1431

1431 (MCCCXCI) was a year in the late Middle Ages marked by ongoing conflict, reform movements, and notable events in Europe. In the Hundred Years' War between England and France, fighting continued across northern France, with English strongholds remaining in certain towns while French forces pursued eventual recovery of territory in the subsequent years. A defining moment of the year was the execution of Joan of Arc in Rouen on May 30, 1431. Captured the previous year, she was tried and condemned by an English-backed ecclesiastical court and burned at the stake at age nineteen. Her death had a profound cultural and political impact in France and beyond, and her conviction would later be overturned in 1456 by a papal commission that rehabilitated her name.

In ecclesiastical and political affairs, the Council of Basel began in Basel in 1431 as part of a broader reform movement within the Catholic Church. The council sought to address reform within the church, deal with the Hussite question, and assert the authority of ecumenical councils in relation to the pope. The proceedings soon led to a political struggle with Pope Eugene IV over where ultimate authority resided, a conflict that would shape church-state relations for years to come.

Overall, 1431 reflects the era’s tensions between secular royalty and the church, as well as the social upheavals and militant struggles that characterized much of 15th-century Europe. Notable deaths include Joan of Arc, whose legacy would influence both national memory and later church discourse.