Which river’s waters were used to scatter Joan of Arc’s ashes?

Joan of Arc’s ashes were scattered in the Seine after her execution in Rouen.

Joan was burned at the stake on 30 May 1431 in Rouen’s Old Marketplace. Accounts connected with the later nullification inquiry state that the English authorities ordered her remains burned more than once to prevent relics from being collected. The residue was then thrown into the Seine.

The Seine is the major river flowing through Rouen before continuing westward toward the English Channel. It was therefore the natural waterway associated with the city’s execution site. This detail is sometimes confused with the Loire, because the Loire campaign and the relief of Orléans are among the best-known episodes of Joan’s military career.

No authenticated bodily relics from Joan’s execution survive. A relic once attributed to Joan was examined in the modern period and identified as material from an Egyptian mummy, not her remains. The ash-scattering story remains part of the historical account of the 1431 execution.