Rouen

Joan was brought to Rouen under English escort on December 23, 1430. Rouen sits along the Seine in the middle of the Province of Normandy and was important to England for its flourishing luxury trades. The castle in Rouen consists of seven towers surrounding a large lower court in the fortress of Bouvreuil. Joan was held in one of these towers, which was a secular prison. One of these towers is called the Joan of Arc Tower, however modern scholars feel she was not imprisoned in that particular tower. She was held in this tower throughout the public hearings, private interrogations, inquiry, and the trial itself until she was turned over to secular authority on May 30, 1421.

 Joan's cell was a dark room in the castle at Rouen. She was kept in leg irons which were chained to a large piece of wood. She was under the careful guard of five English soldiers, three of whom slept within her cell. Though the imprisonment was clearly secular, the keys to her cell were held by three clergymen) Cardinal Henry Beaufort, Cauchon, and Inquisitor Jean Graverent) to maintain the legal illusion of it being an ecclesiastical custody. The tower Joan was held in allowed for others to easily hear what happened in her cell without being seen.