Gilles de Rais

Early life castle tower ruins in Maine-et-Loire 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 Laval family, one of the two most important Breton lineages in the 15th century. The Laval family's ancestors included, by marriage, the Barons of Retz as well as the prestigious House of Montmorency, He was born "in a room called the Black Tower" at Champtocé castle, 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. He 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. Gilles and René's mother Marie de Craon died at an unknown date, while her husband Guy de Laval-Rais expired thereafter, 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 two orphan brothers Gilles and René were raised by their maternal grandfather, Jean de Craon, lord of La Suze and Champtocé. Jean de Craon's son Amaury died at the Battle of Agincourt in October 1415, a confrontation in which several members of his household perished in addition to his sole male successor. This prompted him to take charge of and manage the property of Gilles and René, who had become his sole heirs. In this way, Jean de Craon broke the will and testament of Guy de Laval-Rais, which appointed Jean II Tournemine de la Hunaudaye as "guardian, tutor, protector, defender and legitimate administrator" of the two orphans. Matrimonial projects On 4 January 1417, Jean de Craon betrothed his grandson Gilles de Rais to a wealthy Norman heiress, Jeanne Paynel, daughter of Foulques VI Paynel, lord of Hambye and Bricquebec. However, the Parlement of Paris forbade the marriage until Jeanne Paynel came of age. This marriage project never materialized but not because of Jeanne Paynel's presumed death, as some authors have argued, since she certainly became an abbess of Lisieux's Benedictine convent. 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 followed up for some unknown reason (maybe Beatrice's death). 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 two young people had their union 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. Gilles de Rais and Catherine de Thouars's only child, Marie, was born in 1433 or 1434. Family disputes and its surrounding walls In accordance with the clauses of Catherine de Thouars's marriage contract, her mother Béatrice de Montjean retained in dower a number of possessions of the late Miles II de Thouars, including Tiffauges and Pouzauges castles. Jean de Craon and Gilles de Rais hoped to recover the inheritance of all Beatrice's Poitevin castles at a later date. However, Béatrice de Montjean remarried Jacques Meschin de la Roche-Aireault, former squire to the late Miles II de Thouars and chamberlain to King Charles VII of France. This union compromised the plans of the lord of La Suze and his grandson. As a result, the two men commissioned their acolyte Jean de la Noe, captain of Tiffauges, to kidnap Beatrice. Jean de la Noe also seized Jacques Meschin's younger sister. Béatrice de Montjean was imprisoned at Le Loroux-Bottereau, then at Champtocé. Her son-in-law Gilles de Rais and Jean de Craon threatened to sew her up in sackcloth and throw her into a river if she did not relinquish her dower. To free his wife and his sister, chamberlain Jacques Meschin de la Roche-Aireault had Jean de Craon and Gilles de Rais summoned several times before the Parlement of Paris, to no avail. Jacques Meschin dispatched a bailiff to Champtocé before sending his own brother, Gilles Meschin, to head the envoys. Jean de Craon jailed all the bearers of the summons, including Gilles Meschin. Jean de Craon nevertheless agreed to release Beatrice de Montjean at the request of his wife Anne de Sillé, who was also Beatrice's own mother. The other hostages were eventually released on ransom, but Gilles Meschin died a few days later, probably exhausted by the conditions of his detention in Champtocé. Jacques Meschin's younger sister, sent to Brittany, was forced to marry Girard de la Noe, the son of the captain of Tiffauges. Holder of the barony of Retz, traditionally reputed to be one of the six oldest baronies of the Duchy of Brittany, Gilles de Rais was one of the most important lords of western France, thanks in particular to his numerous 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 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. Gilles de Rais held Machecoul (the "head of the barony") as well as the castellanies of Coutumier, Bourgneuf, Prigny and half of the Isle of Bouin, domains bordering the Bay of Bourgneuf. In the Bay, salt marshes probably provided him with a not inconsiderable share of revenue. In the Duchy of Anjou, he inherited the prominent lordships of Champtocé and Ingrandes, a source of significant income from the Loire "traffic" (merchandise trade), as well as the lordships of Blaison and Chemellier, the barony of Briollay, and the lordships of Fontaine-Milon, Grez and Grattecuisse. In Poitou, he held the lordships of Cheneché, de la Voûte, Sigon, Cloué, Chabanais and the land of Breuil-Mingot, in addition to acquiring by marriage and extortion the barony of Pouzauges and the lordship of Tiffauges. In Maine, he owned the lordships of La Suze, Ambrières and Saint-Aubin-Fosse-Louvain, as well as the land of Précigné. In Angoumois, the lordships of Confolens, Loubert and Château Morant. 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). or the Church; widows enjoying a dower in accordance with customary law; 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. In any case, it's not easy to accurately estimate his assets due to fragmentary or imprecise records, and in particular the yield of his estates despite their size. 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 ==

First hypothetical feats of arms , the final phase of the 1420 Breton civil war (15th-century miniature, BnF) In the decades following the Breton War of Succession (1341–1364), the defeated faction refused to relinquish his claim to rule over the Duchy of Brittany and continued to plot against the Dukes of the House of Montfort. In February 1420, the House of Penthièvre led by Marguerite de Clisson and her two sons, Olivier and John, took Duke John V prisoner in violation of the Treaty of Guérande (1365). The conspirators enjoyed the temporary support of Charles, Dauphin of France and the future King. Civil war once again engulfed the Duchy of Brittany. At the call of Duchess Joan, wife of John V, the Breton nobility rallied around the House of Montfort, including former supporters of the House of Penthièvre, such as Jean de Craon. On 17 February 1420, the latter went to his suzerain Joan to swear, along with the other lords present, to protect her and deliver John V. In retaliation, armed Penthièvre bands attacked the strongholds of Jean de Craon and his grandson Gilles de Rais, notably destroying the castle of La Mothe-Achard. After John V's release, Jean de Craon and Gilles de Rais were rewarded for their "good and notable services" with generous land grants that were converted to monetary gifts. Perhaps young Gilles's first feat of arms was to take part in the last remaining major conflict of the Breton War of Succession, but it remains a matter of historical debate since various authors stress that there is no documentary evidence of any personal military engagement. It is also possible that Jean de Craon and Gilles de Rais then entered the patronage of Arthur de Richemont, John V's younger brother recently released from English captivity. Meanwhile, plagued by both the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War, and the foreign warfare against the Lancastrian monarchy, the Kingdom of France suffered a succession of political and military disasters during this phase of the Hundred Years' War. King Henry V of England succeeded in establishing himself as son-in-law and heir to King Charles VI of France, thanks to the ratification of the Treaty of Troyes in May 1420. For his part, having learned of the Dauphin Charles's compromises with his Penthièvre captors, John V nonetheless wavered between the Armagnac faction and the House of Lancaster to preserve the independence of his duchy. However, this seesaw policy did not prevent the Duke of Brittany from finally adhering to the Treaty of Troyes in June 1422. Once the Dauphin Charles became King of France in October 1422, he continued the war against the English in order to recover his crown lands. During this dynastic turmoil, Jean de Craon and Gilles de Rais may have taken part in the victory at La Gravelle on 26 September 1423, and the Battle of Verneuil on 17 August 1424, but this is just a supposition. In any case, the bloody defeat of the Franco-Scottish troops at Verneuil changed the political landscape, completing the military disaster of Agincourt almost ten years earlier. 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 had 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, 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. 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. 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. 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. this artist's impression depicts a beardless Gilles de Rais, wearing the men's bowl cut. Dressed in plate armor, he holds a bascinet under his arm. His tabard is emblazoned with the House of Retz's coat of arms. From the second half of 1427, chronicles began to mention Gilles de Rais's name, along with those of other French captains. against fighters regarded as "disowned French" or "false French" (in other words, French in favour of the dual monarchy of England and France). In another assault, the lords of Rais, Loré and Beaumanoir retook the castle of Malicorne from the English. The captains had the French-speaking besieged executed, as with the capture of Ramefort. or took prisoner the English captain Blackburn, according to conflicting sources. The confused chronology of medieval chronicles makes it impossible to date these feats of arms precisely. At the time, fortresses can be successively stormed, lost and recaptured, due to the weakness of their garrisons or "the endless reversals of local lords, who often belonged to competing networks", notes medievalist Boris Bove. In the spring of 1428, Gilles de Rais contributed a thousand gold écus to the payment of the enormous ransom for his cousin André de Lohéac, captured by the English on 16 March 1428, during the siege of Laval. The House of Laval (namely Guy XIV, Anne and Jeanne de Laval-Tinténiac, the young captive's brother, mother and grandmother respectively) undertook to reimburse the "very dear and beloved cousins and great friends" who had helped free André de Lohéac. New English troops landed in the French realm in June 1428, then laid siege to Orléans from October onwards. Comrade-in-arms of Joan of Arc 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. from September 1429 onwards 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 rank of Marshal of France, in recognition of his war record 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 border 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 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 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 . 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 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, 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 . Miniature from '''', 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. 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 of Jean de Craon (right) and his wife Béatrice de Rochefort Jean de Craon, Gilles's grandfather, died in November 1432. 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. These gaps in the documentation complicate any comparative study that would enable us to accurately verify the accusations of prodigality made by the heirs. 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. 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 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 this way, Gilles de Rais simultaneously undermined divine and ducal majesties. On the one hand, he committed sacrilege by violating ecclesiastical immunities; on the other, he laid hands on ducal servants, all this in the very diocese of the Bishop of Nantes, Jean de Malestroit, the influential chancellor of Brittany ("the man actually responsible for the duchy's political direction", states historian ). 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 , 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. 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". Trial and execution ) 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. 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. 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, 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. Henriet and Poitou were executed in similar fashion but their bodies were reduced to ashes in the flames and then scattered. == Question of guilt ==

Doubts about the verdict in the Age of Enlightenment tradition 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." In the Voltairean tradition, French poet and writer 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 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 In 1959, French philosopher and intellectual 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 . 1992 mock re-trial holding his book about Gilles de Rais in 1992 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 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 , 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 , 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, 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." 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. == Hypothetical portraits ==

's book, ''Costumes historiques de la France d'après les monuments les plus authentiques...'', 1852 No description or portrait of Gilles de Rais has survived from his lifetime. All the illuminations, engravings and paintings depicting him are posthumous and imaginary. According to Georges Bataille and Pierre Klossowski's French translation of the "confession in judgment" included in the Latin acts of the trials, Gilles de Rais declared that he had "always been of a delicate nature" during his youth. French writer Michel Hérubel thinks this means physical complexion, but historian Matei Cazacu points out that Bataille and Klossowski's translation was somewhat hasty, as the adjective delicatus can also mean "cute, sought-after, luxurious, effeminate, gallant, licentious". The first description of Gilles de Rais ("a man of good understanding, good looks and good manners") appeared late, in a book titled Histoire de Bretaigne (1582) by the Breton jurist Bertrand d'Argentré. Essayist notes that "the judicial Gilles de Rais, a man without a face, elusive to historical psychology, acquires a body and a mind" for the first time in this work, the starting point for the interplay of filiations from one century to the next. He quoted in full the apocryphal description composed by Bertrand d'Argentré, but without mentioning the latter by name, referring instead to some imprecise tradition. In this way, Michelet popularized the image of Gilles de Rais as an intelligent lord of noble bearing, with handsome features: "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 added new, imaginary details to Gilles de Rais's description: "He was a handsome young man, graceful, petulant, with a lively, playful spirit, but weak and frivolous." Afterwards, 19th-century medical science participated in "the reification of the ultra-romantic legend" of Gilles de Rais as an alleged "superior degenerate" and out of the ordinary character, magnified by French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans in his novel Là-bas (1891) as a Faustian scholar, artist, flamboyant mystic and "great sadist". In contrast, he was later profiled by Georges Bataille as a "sacred monster" whom "war has accustomed to the voluptuousness of blood,” an archaic, infantile and stupid feudal lord without moral restraint or limits of power, driven by a "monstrous Herostratus complex.” 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 famous study of the period remains the work of German-Austrian psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis (1886), whose chapter on sexual sadism disorder invokes Gilles de Rais. This text exerted a great influence on the publications dedicated to the latter. Towards the end of the 19th century, the above-mentioned inventories of cruelties, manic obsessions and perversions contributed to a renewed perception of recidivism and, beyond that, to the creation of a new criminal category that heralded the expression "serial killer". In 1899, French criminologist Alexandre Lacassagne already distinguished various categories of sadists in his book ''Vacher l'éventreur et les crimes sadiques, in particular the "great sadists" who commit "repeated crimes", naming Gilles de Rais, Jack the Ripper and Joseph Vacher. From this point onward, the silhouette of the fifteenth-century heretic and rebel fades, giving way to the figure of the sadistic criminal, consistent with the concept shaped by the scientific and journalistic literature of this pivotal moment in anthropological criminology. The murderous and sodomitic lord of Tiffauges thus joins the ranks of the "monsters" portrayed in the judicial chronicles of Le Petit Journal and ''. 's Histoire de France ( 1900) Physicians and historians of health endeavoured to establish medicine as a fundamental component of history by means of famous historical cases. Gilles de Rais was construed as a clinical case of a "criminal degenerate", framed as symptomatic of the alleged decadence of the French medieval nobility—a social class purportedly corrupted by "vice" imported during the Norman incursions and the Crusades—within the obsolete medico-moral frameworks of the late nineteenth century. Such a categorization can be explained insofar as the French medico-legal school of the time advocated the possibility of a "physical and moral regeneration" of the human species through public hygiene and eugenics. The Baron Gilles de Rais and the peasant Joan of Arc were retrospectively diagnosed as the respective hallucinatory figures of depraved noble crime and revitalizing popular genius. This pathological contrast was meant to illustrate the theory of degeneration, which claimed to confine the French people within a temporal cycle of social degeneration and regeneration of the nation—a reflection of fin de siècle anxieties about decline and the fall of civilizations. Historian Angus McLaren notes that the aforementioned medical literature was often scientifically unworthy. For example, Gilles de Rais and the cannibal Antoine Léger were regularly found side by side with other sadists and sexual murderers in fetishistic compilations of clinical cases summarized in short, moralistic biographies. Confusions between Literature, History, and Medicine , obscenely transfigured by Gilles de Rais's hallucinated gaze. Watercolor by Martin van Maële for the novel Là-bas by Joris-Karl Huysmans (1891) The original records of the 1440 judicial proceedings remained largely inaccessible for a long time, as they were published only gradually and in fragments, out of fear of scandal. Consequently, the medical community of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries drew without hindsight on Paul Lacroix's ''Curiosités de l'histoire de France'' (1858), a pseudo-historical treatise incorporating a fictionalized account of the 1440 trials. This book was perceived at the time as a reliable historical source by various physicians who believed, for example, that they had found "the determining cause that had triggered Gilles's sadism" in his engaging readings of Tacitus and Suetonius, which describe the orgiastic excesses of decadent Roman emperors "Fiction therefore facilitated Gilles' passage from historical to medical discourse", points out Zrinka Stahuljak, adding that Paul Lacroix's dramatic narrative conveniently provided these physicians with a "scientific explanation of [Gilles de Rais's] conduct". Three medical dissertations devoted to Gilles de Rais appeared between 1910 and 1934. "Thin and disappointing", according to medievalist , 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 , 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 , 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 , Georges Bataille, or even at times Paul Lacroix, without being wary of what these authors themselves projected into them." Classification as a serial killer The connection between the criminal category of serial killers and the case of Gilles de Rais was occasionally used to refute the thesis of the latter's innocence, thanks to the mention of supposedly comparable murderers like Fritz Haarmann. In contemporary discourse, Gilles de Rais is sometimes viewed as an archetype of a modern media figure of dangerousness, described by historian as that of "the pedophile conflated with the rapist-murderer — a reimagined Gilles de Rais, embodying both the predator and the madman." 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." Likewise, archivist-paleographer Matei Cazacu identifies in Gilles de Rais certain traits characteristic of modern serial killers: • average age of the criminal at the start of the murders (around 27–31 years); • predilection for the same type of victims (in this case, mainly young boys); • "illicit acts" perpetrated during his childhood and adolescence; • aggressiveness and propensity for violence against adults; • ritualization of the crime through staged scenes and recurrent tortures (committed personally by Gilles de Rais or his servants) on people reduced to the status of objects: brief hanging of his victim before unhooking him by adopting a falsely reassuring attitude; breaking necks with a stick; cutting throats or other parts of the body; dismemberment or decapitation with a sword "commonly known as a braquemart"; post-mortem abuse or antemortem rape of dying children; enjoyment of the sight of internal organs after disembowelling; contemplation of severed heads. In attempting to draw up a detailed profile of Gilles de Rais as a psychopathic killer, Matei Cazacu also applies the "reading grid used by FBI profilers" in a 1990 report, as well as the classification proposed by Dr. Michel Bénézech, psychiatrist and professor of forensic medicine at the University of Bordeaux. Matei Cazacu assumes the anachronism in the following way: "Modern techniques, when they exist and make it possible to contribute something, must not be neglected." He acknowledges that his approach has been contested, but he claims not to confuse medieval and contemporary mentalities, admitting, moreover, that "the abysses of the human psyche remain unfathomable and ... Gilles de Rais has definitely taken his secret to the grave". Furthermore, Claude Gauvard states that "the historian is not ... a psychoanalyst, even if the teachings of psychoanalysis can help him to understand the content of confessions and their share of psychotic delirium." On the other hand, medievalist Jacques Chiffoleau believes that "the psychology of Gilles de Rais is forever ... closed to us. From the meagre traces we have, we will never know whether he was in a position to be or not to be a serial killer". Jacques Chiffoleau also points out that "the description of an almost timeless perverse structure'" is only "distantly related to the medieval triple accusation of rebellion, pact with the Devil and unnatural relations." Although Gilles de Rais's confessions seem to "bear witness to the mixture of psychosis and Narcissistic Perversion that is characteristic of our contemporary serial killers", his story, rich in insights into "15th-century political justice and institutional constructs", would tell us little about pedophilia and serial murder during the Late Middle Ages. Sociologist and criminologist Aurélien Dyjak similarly contends that anachronistically projecting the modern category of the "serial killer" onto historical criminals responsible for multiple successive murders risks effacing the specificities of their historical context, trajectories, and motives, forcing them into a reductive and inadequate analytical framework. Such a methodology fosters the illusion of a historical continuity of the phenomenon, with the figure of the serial killer becoming "a kind of criminological catch-all", even though this category is, at least in part, a product of twentieth-century social and historical constructions. Thus, "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." == Gilles de Rais and the Bluebeard myth ==

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 theme popular in fiction, but the 15th-century archives do not seem to fully establish a special relationship between these two historical figures of the Hundred Years' War. Medieval scholars commonly designate Gilles de Rais as one of the "comrade-in-arms" of the Maid of Orléans, while not necessarily depicting him as a close associate or a convinced partisan of her mission. Joan of Arc's feelings towards Gilles de Rais escape the historical record completely. Likewise, no source corroborates the popular narrative that he was so devastated after her burning at the stake at Rouen that he withdrew to his western lands to nurture her memory while simultaneously sinking into depression and murderous madness. If the death of the Maid constituted a rupture in Gilles de Rais's existence, the resulting shock might equally be characterized as "narcissistic" rather than "sentimental", for her disappearance would have signaled the end of an epic adventure able to satisfy his craving for glory. of Jeanne des Armoises The correlation between the Louviers expedition and a potential liberation attempt of the Maid is plausible However, it's not established that he specifically supported the Mystery of the Siege of Orléans, a probably unperformed mystery play singing Joan of Arc's praises. Lastly, in the same year, Gilles de Rais employed Jean de Siquenville, a squire from Gascony, as a commander of men-at-arms to take the English-held town of Le Mans. This troop had been previously commanded by Jeanne des Armoises, a Joan of Arc impersonator, but her relationship with Gilles de Rais remains "poorly documented and difficult to interpret", according to medievalist Jacques Chiffoleau. == See also ==