The anniversary of Joan’s capture on May 23, 1430, is not one I really like to remember but I thought I would use it this year as an opportunity to clear up a big misconception that exists about her capture. It seems that most movies and even many books blame her capture upon the closing of the gates of the city of Compiègne however it was actually the raising of the drawbridge over the river Oise that caused Joan to be cut off from Compiègne and safety. As Joan herself later testified at her trial: “And the river lay between Compiègne and the place where I was taken. And there was only between the place where I was taken and Compiègne just the river, the boulevard, and the moat of the said boulevard.”
There are some good pictures of Compiègne and the river Oise and drawings of where Joan was captured online at: http://www.stjoan-center.com/Album/part52.html
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