The folk tale about Bluebeard, literary processed by the famous Frenchman Charles Perrault, was published in 1697, included in the author's collection "Tales of Mother Goose."
Let us briefly recall the plot: a certain fabulously rich man, the owner of beautiful houses in the city and countryside, gold and silver dishes, armchairs decorated with embroidery, gilded carriages, as well as a blue beard, which gave him “such an ugly and terrible appearance that there was not a woman not a girl who would not run away when she saw him,” had one terrible addiction: he killed those unfortunate female representatives who married him, despite his terrible appearance.
This continued until the brothers of the next victim stood up for their sister and pierced him with swords, and he died.
Among the canons of the classics of this genre, one can, in particular, find the following plot-scheme: a young man, sophisticated and educated, devotes himself to mystical quests, passionately wanting to reveal the transcendental secrets of existence, to gain unearthly wisdom and power; in the process of his quest, he encounters the devil and, believing his promises, signs a contract with him, thereby entrusting his immortal soul to him.
But as soon as he signs his blood under this agreement, the devil, seizing an opportunity, deceives him and leaves him alone with the dubious glory of the villain and the anger of the people around him. The outcome of such stories has several options, but the fate of the main character is invariably unenviable - he will face universal condemnation and a shameful death.
The story of the true prototype of Bluebeard, which is not at all like a fairy tale, but has all the signs of a Gothic novel, is not a figment of literary fantasy. It happened in reality and is a historical fact.
Youth
Gilles de Laval Baron de Rais was born in 1404. Fate wished to endow the future Marshal of France with strength, a passionate nature, an insatiable thirst for knowledge and, accordingly, the ability to assimilate it. It was the first two qualities - passion and curiosity - that played the main role in his future fate.
Gilles's youth, like his youth, can rightfully be called happy. He was rich, well-born and noble. Despite early orphanhood - his father died when Gilles was eleven years old - young de Rais was still not unhappy, since Gilles' grandfather, who took care of his grandson, did not limit him in anything. Later, de Rais himself admitted that in those years he developed a habit of a free and disorderly life, which later led him to crime and execution.
At the same time, natural curiosity took its toll, and in his youth de Rais did not neglect the opportunity to gain knowledge. Thanks to the best teachers, he received an excellent education, which he deepened by reading voraciously.
A great book lover, Gilles spent fabulous money on purchasing books and on their luxurious bindings; his library was one of the richest in the country. However, its owner soon became the richest nobleman in Europe! In 1420, Baron de Rais married Catherine de Thouars, and thanks to her dowry, his fortune increased many times over.
However, the life of Gilles de Rais in those years consisted not only of luxury and pleasure. He took part in the battles of the Hundred Years' War, was among the closest associates of Joan of Arc and became known as a valiant warrior. The king granted him the title of Marshal of France.
In 1433, Gilles de Rais left the court of King Charles VII and returned to his family domains. From that time on, his life changed subtly but dramatically.
Passion for magic
It is difficult to judge what exactly was the impetus that made Baron de Rais become seriously interested in the secret sciences of that time.
Most likely, the reason should be sought in the natural curiosity of Gilles himself and his desire for knowledge - after all, alchemy and magic in those days seemed to be precisely a unique system of knowledge, which, moreover, bestowed upon its adherents wealth and power over the “visible and invisible world”, according to the medieval definition.
The alchemist, who through long and complex operations created the philosopher's stone (otherwise called the magisterium), could transform “base” metals into pure gold.
A magician who mastered the “art of the arts” (as magic was sublimely called then), armed with numerous spells and a wide variety of talismans, achieved unprecedented power.
He could, according to the ideas of that time, do absolutely everything: easily acquire wealth, easily achieve the patronage and friendship of nobles and rulers, defeat his enemies with the help of spells, and also gain the love of the fair sex; to command the spirits of the elements and natural phenomena, to command demons, to call upon the souls of the dead and even the angels of the Lord themselves - in a word, to be a true “master of people, animals and spirits.”
This was the popular idea of magic in those days. Practicing the “arts of the arts” was the prerogative of educated people; and it is not surprising that Gilles de Rais, for whom it all began with a passion for alchemy, eventually wanted to master other areas of occult science.
However, despite his education, or rather, even thanks to it, since the scientific picture of the world at that time assumed the reality of the existence of supernatural forces and the possibility of human contact with them, he became a captive of the stereotypical idea of magic and the realm of the miraculous.
That is why Gilles de Rais did not become either a scientist or a philosopher capable of comprehending the essence of things and phenomena and getting closer to unraveling the mysteries of the universe, but until the end of his short life he remained an amateur of primitive occultism*. The same one that encourages its fans to engage in magic with only one goal - to ensure a carefree earthly existence, full of luxury, bliss, wealth and other bodily benefits...
Life in Tiffauges - and it was this castle that de Rais chose to equip an alchemical laboratory in it - was accompanied by the expenditure of fabulous money. Of course, the baron, the first rich man of France and Europe, was used to living in grand style, and considerable sums were spent on entertainment - feasts, hunts, balls. But most of his funds most likely went to provide occult exercises, since purchasing books about magic was an expensive pleasure at that time.
Large expenses were also required for laboratory equipment and the purchase of various components for alchemical experiments. In addition, over time, a motley company of all sorts of adepts of alchemy and witchcraft appeared in the castle, who were, strictly speaking, just clever charlatans and hangers-on: the lord also supported them at his own expense, hoping to receive from these “experts” the keys to the secret of the philosopher’s stone and to the magical power. Among these rogues was one Italian, Messire Francesco Prelati, “a wizard and necromancer**,” who later played a fatal role in the fate of Baron de Rais.
However, there was another passion in the life of the Marshal of France, which also required financial expenses. The fact is that, having retired from the royal court, de Rais suddenly discovered an attraction to children, or rather, to boys. Not accustomed to denying himself anything, Gilles de Rais did not stop before kidnapping children, whom he killed after satisfying his lust.
However, he did not kidnap the boys himself - he had a supplier, a certain woman named Meffray, who received a generous payment from him for the supply of live goods and for silence.
Pact with the Devil
The marshal did not consider his occult research an innocent pastime. When, in the midst of his chemical exercises, the Dauphin Louis, the future king of France Louis XI, came to visit him, Gilles de Rais did everything to hide his passion from the distinguished guest: the entrances to the laboratories were walled up, the alchemists’ furnaces were extinguished, and the alchemists themselves, together with magicians and wizards settled in the surrounding estates.
But, as soon as the visit came to an end and the crown prince and his retinue departed from Tiffauges, de Rais resumed his studies in alchemy and returned his “assistants” back to the castle. Francesco Prelati also returned with them, who then became de Rais’s main assistant in witchcraft matters.
Prelati called himself an alchemist, magician and necromancer; however, in reality he was most likely an experienced swindler. His relationship with de Rais in the field of magic is most similar to outright fraud and would even look funny if their consequences were not so sad for the Marshal of France. The greatest “achievement” of the Italian in this story is the contract Gilles concluded with the demon of hell.
Prelati, who never missed an opportunity to boast that, like a real magician, he had a certain demon named Barron in his service, aroused the curiosity of Gilles de Rais with his stories, and he wanted to see his mystical ally. The Baron ordered Prelati to summon the demon and show him.
The “magician,” who had lived in Tiffauges for two years by that time and had time to study the character of the owner of the castle, agreed, but, citing the fact that summoning a demon required lengthy preparation, asked to be given a deferment for the necessary preparations. Finally, after a long period of time, Prelati came to Gilles de Rais with good news - the demon Barron not only appeared to appear before the lord, but also dragged with him, as a sign of his favor, a whole pile of gold, which he placed in one of the rooms castle, right on the floor!
Gilles wished to see both the demon and the gold he had delivered. Together with Prelati, he went to the room indicated by the necromancer, with the Italian going first. As soon as they reached the doors of the room, Prelati opened the door... and retreated back in horror, slamming it shut. Turning to the perplexed baron, he explained in a trembling voice that on a pile of gold, guarding it, lay a huge, terrifying-looking green snake.
This news, however, did not discourage the fearless marshal; Having gone to get a family heirloom - a crucifix containing a piece of the Lord's cross (the same one on which the Savior was crucified), he intended to enter the room to behold the gold and the monster guarding it. But Prelati again prevented him - falling on his knees in front of the baron, he begged de Rais not to enter the room with the crucifix, as this would scare away the demon, and he would never appear next time.
The Baron found this argument reasonable and, returning the crucifix to its place, entered the room, armed only with his own courage. However, upon entering, he found neither a green snake nor gold there. Instead, there was a pile of some strange red powder on the floor. Prelati stated that the demon Barron, having guessed that de Rais intended to frighten him with a crucifix, got angry and left, having previously turned the gold he brought into this same red powder.
This incident further inflamed de Rais' curiosity. He decided to come into contact with the demon at all costs and win his favor. The epic of “negotiations” between Baron de Rais and the devil began, carried out, of course, through the mediation of Messire Prelati. Finally, Gilles de Rais expressed his willingness to entrust his soul to the demon, and Barron (through Prelati) expressed his consent to this act.
A formal agreement was drawn up, according to which Gilles de Laval, Baron de Rais, lord of Tiffauges, peer and marshal of the kingdom of France, gave up his immortal soul to the demon Barron in exchange for three gifts: omniscience, power, wealth. This solemn agreement, drawn up by himself, de Rais signed with his own blood in the presence of Prelati, who still acted as mediator.
The demon Barron allegedly accepted the terms offered to him, but then demanded, through Prelati, that the baron add to the contract a formal sacrifice, a chicken or a dove slaughtered on the altar during the appropriate ritual. This sacrifice, Prelati explained to the baron, would indicate de Rais's willingness to bring gifts to his demonic patron and would be a kind of act of politeness towards him.
The required ritual was completed, but Barron was not satisfied with it. After some time, he conveyed that if de Rais wants to achieve his favor, he must honor him with a special sacrifice, the most pleasant for all demons, namely, an unbaptized baby. Gilles de Rais, for whom the murder of children had become a common practice by that time, was not at all embarrassed by this demand of the demon and easily fulfilled it.
It is unknown what other offerings Barron would have demanded from Baron de Rais in the future, if at that time events had not occurred that became the beginning of the end of the occult baron...
A fall
As has already been said, alchemical experiments and the habit of a free life required constant expenses from Gilles de Rais, and considerable ones at that.
This led to the fact that over time, part of his possessions was mortgaged, or rather, sold with the right of repurchase.
The owners of the baron's lands and castles became the Bishop of Nantes, also the Chancellor of the Duchy of Breton de Malestroit, the ducal treasurer Geoffroy Ferron and, finally, Gilles' overlord himself, the Duke of Breton. Moreover, according to the agreement, these three lords became full owners of the estates in the event of the death of Gilles de Rais, if he did not buy back his lands.
Naturally, the trio of creditors did not want to part with the wealth they had received and were looking for a way to make it theirs forever.
However, it was not possible to destroy Gilles de Rais - he was still very powerful. So for a long time the duke, the treasurer and the bishop-chancellor limited themselves to spying on their debtor; thanks to her, they learned that children regularly disappear in the lands of de Rais and silent rumors are spreading about the witchcraft happening within the walls of Tiffauges...
Baron de Rais himself helped his secret enemies. Just in those days when he made a deal with the demon, he had a quarrel with Jean Ferron, the brother of the duke's treasurer. Wanting to take revenge for the insult inflicted by Ferron on his people, the Marshal of France gathered a detachment of armed vassals and captured the castle in which the offender lived. Ironically, it was one of the very castles that the baron pledged to the treasurer...
Jean Ferron, the holder of the clergy title, was just celebrating mass in the castle chapel; de Rais burst in with armed servants, showered Ferron with insults and ordered him to be chained in iron. Then Gilles and the prisoner returned to Tiffauges and plunged Ferron into the dungeon.
His brother-treasurer and the Bishop of Nantes immediately stood up for Jean. They complained to the Duke of Breton, and he sent his messenger to the marshal demanding the release of Jean Ferron and the removal of his people from the captured castle. Otherwise, the Duke threatened to exact a large fine from de Rais. Hearing such a message, de Rais became more angry than ever and, having beaten the messenger, threw him out of Tiffauges.
In response, the Duke went to war against Baron de Rais and took Tiffauges by storm. At this point Gilles de Rais had to humble his anger and fulfill the ducal demand.
Some time passed, and Baron de Rais decided to make peace with the Duke. Before the visit, the marshal specifically addressed Prelati and his demon with a question: should we expect favor from the Duke? Barron (naturally, through Prelati) assured the marshal that the Duke actually favored him and would certainly forgive him.
And indeed, de Rais’s visit to the Duke took place in the most friendly atmosphere. Inspired by such success, Gilles finally believed in the power of his demonic patron. Returning to Tiffauges, he again began his magical and alchemical experiments.
However, de Rais' enemies did not think of calming down at all. Jean Ferron, once free, filed a complaint against Gilles de Rais, accusing the Marshal of France of insulting the priesthood. This complaint, as well as a rumor spread by an unknown person that Gilles de Rais had recently sacrificed several kidnapped boys to the devil, served as sufficient grounds for accusations from the church authorities.
And so, on September 13, 1440, Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes, summoned Gilles de Rais to an ecclesiastical trial. The summons sent to the marshal listed all his imaginary and actual crimes, including those that “smack of heresy,” as stated in the document.
Gilles de Rais met this challenge calmly, as he was sure that the accusers had no evidence of his guilt in the said atrocities; but two of his trusted servants, Silier and Briqueville, suddenly fled from Tiffauges. This flight aroused the suspicion of the authorities; they ordered the arrest of the remaining servants and henchmen of de Rais and sent them to Nantes.
Among those arrested was Sir Prelati. Baron de Rais himself arrived in Nantes on September 19 and appeared before the judges on the same day.
Trial and execution
At a closed meeting, prosecutor Guillaume Capellon again acquainted Gilles de Rais with the accusation brought against him by the bishop, and offered to present his justifications, to which the marshal immediately recklessly agreed, thereby making a fatal, but at the same time strange mistake.
The strangeness of this mistake was that the baron, agreeing to participate in the trial as a defendant, for some reason suddenly forgot about his lack of jurisdiction over the secular court of the city of Nantes and the bishop's court!
In fact: the spiritual court could judge him only for crimes directed against the authority and rights of the church; For criminal crimes subject to secular court, Gilles de Rais, as a peer and marshal of France, could only be tried by the king himself.
By and large, the church court could only have claims against Gilles in connection with insulting the priesthood - after all, the captured Jean Ferron, as we remember, was a clergyman.
The charges of heresy were formulated rather vaguely; and de Rais himself, who hid his occult activities, could have guessed that the accusers had no direct evidence of his connection with the devil...
In any case, by appealing to his immunity from the jurisdiction of any authority other than the royal one, he could have avoided proceedings; in extreme cases, he was threatened with severe penance and a fine for insults inflicted on the Church in the person of its minister. But the baron, as if blinded by self-confidence (or perhaps by hope in a demon), agreed to answer all the bishop’s accusations, thereby voluntarily putting himself into the hands of his enemies.
For eighteen days the judges conducted the investigation: they interrogated the servants 
Tiffauges castle, arrested in September, dug up the ground in the vicinity of the castle in search of the bodies of missing children, and interviewed witnesses. At the same time, at the instigation of the bishop, rumors spread among the people that God had finally decided to ask the villain baron for his sins; Now, by the hands of the servants of the Lord, the judgment of God is carried out and the inveterate sinner will not escape punishment. The reassured parents of the missing boys flocked to court, complaining about the evil kidnapper of their children. At the same time, investigators found the child supplier, Meffray, and arrested her.
On October 8, a public hearing was held in Nantes on the de Rais case. The hall, crowded with people, was noisy: every now and then there were loud curses addressed to the marshal and no less loud praises addressed to the judges. Now there were three of them: Jean Blonin, vice-inquisitor of Nantes, joined the bishop and the prosecutor.
Prosecutor Capellon announced the charges brought against Gilles de Rais. In response, the baron belatedly declared that he was not subject to the bishop's court. The marshal's protest was rejected, firstly, on the basis of de Rais's previous consent to act as a defendant, and secondly, due to accusations of heresy and witchcraft, that is, crimes under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition, to which everyone was then subject to trial, regardless to class differences. Thus began the Gilles de Rais trial - one of the most notorious “witchcraft” trials of the 15th century.
At the very first hearings, the final indictment of 49 counts was announced. Here there was blasphemy with heresy, and witchcraft with obvious intercourse with the devil, and insult to shrines and clergy, and debauchery, and infanticide - and the point about the latter was placed somewhere at the end, where the vicious character traits of the accused were listed .
When the reading of the act was completed, Baron de Rais, who had previously refused to take an oath obliging him to tell only the truth in court, declared that all the accusations given in the announced act were completely lies; that he is not subject to the jurisdiction of the bishop - and in general, his judges are villains and Simonites (that is, clergymen selling church positions); that he considers it a disgrace to answer before such judges and finally pleads not guilty.
In response to this speech, Bishop Malestroit immediately pronounced a formula for excommunication over him. Baron de Rais lost his temper and, again shouting about his lack of jurisdiction, declared that the crimes he was accused of were criminal. If he must answer for them, then let the king take care of this matter... But the judges were not embarrassed by Gilles’ anger, and they continued the proceedings. Finally, the prosecutor issued an opinion on the distribution of jurisdiction.
According to this document, heresy, witchcraft and demon worship came to the fore; the rest of the offenses were of a secondary nature. Recognizing crimes against religion as the main atrocities of de Rais, the episcopal court thereby transferred Gilles de Rais into the hands of the Inquisition.
A re-investigation was ordered. The court hearings were interrupted and resumed only a week later. There is no exact information about what happened to Gilles de Rais during these seven days. Most likely, he was subjected to grueling interrogations and possibly even torture. Apparently, it was then that he was first introduced to the confessions made by the servants.
All this made a depressing impression on the accused; when the hearings in the de Rais case resumed on October 15, a man with a completely broken spirit appeared before the judges and the public. Not a trace of his former pride remained: the juramentum de calumnia***, which the baron had previously refused to pronounce, was pronounced by him immediately. Kneeling before the judges, he repentantly asked to be forgiven for his previous arrogance.
Gilles also admitted that he actually kidnapped children to satisfy his perverted passion and then killed them ****. He even named the number of boys he abducted, less than that attributed to the baron by rumor, but still very impressive - 140. The confession was recorded, but the judges were now interested in only one question - whether the accused pleads guilty to having connections with the devil and serving him.
And then Gilles de Rais made a last attempt to escape. He renounced accusations of heresy and witchcraft, declaring that he was only engaged in alchemy (by the way, these activities were not charged at all against the baron). “Let them burn me alive if anyone proves that I called upon the devil or entered into an agreement with him, or made sacrifices to him!” - said Gilles de Rais.
In those days, the defendant’s refusal to admit his guilt was a good move, giving hope for salvation. The history of the Inquisition describes cases where a suspect continued to stubbornly insist on his innocence even under torture; if he showed persistence, the charges against him were dropped and he was released. Perhaps Gilles de Rais would have saved himself in this way if not for the testimony of witnesses.
At subsequent hearings, the court familiarized the baron with their confessions. There were testimonies here of two of his servants, Andrieu and Poitou, as well as the “child provider” Meffray; but the main, crown witness was none other than... Messire Prelati, the Italian “magician and necromancer”! This latter, in his testimony, described all the details of his magical experiments with Gilles de Rais, as well as the whole story with the demon Barron, the agreement of the French marshal with him and the sacrifices that followed.
That was the end. Finally losing heart, de Rais did not even deny the evidence directed against him. The hour of his extreme humiliation had come: the vice-inquisitor, guided by the then accepted postulate, which stated that a heretic and demon-worshipper, even when repenting, is inclined to minimize and hide his sins, ordered Gilles de Rais to be subjected to torture “for the sake of clarifying the truth.”
What happened next resembled a bad farce. The broken baron agreed to confirm any accusation that the judges wanted to bring against him, as long as he was not subjected to torture. They demanded that he explain the motives for his crimes, and de Rais obediently complied with this. But the judges were not enough. They all insisted that the defendant was hiding something, and finally, driven to despair, Gilles exclaimed: “Have I not committed such crimes on myself that would be enough to condemn two thousand people to death!”
In the end, the court found Gilles de Rais guilty of “deifying spirits, worshiping them, calling them and forcing others to call them, wishing to enter into an agreement with the said evil spirits and with their help to receive, if he could, knowledge, power and wealth" - and sentenced the defendant to death by hanging followed by burning of the corpse.
Gilles de Rais was executed on October 26, 1440. Before proceeding to the place of execution, he made a public confession. Together with him, two servants were executed, who reluctantly testified against their master and were recognized as his accomplices.
Immediately after the execution, a solemn procession was organized: the clergy and townspeople walked through the streets, singing funeral prayers for the soul of the executed marshal. Messire Prelati and the boys' supplier were... released alive and well! Thus ended the life of Gilles de Rais, who made a pact with the devil.
Life after death
Years have passed. The minutes of the trial of Gilles de Rais became the property of the archives, and his story became part of French folklore. Ballads and fairy tales were composed about him, where Gilles appeared as Bluebeard, an ominous sorcerer and killer of women who had the misfortune of marrying him.
But the name de Rais, as a synonym for Bluebeard, was preserved only in folk art; in the literary adaptation of the fairy tale made by Charles Perrault, the real name of the hero is not mentioned. Subsequently, with the development of “Gothic” literature, the baron, who in life was not at all black to blue, but with a light brown beard, migrated - already under his own name - to the pages of short stories and novels.
The French novelist and mystic D.C. Huysmans, in his short story “Below,” retells some episodes from de Rais’ biography, endowing the hero with a kind of gloomy charm. But the reputation of the “literary” de Rais as a whole remains identical to the reputation of the “folklore” de Rais. He is still the same black magician, servant of the devil and murderer.
Since the end of the 19th century, when the court records in the de Rais case were finally published, researchers have taken up his biography in earnest. The image of the executed marshal underwent changes again: now on the pages of historical monographs and studies he appeared as a sexual pervert and, in modern terms, a serial killer.
In his story, from the point of view of historians, there was nothing magical. Thanks to his learned biographers, Gilles lost his image of an evil wizard, glorified by writers, and became simply a man who “shared with his characteristic passion” the superstitions and dreams of his time, a victim of the sophisticated charlatan Prelati and the greed of his enemies.
But the biography of Gilles de Rais, even presented scientifically, is still replete with blank spots and mysteries. For example, it remains unclear why a brilliant courtier and brave warrior suddenly turns into a fanatical fan of alchemy and a gullible superstition. It is also unclear how a completely normal family man suddenly becomes a perverted pedophile and murderer of his young victims.
Moreover, the marshal did this for almost seven years - and at the same time never gave his wife any reason to suspect something was wrong. After all, according to researchers, de Rais was happy in his married life... Why did Prelati - from the point of view of the Inquisition, an obvious heretic magician who had his own demon ally - escape execution, while Signor Tiffauge, ruined by his testimony, went to the gallows?
In this regard, many researchers say that de Rais’ enemies were so grateful to the Italian for his information that they spared his life as gratitude. This would have been plausible if de Rais had been tried by a bishop; but the baron was condemned by the Inquisition, a special authority whose power exceeded that of the bishop! One less burnt sorcerer, one more - what's the difference?..
By all accounts, Prelati should have followed Gilles de Rais; there was no reason to spare him. Why did Inquisitor Blonen neglect his duty and spare Prelati’s life, despite his testimony, which exposed, first of all, the Italian himself?! Wasn’t Prelati, from the very beginning, a figurehead sent to Gilles de Rais by his enemies, the lords, in order to play out a scam involving the conclusion of a hellish contract and thereby secure “deadly incriminating evidence” on the baron - for a future trial?
Was Meffray just as much a provocateur as Prelati, who escaped trial? Why didn’t Sr. Tiffauges remember in time about his lack of jurisdiction, allowing himself to be drawn into the proceedings in the first place? Why, when the matter went too far, did he not bring counter-accusations of the latter’s personal interest against the bishop who tried him?
All these mysteries, as well as the structure of the biography itself (free youth - court life - fascination with magic - debauchery - pact with the "evil one" - intrigues of enemies, trial and execution), create the feeling that sometimes arises when reading a Gothic novel. A novel written for the edification of those who are overly interested in the sphere of the mysterious and beyond.
Notes
* Occultism (from Latin occultus - secret, hidden) is the general name of teachings that recognize the existence of hidden forces in man and in the Cosmos, the control of which is possible thanks to special techniques (magic).
** A necromancer is a fortuneteller who summons the souls of the dead and asks them questions.
*** Juramentum de calumnia (lat.) - an oath to tell only the truth, taken at trial.
**** Some researchers are of the opinion that de Rais conducted experiments on children with the goal of obtaining an elixir of longevity, and for this purpose he killed boys and also women.
Gilles de Rais was born around 1404 at the castle of Machecoul on the border of Brittany and Anjou. His father Guy II de Laval died at the end of October 1415; and Marie de Craon's mother soon married Baron Sue d'Etouville, entrusting Gilles and his brother René to the care of her elderly father Jean de Craon, Baron Chanteauce and La Suze. In November 1420, at less than seventeen years old, Gilles de Rais married Catherine de Thouars This marriage made him one of the wealthiest nobles in France, and perhaps the richest men in Europe.
The position of France at this time was extremely difficult. Armed bands of Englishmen roamed the country, which had already experienced severe military upheavals and a plague epidemic. Even Orleans was overrun by invaders who burned villages, leaving behind blood, hunger, and destruction. Charles VII, the Dauphin, who was disowned by his parents - his father was known as a madman, his mother as a whore - was called a degenerate in society, they mocked him, forgetting about his courage in military affairs. He started a kind of court in Chinon, where he tried to find oblivion through drunkenness and debauchery. From time to time he made attempts to get at least some money. In 1425, Gilles de Rais came to his aid, lending huge sums and “raising an army,” as the old chronicler recorded. This happened when Saint Joan (Joan of Arc), the savior of France, appeared on the scene, and the king entrusted her to Gilles de Rais, who was always next to her. According to another version, Jeanne herself chose Gilles de Rais as her confidante. According to A Balabukhi, which he outlined in the book “When History Textbooks Lie,” Gilles de Rais was in love with Jeanne, but did not reciprocate.
“It is true that in the love of Gilles de Rais, different historians see directly opposite manifestations of nature. Those inclined to follow the generally accepted point of view, like Robert Ambelain, make the following conclusion, for example: “In his eyes, Jeanne was a page, one of those boys whose teenage bisexuality he adored.” However, the homosexuality of Gilles de Rais has not been proven in any way and stems rather from the subconscious conviction of a person of the 20th century that Bluebeard, if he did not specialize in the consistent murder of wives, was only because he preferred boys to them... Fortunately, others are able to distinguish in the image, emerging from the memoirs of contemporaries and the analysis of the actions of Baron de Rais, the features are completely different: the ability to experience an all-consuming passion and live by this passion.”
One way or another, Gilles de Rais, who was prone to mysticism, apparently truly sincerely believed in the divine mission of the Maid of Orleans, for which he fought bravely. He saw that she fulfilled all her promises, and when King Charles was crowned at Reims in 1429, Gilles de Rais was promoted to marshal of France, having the honor of bearing the royal coat of arms on his shield. However, soon, near Compiegne, Jeanne is captured by the Burgundians, and Gilles makes several attempts to free her, recruiting and paying mercenaries for this purpose. The death of the Maid of Orleans in 1431, apparently, was a great shock for him.
Tired of campaigning, Gilles de Rais returned to his castle of Tiffauges, where he led a truly royal lifestyle. He maintained more than 200 bodyguards, and these were not ordinary soldiers, but knights, nobles, high-ranking pages, each of whom was dressed in brocade and velvet and had his own retinue. The house of Gilles de Rais was open to guests day and night, the tables were laden with food: baked meats and roasts, huge baskets of white bread, pies; he fed not only the guards and employees, but also travelers passing by the castle. He himself loved rare spicy dishes and expensive wines from Cyprus or the East, in which pieces of amber were dissolved. Gilles was an avid bibliophile and kept valuable manuscripts in huge chests, which were illustrated for him by the famous artist Thomas, who made bindings for them from velvet and bright oriental materials.
Here is a complete list of Gilles de Rais's possessions, clearly demonstrating that he was not only noble but also incredibly rich. On his father's side he inherited the estates of Ambrières, Sainte-Aubin des Fos Louvain; on his mother's side he inherited Briolet, Chanteauce, Engrand, La Bénat, Le Laure Beautreau, Senechet, Bourneuf and La Voulte; finally, thanks to his marriage, he became the owner of Tiffauges, Pouzauges, Chabanais, Gonfolanque, Savenet, Lambert, Grâce-sur-Maine and Chateau Morant. Few of the lords of France could compete with him. Gilles de Rais was richer not only than the king, but also the Duke of Breton, whose vassal he was.
However, the lifestyle that Gilles led could not provide the annual income of the entire kingdom. Gradually, estates, meadows, parks and forests were either sold or mortgaged, until finally in 1436 his family, concerned about the fate of the inheritance, turned to King Charles, who, having learned about the state of affairs, forbade Gilles de Rais to dispose of all property. But this decree was ignored in Brittany, where Duke Jean V and the chancellor were eager to acquire other people's property.
In an attempt to prevent ruin, Gilles came up with nothing better than to turn to alchemy. Gilles de Rais shared the alchemical dreams of his time. He decided at all costs and without stopping at literally anything to master a magical remedy that was supposed to bring almost the whole world to his feet, at least give him limitless wealth and eternal youth. Gilles' mentor in occult matters was his cousin de Sille, a priest from the Church of Saint Malo. Huge sums were spent, a lot of gold and silver were melted down in a crucible, but to no avail. Gilles turned to Jean de la Rivière, a sorcerer who arrived from Poitiers, but the spells and spells turned out to be useless. A second sorcerer named du Mesnil convinced Gilles to sign a paper in blood, which stated that he swears to give everything that the devil demands, including life and soul, and to enhance the effect of the spell, a mass was celebrated in the church at midnight on the eve of All Saints' Day to the devil. But a fatal role in the fate of Gilles was played by another person, the Florentine monk Francesco Prelata, master of black magic, alchemist and Satanist.
“A man of great charm, Prelati gained power over Gilles de Rais, and then began a series of terrible murders, blasphemy and other disgusting acts drawn from the depths of black magic. Satan, Prelati said, must be pleased with blood, the blood of children. Then he will be favorable to his servants and shower them with wealth. The name of Gilles de Rais's first victim is unknown. It was said that he was a boy who was lured to the castle one evening, and when de Rais had satisfied his unnatural passion in a secret room, he and Prelati strangled the unfortunate child, tore the heart from his still warm body, bringing it, shuddering and trembling in agony, to as a sacrifice to a demon they summoned using magic spells. Then Prelati wrapped the corpse in cloth and, under cover of darkness, buried it in sacred ground - in the cemetery next to the Church of St. Vincent. They placed the blood in glass bottles and wrote witchcraft texts and liturgies to Satan on thin parchment.”
Rumor attributed to Gilles de Rais the murder of 800 children. However, at the trial that ultimately sentenced Gilles de Rais to death, the figure was 140 children killed for ritual purposes. Allegedly, their bodies were burned or dumped in the basements and utility rooms of the castle. According to Nikolaev, the Breton Duke Jacques V, who bought the lands and property of the marshal for next to nothing, did not interfere and did not interfere with the commission of crimes, increasing his wealth at the expense of de Rais.
“But there were people who acted not out of self-interest, but at the behest of their conscience. Jean de Chateaugiron, an incorruptible prelate, Bishop of Nantes, heard about the terrible orgies. It only took him a month to conduct a proper investigation. A detachment of armed soldiers was sent to Tiffauges, and a second detachment surrounded Machecoul, where Gilles de Rais was located. Resistance was useless, escape was impossible; On September 14, 1440, Marshal de Rais, the sadistic murderer Prelati and their assistants were arrested, chained and thrown into prison. The church proceedings lasted a month and eight days; The civil trial lasted 48 hours."(Nikolaev. “Vampires and werewolves”)
Alas, the author of the above passage thinks too well of people in general and prelates in particular. Among the buyers of Gilles de Rais' lands was the Bishop of Nantes. Moreover, the sale of lands was carried out with Gilles reserving the right to repurchase, so it was, perhaps, not a sale, but rather a mortgage. And only in the event of Gilles’ death did his lands finally go to the Duke of Breton and the Bishop of Nantes.
The twentieth century, having delved into the archives of the fifteenth century, came to very disappointing results for the organizers of the trial of Gilles de Rais. In France, the Society of Friends of Gilles de Rais even arose, convinced that a false accusation had been made against the brilliant commander. In 1992, on the initiative of the writer Gilbert Prouteau, a trial was even held, which, based on the study of documents from the Inquisitorial court held in 1440 in Nantes, rendered a verdict that Gilles de Rais was innocent of the crimes that were attributed to him. Of course, it is difficult for you and me to understand the story that happened almost six centuries ago, but Gilles de Rais is supported by the fact that none of his closest henchmen were practically harmed. They even released the obvious warlock and sadist (if you believe the court materials) Francesco Prelate, apparently for his active assistance in the investigation and trial.
According to the court's version, willingly supported by the loquacious Prelate, Gilles needed gold, a lot of gold, and Satan was supposed to help with this, who had to be summoned using black magic techniques. De Rais allegedly did this in his famous room, in the company of Master Francesco. The Italian drew magical black and red circles on the stone floor slabs, and Gilles, dressed in an expensive black camisole, painted images of two heads, two deer and two crosses, similar to coats of arms, on the walls. Sometimes a criminal company left the castle in the dead of night to summon demons of hidden treasures right at the site of the treasures. In the Meadow of Rising Stones, away from Mashkul, Prelati, calling on evil spirits, drew magic circles on the ground with a knife in dried blood. Such nights were usually accompanied by thunderstorms. Gilles, as a rule, saw nothing; but suddenly, out of nowhere, a huge dog appeared and rushed at him and knocked him down. This meant that treasures were buried somewhere nearby.
But usually the whole witch company, again according to their testimony, met in the Tiffauge castle, nightmarish and attractive at the same time. There, in a spacious room above the crypt, with the help of a book written in blood, they “summoned the devil Aliboron.” A huge magic circle with crosses and signs around it was drawn with coal on the floor slabs. The summoner entered the circle holding a book with the names of demons written in bloody symbols. Sometimes he read it for more than two hours, but the demon was in no hurry to appear. The prelate explained this by saying that Gilles gave everything to Satan: wealth, power, but did not want to sacrifice his soul to him, and Satan did not go.
“One day, however, a sign was shown to them that Satan was demanding the hands, hearts and eyes of children as sacrifices. This was accomplished, and he appeared in the guise of a huge snake in the hall of Tiffauges. Another time, the devil materialized in his favorite form of a huge black dog, which ran away growling. At the same time, the baron’s henchmen saw snakes and toads crawling into the hall from the crack under the door; in their words, “it seemed like they were crawling straight out of hell.”(Nikolaev. “Vampires and werewolves”)
The fate of Gilles de Rais resembles the fate of his contemporary Vlad Dracula, who, through the efforts of “well-wishers,” became a fiend of hell. Later studies, although they made serious adjustments to the lifetime portraits of both, but, alas, were unable to whitewash them in the eyes of ordinary people. For the latter, Vlad Dracula merged with the image of a vampire, and Gilles de Retz - with Bluebeard.
Meanwhile, the arrest of the baron was preceded by one very interesting story. Under the hot hand, Gilles de Rais ordered that a certain priest, who, unfortunately for him, turned out to be the brother of the treasurer of Brittany, Geoffroy Ferron, be thrown into the dungeon of his castle of Chanteauce. The reaction of the Duke of Breton to the outrages of the vassal was not long in coming. In mid-September, escort captain Jean Labe appeared under the walls of Machecoul and demanded that the bridges be lowered and the duke's soldiers be allowed into the castle.
Of course, Gilles de Rais was not a saint at all. Cold-blooded and calculating in battle, a skilled soldier and a talented strategist, in life the baron was both quick-tempered and quick to kill. Gentle with friends, he could turn out to be indifferent and even cruel. Surely, as an educated person, at the level of his age, of course, he was interested in black magic. It is possible that he was a sadomite. I also admit that he killed several children. But no one presented any evidence to the court to support this terrible accusation. In the baron's castle, contrary to popular belief, no corpses or even fragments of the bodies of tortured children were found. But at the fingertips of the investigation and trial there were people who, by their own admissions, helped Gilles de Rais carry out his dirty deeds and even buried the corpses of boys on his orders. However, for some reason the court was not interested in the remains of the unfortunate victims. But the mothers of the children kidnapped and tortured by the baron were present in abundance at the trial. Their crying and lamentation made a great impression on the audience.
Gilles de Rais himself initially denied everything, but the investigators insisted on their own using all the means at hand:
“Under torture, you confess to anything - even to a conspiracy with the devil, even to the molestation and subsequent murder of one hundred and forty boys. And Gilles de Rais confessed to everything that was demanded, although until the very end he did not understand why these earthly punishments fell upon him. (“I have already taken so much upon myself that it would be possible to execute ten thousand people,” the interrogation protocol of October 21, 1440 quotes him as saying.) But today this is completely obvious to us.”(Balabukha. “When history textbooks lie”)
The trial was short-lived. The results of the preliminary investigation were made public. The charges were as follows: crimes against God and man - murder, rape and sodomy. But the most terrible thing was such “sacrilege, lack of piety, the composition of devilish spells and other persistent activities in evoking the devil, magic, alchemy and witchcraft.”
The sentence read: “Hang and burn; after torture, before the body is dismembered and burned, it must be removed and placed in a coffin in the church of Nantes, chosen by the condemned person."
On October 26, 1440, Gilles de Rais ended his life on a gallows installed on the outskirts of the city of Nantes.
Bluebeard's Horror
“He lived like a monster and died like a saint; his nature was incomprehensible - and in the memory of ordinary people, subject to fears, reverent of everything mysterious, he remained under the name of Bluebeard. The image of this contradictory man, who knew everything in his life: luxury and ruin, rise and fall, the triumph of pride and bitter repentance, unbelief and piety, seemed to have come from the pen of Shakespeare, and now, through the centuries, his life seems mournful tragedy. He lived in defiance of the laws of human morality and even ordinary common sense, not to mention the arguments of reason; all his feelings and actions were marked with the stamp of duplicity and cruelty; in this kind of tragedy, the denouement is usually almost always accompanied by the mournful sound of a requiem.
Gilles is a hero of his time, the era of the Hundred Years' War and the prosperity of the Duke of Berry; in fact, he was even ahead of his time. Warrior and philanthropist, voluptuous and righteous, careless and devout to the point of recklessness, fearless and omnipotent companion of Joan of Arc, vicious and innocent, like a baby, seeking death and greedily loving life, thirsting for intoxication and tormented by all the pangs of conscience, rushing from one extreme to another and despising peace, he appears before us either in the guise of a hero of ancient miniatures, in a camisole and hat, embroidered with sparkling stones, or in the guise of a wild roaring beast with a mouth stained with blood,” as the famous French historian and writer Georges Bordonov wrote about him.
...In 1440, a nobleman from a noble family, the son of Guy de Laval and Marie de Craon, Madame de La Suze, rarely left his gloomy and sad castle, the towers of which still rise near Poitou. At night, a mystical light suddenly lit up in one of the tower windows, and from there came such eerie and piercing screams that even the wolves in the forest began to howl pitifully. The estate of Gilles de Rais was not located in a wooded and mountainous area, but among the stones from which the castle walls grew, rising mournfully in a translucent haze.
Nowadays, wild carnations never stop blooming on its walls. The gloomy crypt of the castle exists to this day under arches supported by dilapidated columns; in the middle lies a rectangular slab. As you can see, this was once an altar. Dark and sad ivy leaves rustle in the wind, which always happens near the northern wall. It was here, in this unfortunate corner of the castle, that the Marshal of France, Gilles de Rais, was arrested in 1440...
Gilles de Rais was born around 1404 in the castle of Machecoul, located on the border of Brittany and Anjou. His father Guy de Laval died at the end of October 1415; and his mother Marie de Craon remarried, entrusting Gilles and his brother René de Rais to the care of their grandfather, Jean de Craon, a man of advanced age. 1420, November 30 - at the age of 17, Gilles de Rais married Catherine de Thouars, and this marriage turned him into one of the richest people in Europe.
At that time, the situation in France became extremely complicated. The British walked around a country that had experienced massacres and a plague epidemic. Even Orleans was full of invaders who burned villages, leaving behind blood, hunger, disease and destruction. Charles VII, the Dauphin, who was disowned by his parents, started something like a court in Spies, where he tried to find oblivion in debauchery and drunkenness. But from time to time he made pitiful forays to beg for a little money, and in 1425 Gilles de Rais came to the aid of the puppet king, who lent him huge sums. This was when Saint Joan () - the savior of France - appeared on the stage.
The king entrusted her to Gilles de Rais, who was always by her side: her friend and protector, he fought side by side, guarding her, until she was wounded right under the walls of Paris. Abbot Bossard confirmed that, while taking care of Jeanne, Gilles was honest and fair with her. He was already absorbed in mysticism and, without a doubt, firmly believed in the divine mission of the Saint, for which he fought so bravely. He saw that she kept all her promises, and when King Charles was crowned at Reims, Gilles de Rais was promoted to marshal of France, with the honor of bearing the royal coat of arms on his shield.
1426 - Tired of the palace and camps, he returned to his castle of Tiffauges, where he began to lead a truly royal lifestyle. The detachment of his bodyguards numbered more than 200 people, they were not just soldiers, but knights, captains, nobles, high-ranking pages, each of whom was dressed in brocade and velvet and each had his own retinue. Gilles de Rais's house was open to guests; day and night his tables were laden with food: he fed not only the guards and employees, but also travelers passing by the castle.
Gilles was an avid bibliophile and kept valuable manuscripts in huge chests. He particularly admired the works of Ovid, Valerius Maximus and the stories of Suetonius.
It was obvious that even the annual income of the kingdom could not support such a lifestyle, and over time the estates, meadows, parks and forests were sold until, finally, in 1436, his family, concerned about the fate of the inheritance, turned to the king Charles, who, having learned about the bad rule of Sir Re, forbade him to dispose of all property.
For a long time, Gilles de Rais was looking for the philosopher's stone, and now he took up this with special zeal under the guidance of the famous occultist of that time, Gilles de Sille. Incredible sums were spent, gold and silver were melted down in a crucible and retort - but all in vain. He turned to Jean de la Riviere, a sorcerer who arrived from Poitiers, but his charms and spells were useless. A second sorcerer named du Mesnil convinced Gilles to sign a paper in blood, which said that he swears to give everything that the devil demands, including his life and soul.
Soon, the Florentine Francesco Prelati acquired power over Gilles de Rais, and it was then that a series of terrible murders, blasphemies and other disgusting acts began, drawn, it seemed, from the depths of . Satan, Prelati said, must be satisfied with blood, the blood of children. It is pointless to describe the black masses that took place in the castle; count rape, murder, child abuse. From 1432 to 1440, orgies continued, and children from different parts of the country died in the devil's den.
At the trial, a list with the names of the victims - boys and girls - was read out; the list was very long, in total more than 800 children were killed. Their bodies were burned or dumped in the basements and utility rooms of the castle. Gilles de Rais went into ecstasy watching the suffering of his victims, as he himself said: “It gave me the greatest pleasure to enjoy torture, tears, fear, blood.” But he still had nightmares. He often talked about entering a monastery, about a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he would go barefoot, begging for alms along the way.
It would be strange if James V, the Duke of Breton, who bought up the lands and houses of Gilles de Rais for next to nothing, intervened until he had filled his coffers and increased his wealth. He deliberately did not pay attention to the incredibly monstrous rumors circulating among the peasants. But still, there were decent people who acted not for self-interest, but at the behest of their conscience. Jean de Maletroit, Bishop of Nantes, an incorruptible and honest prelate, heard about the terrible crimes.
In just a month, he conducted a proper investigation. A detachment of armed soldiers went to Tiffauges, and meanwhile a second detachment surrounded Mashkul, where the marshal was fleeing, trembling with fear. It was pointless to resist, it was impossible to escape; On September 14, the sadistic murderer Prelati and those of his assistants who did not abandon him at the first sign of danger were arrested, chained and thrown into prison. The church trial lasted 1 month and 8 days; the civil trial lasted 48 hours.
There are no mysteries left in the trial of Gilles de Rais today. The chronicle brought to us in every detail what was happening in the rooms of the owner of the castle. Stories about food with a lot of spices and stimulating wines were preserved, but next to this were listed minute by minute details of various sadistic pleasures and senseless crimes. They talked about bodies pulled with hooks from wells into which they had previously been dumped, about hasty night transportation along rivers of chests filled with the bodies of murdered children with their heads separated from the body and “eaten by worms and bouncing like balls,” about fagots collected in heap in the fireplace of the Hotel de La Suze with 36 bodies laid on top. The assistant prosecutor found it hard to believe all this: “Just think about how the fat from pieces of burning meat drips onto the coals in the kitchen...” The flame, constantly stirred, was quite strong, and only a few hours were needed to get rid of many of the bodies.
Having suffered from remorse and prayed for the Lord's mercy, the marshal stretched out on the bed and with great pleasure inhaled the terrible smell of burning meat and bones, talking at length about his feelings.
Let’s repeat: 800 children died in 7 or 8 years. A good third of the nights of these 7 years, from 1433 to 1440, were devoted to murder, dismemberment and burning; and the days were spent in transporting bloody and mutilated bodies on a cart, in order to hide them, dried and charred, under hay or in secluded places, in getting rid of the ash and washing off the blood and uncleanness.
...The Church insisted that this matter be within its jurisdiction. This meant that then it was all over for Gilles de Rais. The Bishop of Nantes, Jean de Châteauguiron, and the High Seneschal of Brittany, Pierre de l'Hôpital, harassed the Duke with demands that they be given the necessary powers. And with great regret, James V finally gave the order to begin the trial of the Marshal of France, who had disgraced the illustrious name; he knew well that “the church is the highest court and condemns the crime, and not the person who committed it,” as the bishop of Nantes himself solemnly proclaimed. And Pierre de l'Hopital was largely more interested in the facts of witchcraft and magic than in other, much more terrible crimes.
Gilles needed gold. Like, he could not live the life of an ordinary person, it was destroying him.
Thanks to Prelati, the atmosphere of Tiffauges was imbued with magic. He often quarreled with the marshal, who reproached him for his impatience and lack of faith. Gilles listened to several masses every day. The Norman woman who came to tell his fortune with cards said that he would never succeed until “he distracts his soul from his prayers and his chapel.” Gilles obtained more and more right hands, hearts and strands of hair for the devil.
The difficulties associated with obtaining young people were the same for Erzsebet Bathory and Gilles de Rais. The same small villages where everyone knows about everything, even if they only whisper about it; the same gray-clad old women who form an integral part of the countryside; children running around unattended on small, far-flung farms; the outskirts of villages, where street punks knock down ripe plums with stones or sow flax - all this was the same in both Hungary and France. An old and ugly woman in gray was supplying the master with pages. Sometimes, through one means or another, little boys were lured into the castle by servants, Henri and Poitou. Children especially often disappeared on alms days. At such times, the bridges were lowered and the castle servants distributed alms among the poor: food, some money and clothing. And if they noticed a particularly handsome one among the children, they took him away with them under the pretext that he did not have enough meat and they would take him to the kitchen to give him something else.
But all the tricks that were invented to calm the local residents soon lost their persuasiveness; Every year people were surprised at how many boys disappeared - even with wolves, disease, murderers and swamps.
Gilles de Sille spread rumors that the Breton had thrown his brother, Michel de Sille, into prison, and the ransom was demanding 24 of the most beautiful boys that could be found. He sent them from Machecoul, so Gilles said, but 7 times more boys were taken from Tiffauges. Of course, people grieved when they heard about this, but, nevertheless, at least some rational explanation was found for the disappearances. In those days, ransom and hostages were a universal disaster. In addition, girls did not disappear from the villages, although they also often played near the water. Not a single shepherdess, even the most inconspicuous one, disappeared.
They came for Gilles de Rais in mid-September 1440. Under the walls of Machecoul, escort captain Jean Labbe and his men demanded that the bridges be lowered for them, because they served the Duke of Breton. Hearing the name Labbé, Gilles crossed himself, kissed the talisman and said to Gilles de Sille: “Worthy cousin, this is the moment to turn to the Lord.”
Long before that day, his astrologer predicted that his death would be announced by the abbot; and that he himself would be a monk in the abbey. The prediction came true. But the only difference is that only his body remained in the crypt of the Nantes Carmelites.
Jean Labbe ordered the marshal to follow him. Henri and Poitou wanted to accompany their owner. As they passed villages, curses were heard on both sides of the road.
On October 24, the prisoner was taken to an interrogation room at the Château de Buffay. Behind the tapestries, all the tools for the usual interrogation were prepared: a rack, wedges and ropes. Pierre de l'Hopital urged him to confess. The testimony of Poitou and Henri was read out to him quietly. Pale as death, Gilles replied that what they were saying was true, that he had in fact taken children from their mothers and had agreed to 800 murders and three magical attempts to summon the devil.
The evidence of witchcraft and sodomy was so clear that an ecclesiastical tribunal was appointed under the leadership of the Bishop of Nantes, since these crimes were within the jurisdiction of the church. The trial was short-lived.
The results of the preliminary investigation, which had been kept secret, were made public. So, crimes against God and man: murder, rape and sodomy. But the worst thing is “sacrilege, lack of piety, the composition of devilish spells and other persistent activities in evoking the devil, magic, alchemy and witchcraft.”
In the end, when the bishop advised him to prepare for death, the marshal began to defend himself: the highest military rank of the French crown and the first nobleman, he could only appear before a court of equals and with the permission of the king and the Duke of Breton.
Jean de Chateaugiron answered him this way: “The court of the church is the highest court and condemns crimes, and not the person who committed them. Moreover, the king and the duke agree that a sentence must be passed.”
The sentence was: “Hang and burn; Before the body is dismembered and burned, it must be removed and placed in a coffin in the church of Nantes, chosen by the condemned person. Henri and Poitou should be burned separately and their ashes scattered over the Loire."
The next day the square was crowded with people. Gilles appeared all in black, under a velvet hood and a black silk camisole trimmed with fur of the same color. Calmly and firmly, he repeated that he was telling only the truth.
On October 26, at 9 o'clock in the morning, a procession of priests carrying the Holy Communion, accompanied by a crowd praying for the three criminals, stopped at all the churches in Nantes. At 12 o'clock Gilles de Rais, Poitou and Henri were taken to a meadow on the outskirts of the city. They built three gallows, one higher than the others. At the bottom lay brushwood and dry branches.
Slowly reciting De Profundis, the condemned were taken to the place of execution. Gilles kissed Poitou and Henri, saying: “There is no sin that God cannot forgive if the person asking for it actually repents. Death is just a little pain." Then he threw back his hood, kissed the crucifix and began to say the words of the last prayer. The executioner threw a noose, Gilles climbed onto the platform with his help, and the executioner touched the burning torch to the brushwood. The platform sank, and Gilles de Rais hung; tongues of flame licked his body, swinging on a strong rope. After the long ringing of the cathedral bells, the crowd watching the scene of redemption began to sing "Dies irae".
The bodies of the servants were burned, their ashes scattered to the wind. The marshal's corpse, however, was buried, as expected, on the territory of the Carmelite church not far from the place of retribution. Thus ended the life of one of the most extraordinary criminals in the history of witchcraft.
"The most valiant of knights", the right hand of Joan of Arc, a devoted Christian. Black magician, pedophile and child killer. All this is the same person, Baron Gilles de Rais (autumn 1404 - October 26, 1440), who remained in the memory of descendants under the name Bluebeard.
We remember the terrible story about a sorcerer who punished his wives with death for curiosity. The true story of Bluebeard has the same distant relation to his literary image as is the case with the legends of Robin Hood, the Count of Saint-Germain and Dracula. Let us now find out how the life of the Marshal of France relates to Perrault’s famous fairy tale about the wife-killing sorcerer.
Eloi Firmin Front. Gilles de Laval, sire de Rais. Portrait from the gallery of French marshals at Versailles.
Gilles de Laval, Baron de Rais, was born in the fall of 1404 at the castle of Champtoce on the border of Brittany and Anjou. Few of his French contemporaries could compete with Gilles for his nobility of origin. He belonged to two famous families of France - Montmorency and Craons; was the grandson of the hero of the Hundred Years' War, Brumor de Laval, and the great-nephew of the famous French commander, winner of the British in the Hundred Years' War, Bertrand Du Guesclin. Gilles' family was related to all the noble families of eastern France. He himself had the status of first baron of the Duchy of Breton. Finally, his cousin was the future king of France, Charles VII of Valois.
Monument to Bertrand du Guesclin, the famous commander, ancestor of Gilles de Rais.
The parents gave their first-born an excellent upbringing, infecting him with a love of books, rare at that time, from childhood. However, the boy’s erudition did not at all mean a meek disposition: young Gilles was also smart with weapons. In 1415, Gilles was orphaned. His maternal grandfather, Jean de Craon, took care of the eleven-year-old Baron de Rais. He hired the best teachers in military disciplines, and in his grandfather’s domain, Gilles could do literally anything.
From the age of fourteen, the young baron took part in skirmishes with the British, and even then he was noted for his courage and recklessness. At sixteen, Gilles' grandfather considered him old enough to marry and began energetically arranging his marriage. Several profitable matches failed for political reasons: de Rais was so rich and noble that a good marriage could put him above the king himself.
George S. Stuart. Gilles de Retz (1404-40), Gilles de Montmorency-Laval, Baron de Rais, Count of Brienne.
Catherine de Thouars was Gilles' cousin, her vast lands bordering his own. The young baron made Catherine an offer that she could not refuse: he simply kidnapped her while out for a walk. After the grandfather's troubles, the marriage was recognized as legal, and the wife brought Gilles de Rais as a dowry about one hundred thousand livres in gold and real estate. This immediately made him the richest man in France and perhaps in all of Europe. Near the former castle of Gilles de Rais in Verrieres there are seven trees marking the number of Bluebeard's wives.
And in the castle of Tiffauges, visitors are shown the room where the baron slaughtered children, and the tombstone under which the murdered wives were buried. And no one informs tourists greedy for impressions that in fact Gilles de Rais received the castle of Tiffauges as a dowry to Catherine de Thouars - the first and only wife who, moreover, outlived her husband...
Tiffauge. Castle of Gilles de Rais.
But quiet family joys were not Gilles' lot. The war was the Hundred Years' War. Gilles de Rais recruited a large detachment of cavalrymen at his own expense, placed them under the family banner with a black cross on a golden background and wondered which side to take.
The question was not idle. A strong cavalry detachment under talented command could radically change the balance of forces. This is what happened when Gilles appeared at the court of the Dauphin Charles, the uncrowned heir of the French kings. The victory of France and the Dauphin was a foregone conclusion when the Maid of Orleans - Joan of Arc - came to the court. For Jeanne, Charles formed a selected army. Chroniclers talk about the beauty of Jeanne and the strong but platonic love that Gilles had for her. At his personal request Jeanne, de Rais himself guarded her in battles.
Allen Douglas.
Many writers subsequently presented Jeanne and Gilles as an angel and a demon. However, this couple was worth each other. Both were pious, courageous, fanatically believed in the victory of France and believed that the world would bow to them. And also... they were distinguished by their cruelty towards their enemies. Jeanne threatened to execute any of the civilians whom she began to suspect of helping the British. Gilles was nicknamed the “hangman”: such a fate awaited any captive who was unable to pay him a ransom. Both Virgo and de Rais lived by the same law - the law of victory, which is worth any blood.
William Etty "The Capture of Orleans".
Gilles's detachment was the core of the army with which Orleans was taken in 1429. Then the British were expelled from neighboring provinces and, finally, from Reims, where the royal regalia were kept. On July 17, 1429, the Dauphin became King Charles VII of France. The heroes entered the coronation ceremony together: Jeanne on the right hand of the Dauphin, Baron de Rais on the left. After the coronation, Baron de Rais receives the title of Marshal of France. But discontent is growing in France: at court they believe that Jeanne and her commanders have become too popular and are simply burying themselves. Marshal de Rais became Jeanne's first adviser and at military councils he abruptly cut off those who disagreed, regardless of the nobility.
Vincent Cassel as Gilles de Rais caught an arrow in his hand while guarding Mila Jovovich (“Joan of Arc” 1999).
And so, after an unsuccessful attack on Paris, the king recalls Gilles from Jeanne’s army. In May 1430, Jeanne was captured. The Marshal turns to Charles VII, but he does not intend to shell out a huge sum for the ransom of the Maid of Orleans, who has already done her job... The Regent of England ransomed Jeanne in order to hand her over to the court in Rouen. During the trial, de Rais, the only one of Jeanne's supporters, makes an attempt to free her.
Medieval miniature. Zhanna is tied to a post.
The marshal was late: he did not even have time to approach Rouen with his detachment when he received the news of Jeanne’s execution. After the execution of Jeanne de Rais, he retired and retired to his possessions. The wife and daughter lived separately and did not see the baron for many months. The Maid of Orleans became the only woman who managed to arouse warm feelings in Gilles, but all of Breton scoffed at the baron’s handsome pages. De Rais led a more riotous and rich life than the king himself, indulging in excesses in literally everything: if the guard was two hundred knights, if the table was with rich dishes and expensive Cypriot wines. His castles were open to many guests, who were generously treated and entertained.
Porny. Bluebeard's Castle, Marshal Gilles de Rais.
The “Orléans Mystery,” which the baron commissioned to glorify Jeanne, deserved special amazement throughout France. The troubadours wrote 20,500 poems and played about five hundred actors, with de Rais playing the role of himself. For each series of performances, the baron paid 80 thousand gold ecus - this was the annual income of the average county. But even the fullest wallet is not bottomless, which eventually worried the marshal.
The advanced science of that time was alchemy, so education played a bad joke on the baron. Gilles sharply intensified research into converting lead into gold. The entire first floor of the Tiffauges castle is being converted into an alchemical laboratory, de Rais is buying up expensive ingredients - shark teeth, mercury, arsenic. Several alchemists, led by the baron himself, are persistently trying to extract gold from less noble metals, but the experiments yield nothing. And then the evil genius de Rais appears - the necromancer Francesco Prelatti, who cleverly inspires confidence in his supposedly magical abilities.
Pieter Bruegel Engraving The Alchemist.
What Prelatti was doing was, according to our standards, quackery, but at that time it was black magic. He undertook to call the devil for Gilles to ask for money. Once the successfully summoned devil seemed to really deliver the gold, but when the baron wanted to touch it with a cross in his hands, all the gold turned to red dust. The only conclusion that de Rais made was that the evil one deceived him this time, but in principle, receiving money is possible...
To cover expenses, the baron mortgaged his lands to the Duke of Breton. The Duke did not want to return the possessions at all, and Gilles was a man who could get money for ransom not through alchemy, but through the art of war. So the Duke of Brittany was only waiting for an excuse to deal with the baron.
Tiffauge. Castle of Gilles de Rais.
The occasion presented itself in 1440. From the outside it looks like a black joke, but the act that led Gilles to a shameful death was completely in his spirit. In one of the castles pledged, the Duke's man, a priest, became the manager. De Rais's servants, passing by the castle, asked for an overnight stay. The manager refused. Gilles, having learned about this, became furious - after all, the castle nominally belonged to him, no one could refuse to welcome his servants! The marshal rushed over, found the manager in the castle church, punched him right at the altar and took him away with him. After holding him in shackles for some time, “so that he knew his place,” de Rais released the priest.
Gilles De Rais is a model from Asmodee studio.
And after some time he received an invitation to the main court of Breton to consider a case of insult to the priesthood. The straightforward marshal did not even think of evading. Accusation De Rais was accused of heresy, alchemy, and most importantly, of kidnapping children, whom he and his servants allegedly brutally raped and then sacrificed to the devil. Gilles was imprisoned and the investigation began. The Duke of Breton had no doubt about the success of the court's work - the investigation had barely begun, and he was already moving boundary posts on the baron's former possessions.
In addition to Gilles himself, five of his servants were investigated, torture was applied to all of them, and all of them confessed. True, the numbers were confused: from 140 to 800 victims were named. The “star” of the investigation was Prelatti, who spoke a lot and willingly about relations with the devil - both his own and the baron’s, who “asked for three great gifts for himself: omniscience, wealth and power.” 29 people were questioned as witnesses about the missing children. All the testimony was frankly fabulous in nature: once upon a time there lived a little boy, and then he disappeared somewhere - according to rumors, he ended up in the castle de Rais, where he was killed. The investigation even accepted such absurd accusations as: “I heard that a chest full of dead children was found in the castle of Chambos.” The fact that they dug up all the earth around the baron’s castles, but never found a single child’s body, did not bother anyone.
When it finally came to hearing de Rais himself, he called the judges “robbers and blasphemers,” and exclaimed that he “would rather be hanged than answer to such clergymen and judges.” In response to the insults, Gilles was excommunicated from the church. For a devout man, a comrade-in-arms of the Virgin of God, this was a terrible blow. He immediately admitted reading books on alchemy and conducting relevant experiments. But Gilles denied everything else; moreover, in order to prove his innocence, he himself suggested that the judges resort to an ordeal. Ordeal (God's court) in the Middle Ages was considered the most reliable way to prove one's case. The ordeal, which was carried out with the help of priests, was fire and water. A participant in God's court was tested either with a hot iron, which he held in his hands or walked on barefoot, or with boiling water, into which he dipped his hand. Burnt hands or feet were bandaged, and on the third day the bandage was removed and the guilt or innocence of the participant in the ordeal was judged based on the condition of the wounds. The judges decided to limit themselves to simple torture...
Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
A few days later, Gilles de Rais confirmed all the accusations. From the materials of the investigation, we can conclude that they made it clear to him: execution by burning still cannot be avoided, but if he agrees with the accusation, the excommunication will be lifted. The baron was only required to repeat: “Yes, guilty!” De Rais was condemned as "heretic, apostate, demon-summoner, guilty of crimes and unnatural vices, sodomy, blasphemy and desecration of the sanctity of the holy church." After repentance, the thirty-six-year-old Marshal of France was strangled and placed on the fire along with the bodies of his servants. Relatives were allowed to retrieve the body before the fire reached it. Prelatti, who seemed to deserve punishment for the same charges, was safely released. The famous Prelatti became the court alchemist of the Duke of Anjou, but a few years later he was nevertheless executed for forging the seal of his patron.
Medieval miniature depicting the execution of Gilles de Rais and his accomplices.
Over time, the legend of Baron de Rais grew in detail. Already in the chronicles of contemporaries, in addition to the many murdered children, “stabbed pregnant women” appeared from somewhere, about whom there was no talk at the trial. The reason, apparently, was the marshal’s well-known dislike for the female sex. Soon, from the stories, the murdered children disappeared completely, but the strange pregnant women turned into tortured wives, numbering, as usual in fairy tales, seven, and a gloomy blue beard appears as visual evidence of a deal with the devil.
In reality, the Marshal of France's beard was light brown, but the fire the body visited probably changed its color. Henry-Charles Lee in his “History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages,” mentioning the trial of Gilles de Rais, writes: “The legend says that it was the demon who changed Gilles’s beard, of which he had previously been proud, to a bright blue color...”
Vincent Cassel's beard in Besson's film is blond, like the historical prototype.
250 years later, storyteller Charles Perrault recorded several stories of Breton folklore regarding Gilles de Rais. One of them contained the following version of the acquisition of a blue beard: “Count Odon de Tremeac and his bride Blanche de Lerminier are driving past the castle of Gilles de Rais. Gilles (who, as is said, has a beautiful red beard) invites them to his place for dinner. But when the guests are about to leave, Gilles orders the count to be thrown into a “stone bag” and invites Blanche to become his wife. Blanche refuses, Gilles insists. He takes her to church, where he promises her his soul and body in exchange for consent. Blanche agrees, and at the same moment turns into the blue Devil. The devil laughs and says to Gilles: “Now you are in my power.” He makes a sign and Gilles de Rais's beard turns blue. “Now you will not be Gilles de Laval,” shouts the Devil. “Your name will be Bluebeard!”
Bluebeard, engraving by Gustave Doré.
The tale of Bluebeard, literary processed by Perrault, was published in 1697 in the collection “Tales of Mother Goose.” And soon the whole world learned the story of “a man who had a lot of all sorts of good things, but, unfortunately, this man’s beard was blue, and this beard gave him such an ugly and menacing appearance that all the girls and women, as soon as they saw him, him, so may God speed up his legs.” Even in the first Russian edition it was stated: “In Bluebeard, Perrault was sometimes seen as a historical figure, namely the Breton nobleman Gilles de Laval, Marshal Retsky, who bore the nickname Bluebeard...”.
The plot of the baron's life was reflected not only in the tale of Bluebeard, but also - much more accurately - in the genre of the Gothic short story, widespread in the 19th century. A popular theme for the genre: a young man devotes himself to mystical quests, wanting to reveal the secrets of existence, gain unearthly wisdom and power; In his quest, he encounters the devil and signs a contract with him in exchange for an immortal soul. But the devil, at the first opportunity, deceives him and abandons him with the glory of a villain. The fate of the hero in such Gothic stories invariably became universal condemnation and shameful death.
The name of Gilles de Rais as the maniac Bluebeard, a killer of women and children, was mentioned by various authors of the Gothic or occult genre: Robert Bloch, Arthur Machen, Eremey Parnov... And in the short story by Kir Bulychev “Bluebeard” the villain turns out to be the head of the laboratory, who dismantles undisciplined biorobots.
Contemporary artists are also interested in describing de Rais as a child killer.
Not long ago, French lawyers again raised the case and decided that the trial was fabricated for clearly selfish purposes. In 1992, 552 years after his execution, Gilles de Rais was found innocent and officially exonerated. But this had little effect on the established image - the Duke of Breton made a safe bet when he decided to turn the hero into a terrible villain. These kinds of stories will always succeed.
Although Gilles de Rais had blond hair, a beard
It was black, unlike any other.
In certain lighting it took on a bluish tint,
Which led to the fact that Sir de Re received the nickname Bluebeard...
Paul Locroix. Strange crimes
Gilles de Montmorency-Laval, baron de Rais, comte de Brienne, * autumn 1404 - October 26, 1440, known as Gilles de Rays ) or Gilles de Retz (French Gilles de Retz) is a French baron, marshal and alchemist, whose name is surrounded by an aura of terrible legends, the authenticity of which is disputed by some modern historians.
Childhood
Gilles was born on the border of Brittany and Anjou in the castle of Machecoul in 1404 into an aristocratic family. Gilles de Rais's parents came from the most famous French families: Craon and Montmorency, a descendant of a noble Breton family. The child received an excellent education and knew ancient languages. The fruits of this upbringing were manifested in Gilles’ love for collecting books, collecting antiquities, and in the inquisitive mind he showed throughout his life. Despite the fact that Gilles de Rais spent most of his life in the saddle (literally) and on the battlefield, he became the owner of a very rich library, for which he spared no expense in purchasing books. At the age of 11, he was left an orphan - he lost his father, who died during hostilities (his mother died earlier). He inherited a huge fortune and was raised by his grandfather, who believed that the ability to wield a sword was much more important than knowledge of Latin. Gilles fell in love with fencing, falconry, and wild racing around the surroundings of the family castle of Tiffauges. The space for hunting and racing increased significantly when his grandfather forced 16-year-old Gilles to marry Catherine de Thouars (according to some sources, he kidnapped her). This issue was not easily resolved, since the bride was the groom’s cousin, and the Church did not approve of marriages between close relatives. As a result, the marriage was allowed. A vast estate in Brittany (bride's dowry) was added to the family's possessions. In addition, through his wife, Gilles became related to the future king Charles VII. The number of marriages was not limited to this (his wives died).
In world history he is better known as Bluebeard.
Participation in hostilities
Since 1427, it has taken part in the hostilities of the French crown, during the Hundred Years' War between England and France. Gilles was the bodyguard and mentor of Joan of Arc, the military leader of her militia. One day, a vision “from above” appeared to him, and he understood his heavenly destiny. He was also merciless towards his enemies. He condemned to death any captive who was unable to pay him a ransom [source?], and easily sent them to the gallows. At the age of twenty-five, in July 1429, after the army of Joan of Arc entered Reims and Charles VII was crowned, Gilles was awarded the rank of Marshal of France. But then came the defeats and death of Joan of Arc. Gilles made great efforts to save his idol, when in 1431 Jeanne was captured, he gathered an army of mercenaries and moved to Rouen, but was too late: Jeanne was executed. He retires to his estate and wages internecine wars with de Buel. Subsequently, he spent a lot of money on the glorification of Joan of Arc. He ordered the “Orleans Mystery” and for 10 years paid for the production of the mystery in the theater. This cost him a huge sum, since for each series of mystery performances he paid 80 thousand gold ecus [source?]. In 1432 he briefly returned “to the world”, helping Charles VII in lifting the siege of Ligny. Around 1432, the attitude towards Gilles de Rais at the court of King Charles VII began to change for the worse, due to rumors about the marshal's licentious behavior, which was in no way consistent with Catholic ideas about morality. There was talk [source?] about his addiction to same-sex love, child molestation, and cruelty in treating mistresses and lovers.
Retirement and pursuit of alchemy and the occult
Gilles retired and from 1433 began to live permanently in the local castle of Tiffauges, in Brittany. Here he lived like a king, with a guard of two hundred knights, a personal church with thirty canons, and an extensive library of rare manuscripts. Here he could freely indulge in his hobbies. From that time on, various kinds of dream interpreters, magicians, sorcerers and alchemists began to appear in the marshal's retinue. The latter, using the generous funding of their master, searched for the philosopher's stone, the elixir of youth, the technology of transforming base metals into gold, etc. Gilles de Rais paid for their research not only because of the thirst for acquisition, since at that time material problems did not particularly weigh on him. Most likely, the marshal, being a very erudite man, longed to communicate with extraordinary people, whose horizons went beyond the ordinary ideas of that time about education. Large rooms on the ground floor in Tiffauges were converted into an alchemical laboratory. Gilles de Rais did not skimp on expenses. His sales agents bought huge quantities of the ingredients needed for the experiments; Some of these ingredients - shark teeth, mercury, arsenic - were very expensive at that time.
Murders
The murders of children did not begin immediately; Gilles raped and tortured children after alchemy was powerless. In notes signed with his own blood, Gilles de Rais demanded from the devil “Knowledge, power, wealth,” and during the trial he declared: “No one in the world has ever done or can do what I have done.” In the villages around the castle of Tiffauges there were practically no male boys left. There were no women at all in the castle; Gilles had long treated them with disgust, apparently due to the fact that the prostitutes at the court of Charles VII instilled in him contempt for the female sex. He corrupts the boys of his church choir, but soon gets tired of it and goes even further. Gilles's first victim was a boy whom he stabbed to death, then cut off his hands, took out his heart, tore out his eyes and, together with Prelati, offered it all to the devil. The child's remains were buried near St. Vincent's Chapel. Gilles wrote formulas and spells with children's blood.
In the period from 1432 to 1440, children disappeared in Antoux, Poitou, and Brittany. After the appearance of the Marshal's men - Francesco Prelati, Rocher Briqueville, Gilles Sille - boys disappeared in the villages. Modern sources number between seven and eight hundred victims (the indictment of his trial lists the figure as 140). In the underground prison of his castle, Gilles rapes and cuts boys into pieces, watching their death throes. He himself said at the trial: “Torment, tears, fear and blood were more pleasant to me than any other pleasure.” He desecrated the bodies of already dead children, and once disemboweled a pregnant woman and took the fetus. He cuts off the heads of children's corpses and places them on the table, choosing the most beautiful one, then passionately kisses her on the dead lips. After such entertainment, he fell into a heavy sleep reminiscent of lethargy for a long time.
Gilles’s deeds, it seems, have ceased to be a secret - peasants began to talk about it more and more often, and even terrible rumors leaked into court circles. But, apparently, no one would have dared to accuse the powerful baron if not for the desire of Duke John of Breton to take possession of his castles, which Gilles had the imprudence to mortgage to him. The occasion was not slow to present itself. In December 1439, the Dauphin, the future king Louis XI, suddenly visited the castle of Tiffauges. After this, a real threat loomed over Gilles, but he made another mistake. On May 15, 1440, the marshal and his men broke into his former possessions - the castle of Saint-Etienne de Mer-Mortes, which he sold for a pittance to Geoffroy de Feron, who by that time had not yet paid him even this insignificant amount. The priest Jean de Ferron, brother of the owner, celebrated mass in the castle church. Gilles deRay burst into the church, beat the priest right at the altar, threatening to strangle him. In the following days, he locked himself completely alone in his castle, and on September 14, 1440, troops arriving from Nantes besieged the castle of Tiffauges on the orders of the Nantes bishop Jean de Malestroit. Gilles de Rais was arrested, brought to the city of Nantes and imprisoned in the New Tower. When examining his castle, mountains of children's bones and skulls were discovered in the dungeons, which the servants did not have time to burn.
Trial
The process began on October 13 and ended on October 26, 1440. Gilles' servants and a woman named Meffray, who was considered the main supplier of live goods, were also captured. During the first open session, the hall was filled with people, people shouted curses and blessed the court. And although Gilles’ guilt was obvious and undeniable, the course of the trial itself gives the impression of a cleverly fabricated case, which has one goal - to remove an unnecessary person. After all, with such a formulation of the question, if Gilles de Rais were completely innocent, he would still be sent to the stake. The main guilt charged against him was the use of black magic and relations with the devil; the murder of children was mentioned only in passing, as something of secondary importance. As such a criminal, Gilles was naturally subject to an inquisitorial trial. But Gilles denied it, declared that everything erected against him was a complete lie and slander, but a few days later (perhaps after interrogation with partiality) he sincerely repented of his sins and previous arrogance, begging to lift the excommunication imposed on him from the church. The Inquisition Court demanded more and more details, insisting that Gilles was hiding something. At the end, in irritation, the accused exclaimed: “Didn’t I take upon myself such crimes that would be enough to condemn two thousand people to death!” Gradually, he began to ask for forgiveness from the parents of the children he had tortured, asking them to pray for him. This picture of repentance made such a deep impression that a whole crowd of people, who had previously cursed him, knelt down, praying to God to rest his soul.
Repeated torture of Gilles and his testimony
If earlier Gilles de Rais himself admitted such a “weakness” as an unnatural love for children, then the testimony of his bodyguards revealed the true content of this darkest passion of the French hero. Based on the meaning of his previous statements on this matter, it was already clear that children were dying as a result of his sadistic “love,” but only now it became clear that the horrific, deliberate torture of small victims was an integral, most important element of the marshal’s sexual satisfaction. The actual sexual element - sodomy with minors - was not very important for Gilles de Rais; with the vast majority of children he did not engage in coitus and limited himself to masturbation. For the marshal, the element of abuse of the body, controlling someone else’s life, destroying it in a barbaric, inhuman way was important. When the court turned to the accused for clarification, he, well aware of the murderous power of the evidence that had already been heard, began to maneuver and be cunning. But by this time he was already bound by the pronounced formula juramentum de calumnia (Latin oath to tell only the truth) and its violation gave rise to a new torture demanded for him. At the morning session of October 21, 1440, the court decided to subject the accused, as convicted of perjury, to new torture. After lunch, Gilles de Rais was taken to the torture chamber and again stretched on the “stairs”. As the first time, he quickly asked to stop the torture and declared that he was ready to “freely confess.” Brought to court, Gilles de Rais admitted that he “enjoyed vice,” cutting off the heads of children with his own hands with a dagger or knife or beating them to death with a stick, and then voluptuously kissing the dead bodies, looking lustfully at those who had the most beautiful heads. and the most attractive limbs. His greatest pleasure was sitting on their bellies and watching them slowly move away. Baron de Rais ended his story by appealing to “the fathers and mothers of those who were so sadly put to death to pray for him” and asking that his sins be made public, a sure means of gaining public approval for his execution. He himself put the number of children he tortured at 800 (about one per week for the last 15 years). It must be said that Griard and Corillo could not clarify this issue because they did not serve the marshal long enough. The court considered the figure of 150 dead children proven, because this value did not contradict the testimony of the witnesses most knowledgeable in this matter (Gilles de Rais himself, Griard, Corillo, Maffre, valet Sillier). In general, he is credited with killing up to 200 (according to other sources - up to 800) children and several of his wives.
Early in the morning of October 26, Gilles de Rais made public repentance for the crimes he had committed in the Nantes Cathedral, with a large crowd of people. He asked for forgiveness from the Church, the King, the parents of the children he killed, said that he was afraid of heavenly judgment and asked everyone who could hear him at that moment to pray for the salvation of his soul. On October 26, 1440, in Nantes, after prayer and repentance, Gilles de Rais at about 10 a.m., taken to the place of execution, the Marshal of France was strangled in front of a huge crowd of local nobles and townspeople. Along with the body of Gilles de Rais, his former faithful bodyguards, Griard and Corillo, ended up alive on a huge woodpile. After lighting the fire, the body of Gilles de Rais was pulled with hooks from the woodpile and, according to the agreement, handed over to relatives (cousin and nephews). The relatives of the legendary associate of Joan of Arc did not want to insult the family crypts with his coffin. The body of Gilles de Rais found peace in the Carmelite monastery, located on the outskirts of Nantes.
In the popular consciousness, Gilles de Rais turned into the legendary Bluebeard. This image was used in literature by Charles Perrault, Maurice Maeterlinck, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Bela Balazs, in music by Paul Dukas, Bela Bartok and Nikolai Gumilev.