Thursday, January 21, 2010

Joan of Arc Relics Fake?

A story about the remains of Joan of Arc being fake continues to circulate on the internet which has always seemed to me superfluous because the historical records are very clear that there were no remains left after she was executed. The Earl of Warwick, who was in charge of Joan while she was in jail and oversaw her execution, ordered that even the few ashes that were left after she was burned be placed in a sack and thrown into the Seine river to make absolutely sure that no “relics” could be claimed later.

And yet, here we are with all these stories saying that Joan’s relics are fake almost six hundred years later. Apparently a bottle containing some charred bones surfaced at a pharmacy in 1867 that was labeled "Remains found under the pyre of Joan of Arc, maiden of Orleans." Despite the historical record that should have alerted everyone in 1867 that these remains had to be fake they were instead preserved as authentic. At least now modern science has finally proven that they are indeed fake and nothing more than the bones of a cat and an Egyptian so that should finally put an end to this story, right. I wonder.

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