# The 1456 rehabilitation process nullifies the 1431 Rouen condemnation

Date: 1456

## The fact

In 1456 a rehabilitation trial declared the 1431 Rouen condemnation null. The hearings used the archbishop’s palace at Rouen among other sites. Joan did not attend; she had been burned in 1431.

## Context

A nullification can restore legal memory without restoring a life. It is also a Valois political need after reconquest.

[Joan of Arc](/people/joan-of-arc) is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

The Historial occupies the officiality site of condemnation and rehabilitation. Britannica independently dates the 1456 process.

Official or archival record: Historial Jeanne d’Arc — Rouen (https://www.historial-jeannedarc.fr/en/; Historial Jeanne d’Arc / Rouen).

## Significance

High confidence on the nullification; she is not the sitting judge.

A quashing is not a canonization. 1920 is a separate Vatican act.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 1456 rehabilitation nullifying 1431. Not established: that 1456 created later women’s rights law, or that it unburned anyone.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Joan of Arc: https://factrail.ai/people/joan-of-arc

## Drivers

- Judicial independence erosion (court capture): https://factrail.ai/drivers/justice-judicial-independence-erosion

## Sources

- https://www.historial-jeannedarc.fr/en/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Joan-of-Arc

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/joa-rehab-1456