Cardinal Henry Beaufort Presided at Joan of Arc's Trial

Joan interrogated in her prison cell by Cardinal Winchester [Henry Beaufort].
By Hippolyte Delaroche, 1824, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France.

The English captured Joan of Arc, a teenage girl who was fighting valiantly for France. Cardinal Henry Beaufort presided at her trial in 1431 before she was burnt at the stake.

The trial record demonstrates her remarkable intellect. The transcript's most famous exchange is an exercise in subtlety. "Asked if she knew she was in God's grace, she answered: 'If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.' "The question is a scholarly trap. Church doctrine held that no one could be certain of being in God's grace. If she had answered yes, then she would have convicted herself of heresy. If she had answered no, then she would have confessed her own guilt. Notary Boisguillaume later testified that at the moment the court heard this reply, "Those who were interrogating her were stupefied." (Joan of Arc, From Wikipedia)

By order of Cardinal Beaufort, the ashes of St. Joan were put into a sack and thrown into the Seine "that the world might have no relic of her of whom the world was not worthy."

Cardinal Henry Beaufort (c. 1374 – 11 April 1447) was our grandfather.

Province: Canterbury
Diocese: Winchester
Enthroned: 1404
Reign ended: 1447
Other posts: Lord Chancellor of England 1403-05, 1413-17 and 1424-26
Previous posts: Bishop of Lincoln 1398-1405, Chancellor of the University of Oxford 1397-1399, Dean of Wells 1397-1398
Consecration: 14 July 1398
Created Cardinal: 24 May 1426
Rank: Cardinal priest of S. Eusebio

Henry Beaufort was born in Anjou, an English domain in France, in about 1374 and educated for a career in the Church. Henry was the son of John of Gaunt (1340-1399) who was the son of Edward III of Windsor, King of England. Henry's mother was John's mistress Katherine de Roet Swynford (1350-1403). After the marriage of John and Katherine there The three children born before they married were declared legitimate by the pope and legitimated by Act of Parliament on 9 February 1397, but the children were barred from the succession to the throne. Henry's half brother became Henry IV of England.

When Henry was Bishop of Lincoln, he is believed to have had an affair with, Alice FitzAlan the wife of John Charleton, 4th Baron Cherleton, and daughter of Richard FitzAlan and Elizabeth de Bohun. Henry Beaufort fathered an illegitimate daughter, Jane Beaufort, in 1402. Both Jane and her husband Sir Edward Stradling, were named in Cardinal Beaufort's will, although the Cardinal had never acknowledged her has his child.

Born: circa 1374 Château de Beaufort, Anjou, France
Died: 11 April 1447 (aged c. 72) Wolvesey Castle, Winchester, Hampshire, England
Buried: Winchester Cathedral
Denomination: Roman Catholic Church
Parents: John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and Katherine Swynford

The Tomb of Cardinal Henry Beaufort in Windsor Cathedral

Ancestry Chain:

Cardinal Henry Beaufort (1376 - 1447)

is your 18th great grandfather
Lady Jane Beaufort (1402 - 1453)

Daughter of Cardinal Henry
Sir Henry Harry Stradling (1423 - 1478)

Son of Lady Jane
Sir Thomas Edward Stradling (1455 - 1480)

Son of Sir Henry Harry
Jane of St. Donats Stradling (1480 - 1519)

Daughter of Sir Thomas Edward
Sir John Griffith of Penryn (1518 - 1562)

Son of Jane of St. Donats
Eleanor of Penryn Griffith (1557 - 1603)

Daughter of Sir John
Richard Bowen (1585 - 1674)

Son of Eleanor of Penryn
Alice(Alace,Elce) Bowen (1622 - 1694)

Daughter of Richard
Hannah Wheaton (1654 - 1724)

Daughter of Alice(Alace,Elce)
Elizabeth Butterworth (1682 - 1708)

Daughter of Hannah
Eleazer Carpenter (1704 - 1781)

Son of Elizabeth
Elihu Carpenter (1752 - 1827)

Son of Eleazer
Betsy Carpenter (1790 - 1862)

Daughter of Elihu
Adaline RAWSON (1811 - 1841)

Daughter of Betsy
Mary DUNN (1833 - 1920)

Daughter of Adaline
Harriet Camilla Ensign (1859 - 1930)

Daughter of Mary
George Ensign Smith (1898 - 1967)

Son of Harriet Camilla
Camilla SMITH (1926 - 1999)

Daughter of George Ensign

Lark Parent of JR