It's March 1st, 1431, and Joan is undergoing her fifth session of her condemnation trial in Rouen. Within the barrage of questions pointed at her there's one about rings. From the trial transcription:
Asked if she herself did not have some rings, she replied to us, bishop: "You have one of mine; give it back to me." She said the Burgundians have another ring; and she asked us, if we had her ring, to show it to her.
Asked who gave her the ring which the Burgundians had, she answered her father or her mother; and she thought the names Jhesus Maria were written thereon; she did not know who had them written; she did not think there was any stone in it; and she was given the ring at Domrémy. She said that her brother gave her the other ring which we had and she charged us to give it to the Church. She said she never cured any one with any of her rings.
That last sentence is somewhat funny. Why would she point that out, one might ask. Wondering if she had performed miracles or incantations using her rings is tame compared to some of the ludicrous accusations laid at Joan during the trial. This question however comes at a point where Joan still has the upper hand, here she's able to see through pretty much anything that's being thrown at her, including less than subtle allusions to magical healings or straight up resurrection.
Joan mentions two rings. One given to her by one of her parents, and subsequently taken by the Burgundians, while the second ring she mentions was given to her by her brother - she doesn't specify which one - and was later taken from her by her prosecutors in Rouen. Both accounts make a lot of sense: the first ring might have been taken by the Burgundians who captured her in Compiègne, or at any point during her captivity up until John II of Luxembourg sold her to the English, while the second ring was likely confiscated by the churchmen in Rouen along with whatever belongings she had.
It's worth mentioning there's a lot of conflicting information out there on the backstory of her rings, with much of it being pure speculation and some straight up fantasy. For once, some sources mention the ring Joan still had when she arrived in Rouen as being a gift for her first communion. There is no historical record whatsoever to back this up except for what "tradition suggests", which makes it at best an educated guess. It's also odd considering Joan herself said that ring was given to her by one of her brothers, who themselves aren't that much older than her. How would they be able to give her a ring for her first communion while being still children themselves?
Does either of the two rings still exist today?
Sadly the short answer is likely not. The long answer however is still interesting and definitely worth exploring. In 2016 the Puy du Fou foundation, which runs a historical theme park in France, bought an allegedly authentic ring that belonged to Joan for $ 425,000 at an auction in London. The ring somewhat matches the description Joan gave during the trial: the name of Jesus and Mary is engraved on it, no stones. An Oxford University lab has also dated the ring back to the 1400s based on its style, wear and engravings. The ring came with a documented history of its former owners, going back to the Bishop of Winchester cardinal Henry Beaufort (1375-1447). Cardinal Beaufort was nephew to King Edward III and uncle to King Henry V, and historical records show he was not only present during Joan's condemnation trial, he himself also conducted at least one interview with her in person. Legend has it Joan handed him the ring on the eve of her execution. Emphasis on legend has it. Some articles mention a different version where the ring was seized and taken by Beaufort as booty, as if burning a 19 year old girl wasn't enough, he had to take a trophy to bring home to show the lads. While this can't be automatically discarded, it still sounds very on the nose, and no written historical record of any of this happening exists.
All the evidence around Joan's rings being still around is inconclusive at best. For once, the history of ownership of the Beaufort ring is highly speculative. In 1914 the ring belonged to Lady Ottoline Morrell, whose ancestry could be traced back to cardinal Beaufort through the Cavendish-Bentinck family (Duke of Portland). However, no mentions of the ring exists in any historical archive of Lady Morrell's family at any point between 1431 and 1914. According to the documentation provided at the auction when the ring was sold in 2016, Lady Ottoline Morrell gifted the ring to one Augusts John, then in 1929 the ring was sold at auction to F. A. Harman Oates collection, then sold again to a private collection, then acquired in 1947 by James Hasson, a French doctor who came to the UK with General de Gaulle in World War 2. It was the son of James Hasson who auctioned the ring in 2016.
The authenticity of the ring is questioned by many, notably by the late Philippe Constamine, legendary French historian with a deep expertise on the Middle Ages who passed away on January 26, 2022. Constamine taught at the Université de Nancy, the Université de Paris X at Nanterre and Université de Paris IV (Paris-Sorbonne). He was the former president of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, the Société de l'histoire de France, the Societé des Antiquaires de France, and the former director of the Centre Jeanne-d’Arc d’Orléans. It is presumably under his and other historians' advice that both the city of Orléans and the Joan of Arc Historical Exhibition in Rouen declined to bid for the ring, which is telling.
Whether Joan's rings truly are forever lost in the folds of history or rather resting quietly in some private collector's basement, unless we want to question Joan's own words we can safely state that they did exist. They were gifts from family, they held sentimental value to Joan as she was clearly fond of them. Even in a situation as dire as the one she found herself in, she still asked loudly for her rings to be returned. Every other detail around them is speculative at best, however the idea of Joan going as far as entrusting the rings to her own capturers and accusers, charging them with their safe return to her family and allies, might not be entirely far fetched. If she did so, her accusers failed her once again.
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