Gilles de Rais

"Gilles de Retz" redirects here. For the racehorse, see Gilles de Retz (horse).

Marshal of France Gilles de Rais Baron de Rais
Gilles de Rais by Éloi Firmin Féron (1835) This oil painting is an artist's impression, since no contemporary portrait or description has survived. The artwork was commissioned by the July Monarchy for display in the Gallery of French Marshals of the Musée de l'Histoire de France (Versailles).
Born	c. 1405 ? Champtocé-sur-Loire, Anjou
Died	26 October 1440 Nantes, Brittany
Buried	Church Monastery of Notre-Dame des Carmes, Nantes
Allegiance	Duchy of Brittany Kingdom of France
Service years	1427 (or 1420 ?) – 1435
Rank	Marshal of France
Conflicts	Hundred Years' War Siege of Orléans Battle of Jargeau Battle of Patay
Signature
Criminal details
Target	mainly young boys
Victims	Unknown (approx. 140 ?)
Period	1432–1440
Penalty	Death by hanging (corpse partially burned at the stake)

Gilles de Rais, Baron de Rais (French: [ʒil də ʁɛ]; also spelled "Retz"; c. 1405 – 26 October 1440) was a French knight and lord who possessed extensive estates in Brittany, Anjou and Poitou. He served as one of the captains in the French royal army during the Hundred Years' War, notably taking part in the same military campaigns as Joan of Arc in 1429, up until the failed siege of Paris. He is chiefly known for his conviction on charges of raping and murdering numerous children.

An important lord as heir to several great noble lineages of western France, he rallied to the cause of King Charles VII of France and waged war against the English. In 1429, he allied himself with his influential cousin Georges de La Trémoille, Grand Chamberlain of France, and was elevated to the rank of Marshal of France following his participation in Joan of Arc's victorious campaigns. Little is known about his relationship with her, unlike the privileged association between two comrades-in-arms portrayed by various works of fiction. He gradually withdrew from the war during the 1430s.

His family accused him of squandering his patrimony by selling off his lands to pay his lavish expenses, a profligacy that led to his being placed under interdict by Charles VII in July 1435. He assaulted a high-ranking cleric in the church of Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte, before seizing the local castle in May 1440, thereby violating ecclesiastical immunity and challenging the authority of his suzerain, John V, Duke of Brittany. Arrested on 15 September 1440, he was tried in October 1440 by an ecclesiastical court assisted by the Inquisition for heresy, sodomy and the murder of "one hundred and forty or more children." At the same time, he was tried and condemned by the secular judges of the ducal court of justice to be hanged and burned at the stake for his act of force at Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte, as well as for crimes committed against "several small children." On 26 October 1440, he was executed alongside two of his servants.

From the early nineteenth century onward, the historical Gilles de Rais has frequently been conflated with the legendary Bluebeard, regardless of the uncertain hypothesis that he inspired Charles Perrault's fairy tale "Bluebeard" (1697). Since the late nineteenth century, Gilles de Rais has been interpreted through evolving criminological and psychiatric frameworks. He has been associated with sexual sadism and repetitive violent crime, while more recent studies have frequently described him as a serial killer. Some scholars have nevertheless questioned the applicability of this category to a fifteenth-century figure.

Claims of his innocence are not supported by professional historians, although some advise caution when reviewing the trial proceedings. Medievalists Jacques Chiffoleau and Claude Gauvard argue that the inquisitorial procedure should be examined critically, with the defendants' confessions interpreted in light of the expectations and assumptions of the judges and with attention paid to the role of rumor in shaping Gilles de Rais's fama publica (public reputation). Yet proponents of such methodological caution do not dismiss the detailed testimonies concerning the disappearance of children or the confessions describing murderous rituals unparalleled in the judicial archives of the period.

Background

Detail of a map of the Kingdom of France in 1429–1430, by Auguste Longnon (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1875)

In the fourteenth century, the Breton Civil War (1341–1365), part of the wider Hundred Years' War, ended with the hard-fought victory of the House of Montfort, backed by the Kingdom of England, over the French-supported House of Blois. Although the Duchy of Brittany remained a fief of the French Crown under the feudal system, the conflict strengthened its political autonomy. The duchy possessed its own institutions, taxation, currency, army, diplomatic representation, and a crowned duke, functioning in many respects as an independent principality.

Coat of arms of the Barony of Retz (Or, a cross Sable)

The Barons of Retz (medieval sources spell the name as Rais, Rays or Raiz) were among the leading vassals of the Dukes of Brittany. They exercised extensive seigneurial rights while maintaining close political ties with both the Breton ducal court and the French Crown. The Barony of Retz, one of the duchy's most prestigious baronies, had an extensive territorial jurisdiction that made it one of Brittany's greatest lay lordships and an important counterweight to ducal authority. Situated on Brittany's southern frontier south of the Loire, and centered on the Château de Machecoul, it derived considerable wealth and influence from its strategic location.

The House of Retz became extinct in 1371 with the death of Girard V Chabot. His sister, Jeanne Chabot, known as "the Wise", inherited the barony. Duke John IV of Brittany, seeking to expand the ducal demesne and secure control of the lands south of the Loire, laid claim to her inheritance. King Charles V of France entrusted the protection of Jeanne Chabot's lands to her kinsman Guy "Brumor" de Laval. After Guy Brumor died, at an unknown date after 1375, Jeanne Chabot was left without her principal protector. Efforts to reach an amicable settlement failed, and John IV demanded that Jeanne Chabot, lady of Retz, cede her estates to him. She refused, whereupon he dispatched troops to occupy the barony's principal strongholds. The protracted legal proceedings were temporarily suspended under pressure from the Royal Council, before ultimately leading to a compromise that restored Jeanne Chabot to possession of her lands. Confronted with mounting military and political difficulties, John IV accepted the compromise in order to ease tensions with the Breton nobility and ensure a smooth succession for his son John, only a few months before the duke's death on 1 November 1399. The settlement was finalized in 1400.

Ancestry

Seal of Guy de Laval-Rais, bearing the arms of the Lords of Retz, c. 1405-1407

Having no children, Jeanne Chabot initially named Guy Brumor's son, Guy de Laval, as her heir in 1401, provided that he adopted the name and arms of Retz. She later revoked this decision in favor of another relative, Jean de Craon, lord of La Suze and Champtocé. The ensuing succession dispute ended in a compromise under which Guy de Laval married Jean de Craon's daughter, Marie. The agreement was ratified by the Parlement of Paris in 1404. Later that year, Jeanne Chabot transferred several lordships to Guy de Laval in return for a life annuity. He thereafter styled himself "Lord of Rais" (sire de Rais). Guy and Marie established their residence at the Château de Machecoul, where they lived with Jeanne Chabot, who died there in 1407.

Gilles de Rais (or "Retz"), the eldest son of Marie de Craon and Guy de Laval-Rais, descended from a number of great feudal houses. Through his mother, he was linked to the House of Craon, a wealthy western family, and through his father to the House of Laval, one of the two most important Breton lineages in the 15th century. The Laval family's ancestors included, by marriage, the Barons of Retz (known as the "oldest barons of the Duchy of Brittany") as well as the prestigious House of Montmorency, albeit temporarily weakened at the time.

Biography

Early life

Champtocé castle tower ruins in Maine-et-Loire

Gilles de Rais was born "in a room called the Black Tower" at the Château de Champtocé, at an unknown date. His birth has been variably dated between 1396 and 1406, and more frequently towards the end of 1404. However, he was probably born not before 1405 given the delays caused by the legal procedures before the Parlement of Paris that conditioned his parents' marriage, according to archivist-paleographer Matei Cazacu, whose interpretation has been accepted by several medievalists. Furthermore, an archival document indicates Gilles's age ("14 to 15 years old") in February 1422.

Gilles's younger brother René was probably born in 1414. Gilles and René's mother Marie de Craon died at an unknown date, while her husband Guy de Laval-Rais died after, at the end of October 1415 in Machecoul, "suffering from a serious bodily infirmity" according to the terms of his will and testament. The cause of Guy de Laval-Rais's death remains unknown, although several authors have mistakenly assumed that he was disembowelled by a wild boar during a hunting accident, a fictional scene initially depicted in a French novel published in 1928.

The House of Craon suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Agincourt in October 1415. Among those killed were Jean de Craon's only son, Amaury de Briolay, and several other members of the family. Gilles and René consequently became the sole heirs of their maternal grandfather, Jean de Craon, who raised them after they were orphaned. Jean de Craon subsequently assumed control of their estates, setting aside the provisions of Guy de Laval-Rais's last will and testament, which had appointed Jean II Tournemine de la Hunaudaye as the "guardian, tutor, protector, defender and lawful administrator" of the two orphans.

Marriage and Issue

On 4 January 1417, Jean de Craon betrothed his grandson, Gilles de Rais, to Jeanne Paynel, the wealthy Norman heiress and daughter of Foulques VI Paynel, lord of Hambye and Bricquebec. Although the Parlement of Paris forbade the marriage until Jeanne Paynel came of age, it never took place for unknown reasons. Jeanne later became abbess of the Benedictine convent of Lisieux.

Jean de Craon then betrothed Gilles de Rais to a niece of John V, Duke of Brittany: Béatrice of Rohan, daughter of Alain IX of Rohan and Marguerite of Brittany. The contract, dated Vannes 28 November 1418, was not carried out, possibly due to Beatrice's death.

Related to the 4th degree, Gilles de Rais and his wife Catherine de Thouars are maternally and paternally descended from Amaury III de Craon.

Gilles de Rais eventually became engaged to his third cousin Catherine de Thouars, daughter of Miles II de Thouars and Béatrice de Montjean. In addition to the obstacle posed by the consanguinity of Gilles de Rais and Catherine de Thouars, who were 4th-degree relatives, disputes arose between the House of Craon and Miles II de Thouars, lord of Pouzauges and Tiffauges. Ignoring these constraints and without waiting for an ecclesiastical dispensation, Gilles de Rais abducted Catherine de Thouars and married her in a chapel outside his parish church, without publishing banns of marriage. Despite a marriage contract drawn up on 30 November 1420, the union was annulled and declared incestuous by the Church.

After the death of Miles II de Thouars, matrimonial alliances brought the houses of Craon and Thouars closer together, helping to regularize the situation of the couple. On 24 April 1422, the papal legate approached Hardouin de Bueil, bishop of Angers, asking him to pronounce a sentence of separation against Gilles de Rais and Catherine de Thouars, and to impose a penance before absolving them of the crime of incest and allowing them to marry in due form. After conducting an investigation, Hardouin de Bueil celebrated their marriage with great pomp and ceremony on 26 June 1422, at Chalonnes-sur-Loire castle. This union strengthened Gilles de Rais's position in Poitou by "linking him to the house of the Viscounts of Thouars, who dominated the Bas-Poitou region as far as the Atlantic."

Gilles de Rais and Catherine de Thouars's only child, Marie, was born in 1433 or 1434.

Family disputes

Reconstruction of the Château de Tiffauges and its surrounding walls

Under Catherine de Thouars's marriage contract, her mother Béatrice de Montjean retained several estates from her late husband Miles II de Thouars as part of her dower, including the castles of Tiffauges and Pouzauges. Jean de Craon and Gilles de Rais intended to recover these Poitevin possessions after Béatrice's death. However, Béatrice's marriage to Jacques Meschin de la Roche-Aireault, a former squire of Miles II de Thouars and chamberlain to King Charles VII of France, complicated their plans. Jean de Craon and his grandson therefore instructed Jean de la Noë, captain of Tiffauges, to abduct Béatrice, who was imprisoned first at Le Loroux-Bottereau and later at Champtocé. Jean de la Noë also captured Jacques Meschin's younger sister. At Champtocé, Gilles de Rais and Jean de Craon threatened to sew Béatrice into a sack and throw her into a river unless she renounced her dower rights.

Jacques Meschin de la Roche-Aireault repeatedly brought Jean de Craon and Gilles de Rais before the Parlement of Paris in an attempt to secure the release of his wife and sister, but without success. He then sent a bailiff to Champtocé, followed by his brother Gilles Meschin, who led a delegation carrying the summons. Jean de Craon imprisoned all the envoys, including Gilles Meschin. At the request of his wife Anne de Sillé, who was also Béatrice's mother, he nevertheless agreed to release Béatrice. The remaining captives were released after ransom payments, but Gilles Meschin died a few days later, probably as a consequence of his imprisonment at Champtocé. Jacques Meschin's younger sister was sent to Brittany and compelled to marry Girard de la Noë, the captain of Tiffauges's son.

Jacques Meschin again appealed to the Parlement of Paris, leading Jean de Craon and Gilles de Rais to reach a settlement with him. Under the agreement ratified by the Parlement, Jacques Meschin retained Pouzauges, while Gilles de Rais kept Tiffauges. Jean de Craon and Gilles de Rais later seized Pouzauges from Jacques Meschin, arguing that Catherine de Thouars, Gilles de Rais's wife, "bears the name [of Pouzauges] in the world". Adam de Cambrai, a councillor of the Parlement of Paris, travelled to Pouzauges to oversee the implementation of the agreement, but men acting on behalf of Jean de Craon and Gilles de Rais attacked and robbed him. The numerous subsequent judgments against the two men remained unenforced.

Titles, estates and wealth

Map of the traditional regions of Brittany. In the south, the Pays de Retz was then bordered by an area of marchlands

Gilles de Rais was one of the most powerful lords in western France, thanks largely to his extensive estates spread across Brittany, Anjou, Poitou, Maine and Angoumois. Medievalist Philippe Contamine points out that Gilles de Rais was "Breton, Poitevin and Angevin all at once, due to his fiefs". Moreover, historian Georges Peyronnet specifies that Gilles de Rais's "network of family and feudal relatives" (including the houses of Laval and Craon) covered a large part of the western marchlands, border regions that were difficult to access because of the damp oceanic climate characterizing these bocage lands and the Marais breton ("Breton Marsh"). Hence the importance "as more open transport routes, of the valleys of the Loire and Sèvre Nantaise, (...) controlled by enormous fortresses." The crossroads position occupied by the barony of Retz covering the Pays de Retz "was an undeniable asset for trade, and enabled the Sires de Retz to control flows on the major axis of the Loire for the Breton economy and that of western France more generally", asserts historian Brice Rabot.

15th-century borders of Poitou and the Duchy of Brittany

Through his father, Gilles de Rais inherited the barony of Retz, traditionally regarded as one of the six oldest baronies of the Duchy of Brittany, although the claim of its antiquity rests on questionable traditions. Located at the "southernmost point of the Duchy of Brittany", the barony comprised a "vast group of some forty parishes stretching between the Loire and the common borders of Poitou and Brittany". Its principal seat was Machecoul, the "head of the barony", together with the castellanies of Coutumier, Bourgneuf, Prigny and half of the Isle of Bouin. These lands bordered the Bay of Bourgneuf, whose salt marshes probably provided him with a significant source of income. His estates also included an annuity from the Paimpont forest, and the lordship of La Bénate, which encompassed 26 parishes in the marchlands (13 in Brittany and 13 in Poitou), among other possessions.

From Jean de Craon, he inherited the prominent Angevin lordships of Champtocé and Ingrandes, which derived substantial income from trade on the Loire, as well as the townhouse known as the "Hôtel de La Suze" in Nantes. His Angevin possessions also included the lordships of Blaison and Chemellier, the barony of Briollay, and the lordships of Fontaine-Milon, Grez and Grattecuisse. His Poitevin possessions included the lordships of Cheneché, La Voûte, Sigon, Cloué, Chabanais and the land of Breuil-Mingot, in addition to the barony of Pouzauges and the lordship of Tiffauges, which he acquired through marriage and coercion. In Maine, his estates comprised the lordships of La Suze, Ambrières and Saint-Aubin-Fosse-Louvain, as well as the land of Précigné. In Angoumois, his possessions included the lordships of Confolens, Loubert and Château Morant.

Wax seal reproducing Gilles de Rais's jurisdictional seal relating to contracts for the Tiffauges estate, which he held from his wife Catherine de Thouars

However, this census only shows Gilles de Rais at the peak of his domanial prosperity, after his marriage to Catherine de Thouars (1422) and following the death of his grandfather Jean de Craon (1432). In addition to the more or less substantial disposals Gilles de Rais made, gradually reducing his estate, some lands belonged to his wife, others were only bequeathed to him on the death of Jean de Craon, not to mention those he ceded to his brother René de Rais by assigning him his share of the inheritance in 1434.

His estates were not always of good value, since the income from them could be encumbered in various ways, such as irrevocable alienations granted by previous Barons of Retz in favor of vassals or the Church; widows enjoying a dower in accordance with customary law; presumed beginnings of the saltworks' commercial decline in the Bay of Bourgneuf; annexations or ravages caused by war, whose constant threat necessitated maintaining defensive devices and paying men-at-arms; geographically dispersed estates, resulting in logistical issues... Therefore, several factors must be taken into account to explain Gilles de Rais's severe financial difficulties, in addition to mismanagement of resources.

Accurately estimating his wealth is difficult owing to the fragmentary and imprecise nature of the surviving records, particularly regarding the income generated by his estates despite their extensive holdings. This is a matter of disagreement between historians Jacques Heers and Matei Cazacu. Jacques Heers minimises Gilles de Rais's wealth and social status, and denies him the qualifier of "great lord", arguing that to present him as "one of the richest lords of France is merely a figure of speech." On the other hand, Matei Cazacu disputes this interpretation and reaffirms Gilles de Rais's status as a great, powerful and sumptuous lord, with particular reference to a brief drawn up by the latter's heirs around 1461–1462. This legal document attributed to Gilles de Rais an annual income of 50,000 livres tournois, of which around 30,000 came from his estates and almost 20,000 from his office as Marshal of France. This amount is well below the incomes of contemporary princes (such as the Dukes of Orleans, Burgundy and Berry), but it nevertheless places Gilles de Rais in a high bracket, inaccessible to the vast majority of 15th-century Breton lords. Whatever the estimate, his fortune proved insufficient to support his opulent lifestyle in the space of just a few years.

Military career

Uncertain early military career

Siege of Champtoceaux, the final phase of the 1420 Breton civil war (15th-century miniature, BnF)

In the decades following the War of the Breton Succession, the defeated faction continued to challenge the rule of the House of Montfort over the Duchy of Brittany. It maintained its claim to the ducal title and repeatedly conspired against the Montfort dukes. In February 1420, the House of Penthièvre, led by Marguerite de Clisson and her two sons, Olivier and John, seized Duke John V in violation of the Treaty of Guérande. The conspiracy received temporary support from Charles, Dauphin of France and the future king.

The capture of John V triggered a new civil war in Brittany. Duchess Joan, the duke's wife, rallied the Breton nobility to the Montfort cause, including former Penthièvre supporters such as Jean de Craon. On 17 February 1420, he joined the other assembled lords in swearing to defend the duchess and secure John V's release. In retaliation, Penthièvre forces attacked his lands and those of his grandson, Gilles de Rais, destroying several strongholds, including the castle of La Mothe-Achard.

As Penthièvre strongholds fell one after another, the Montfort forces gradually gained the upper hand. They besieged the castle of Champtoceaux in May 1420. During the siege, the Breton lords secured the release of Arthur de Richemont, John V's younger brother, from English captivity to lead their forces. The Penthièvre family eventually released John V and abandoned the castle, leaving behind documents implicating the Dauphin. The fortress was later demolished.

Expansion of the Breton ducal demesne between 1400 and 1428, during the reign of John V

Historian Michael Jones regards the affair as a major turning point in fifteenth-century Breton history. It strengthened the authority of John V and his successors, enabling them to consolidate an increasingly autonomous ducal state. The confiscation of the Penthièvre estates also greatly expanded the ducal demesne and provided the dukes with the means to reward their supporters with the seized lands.

Following John V's release, Jean de Craon and Gilles de Rais received substantial grants in recognition of their "good and notable services", although these were ultimately commuted into cash payments. Gilles de Rais may also have taken part in the Breton civil war, possibly his first military experience, although this remains disputed because no documentary evidence confirms his personal participation. Jean de Craon and Gilles de Rais may subsequently have entered the household of Arthur de Richemont, John V's younger brother.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom of France suffered further political and military setbacks amid the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War and the war against the Lancastrian monarchy. In May 1420, Henry V of England secured recognition as the son-in-law and heir of Charles VI of France through the ratification of the Treaty of Troyes. John V of Brittany continued to alternate between the Armagnac faction and the House of Lancaster in an effort to preserve the independence of Brittany. Despite this policy, he ultimately adhered to the Treaty of Troyes in June 1422.

The Dauphin Charles became King of France in October 1422 and continued the war against the English to recover the French crown lands. Jean de Craon and Gilles de Rais may have taken part in the French victory at La Gravelle on 26 September 1423 and in the Battle of Verneuil on 17 August 1424, although this remains speculative. The Franco-Scottish defeat at Verneuil further weakened the political and military position of the Valois cause, compounding the consequences of the French defeat at Agincourt nearly a decade earlier.

Franco-Breton alliance through the House of Valois-Anjou

Arthur de Richemont, Constable of France

King Charles VII of France was forced to seek new allies following the Battle of Verneuil. He turned then to his mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon, head of the House of Valois-Anjou, a younger branch of the ruling dynasty of France. She had been working since 1423 to bring the Kingdom of France and the Duchy of Brittany closer together diplomatically, with the help of her vassal Jean de Craon, Gilles de Rais's grandfather. Although Jean de Craon was an important and wealthy Angevin lord with numerous estates in Maine, Anjou, and Brittany, his influence at the ducal court of Anjou seems to have begun only in 1423–1424. Prior to this, he had spent more time in Brittany and had even been involved in legal disputes with the Dukes of Anjou over the county of Brienne and the lands of the counts of Roucy.

Angevins' politics finally promoted Arthur de Richemont, the Duke of Brittany's brother, to the rank of Constable of France in March 1425. During the meetings and festivities sealing the alliance between the Kingdom of France and the Duchy of Brittany in Saumur in October 1425, Gilles de Rais appeared in the entourage of King Charles VII, but he might have been introduced to the royal court before this date. As a matter of fact, in the same month, Charles VII defended Gilles de Rais's interests by asking Arthur de Richemont to return some Breton lands to the young baron, specifically former estates of the late Miles de Thouars, father of Gilles de Rais's wife.

After the Maine conquest (1424–1425), the House of Lancaster threatened the borders of the Duchy of Anjou. These two French provinces were personally claimed by John, Duke of Bedford. The estates of the houses of Laval and Craon, Gilles de Rais's relatives, were directly exposed to English raids. The war went wrong for France, with Arthur de Richemont suffering a crushing defeat at the battle of St. James in 1426. Although mentioned by some researchers, Gilles de Rais's presence at this battle is not corroborated by any source. In the same vein, it's doubtful that Gilles de Rais and his future judge, Jean de Malestroit, would have hated each other since this military event.

Coat of arms of Georges de La Trémoille

Georges de La Trémoille, lord of Sully, became Grand Chamberlain of France in June 1427. He soon gained the upper hand in the Royal Council while a bitter rivalry arose between him and Arthur de Richemont. On 19 June 1427, Yolande of Aragon appointed her advisor Jean de Craon lieutenant general in Anjou and Maine; his nomination coincided almost exactly with the rise of La Trémoille. The latter also came from the house of Craon and, as such, was a distant cousin of Gilles de Rais. Probably back then, Jean de Craon endowed his grandson Gilles de Rais with a military mentor: Guillaume de la Jumellière, lord of Martigné-Briant, also Yolande of Aragon's advisor at the ducal court of Anjou. The influence of his family seems to have consolidated Gilles de Rais's commitment to the war against the English garrisons on the edges of Maine, leading to his appointment as captain of Sablé on behalf of Duke Louis III of Anjou.

As for John V of Brittany, himself under attack from the English, he negotiated in July 1427 with John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, English regent of the French realm. Consequently, on 8 September 1427, the Duke of Brittany decided again to shift the alliance to the House of Lancaster, once more recognizing the Treaty of Troyes and ordering his vassals to stop fighting the English troops. Along with Viscount Alain de Rohan, Bishop Guillaume de Montfort and his own Laval relatives, Gilles de Rais was one of the most notable Breton lords to disobey his suzerain by remaining loyal to the King of France.

Weakened by his various military and political failures, especially his brother's defection, Arthur de Richemont fell into disgrace due to the lack of results from the French–Breton alliance. Estranged from Charles VII, he retained the office of Constable, but left the French court and entered into armed conflict with La Trémoille, without allying himself with the English.

Raiding operations against English Garrisons along the Maine Frontier

Gilles de Retz, sculpture by George S. Stuart.
This artist's reconstruction portrays Gilles de Rais in attire typical of the French aristocracy during the first half of the fifteenth century. He is depicted clean-shaven and wearing the bowl cut hairstyle fashionable among noblemen of the time. Clad in full plate armor and carrying a bascinet beneath his arm, he wears a tabard bearing the coat of arms of the House of Retz.

Chronicles began mentioning Gilles de Rais alongside other French captains in the second half of 1427. He conducted raiding operations along the borders of Maine with Ambroise de Loré and his kinsman Jacques de Dinan, lord of Beaumanoir. Their raids against English forces enabled the French captains to capture the fortress of Ramefort at Gennes. Gilles de Rais and his fellow commanders honoured their pledge to spare the English garrison after taking the stronghold, but they ordered the execution of the French-speaking men found among its defenders. This action may reflect a strong sense of national identity, directed against combatants regarded as "renegade Frenchmen" or "false Frenchmen", namely French supporters of the dual monarchy of England and France.

The lords of Rais, Loré and Beaumanoir subsequently recaptured Malicorne Castle from the English. The captains executed the French-speaking defenders, as they had done at Ramefort. Medieval chronicles provide an uncertain chronology for these operations, making precise dating impossible. In a separate engagement, Gilles de Rais either killed or captured the English captain Blackburn during the fighting at the Château du Lude, according to conflicting accounts. Medievalist Boris Bove notes that fortresses frequently changed hands because of weak garrisons and "the endless reversals of local lords, who often belonged to competing networks".

Gilles de Rais contributed 1,000 gold écus towards the ransom of his cousin André de Lohéac in the spring of 1428. English forces had captured the young nobleman during the siege of Laval on 16 March 1428. The House of Laval (namely Guy XIV, Anne and Jeanne de Laval-Tinténiac, respectively his brother, mother and grandmother) undertook to reimburse the "very dear and beloved cousins and great friends" who had helped secure his release.

Additional English forces arrived in France in June 1428. These reinforcements laid siege to Orléans in October.

Comrade-in-arms of Joan of Arc

Gilles de Rais's safe-conduct seal

In February 1429, Joan of Arc arrived in Chinon from Vaucouleurs to speak with the King. Gilles de Rais was then present at the Château de Chinon, as were the other captains in Charles VII's entourage during the war. A month later, in a letter dated 8 April 1429, signed by himself and sealed with his seal, Gilles de Rais formed an alliance with his cousin, Grand Chamberlain Georges de La Trémoille. The latter thus pursued his strategy of bilateral alliances with members of the French nobility to consolidate his position with the King and to protect himself against the plots fomented by Constable Arthur de Richemont and his allies.

Gilles de Rais sat on the Royal Council from 1429 to 1434, but only occasionally, held back by his military obligations or for other reasons. His title of King's Counselor may be purely honorary. He's also referred to as Charles VII's chamberlain.

As part of a Franco-Breton diplomatic rapprochement, probably supported by La Trémoille, Gilles de Rais wrote to John V, Duke of Brittany in April 1429, urging him to reinforce the army being assembled in Blois to help the city of Orléans besieged by the English. At the same time, after being interrogated by French doctors of theology in Chinon and Poitiers, Joan of Arc received authorization to accompany the relief army to Orléans. On 25 April 1429, the Maid arrived in Blois to find a convoy of food, arms and ammunition ready, as well as an escort of several dozen men-at-arms and archers, commanded by Gilles de Rais and Jean de Brosse, marshal of Boussac. The escort included a company of Angevins and Manceaux soldiers paid by Gilles de Rais, who "appears to be at the heart of this otherwise ... modest operation", affirms medievalist Philippe Contamine.

Gilles de Rais contributed to the lifting of the siege of Orléans, notably by taking part in the storming of the Saint-Loup bastille on 6 May. He then took part with Joan of Arc in the Loire Campaign (1429), aimed at recapturing the towns occupied by English garrisons in the region. Gilles de Rais participated in the Battle of Jargeau on 12 June 1429, and the Battle of Patay on 18 June 1429. On the way to Reims, Gilles de Rais and Jean de Brosse, marshal of Boussac, both commanded the vanguard of the French army.

Gilles de Rais's coat of arms from September 1429 onwards. Letters patent from Charles VII granting to him a bordure of the royal arms of France

On 17 July 1429, during the coronation of the French monarch, Gilles de Rais and three other lords were charged with carrying the Holy Ampulla from the Basilica of Saint-Remi in Reims to the Metropolitan Church. On the same day, Gilles de Rais was elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France, an honour that was granted either in recognition of his military achievements or owing to the political support of the Grand Chamberlain, the two interpretations not being mutually exclusive.

On Monday 15 August 1429, Charles VII entrusted the wings of his army to his two marshals, Jean de Boussac and Gilles de Rais, when royal and Anglo-Burgundian troops faced each other at Montépilloy. On 8 September 1429, during the siege of Paris, Joan of Arc wanted Gilles de Rais and Raoul de Gaucourt by her side during the assault on the Porte Saint-Honoré. Gilles de Rais stood by Joan's side all day, among numerous men-at-arms, trying in vain to reach and cross the Parisian wall from a rear ditch. At nightfall, Joan was wounded in the leg by a crossbow bolt. The siege of Paris was quickly lifted, and the "coronation army" withdrew to the Loire before being dismissed at Gien on 21 September 1429. That same month, Charles VII again honoured Gilles de Rais for his "commendable services" by confirming his title of Marshal and granting him the privilege of adding to his coat of arms a bordure bearing the fleur-de-lis, a royal favour shared only with the Maid.

On an unspecified date, a French military expedition led by Xaintrailles and La Hire left Beauvais and settled in Louviers, a town seven leagues (around 28 kilometres) from Rouen, where Joan of Arc was being held prisoner since 23 December 1430, after her capture at the siege of Compiegne. Medievalist Olivier Bouzy states that "important figures took part in the Louviers expedition or made an appearance in the town", like the "Bastard of Orléans" and Gilles de Rais, whose presence is attested on 26 December 1430. These troop movements were interpreted by some historians as an attempt to free Joan of Arc but this hypothesis is not proven. Besides, no such delivery attempt appears to have actually taken place.

Civil wars between La Trémoille and Richemont's allies

Men-at-arms in front of the fictitious town of Crathor. Illuminated manuscript of Jean de Bueil's Le Jouvencel, BnF, 4th quarter of the 15th century.

In parallel with his fight against the Anglo-Burgundians, Grand Chamberlain Georges de La Trémoille continued his "private war" against Constable Arthur de Richemont, himself supported by the House of Valois-Anjou. In this conflict, Gilles de Rais supported La Trémoille, his cousin and ally.

Despite the similar policies pursued towards the Duchy of Brittany and the Burgundian State by the House of Valois-Anjou on the one hand and La Trémoille on the other, the latter ended up serving gradually as a "repellent" by "federating against him the various components" of Charles VII's court, "paradoxically facilitating (...) the strengthening of the Angevins at the French court", says medievalist Laurent Vissière. The young Charles of Anjou, the future strongman of the Royal Council, had been a member of this governing body since 30 March 1430, thanks to his mother Yolande of Aragon. On 26 October 1430, as the king's lieutenant general in Anjou and Maine, Charles of Anjou appointed Jean de Bueil captain of the men-at-arms and archers garrisoning the castle and town of Sablé, a place previously commanded by captain Gilles de Rais and royal governor Jacques de Dinan, lord of Beaumanoir.

Civil war broke out again in September 1431 when La Trémoille launched Captain Rodrigo de Villandrando into the duchy of Anjou. In 1432, Jean de Bueil succeeded in defeating the Spanish mercenary; in return, the latter ravaged Bueil's Touraine lands. Eager to seize Château-l'Hermitage, Gilles de Rais imprisoned Bueil in Sablé, according to Le Jouvencel's romanticized account (which mentions Sablé under the fictitious name of "Crathor"). Still in accordance with this semi-autobiographical story, Bueil succeeded in freeing himself and taking Sablé, but Gilles de Rais recaptured the town in a night attack. In addition, on an unknown date, the garrison of Champtocé castle attacked Yolande of Aragon on her way to Brittany. Gilles de Rais and Jean de Craon's men-at-arms stripped her convoy of numerous horses and baggage.

Lifting of the siege of Lagny

Lifting of the siege of Lagny. Miniature from Les Vigiles de la mort de Charles VII, BnF, late 15th century.

The war against English forces continued around Paris. In August 1432, Gilles de Rais helped lift the siege of Lagny, undoubtedly one of his most famous feats of arms along with the lifting of the siege of Orléans. Assisted by the mercenary captain Rodrigo de Villandrando, he crossed the Marne "upstream, before La Ferté-sous-Jouarre", while other French troops led by Raoul de Gaucourt and the "Bastard of Orléans" managed to enter Lagny through a poorly-guarded point. Medievalist Françoise Michaud-Fréjaville notes that, thanks to this "double movement of troops", the town "was delivered practically without a battle. (...) Faced with the threat, the English abandoned the bastilles and bridge they held downstream from Lagny, leaving much of their equipment behind." On this military episode, Michaud-Fréjaville refers to the "not always very reliable account" of the chronicler Jean Chartier.

In addition, Jean Chartier's chronicle mentions the presence of Gilles de Sillé, cousin of Gilles de Rais, among the French troops engaged in skirmishes the day after the siege of Lagny was lifted. According to Chartier, Gilles de Sillé was taken prisoner on this occasion, unless the chronicler is confusing him with Michel de Sillé, another member of this old house related to Gilles de Rais. Eight years later, during the latter's trial, the testimony of the families of the missing children, as well as the confessions of the accused, cast a shadow over Gilles de Sillé, who was on the run at the time. What's more, according to certain witnesses at the trial, a rumour was spread by Michel de Sillé's servants in an attempt to explain the children's disappearances: the English had supposedly demanded twenty-four young hostages as part of the ransom "of the said sire Michel", a pretext deemed "absurd" and "implausible" by medievalists Noël Valois and Olivier Bouzy, in accordance with the customs governing prisoners of war at the time.

Reduction of military commitments

Tomb effigies of Jean de Craon (right) and his wife Béatrice de Rochefort

Jean de Craon, lord of La Suze and Champtocé, Gilles's grandfather, died in November 1432. Gilles de Rais inherited the numerous estates and castles of his grandfather, to which were added the Hôtel de La Suze in Nantes and Belle-Poigne in Angers. He likely devoted the year 1433 to organizing this vast patrimony and fully assuming his role as the new head of the House of Rais. During this time spent on his lands, alongside his wife Catherine de Thouars, their daughter was born, named Marie after the child's paternal grandmother.

Gilles's younger brother René obtained the seigneury of La Suze when his elder brother assigned him his share of the inheritance on 25 January 1434, before the ducal court in Nantes. From then on, René was known as René de La Suze, thus raising the name borne by the youngest branch of the Craon family.

At the end of June 1433, in Chinon, an umpteenth plot was hatched against Georges de la Trémoille, who was eventually removed from power. At the Estates General held in Tours in September 1433, Charles VII ratified the fall of his former Grand Chamberlain. The House of Valois-Anjou regained all its influence at court, the young Charles of Anjou became the key man in the Royal Council, and the accomplices in La Trémoille's kidnapping (including Jean de Bueil, Gilles de Rais's enemy) acquired "great government and authority" with the sovereign. Gilbert Motier de La Fayette regained his title of Marshal after losing it to Gilles de Rais in 1429, a dismissal probably intended by La Trémoille at the time.

In February 1434, the English threatened the Maine town of Sillé, which was the fiefdom of Anne de Sillé, widow of Jean de Craon. In response, the heads of the House of Laval (brothers Guy XIV de Laval and André de Lohéac) along with their cousin Gilles de Rais took part in a military expedition commanded by Constable Arthur de Richemont. The vanguard of the army was under the command of Marshals Pierre de Rieux and Gilles de Rais. The latter, despite his lavish troop contingent, appeared isolated among the lords present (the Constable first and foremost, along with Prigent VII de Coëtivy, Jean de Bueil, Charles of Anjou and John II, Duke of Alençon), most of whom belonged to the coalition of La Trémoille's enemies. The company arrived in front of Sillé, and faced the English, but the two armies separated without fighting.

By mid-1434, despite his forced absence from the court, La Trémoille was still urging Gilles de Rais to continue the war against Burgundians. But, probably already ruined by his expenses, Gilles de Rais made little attempt to prevent Philip the Good's troops from seizing Grancey. After the fall of this city in August 1434, King Charles VII summoned Gilles de Rais and threatened to strip him of his office of marshal. Gilles de Rais "was probably replaced by André de Laval-Lohéac", assumes Philippe Contamine.

On 2 July 1435, Charles VII proclaimed Gilles de Rais to be under interdict, following complaints from his family, namely his brother René de La Suze and the House of Laval.

Squandering of heritage

Most of the information relating to the squandering of Gilles de Rais's assets comes from a 70-folio brief, written around 1461–1462 by his heirs. This document is an expanded version of an earlier brief that led to Gilles de Rais being placed under interdict in 1435. Not all medievalists agree on the reliability of this source. Jacques Heers downplays its significance, deeming the document too incriminating, since its purpose is to annul past sales of Gilles de Rais's landed property on the grounds of the latter's insane prodigality. Both "tendentious and instructive" according to Philippe Contamine, the brief has nonetheless been critically exploited by historians. In addition to the trial proceedings, Matei Cazacu considers this text to be "the most important document known to date on Gilles de Rais ... a formidable effort to reconstitute the discrepancies of a life and a personality".

Besides, the accounting documents relating to Gilles de Rais's expenses and estate management are very incomplete. These gaps in the documentation complicate any comparative study that would enable us to accurately verify the accusations of prodigality made by the heirs. For instance, a precise analysis of Gilles de Rais's expenditures during his stay in Orléans from September 1434 to August 1435 should be based on the 1430s-minute register of notary Jean de Recouin, an Orléanais cleric, but the state of preservation of the first and last pages makes it impossible to read the corresponding deeds. What's more, some pages (almost all relating to Gilles de Rais) have been cut out or have been missing since the 19th century.

In their brief, the heirs incriminated Gilles de Rais for the "insane expenses" he incurred as soon as he reached the age of 20, even before the death of his grandfather Jean de Craon. The brief also mentioned the upkeep of a troop of two hundred mounted men as one of the late marshal's profligacies, but did not insist on this point. This terseness could be explained by the prudence of the heirs, anxious not to offend Charles VII by voicing too much criticism of Gilles de Rais's military spending, a token of his participation in the war waged against the Anglo-Burgundians. Given that the royal treasury was low on funds at the time, the King of France was all the more inclined then to accept the commitment of Gilles de Rais, a lord capable of bearing the costs of maintaining his own troops, notably in April 1429 when he formed the escort for the convoy of arms and supplies destined for besieged Orléans.

The first sales of Gilles de Rais's estates coincided with his first military campaigns. After a few negligible sales, the baron sold Blaison for 5,000 écus to his martial advisor Guillaume de la Jumellière, lord of Martigné-Briant. The transaction was concluded in 1429, a year of heavy expenditure caused by war expeditions following the lifting of the siege of Orléans. The loss of Blaison, Gilles's father's patrimonial land, aroused the anger of Jean de Craon.

Criminal life

During the years 1434–1435, disgraced by King Charles VII, Gilles de Rais gradually withdrew from military and public life to pursue his own interests.

Occult involvement

Allegedly beaten by the devil, François Prelati collapses, covered in blood, into the arms of Gilles de Rais, under the gaze of the priest Eustache Blanchet. Watercolor by Martin van Maële for the novel Là-bas by Joris-Karl Huysmans, 1891

According to testimony at his trial by the priest Eustache Blanchet and the Tuscan cleric François Prelati, Gilles de Rais sent out Blanchet to seek individuals who knew alchemy. Blanchet is said to have recruited Prelati in 1438, during a trip to Florence.

In addition to this search for the philosopher's stone, Prelati claimed to have attempted to summon a demon named "Barron" at the castle at Tiffauges, in the presence of Gilles de Rais. The cleric also claimed to have interrogated Barron in a meadow near Josselin, not far from the castle where Duke John V of Brittany met Gilles de Rais on July 1440.

Gilles de Rais provided a contract with the demon for riches that Prelati was to give to the demon later. As no demon manifested after three tries, Gilles de Rais grew frustrated with the lack of results. Prelati said Barron was angry and required the offering of parts of a child. Gilles de Rais provided these remnants in a glass vessel at a later evocation, but to no avail, and the occult experiments left him bitter and his wealth severely depleted.

Child murders

In his confession, Gilles de Rais said he committed his first assaults on children between spring 1432 and spring 1433.

Act of force in Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte

The isolated bell tower, last vestige of the Romanesque church of Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte

After entrusting the castellany of Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte to René de La Suze in 1434, Gilles de Rais changed his mind and reclaimed it in an act of force, managing to keep his property by reaching a subsequent agreement with his younger brother in Nantes on 15 January 1439. But Gilles de Rais again alienated Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte following a transaction with Geoffroy Le Ferron, treasurer and trusted servant of John V, Duke of Brittany. This ducal officer then entrusted the administration of the castellany to his brother Jean Le Ferron, a high-ranking tonsured cleric. Gilles de Rais tried once more to reclaim the castle, this time to sell it to his cousin, the Sire de Vieillevigne, but Jean Le Ferron resisted.

In retaliation, on Pentecost or the day after, 15 or 16 May 1440, Gilles de Rais ambushed a troop of fifty to sixty men in a wood near Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte. He entered the parish church armed and interrupted the mass of the religious officiant Jean Le Ferron, insulting the latter and threatening to kill him with a guisarme if he did not leave the sanctuary. Frightened, the cleric followed in the footsteps of Marquis Lenano de Ceva, a Piemontese captain in Gilles de Rais's service. After opening the gates of the Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte castle to his assailants, Jean Le Ferron was imprisoned there. Gilles de Rais also had other ducal agents, such as Jean Rousseau, sergeant-general of the duchy of Brittany, roughed up or arrested.

In doing so, Gilles de Rais undermined both divine and ducal majesties at once. He committed sacrilege by violating ecclesiastical immunities and challenged ducal authority by laying hands on the Duke's servants, all within the diocese of Nantes, whose bishop, Jean de Malestroit, was the influential chancellor of Brittany. As historian Joël Cornette notes, Malestroit was "the man actually responsible for the duchy's political direction."

John V condemned his vassal to return the stronghold to Jean Le Ferron, under penalty of a fine of 50,000 gold écus. Gilles de Rais then had his prisoners taken to Tiffauges, a fortress outside Brittany's jurisdiction, as it fell within Poitou. In July 1440, he went to Josselin to meet his suzerain John V, but the content of their discussions remains unknown. According to François Prelati's later confession, Gilles de Rais wished then to guarantee his own freedom before risking an interview with the Duke of Brittany. Gilles would have asked his Italian invoker to repeatedly summon the "devil named Barron" in a meadow near Josselin, to question the evil spirit about John V's intentions.

Ecclesiastical and secular investigations

Drawing of Jean de Malestroit's tomb effigy, 1695, BnF

Probably shortly after the act of force in Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte, a secret investigation (inquisitio infamiae) was opened by the ecclesiastical justice system. The inquisitorial system proceedings usually began with an information phase aimed at gathering testimony on a person's fama, in other words, on his reputation established by rumour within a legal framework. As a result, the Bishop Jean de Malestroit made a pastoral visit to his diocese of Nantes, starting with the parish of Notre-Dame, home to the Hôtel de la Suze, Gilles de Rais's residence. The Bishop wanted to find out more about the infamous rumours of missing children in the vicinity of the baron's residences. The results of the ecclesiastical investigation were published on 29 July 1440 in the form of letters patent by Malestroit: Gilles de Rais was accused by public rumour of raping and murdering numerous children, as well as of demonic invocations and pacts. At the same time, the secular justice system proceeded to hear the same witnesses as part of the investigation conducted by the cleric Jean de Touscheronde on behalf of Pierre de L'Hôpital, universal Judge of Brittany.

On 24 August 1440, Duke John V held talks in Vannes with his brother Arthur de Richemont, Constable of France. Compromised in the Praguerie against King Charles VII in the spring of 1440, the Duke of Brittany wanted to obtain a promise of mutual assistance from Richemont, a great royal officer. To this end, John V granted his brother the land of Bourgneuf-en-Retz, owned by Gilles de Rais. Richemont then returned to the crown lands of France and seized Tiffauges, freeing the hostage Jean Le Ferron.

Gilles de Rais was summoned to appear before the ecclesiastical court of Nantes, on charges of "murdering children, sodomy, invoking demons, offending the Divine Majesty and heresy". Two days later, on 15 September 1440, he was arrested at his Machecoul castle by Jean Labbé, a captain in arms in the service of the Duke of Brittany. Among the accused were cleric François Prelati, priest Eustache Blanchet, servants Henriet Griart and Étienne Corillaut, known as "Poitou", as well as Tiphaine Branchu and Perrine Martin, known as "la Meffraye", two women accused of being child providers. Probably already on the run, Gilles de Sillé and Roger de Briqueville were not apprehended. Gilles de Rais was imprisoned in the Château des ducs de Bretagne in the city of Nantes.

Trial and execution

The trial of Gilles de Rais (17th-century miniature)

Gilles de Rais was prosecuted in both secular and ecclesiastical courts on charges that included murder, sodomy, and heresy.

The extensive witness testimony convinced the judges that there were adequate grounds to establish the guilt of the accused. After Gilles de Rais admitted to the charges on 21 October, the court cancelled a plan to torture him into confessing. Peasants of neighbouring villages had earlier begun to make accusations that their children had entered Gilles de Rais's castle begging for food and were never seen again.

The execution of Gilles de Rais (16th-century miniature)

On 23 October 1440, the secular court heard the confessions of Poitou and Henriet and condemned them both to death, followed by Gilles de Rais's death sentence on 25 October. The sentence of the ecclesiastical court imputes to him the murders of "one hundred and forty children, or more" while the sentence of the secular court did not give an exact number of victims, mentioning the murders of "several small children." Gilles de Rais was allowed to make a confession, and his request to be buried in the church of the monastery of Notre-Dame des Carmes in Nantes was granted.

Execution by hanging and burning was set for Wednesday 26 October. At nine o‘clock, Gilles de Rais and his two accomplices proceeded to the place of execution on the Ile de Biesse. Gilles de Rais is said to have addressed the crowd with contrite piety and exhorted Henriet and Poitou to die bravely and think only of salvation. His request to be the first to die had been granted the day before. At eleven o'clock, the brush at the platform was set afire and Gilles de Rais was hanged. His body was cut down before being consumed by the flames and claimed by "four ladies of high rank" for burial. Henriet and Poitou were executed in similar fashion but their bodies were reduced to ashes in the flames and then scattered.

Historiography

Hypothetical portraits

Gilles de Laval Seigneur de Retz, color plate by Léopold Massard in Paul Lacroix's book, Costumes historiques de la France d'après les monuments les plus authentiques..., 1852

No contemporary description or portrait of Gilles de Rais has survived. All illuminations, engravings, and paintings depicting him are posthumous and imaginary. In their French translation of Gilles de Rais's "judicial confession" in the Latin trial records, Georges Bataille and Pierre Klossowski had him state that he had "always been of a delicate nature" in his youth. French writer Michel Hérubel interpreted this phrase as referring to his physical appearance, but historian Matei Cazacu argues that Bataille and Klossowski's translation was somewhat hasty, as the adjective delicatus carried a range of connotations, including "charming, refined, luxurious, effeminate, gallant, and licentious".

The first known description of Gilles de Rais, portraying him as "a man of good understanding, good looks and good manners", appeared in Bertrand d'Argentré's Histoire de Bretaigne (1582). Essayist Michel Meurger notes that "the judicial Gilles de Rais, a faceless man who eludes historical psychology, first acquires a body and a mind" in this work, marking the beginning of a long process by which Gilles de Rais would be repeatedly reimagined by later generations.

In 1841, Jules Michelet devoted a famous four-page portrait to Gilles de Rais in the fifth volume of his Histoire de France. He reproduced Bertrand d'Argentré's apocryphal description in full without naming its author, instead attributing it to an unspecified tradition. Michelet thereby popularized the image of Gilles de Rais as an intelligent nobleman of handsome appearance and refined manners: "He was, it is said, a lord 'of good understanding, good looks and good manners'". In 1863, French archivist and historian Auguste Vallet de Viriville further enriched this portrait with additional fictional details: "He was a handsome young man, graceful, petulant, with a lively, playful spirit, but weak and frivolous."

By the late nineteenth century, medical and literary discourse had transformed Gilles de Rais into a larger-than-life pathological figure, an image epitomized by Joris-Karl Huysmans's portrayal of him in the novel Là-bas (1891) as a learned, Faustian nobleman.[12] By contrast, in 1959, French philosopher and intellectual Georges Bataille portrayed Gilles de Rais as an archaic, infantile, and foolish feudal lord unconstrained by moral scruples or any limits on his power, driven by a "monstrous Herostratus complex", yet also as a "sacred monster", one "accustomed by war to the voluptuousness of blood."

Question of guilt

Doubts about the verdict in the Age of Enlightenment tradition

Between 1902 and 1912, Salomon Reinach argued that Gilles de Rais was innocent.

In his Essai sur les mœurs et l'esprit des nations (1756), Voltaire referred laconically to Gilles de Rais as a supplicant who had been "accused of magic, and of having slit the throats of children to use their blood for alleged enchantments." Although he expressed reservations about Gilles de Rais's guilt, Voltaire avoided taking a definitive position on the matter. His brief mention of the trial of October 1440, among other medieval trials for heresy and witchcraft, essentially allowed the French philosophe to vilify "fanaticism composed of superstition and ignorance", a flaw he considered to be of all times, but which particularly characterized his conception of obscurantist Middle Ages as opposed to the Age of Enlightenment.

In a short passage from their work L'art de vérifier les dates des faits historiques, des chartes, des chroniques et autres anciens monuments, depuis la naissance de Notre-Seigneur... (1784), Benedictines from the Congregation of Saint Maur seemed to concur with Voltaire's opinion, also proposing superstition as a plausible cause of Gilles de Rais's execution. These monks initially asserted that Gilles de Rais "disgraced himself in Brittany by infamous deeds that aroused the public's cries against him." But then, abandoning the affirmative tone, they used terms similar to Voltairean prose when they evoked the procession of "alleged soothsayers and magicians" possibly responsible for the "horrors" imputed to Gilles de Rais, "horrors of which he was perhaps not guilty."

Between 1902 and 1912, Gilles de Rais's innocence was proclaimed by Salomon Reinach, a French archaeologist and historian of religion. His thesis was developed "in a particular context, where debates on the religious question, the memory of the Dreyfus Affair, and the reassurance of the scientific spirit are pushing for a 'rehabilitation' in line with the zeitgeist," explained historian Pierre Savy. Back then, Reinach's assertions were "sternly criticized" by historian Noël Valois in 1912.

In the Voltairean tradition, French poet and writer Fernand Fleuret followed in Reinach's footsteps with the same anti-clerical interpretation to defend Gilles de Rais's innocence in 1921. For the occasion, Fleuret adopted the pseudonym "Dr. Ludovico Hernandez" to give his essay scientific credence.

Occultist interpretations

Print depicting the amalgam between alchemy and black magic: Gilles de Rais collects the blood of his victims in a laboratory filled with an athanor, retorts, alembics and grimoires (engraving by Valentin Foulquier, 1862).

In the 20th century, anthropologist Margaret Murray and occultist Aleister Crowley questioned the involvement of the ecclesiastic and secular authorities in the case. During a conference (known as the "Forbidden Conference") held in Oxford in 1930, Crowley argued for the innocence of Gilles de Rais, whom he portrayed as a victim of the Catholic Church. The occultist described him as "in almost every respect ... the male equivalent of Joan of Arc", whose main crime was "the pursuit of knowledge".

Murray, who propagated the witch-cult hypothesis, speculated in her book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe that Gilles de Rais was really a witch and an adherent of a fertility cult centred on the pagan goddess Diana.

Most historians reject Murray's theory. Norman Cohn argues that it is inconsistent with what is known of Gilles de Rais's crimes and trial. Historians do not regard Gilles de Rais as a martyr to a pre-Christian religion; other scholars tend to view him as a lapsed Catholic who descended into crime and depravity, and whose real crimes were coincidental to the land forfeitures.

Georges Bataille's interpretations

Georges Bataille

In 1959, Georges Bataille co-edited with Pierre Klossowski a modern French translation of the 1440 trial proceedings. The book included as well an introduction and a lengthy appendix in which Bataille retraced Gilles de Rais's life.

Bataille argued that Gilles de Rais's sexual crimes are "indubitable" because "15th-century judges could not have devised a plot so complex and exact in its perversity", sums up French historian Yves-Marie Bercé.

For Bataille, understanding such criminal behaviour, and thus being able to affabulate it, remained impossible in medieval times without the later assistance of Marquis de Sade and Sigmund Freud, whose works "explore these abysses" and "force humanity to recognize their existence, to designate, to name these virtualities", adds Bercé. The latter concludes that Bataille's historical approach was probably coupled with a "personal exorcism" linked to his own obsession with transgression and horror. This would explain Bataille's need to believe in Gilles de Rais's guilt, in order "to cope with the vertigo that the twentieth century gave him", says medievalist Jacques Chiffoleau.

1992 mock re-trial

In 1992, French poet and novelist Gilbert Prouteau published a book imagining a modern re-trial of Gilles de Rais, juxtaposition of narrative texts, excerpts from minutes, romanticized letters and a fictitious diary kept by Gilles de Rais, presented as an alchemical scholar, alcoholic and aesthete apologist for pedophilia. Prouteau then arranged several publicity events. In November 1992, he organized an unofficial mock trial of Gilles de Rais in the Clemenceau Hall, a hall set up to host commissions, colloquia and conferences at the Luxembourg Palace, to re-examine the source material and evidence available at the medieval trial. Prouteau led an informal "Court of Arbitration" consisting of lawyers, writers, former French ministers, parliament members, a biologist and a medical doctor before Judge Henri Juramy, who found Gilles de Rais not guilty. Commenters noted several inaccuracies, as none of the participants sought professional advice from qualified medievalists.

Medievalist Michel Balard criticized the promoters of the rehabilitation attempt, who sought "the sensational, the pathetic, the sulphurous" to the detriment of scientific history, "less spectacular ... but more respectful of documents and more aware of the possibilities and limits of historical inquiry." According to medievalist Jean Kerhervé, Prouteau has not appeared to research primary source material, and his knowledge of the history of religion, law, and medieval institutions, particularly in relation to the Duchy of Brittany, is regularly challenged. Medievalist Olivier Bouzy also points out several other errors and rough approximations, even biased inventions deliberately forged for the purposes of rehabilitation. For the archivist-paleographer Matei Cazacu, the syllogism brandished to exonerate Gilles de Rais ("The Inquisition persecuted the innocent. One of Gilles de Rais's judges was an inquisitor. So Gilles de Rais was the innocent victim of the Inquisition") is reminiscent of the logician character in Eugène Ionesco's play Rhinoceros. The journalist Gilbert Philippe of Ouest-France subsequently declared Prouteau "facetious and provocative", claiming further that Prouteau himself thought the retrial was "a monumental farce" pulled off with some "high-ranking buddies", according to the Vendée writer Jean de Raigniac.

Contemporary academic views

Matei Cazacu, historian and archivist-paleographer, is convinced that Gilles de Rais was a serial killer

The "vast majority" of historians "believed in the truth of Gilles de Rais's crimes", notes medievalist Jacques Chiffoleau. In particular, medievalists Olivier Bouzy and Jacques Heers, like Matei Cazacu, are convinced of Gilles de Rais's guilt. Likewise, for medievalist Valérie Toureille, the numerous testimonies of the parents make it impossible to "bank on the innocence of Gilles de Rais" despite the material interests of John V, Duke of Brittany, and his chancellor Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes. Medievalist Claude Gauvard also emphasizes that "the historian ... is not a judge. He can only point out certain contradictions in the trial, transformations between the initial depositions of the witnesses and the charges developed by the judges, but he must also affirm that facts are stubborn things. Given the initial witness accounts on which the investigation was based, the abduction of male children is no mere rumour" in spite of the exaggerated number of victims. She adds that historians do not "subscribe to the conspiracy theory that these two trials were a plot" orchestrated by Malestroit and the Duke of Brittany.

Notwithstanding the realistic and detailed nature of the confessions of Gilles de Rais and his servants, these texts are not accurate shorthand accounts, says Jacques Chiffoleau, but after-the-fact reconstructions written according to the medieval inquisitorial system of "highly regulated interrogations, composed of questions worked out in advance, [transcribing oral depositions in accordance] with the classificatory and scholastic writing of notaries and judges, the eventual use of torture to get to a confession that is most often no more than a homologation of what the prosecution proposes."

Medievalist Claude Gauvard is careful not to read Gilles de Rais's trial proceedings literally. She nevertheless dismisses the conspiracy theory about a frameup

With these clarifications made, Jacques Chiffoleau insists that he is not trying to prove Gilles de Rais's innocence or guilt, but rather to explain "the weight of the proceedings" and the judges' "strong views" on lese-majesty offence. In the Breton magistrates' eyes, the criminal charges against John V's treacherous vassal constituted "a very old triptych that closely entwined" rebellion against the established order (which stemmed from the divine order), deal with the Devil and "unnatural relations" such as sodomy.

Similarly, Claude Gauvard stresses that confessions were shaped by the expectations of judges, whose imagination was imbued with the "fear of a demonological epidemic" contemporary with the beginnings of the witch hunts in the Late Middle Ages. Gauvard, therefore, considers it "difficult, if not impossible" to "distinguish between what is fantasy" in these confessions, since "the description of the facts is insidiously rooted in reality."

However, Jacques Chiffoleau admits to being puzzled by certain vivid passages from Étienne Corrillaut's confession of 17 October 1440, in which Gilles de Rais's servant detailed some assassination methods. These descriptions of bloody and orgasmic rituals have no equivalent in every inquisitorial interrogation studied by Chiffoleau, because in this case the trial documents record murders and sadistic pleasures that had never been put down on paper before Marquis de Sade's literary work in the 18th century.

Psychopathological and criminological interpretations

Late nineteenth-century medico-moral interpretations

Gilles de Rais, "the Vampire of Brittany", La Meffraye and the murderous servant, as seen by the French artist Louis Bombled for a popular edition of Jules Michelet's Histoire de France (c. 1900)

During the nineteenth century, several authors, notably Jules Michelet, referred to Gilles de Rais as a "vampire", a term then used in the sense of "necrophile". The designation "vampire" tended at the time to eclipse "necrophile" within "a specific cultural context shaped by the influence of crime reporting, a fascination with criminal and sexual deviance, and sensibilities drawn to the macabre and the fantastique," as researcher Amandine Malivin notes.

Alongside this literary and cultural assimilation, the final decades of the nineteenth century witnessed the rapid development of sexual psychopathology in Europe and a flourishing body of scholarly literature devoted to the clinical classification of "sexual perversions", whether considered benign or criminal. Medievalist Zrinka Stahuljak observes that "preoccupations with criminality, criminal responsibility, and penal law brought to the surface the links between madness and crime". The most influential work of this period was German-Austrian psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis (1886), whose chapter on sexual sadism invokes Gilles de Rais. The book had a profound influence on subsequent scholarship concerning him.

By the late nineteenth century, the medical taxonomies of cruelty, obsession, and perversion helped reshape contemporary understandings of recidivism and, more broadly, contributed to the emergence of a new category of criminal that foreshadowed the modern concept of the "serial killer". In Vacher l'Éventreur et les crimes sadiques (1899), French criminologist Alexandre Lacassagne identified the "great sadists" who committed "repeated crimes", among whom he included Jack the Ripper, Joseph Vacher, and Gilles de Rais. The image of the rebellious fifteenth-century heretic gave way to that of the sadistic criminal, a transformation shaped by scientific and journalistic narratives at this pivotal moment in the history of criminology. Gilles de Rais came to be identified with the "monsters" depicted in the crime reports of Le Petit Journal and La Gazette des tribunaux.

The forest of Tiffauges, obscenely transfigured by Gilles de Rais's hallucinated gaze. Watercolor by Martin van Maële for the novel Là-bas by Joris-Karl Huysmans (1891)

Physicians and historians of medicine sought to establish their discipline as an authoritative means of interpreting the past through the study of prominent historical figures. Gilles de Rais and Joan of Arc became the subjects of retrospective diagnoses based on the psychiatric theories of the period. The former was portrayed as a "criminal degenerate" and a "born invert", embodying a supposedly corrupt and decadent medieval aristocracy, whereas the latter, a young peasant woman who claimed to hear voices, was elevated to the status of a popular genius capable of regenerating the nation.

This approach emerged within the intellectual milieu of the late nineteenth-century French school of forensic medicine, several of whose representatives promoted the possibility of the "physical and moral regeneration" of humanity through public hygiene and eugenics. The pathological contrast drawn between Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais, closely associating genius with madness, was thus mobilized in support of the theory of degeneration, according to which the history of the French people was shaped by alternating phases of decline and regeneration. Such a medico-moral reading reflected fin de siècle anxieties surrounding national decline and the perceived collapse of civilizations.

Historian Angus McLaren notes that this body of medical literature was often lacking in scientific rigor. As a result, Gilles de Rais and the cannibal Antoine Léger were frequently grouped indiscriminately with sadists and sexual murderers in superficial and fetishistic collections of clinical cases, presented as brief moralizing biographies.

Influence of literature on medical interpretations

Paul Lacroix's Curiosités de l'histoire de France (1858).

The original records of the 1440 trial remained largely inaccessible to the general public for a long time, as they were published only gradually and in fragmentary form because of fears of scandal. Given these circumstances, a number of authors relied uncritically on Paul Lacroix's Curiosités de l'histoire de France (1858), a largely fictionalized account of the trial. This pseudo-historical work, embellished with imaginative details intended to captivate readers, also influenced certain physicians in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Psychiatrists such as Richard von Krafft-Ebing and Albert Moll attributed Gilles de Rais's sadism to his reading of a manuscript of Suetonius, whose miniatures depicted Roman emperors committing sexual violence against children. This interpretation, however, stemmed from a literary invention by Paul Lacroix, since no source records the presence of such a manuscript in the baron's library. As medievalist Zrinka Stahuljak observes, "fiction helped Gilles move from historical discourse into medical discourse": Lacroix's dramatic narrative conveniently provided physicians with a scientific explanation for Gilles de Rais's crimes.

The atrocities of Gilles de Rais. Drawing belonging to a series of illustrations presumably commissioned by a bibliophile from Martin van Maële to adorn a copy of Joris-Karl Huysmans's novel, Là-bas (1891)

The fictional illuminated manuscript of Suetonius also helped perpetuate the legend of Gilles de Rais as a cultivated, even learned, nobleman. Among physicians, Gilles de Rais came to embody the figure of the "superior degenerate". His supposed intelligence, artistic refinement, and literary interests were interpreted as signs of a pathological mind capable of "intricate and sophisticated crimes". Contemporary medical discourse, intertwined with the "excesses of rhetoric and fiction" surrounding fantasies and mystifications about Gilles de Rais's sexuality, thus "contributed to the reification of his ultra-romantic legend" as an exceptional figure.

The Abbé Eugène Bossard's doctoral thesis in letters, Gilles de Rais, maréchal de France, dit « Barbe-Bleue » (1885), marked a major historiographical milestone in the study of its subject. Its colourful narrative style, inspired by Jules Michelet's Romantic historical writing, reflects the uneasy coexistence of scholarly documentation and literary imagination. Bossard's thesis consolidated the image of Gilles de Rais as a refined aesthete and "mad artist" ("artiste insensé"). This portrayal found one of its most influential expressions in Joris-Karl Huysmans's novel Là-bas (1891), which drew heavily on Bossard's work and depicted Gilles de Rais as a Faustian man of learning, bibliophile, flamboyant mystic, and arch-sadist.

The notion of sadism, popularized during the 1880s and 1890s, enabled certain authors to express, through the lens of belles-lettres, "an elitist disdain for the conventions of middle class and mass society." The literary figure of the pervert was embodied in literature by refined aristocratic libertines such as the Marquis de Sade and Des Esseintes, among whom Gilles de Rais was also included. Ironically, historian Angus McLaren notes that individuals medically classified at the time as sadistic criminals, such as Joseph Vacher, generally came from the lower classes so feared by writers of the Decadent movement. McLaren concludes that "the "real" sadists, far from being powerful, sexual supermen, were slaves of their own compulsive behavior."

A 1910 published medical thesis on Gilles de Rais

Three medical dissertations devoted to Gilles de Rais appeared between 1910 and 1934. "Thin and disappointing", according to medievalist Jacques Chiffoleau, these studies remained heavily influenced by the literary works of Paul Lacroix and Joris-Karl Huysmans. In 1910, Dr. Augustin Cabanès adopted the pseudonym "Rondelet" to sign an article in which he discoursed on Gilles de Rais's facial tics and bluish beard—details born of the fertile imagination of Paul Lacroix. In 1921, poet and writer Fernand Fleuret, in turn, posed as a certain "Dr. Ludovico Hernandez" on the occasion of publishing an essay on Gilles de Rais. Jacques Chiffoleau observes that "this limited erudition and, above all, the frequent use of pseudonyms ... betray in all these physicians (or essayists claiming to be physicians) aims that are less clearly scientific and perhaps a less forthright desire to appeal to collectors of "curiosa" filled with sex and blood under the guise of medical analysis".

More recently, psychiatrist Marie-Laure Susini, clinical psychologist Nicolas Brémaud, and James Penney, a Canadian professor of cultural studies, have examined the case of Gilles de Rais, drawing on psychoanalysis in their approach to perversion. Jacques Chiffoleau considers that their attempts may offer interesting analytical perspectives, but their "overly literal reading" of the trial records fails to take into account the fundamental role of inquisitorial procedure in the conditions under which these judicial documents were produced. Moreover, they still rely "on the most fictionalized parts of the narratives of Eugène Bossard, Georges Bataille, or even at times Paul Lacroix, without being wary of what these authors themselves projected into them."

Gilles de Rais and the category of the serial killer

Serial killer Fritz Haarmann, the "Butcher of Hanover", murdered numerous young men during the Weimar Republic. The comparison with Gilles de Rais was first drawn by historian Émile Gabory, and later by essayist Georges Bataille

Modern interpretations of the Gilles de Rais case have drawn on comparisons with serial killers and on concepts such as pedophilia and criminal profiling. The retrospective application of such concepts has itself been discussed by historians and criminologists.

Comparisons between Gilles de Rais and modern serial killers have been invoked to refute claims of his innocence, notably through parallels with figures such as Fritz Haarmann and Andrei Chikatilo. Medievalist Didier Lett, a specialist in the history of childhood and author of a study on pedophilia and child sexual abuse in medieval Bologna, unequivocally defines Gilles de Rais as a "sadistic child sex offender, sodomite, and serial murderer."

Historian and archivist Matei Cazacu identifies several characteristics in Gilles de Rais that criminologists associate with serial killers: the relatively young age at which the killings are thought to have begun (between 27 and 31 years old), a preference for a particular type of victim, especially young boys, as well as the alleged commission of "illicit acts" during childhood and adolescence, and a propensity for aggression and violence displayed from an early age. He further emphasizes the ritualized nature of the crimes, characterized by the repeated use of similar methods of torture and killing, whether carried out directly by Gilles de Rais or by his servants, with the victims treated as mere objects. According to the confessions, these acts included brief hangings followed by a temporary suspension of the abuse under the guise of kindness, neck fractures inflicted with a stick, cuts to the throat or other parts of the body, dismemberment or decapitation with a braquemart, the rape of children who were dying or already dead, a fascination with the display of internal organs following disembowelment, and the contemplation of severed heads.

Cazacu develops a detailed psychological profile of Gilles de Rais using the "analytical framework used by FBI profilers" in a 1990 report and the classification developed by Michel Bénézech, a psychiatrist and professor of forensic medicine at the University of Bordeaux. According to Cazacu, "modern techniques, when available and able to provide useful insights, should not be disregarded." Although he acknowledges criticisms of this approach, he rejects the idea that it necessarily conflates medieval and modern mentalities. He nevertheless admits that "the depths of the human psyche always remain unfathomable and (...) Gilles de Rais took his secret to the grave."

Medievalist Claude Gauvard comments on the use of psychological approaches, observing that "the historian is not (...) a psychoanalyst", while adding that "psychoanalytic insights may nevertheless help historians understand the content of the confessions and their elements of psychotic delusion."

Gilles de Rais at the stake. Color plate after a watercolor by Alfred Paris, 1913

Medievalist Jacques Chiffoleau questions the applicability of modern criminological categories to a fifteenth-century case. He maintains that "the psychology of Gilles de Rais remains forever ... inaccessible to us. Based on the scant evidence available, we can never know whether he would qualify as a serial killer". He argues that "the notion of an almost timeless perverse structure" bears only a distant relationship to "the medieval threefold accusation of rebellion, a pact with the Devil, and unnatural relations." Thus, while Gilles de Rais's confessions may appear to "reflect the combination of psychosis and narcissistic perversion characteristic of contemporary serial killers", they are, for Chiffoleau, more illuminating of "the mechanisms of 15th-century political justice and institutional frameworks" than of pedophilia and serial murder in the Late Middle Ages.

Essayist Michel Meurger likewise questions the assumption that "the crimes of modern offenders can shed light on this pre-modern case". Sociologist and criminologist Aurélien Dyjak cautions against applying the modern category of the "serial killer" to historical perpetrators of multiple murders. In his view, such an approach risks obscuring the specific contexts, motivations, and trajectories that shaped these crimes while creating the illusion of a historically continuous phenomenon, turning the serial killer into "a kind of criminological catch-all". Since the category itself is partly a product of twentieth-century social and historical developments, its retrospective application projects modern assumptions onto the past at the expense of historical specificity: "by designating Gilles de Rais as a serial killer, we are likely rewriting his history and reinforcing the notion that his crimes were a timeless manifestation of a universal human behavior".

Historian Anne-Claude Ambroise-Rendu traces contemporary media representations of child sex offenders to the convergence of two discourses that emerged in the 1990s and 2000s. One of them, which came to dominate public debate in the wake of the Dutroux, Outreau, and Angers cases, centred on child rapist-murderers and pedophile networks; the other focused on the prevalence of sexual violence committed within family, educational, and religious settings. The intersection of these two strands gave rise to the archetype of the "pedophile conflated with the rapist-murderer", a dangerous repeat offender depicted as "a modern-day Gilles de Rais, embodying both the predator and the disturbed individual." Jacques Chiffoleau, for his part, argues that the Gilles de Rais case is now widely reinterpreted through the lens of pedophilia, reflecting changing social sensibilities. What was understood in the fifteenth century as a threat to the political and religious order is now interpreted primarily in terms of child sexual abuse and child protection.

Gilles de Rais and the Bluebeard myth

Main article: Cultural depictions of Gilles de Rais § Folklore

Bluebeard is about to slit the throat of his wife.
Gouache adorning a manuscript of Charles Perrault's Mother Goose Tales, 1695

Gilles de Rais's story may have been one of the influences on Charles Perrault's "Bluebeard" literary fairy tale, included in Stories or Tales from Past Times, with Morals (1697), but this hypothesis is disputed as being too fragile.

In any case, long after the publication of Mother Goose Tales, Bluebeard's mythical character is frequently amalgamated with Gilles de Rais's historical legend from the 19th century onwards. Travel reports, local oral literature and tourist activities all point to a popular confusion between Gilles de Rais and the fictitious wife-murderer, despite the profound differences between the two figures.

According to Matei Cazacu, collective memory has gradually shifted in this direction, due to the difficulty of transmitting the memory of child sexual abuse. Bluebeard is at times entwined with the memory of castle ruins scattered across western France—often the erstwhile estates of Gilles de Rais—which, as Matei Cazacu suggests, "have, by their very presence, helped anchor these tales in a tangible setting, a true memory space."

Relationship with Joan of Arc

The duality between Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais is a recurring theme in fiction, yet 15th-century sources do not suggest that they shared an exceptionally close relationship. Medieval scholars generally identify Gilles de Rais as one of the compagnons ("comrades-in-arms") of the Maid of Orléans, without portraying him as either a close associate or a committed supporter of her mission.

Joan of Arc's own perception of Gilles de Rais remains beyond the reach of the historical record. Likewise, the later image of Gilles de Rais withdrawing to his western lands after her execution at Rouen, grieving her memory and eventually descending into depression and homicidal madness because of her death, finds no support in contemporary sources.

Several instances have been retrospectively interpreted as signs of his continued attachment to Joan of Arc's memory, but the basis for such an interpretation remains speculative. Among them is his presence at Louviers on 26 December 1430. A receipt issued on that day records his reimbursement of his squire Roland Mauvoisin, captain of Prinçay, for 260 écus spent on the purchase of a black horse with saddle and bridle. The horse was intended for another of his squires, Michel Machefer, a captain of men-at-arms and archers in his company, who had been promised a suitable mount for the expedition upon their arrival at Louviers. Because of the town's proximity to Rouen, where Joan of Arc was imprisoned, some historians have interpreted this expedition as a possible attempt to rescue the Maid, although this hypothesis cannot be confirmed with certainty.

19th-century artist's impression of Jeanne des Armoises

Another case concerns the city of Orléans, which in 1439 acquired one of his banners for a theatrical commemoration of the lifting of the English siege. This acquisition does not, however, demonstrate that he personally supported the Mystery of the Siege of Orléans, a probably unperformed mystery play celebrating Joan of Arc.

That same year, Gilles de Rais appointed the Gascon squire Jean de Siquenville to command a company of men-at-arms during an expedition against the English-held town of Le Mans. This company had previously served under Jeanne des Armoises, who claimed to be Joan of Arc. According to medieval historian Jacques Chiffoleau, however, the nature of her relationship with Gilles de Rais remains "poorly documented and difficult to interpret."

See also

• Cultural depictions of Gilles de Rais
• François Prelati

References

Bibliography

Historical studies and literary scholarship

• Bataille, Georges (1959), Procès de Gilles de Rais. Documents précédés d'une introduction de Georges Bataille (in French), Paris: Club français du livre.
• Bossard, Eugène (1886), Gilles de Rais, maréchal de France, dit "Barbe-Bleue", 1404–1440: d'après des documents inédits (in French), Paris: Honoré Champion. (Expanded reprint with a critical edition of the Latin trial proceedings, by archivist-paleographer René de Maulde-La Clavière.)
• Bourdeaut, Arthur (1924). "Chantocé, Gilles de Rays et les ducs de Bretagne". Mémoires de la Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de Bretagne (in French). V: 41–150.
• Boutin, Pierre; Chalumeau, Pierre; Macé, François; Peyronnet, Georges (1988), Gilles de Rais (in French), Nantes: Centre national de documentation pédagogique (CNDP) / Centre régional de documentation pédagogique (CRDP) de l'Académie de Nantes, ISBN 2-86628-074-1.
• Bouzy, Olivier (January 1993). "La réhabilitation de Gilles de Rais, canular ou trucage ?". Connaissance de Jeanne d'Arc (in French) (22): 17–25. ISSN 1151-1400.
• Bouzy, Olivier (January 1997). "Le Procès de Gilles de Rais. Preuve juridique et "exemplum"". Connaissance de Jeanne d'Arc (in French) (26): 40–45. ISSN 1151-1400.
• Bouzy, Olivier (March–July 2012). "Gilles de Rais". Jeanne d'Arc et la guerre de Cent Ans (in French) (1). Saint-Cloud: SoTeCa: 32–37. ISSN 2260-4553.
• Cazacu, Matei (2005), Gilles de Rais (in French), Paris: Tallandier, ISBN 2-84734-227-3.
• Cazacu, Matei (January 2021). "La Barbe Bleue, histoire d'un conte". Revue 303 (in French) (164): 6–13. ISBN 979-10-93572-49-9. ISSN 0762-3291.
• Chiffoleau, Jacques (March–April 1990). "Dire l'indicible: remarques sur la catégorie du nefandum du XIIe au XVe siècle". Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations (in French). 45 (2): 289–324. doi:10.3406/ahess.1990.278838. ISSN 0395-2649.
• Chiffoleau, Jacques (May 1993). "Gilles, la vérité, l'histoire: un médiéviste et le procès du sire de Rais". Cahiers Gilles de Rais (in French) (3). Nantes: Joca Seria: 9–21. ISBN 2-908929-15-5.
• Chiffoleau, Jacques (October 2008). "Gilles de Rais, ogre ou serial killer ?". L'Histoire (in French) (335): 8–16. ISSN 0182-2411.
• Chiffoleau, Jacques (January 2021). "Traces, reliques". Revue 303 (in French) (164): 14–19. ISBN 979-10-93572-49-9. ISSN 0762-3291.
• Chiffoleau, Jacques (January 2021). "Plasticité du monstre". Revue 303 (in French) (164): 26–31. ISBN 979-10-93572-49-9. ISSN 0762-3291.
• Chiffoleau, Jacques (2024). "La rumeur de Nantes. L'interminable histoire des crimes de Gilles de Rais". Micrologus: Nature, Sciences and Medieval Societies (in French) (32): 435–565. ISBN 978-88-9290-263-3. ISSN 1123-2560.
• Gabory, Émile (1926), La Vie et la mort de Gilles de Raiz (dit, à tort, "Barbebleue"), Énigmes et drames judiciaires d'autrefois (in French), Paris: Perrin.
• Gauvard, Claude (2020). "Gilles de Rais en procès". In Berlière, Jean-Marc (ed.). Les grandes affaires criminelles du Moyen Âge à nos jours (in French). Paris: Perrin. pp. 17–35. ISBN 978-2-262-08102-7.
• Guitton, Laurent (2024). "Les disparitions d'enfants au temps de Gilles de Rais (années 1430)". Bulletin de la Société archéologique et historique de Nantes et de Loire-Atlantique (in French). 159: 127–154. ISSN 1283-8454.
• Heers, Jacques (1994), Gilles de Rais, Vérités et légendes (in French), Paris: Perrin, ISBN 2-262-01066-8.
• Meurger, Michel (April 2001). "L'Imaginaire de Gilles de Rais: la bête, l'esthète et Barbe-Bleue". Le Visage Vert (in French) (10). Paris: Joëlle Losfeld: 20–55. ISBN 2-84412-085-7.
• Meurger, Michel (2003), Gilles de Rais et la littérature, Terres fantastiques (in French), Rennes: Terre de brume, ISBN 2-84362-149-6.
• Parsons, Ben (2012). Gusick, Barbara; Heintzelman, Matthew (eds.). "Sympathy for the Devil: Gilles de Rais and His Modern Apologists". Fifteenth-Century Studies. 37. Boydell & Brewer: 113–137. doi:10.1515/9781571138224-006. ISBN 978-1-57113-822-4.
• Petitjean, Vincent (2016), Vies de Gilles de Rais, Perspectives comparatistes (in French), Paris: Classiques Garnier, doi:10.15122/isbn.978-2-8124-4761-7, ISBN 978-2-8124-4759-4.
• Ross, Lia B. (2012). "Deviancy in the Late Middle Ages: The Crimes and Punishment of Gilles de Rais". In Classen, Albrecht; Scarborough, Connie (eds.). Crime and Punishment in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age: Mental-Historical Investigations of Basic Human Problems and Social Responses. Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture. De Gruyter. pp. 359–401. ISBN 978-3-11-029451-4.
• Savy, Pierre (2006). "Le Procès dans l'histoire, l'histoire dans le Procès". In Ferri, Laurent; Gauthier, Christophe (eds.). L'Histoire-Bataille. L'écriture de l'histoire dans l'œuvre de Georges Bataille: actes de la journée d'études consacrée à Georges Bataille, Paris, École nationale des chartes, 7 décembre 2002. Études et rencontres de l'École des chartes (in French). Paris: École des chartes. pp. 85–98. ISBN 2-900791-78-2.
• Stahuljak, Zrinka (2013), Pornographic Archaeology: Medicine, Medievalism, and the Invention of the French Nation, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 978-0-8122-4447-2.
• Termeau, Maurice (1945), Gilles de Raiz dit à tort Barbebleue et la Maison de Sillé (1404-1440) (in French), Laval: Imprimerie-librairie Goupil.
• Valois, Noël (1912). "Le procès de Gilles de Rais". Annuaire-bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de France (in French). LIX. Paris: Librairie Renouard: 193–239.

Essays

• Benedetti, Jean (1971), Gilles de Rais, New York: Stein and Day, ISBN 978-0-8128-1450-7.
• Jost, Alain (1995), Gilles de Rais, Histoire et mystères (in French), Alleur / Paris: Marabout, ISBN 978-2-501-02230-9.

External links

• Media related to Gilles de Rais at Wikimedia Commons
• "About: Gilles de Rais, Éditions Tallandier (2005), by Matei Cazacu", France Culture discussion with Jacques Le Goff, Matei Cazacu & Jacques Berlioz (History Mondays series, 23 January 2006).
• "L'affaire Gilles de Rais", Claude Gauvard's presentation given at the "Justice between memory and oblivion" symposium (French Court of Cassation, 8 March 2021).