de Rais, Gilles (1404-1440)

Gilles de Rais, a fifteenth-century French military hero, serial killer, and occultist, was born at the chateau de Camptocé, the family estate near Nantes, France. He was the son of Guy XI de Montmorency-Laval, the Baron de Rais, and Marie deCraon. They both died in 1415 when Gilles was 11 years old, and Gilles and his younger brother were placed in the care of their grandfather, Jean de Craon. In 1417 he was betrothed to a rich heiress, Jeanne Peynel, then four years old. However, the arrangement was put aside and in 1419, Gilles was married to Catherine de Thouars, another wealthy heiress. Unfortunately, Catherine was a cousin, and only after a papal dispensation were they remarried in 1422 with the blessing of the church.

During the later 1420s, de Rais began to make a name for himself in the French wars with England, who held Normandy and had advanced south and east. He was among the leaders in the king's army in 1429 when the visionary Jeanne d'Arc appeared and convinced the king that she had a role to play in the wars. She led the French army in the recapture of Orleans and de Rais was at her side when she was wounded. He followed her to Reims and at the subsequent coronation of Charles VII, was an honor guard. At the age of 25, he was named a marshall. The war with England, after initial success, climaxed with the betrayal of the youthful commander and her execution by the British in 1431. During that time, de Rais' streak of cruelty manifested when he ordered the wholesale slaughter of prisoners of war. That same year, his grandfather died and he became master of the family estates.

Now one of the wealthiest men in Europe, following his victory at Lagny he retired to his estate, where he lived an ostentatious life and began to practice alchemy and magic, in part to replenish the money he was spending to support his lavish lifestyle. He also entered into the ranks of world-class villains by his habit of kidnapping and torturing male children. His hero status, wealth, and aristocratic rank kept him protected from any repercussions of his crimes. However, his arrogance and grandiosity caught up with him.

In 1440 he insulted Geoffroi de Ferron, the powerful treasurer of the neighboring province of Brittany by having his brother beaten and imprisoned. As a result of the complaint, de Rais was summoned to an inquiry by the Bishop of Nantes and the Inquisitor General. The man who had been beaten, a priest, charged him with heresy. The charges were later extended to include his practice of black magic and his rape and killing of the children. Those in charge of the prosecution had powerful friends and would be able to confiscate some of de Rais' estate if he were convicted. To increase the body of evidence, both de Rais and his servants were tortured. While much of the evidence would be unacceptable in a modern court, enough was available to convict de Rais of infanticide and murder. The exact number of children he killed will never be known, but several hundred were well documented. Additional hundreds less so. He was executed on October 23, 1440. He would later be called Bluebeard, seemingly because of his black beard that contrasted sharply with his blond hair.

Sources:

Wolf, Leonard. Bluebeard. New York: C. N. Potter, 1980.

Wyndham Lewis, W. D. The Soul of Marshall Gilles de Rais. London: Eyre & Spottiswood, 1952.