Who was Joan of Arc’s executioner at Rouen in 1431?

Geoffrey Thérage was Joan of Arc’s executioner at Rouen in 1431.

Thérage carried out Joan’s execution in Rouen’s Old Market Square on 30 May 1431. Joan had been convicted by an ecclesiastical court led by the English-aligned bishop Pierre Cauchon, but Cauchon was the presiding judge, not the executioner. The sentence was handed to secular authorities for enforcement.

Contemporary and later accounts identify Thérage as the executioner. After the burning, her remains were collected and burned again to prevent relics from being taken. The surviving material was then thrown into the Seine, a detail recorded in accounts of the execution.

Joan’s conviction was later examined in the nullification trial that began in 1455. That process, authorized by Pope Calixtus III, concluded in 1456 that the original judgment was unjust and void. The later canonization process culminated in her recognition as a saint in 1920.