I've read that at Joan of Arc's posthumous rehabilitation trial, someone said they heard from someone who heard from the executioner that Joan of Arc's heart and entrails remained after the rest of her was burned and that when he then tried to burn the heart and entrails, he was unable to do so and thus they were thrown into the Siene. Does anyone know if this was the only account of Joan's heart and entrails not burning or if there were others? If there were other accounts saying this, how many were there and how many came directly from witnesses instead of third-hand like the one I mentioned? Did word of Joan's heart and entrails not burning or supposedly not burning spread around the general public between the time the rest of her was burned and the time the rehabilitation trial started?
Hi there. I've already laid out the facts about Joan's death at the stakes in a former contribution. You'll find in on my blog, here.
The cold truth is that the fire was extinguished halfway to show everyone that Joan was indeed a woman. She'd climbed on the scaffold dressed as a man. It was later on constructed as a "miracle" of some kind but there is nothing to it. Joan's ashes were all dropped into the Seine river to avoid any spontaneous cult to her memory. On a side note, it was however common that hearts weren't buried where the body was among the aristocracy. The reason the narrative was tweaked was to put Joan under a new light on her second trial, her rehabilitation trial. It couldn't be legally conceivable that Charles VII had been helped by a heretic. Most people who bore witness during that rehabilitation trial spiced their memory of Joan with common hagiographical tropes (an hagiography being the biography of a saint, one of the most popular literary genre in the late Middle Ages). It is not to say that nothing they say is true but that we should be careful with their testimonies. No one was truly neutral when it came to Joan. She really divided people about her. Every one had his or her own opinion of her. Her death came to a shock. Some people just couldn't live with it and came up with coping mechanism, conspiracy theories, and we even have a woman who years later claimed to be Joan of Arc and married into the nobility. However, the English and the University of Paris really made sure to let anyone know that she was dead at the time and that there was nothing left from her.
I hope it answers your question :-) let me know if you're still curious about anything.