Joan of Arc - How did she die ?
- 55 minutes ago
- 2 min read
To guarantee maximum suffering, the English built Joan of Arc's pyre so tall her executioner couldn't secretly strangle her. But neither heatstroke nor the flames actually killed her.
In medieval Europe, burning at the stake was typically not as fiery a death as movies depict. It was an open secret among executioners that they would extend a final mercy to the condemned: before the flames got too high, the executioner would step up behind the victim and secretly strangle them with a rope. The fire was largely for the theatrical destruction of the corpse, ensuring no physical relics remained.
But for Joan, the English authorities wanted complete visibility. They ordered the executioner, Geoffroy Thérage, to build a plaster pillar and a pyre that was exceptionally tall. Thérage later complained bitterly about this setup, noting that the height made it physically impossible to reach Joan. She was forced to face the smoke and fire fully conscious.
When a large open-air wood fire is lit, the first thing it produces isn't towering flames—it is thick, suffocating smoke. As the executioner torched the base of the massive pyre, plumes of smoke quickly enveloped Joan at the top. This smoke contained massive amounts of carbon monoxide, a gas that binds to the hemoglobin in human blood about 200 times faster than oxygen.
In the time it takes for radiant heat to cause fatal hyperthermia (heatstroke)—which requires the body's core temperature to steadily climb over 104°F (40°C) until organ failure occurs—the brain is already being rapidly starved of oxygen. Joan would have inhaled these toxic gases, lost consciousness, and succumbed to asphyxiation within a matter of minutes. By the time the actual flames climbed high enough to burn her flesh, she was already dead from smoke inhalation
.
The English were determined that no one could claim she had miraculously survived. After she died from the smoke, but before her body was completely destroyed, they ordered Thérage to rake back the fire.
They forced the crowd to look at her charred remains to prove she was dead and that she was indeed a woman. Following this display, the executioner was ordered to stoke the fire twice more, adding pitch and oil until her body was entirely reduced to ash, which was then cast into the Seine river.
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