In Rouen, France, Joan of Arc was tried by an ecclesiastical court on charges of heresy, cross-dressing, and witchcraft after being captured by Burgundian forces allied with the English. The trial was politically motivated and riddled with procedural irregularities, including the denial of counsel and interrogation behind closed doors. She was convicted and burned at the stake on May 30, 1431, at the age of nineteen.

Joan of Arc's trial and execution became one of the most frequently revisited subjects in Western poetry, from Christine de Pizan's contemporary verses to Robert Southey, Andrew Lang, and T.S. Eliot, who alluded to her in "Murder in the Cathedral." The trial transcripts, with their charged dialogue, influenced the dramatic monologue form and poets' engagement with the voice of the persecuted individual against institutional power.