Pierre Cauchon - Alliance With The English

Alliance With The English

Bishop Cauchon spent most of the next two years in service to the king. Cauchon returned to his diocese with the deaths of Charles VI and Henry V. He departed from a visit to Rheims in 1429 when Joan of Arc and the French army approached for the coronation of Charles VII. Cauchon had always allied with the opposition to Charles VII. Shortly after the coronation, the French army threatened Cauchon's diocese. Cauchon went to Rouen, seat of the English government in France.

The English regent, John, Duke of Bedford, was anxious to preserve his nephew Henry VI's claim to the throne of France. Cauchon escorted Henry VI from London to Rouen as part of a clerical delegation. Shortly after he returned, he learned that Joan of Arc had been taken captive near Compiègne. The Burgundians held her at the keep of Beaulieu near Saint-Quentin.

Cauchon played a leading role in negotiations to gain Joan of Arc from the Burgundians for the English. He was well paid for his efforts. Cauchon claimed jurisdiction to try her case because Compiègne was in his diocese of Beauvais.