voices were demonic, was she a collaborator or a victim? Many assessors argued that being tricked by Satan isn't necessarily heretical, as all humans are fallible. This complexity shows the trial wasn't a foregone conclusion, with one theologian even suggesting consulting the Pope.

The trial's primary goal was not justice but to delegitimize Charles VII. By convicting Joan as a witch, the English hoped to prove that Charles's coronation was a "satanic fraud," thereby restoring the legitimacy of their own claimant to the French throne.

The Hundred Years' War was intertwined with a brutal French civil war between the Burgundians and Armagnacs. For many French, including high-ranking clergy, siding with the Anglo-Burgundian alliance was a logical choice for stability against the rival Armagnac faction, not an act of treason.

The court ritual where Joan "identified" the Dauphin she had already met was a deliberate piece of political theatre. This staged "pantomime" was not a genuine test but a public relations exercise designed to cement the narrative of her divine gifts and the Dauphin's legitimacy in the minds of the entire court.

After Joan was captured, Charles VII's regime strategically distanced itself. The official line was that God allowed her capture as punishment for her pride and folly. This narrative protected the king from the embarrassment of her failure and allowed him to move on.

The presiding judge, Pierre Cauchon, went to great lengths to follow established inquisitorial rules. Knowing the trial would attract massive international attention, he aimed to create a legally sound verdict that would appear legitimate and unassailable to hostile observers, making it far more than a simple show trial.

Joan grew up in a village on the violent frontier between pro-Dauphin and pro-Burgundian territories. The constant, deadly skirmishes with the neighboring village embodied the national civil war on a micro-scale, likely fueling her intense desire for a unified France under a single, authoritative king.