Gilles de Rais
Encyclopedia
Gilles de Montmorency-Laval (1404–1440), Baron de Rais
, was a Breton
knight, a leader in the French army and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc
. He is best known as a prolific serial killer
of children. There is significant controversy over his guilt; some maintain he was framed for political reasons.
A member of the House of Montmorency-Laval, Gilles de Rais grew up under the tutelage of his maternal grandfather and increased his fortune by marriage. Following the War of the Breton Succession, he earned the favour of the Duke and was admitted to the French court. From 1427 to 1435, Gilles served as a commander in the Royal Army, and fought alongside Joan of Arc
against the English and their Burgundian
allies during the Hundred Years' War
, for which he was appointed Marshal of France
.
In 1434/5, he retired from military life, depleted his wealth by staging an extravagant theatrical spectacle of his own composition and dabbled in the occult. After 1432 Gilles engaged in a series of child murders, his victims possibly numbering in the hundreds. The killings came to an end in 1440 when a violent dispute with a clergyman led to an ecclesiastical investigation which brought Gilles' crimes to light. At his trial the parents of missing children in the surrounding area and Gilles' own confederates in crime testified against him. Gilles was condemned to death and hanged at Nantes
on 26 October 1440.
Gilles de Rais has had some cultural impact and is one among several candidates believed to be the inspiration for the 1697 fairy tale Bluebeard
by Charles Perrault
. His life is the subject of several modern novels, and referenced in a number of rock
bands' albums and songs.
, or, according to other sources, at Champtocé-sur-Loire
, 60 kilometres (37.3 mi) east of Nantes
. He was an intelligent child, speaking fluent Latin
, illuminating manuscripts, and dividing his education between military discipline and moral and intellectual development. Following the deaths of his father and mother in 1415, Gilles and his younger brother René de La Suze were placed under the tutelage of Jean de Craon, their maternal grandfather. Jean de Craon was a schemer who attempted to arrange a marriage for twelve-year-old Gilles with four-year-old Jeanne Paynel, one of the richest heiresses in Normandy
, and, when the plan failed, attempted unsuccessfully to unite the boy with Béatrice de Rohan, the niece to the Duke of Brittany. On 30 November 1420, however, Craon substantially increased his grandson's fortune by marrying him off to Catherine de Thouars of Brittany, heiress of La Vendée and Poitou
. Their only child Marie was born in 1429.
, sixteen-year-old Gilles took the side of the Dukes of Brittany of the House of Montfort against a rival house led by Olivier de Blois, Count of Penthièvre. The Blois faction, who still refused to relinquish their rule over Brittany, had taken Duke John V
prisoner. Rais was able to secure the Duke's release, and was rewarded with generous land grants which were converted to monetary gifts.
In 1425, Rais was introduced to the court of the Charles VII
at Saumur
and learned courtly manners by studying the Dauphin. In combat at Saint-Lô
and Le Mans
between 1427 and 1429, Gilles was allowed to indulge his taste for violence and carnage. At the battle for the Château of Lude, he climbed the assault ladder and slew the English captain Blackburn. He was young, handsome and rich with companions-in-arms of his own stripe about him.
From 1427 to 1435, Rais served as a commander in the Royal Army, distinguishing himself by displaying reckless bravery on the battlefield during the renewal of the Hundred Years War. In 1429, he fought along with Joan of Arc
in some of the campaigns waged against the English and their Burgundian
allies. He was present with Joan
when the Siege of Orléans
ended.
On Sunday 17 July 1429, Gilles was chosen as one of four lords for the honor of bringing the holy ampulla
from the Abbey of Saint-Remy to Notre-Dame de Reims for the consecration of Charles VII
as King of France. On the same day, he was officially created a Marshal of France.
Following the Siege of Orleans
, Rais was granted the right to add the royal arms, the fleur-de-lys on an azure ground, to his own. The letters patent authorizing the display cited Gilles’ "high and commendable services", the "great perils and dangers" he had confronted, and "many other brave feats".
In May 1431, Joan of Arc
was burned at the stake; Gilles was not present. His grandfather died 15 November 1432, and, in a public gesture to mark his displeasure with Gilles' reckless spending of a carefully amassed fortune, left his sword and his breastplate to Gilles' younger brother René de La Suze.
, Champtocé-sur-Loire
and Ingrandes
, remained in his possession. Half of the total sales and mortgages were spent on the production of his play. The spectacle was first performed in Orléans
on 8 May 1435. Six hundred costumes were constructed, worn once, discarded, and constructed afresh for subsequent performances. Unlimited supplies of food and drink were made available to spectators at Gilles' expense.
In June 1435, family members gathered to put a curb on Gilles. They appealed to Pope Eugene IV
to disavow the Chapel of the Holy Innocents (which he refused to do) and carried their concerns to the king. On 2 July 1435, a royal edict was proclaimed in Orléans
, Tours
, Angers
, Pouzauges
, and Champtocé-sur-Loire
denouncing Gilles as a spendthrift and forbidding him from selling any further property. No subject of Charles VII was allowed to enter into any contract with him, and those in command of his castles were forbidden to dispose of them. Gilles' credit fell immediately and his creditors pressed upon him. He borrowed heavily, using his objets d'art, manuscripts, books and clothing as security. When he left Orléans
in late August or early September 1435, the town was littered with precious objects he was forced to leave behind. The edict did not apply to Brittany and the family was unable to persuade the Duke of Brittany to enforce it.
, to summon a demon named Barron. de Rais provided a contract with the demon for riches that Prelati was to give to the demon at a later time.
As no demon manifested after three tries, the Marshal grew frustrated with the lack of results. Prelati responded the demon summoned, named Barron, was angry and required the offering of parts of a child. de Rais provided these remnants in a glass vessel at a future invocation. All of this was to no avail, and the occult experiments left him bitter and with a severely depleted wealth.
; however, no account of these murders survives. Shortly after, Gilles moved to Machecoul
where, as the record of his confession states, he killed, or ordered to be killed, a great but uncertain number of children after he sodomized
them. Forty bodies were discovered in Machecoul in 1437.
The first documented case of child-snatching and murder concerns a boy of 12 called Jeudon, an apprentice to the furrier Guillaume Hilairet. Gilles de Rais' cousins, Gilles de Sillé and Roger de Briqueville, asked the furrier to lend them the boy to take a message to Machecoul, and, when Jeudon did not return, the two noblemen told the inquiring furrier that they were ignorant of the boy's whereabouts and suggested he had been carried off by thieves at Tiffauges
to be made into a page. In Gilles de Rais' trial, the events were testified to by Hillairet and his wife, Jean Jeudon and his wife, and five others from Machecoul.
In his 1971 biography of Gilles de Rais, Jean Benedetti tells how the children who fell into Rais's hands were put to death:
Gilles' bodyservant Étienne Corrillaut, known as Poitou, was an accomplice in many of the crimes and testified that his master hung his victims with ropes from a hook to prevent the child from crying out, then masturbated
upon the child's belly or thighs. Taking the victim down, Rais comforted the child and assured him he only wanted to play with him. Gilles then either killed the child himself or had the child killed by his cousin Gilles de Sillé, Poitou or another bodyservant called Henriet. The victims were killed by decapitation, cutting of their throats, dismemberment, or breaking of their necks with a stick. A short, thick, double-edged sword called a braquemard
was kept at hand for the murders. Poitou further testified that Rais sometimes abused the victims (whether boys or girls) before wounding them and at other times after the victim had been slashed in the throat or decapitated. According to Poitou, Rais disdained the victim's sexual organs, and took "infinitely more pleasure in debauching himself in this manner ... than in using their natural orifice, in the normal manner."
In his own confession, Gilles testified that “when the said children were dead, he kissed them and those who had the most handsome limbs and heads he held up to admire them, and had their bodies cruelly cut open and took delight at the sight of their inner organs; and very often when the children were dying he sat on their stomachs and took pleasure in seeing them die and laughed”.
Poitou testified that he and Henriet burned the bodies in the fireplace in Gilles' room. The clothes of the victim were placed into the fire piece by piece so they burned slowly and the smell was minimized. The ashes were then thrown into the cesspit, the moat, or other hiding places. The last recorded murder was of the son of Éonnet de Villeblanche and his wife Macée. Poitou paid 20 sou
s to have a page's doublet
made for the victim, who was then assaulted, murdered, and incinerated in August 1440.
giving permission to prosecute Gilles de Rais and receiving his lands after the conviction. Title to the lands was ultimately transferred to the Duke, who in turn divided them among his nobles. The guilty verdict was based on the detailed eyewitness accounts of his confederates and the testimony of his victims' parents. However, since confessions in cases of heresy
and witchcraft
were often extracted through torture, similarities in confessions do not of necessity imply truth or accuracy in the content of the confessions. While none of the parents claimed direct knowledge of the crimes, spectral evidence
and hearsay
were not barred from consideration, as they are in most modern justice systems.
Anthropologist
Margaret Murray
and occult
ist Aleister Crowley
are among those who have questioned the account of the ecclesiastic and secular authorities involved in the case. Murray, in her book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (pp. 173–174), speculated that Gilles de Rais was a witch and adherent of a fertility cult centered on the pagan
goddess, Diana
. According to Murray, "Gilles de Rais was tried and executed as a witch and, in the same way, much that is mysterious in this trial can also be explained by the Dianic Cult." However, many historians reject Murray's theory. Norman Cohn
argues that her theory does not agree with what is known of Gilles' crimes and trial. Historians do not regard Gilles as a martyr
to an antiquated religion; recent scholars tend to view him as a Catholic who descended into crime and depravity.
. The act prompted an investigation by the Bishop of Nantes, during which evidence of Gilles' crimes was uncovered. On July 29, the Bishop released his findings, and subsequently obtained the prosecutorial cooperation of Rais's former protector, Jean V, the Duke of Brittany. Rais and his bodyservants Poitou and Henriet were arrested on 15 September 1440, following a secular investigation which paralleled the findings of the investigation from the Bishop of Nantes
. Rais's prosecution would likewise be conducted by both secular and ecclesiastical court
s, on charges which included murder
, sodomy
, and heresy
.
The extensive witness testimony convinced the judges that there were adequate grounds for establishing the guilt of the accused. After Rais admitted to the charges on 21 October, the court canceled a plan to torture him into confessing. Peasants of the neighboring villages had earlier begun to offer up accusations that since their children had entered Gilles' castle begging for food they had never been seen again. The transcript, which included testimony from the parents of many of these missing children as well as graphic descriptions of the murders provided by Gilles' accomplices, was said to be so lurid that the judges ordered the worst portions to be stricken from the record.
The precise number of Gilles' victims is not known, as most of the bodies were burned or buried. The number of murders is generally placed between 80 and 200; a few have conjectured numbers upwards of 600. The victims ranged in age from six to eighteen and included both sexes.
On 23 October 1440, the secular court heard the confessions of Poitou and Henriet and condemned them both to death, followed by Gilles' death sentence on 25 October. Gilles was allowed to make 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 and his two accomplices made their way in procession to the place of execution on the Ile de Biesse. There, Gilles addressed the throng of onlookers with contrite piety, and exhorted Henriet and Poitou to die bravely and think only of salvation. Gilles' 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 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; their bodies however were reduced to ashes in the flames and then scattered.Several years after Gilles' death, his daughter Marie had a stone memorial erected at the site of his execution. Over the years, the structure came to be regarded as a holy altar under the protection of Saint Anne
. Generations of pregnant women flocked there to pray for an abundance of breast milk
. The memorial was destroyed by rioting Jacobins during the French Revolution
.
's 1920 play Saint Joan
, about the passion of Joan of Arc
. David Oxley
played the part in Otto Preminger
's 1957 film version. Under the name Gilles de Retz, he is the villain in the 1899 novel The Black Douglas by S.R. Crockett
. The novels The Life and Death of my Lord Gilles de Rais by Robert Nye
and Là-Bas
by Joris-Karl Huysmans
are among the works which retell his life. H. G. Wells
also makes extensive reference to Gilles de Rais in his works, Crux Ansata
and '42 to '44 in 1943 and 1944, respectively. The novel Gilles & Jeanne by Michel Tournier
covers his campaigning with Joan of Arc
. This relationship partly informs David Rudkin
's play The Triumph of Death. Gille de Rais's worship of Barron, and that creature itself, form the backdrop to Shaun Hutson
's 1991 novel Renegades. Gilles is one of the main characters in Valerio Evangelisti
's 2002 novel Mater Terribilis. He is also the main character in the short story Rumfuddle by Jack Vance. Gilles de Rais turns up as a character in two novels by Philip José Farmer
: Image of the Beast
and its sequel Blown.
In music, Swiss avant-garde metal band Celtic Frost
based their 1984 song "Into the Crypts of Rays" from the Morbid Tales
album on the atrocities committed by Gilles. Belgian black metal
band Ancient Rites
based their 1994 song "Morbid Glory (Gilles de Rais 1404-1440)" from Diabolic Serenades on the life of Gilles de Rais. The shock
/thrash
band GWAR
mentions Gilles in their song "Blimey", from the album America Must Be Destroyed
. American surrealist
black/death metal
band Sangraal released Unearthly Night, a concept album based on Gilles de Rais, in 2005. British extreme metal
band Cradle of Filth
released Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder
(subtitled The Life and Crimes of Gilles de Rais), a concept album
based on the life of Rais, in 2008. Avant-garde legends The Residents
included a narrative about Gilles' life on the track "The Beards!" from their 2006 album River of Crime (Episodes 1–5). American death metal band Cannibal Corpse
include a quote Gilles de Rais in the insert of their 1991 album Butchered at Birth
, giving an account of his methods of murder. Another American death metal band, Brodequin
, produced the song "Gilles de Rais" about crimes of de Rais on their Festival of Death
album. Macabre
produced a song called "The Black Knight" about the murders he perpetrated on their album Grim Scary Tales.
In the 1980s, Quentin Crisp
told the story of Gilles de Rais in his one-man show, An Evening With Quentin Crisp.
In manga
, Gilles de Rais was featured as the chief antagonist in the comic book Tetragrammaton Labyrinth
.
In Castlevania 64
and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
, "Gilles de Rais" is one of Dracula's closer companions.
In 1987 the Spanish director Agusti Villaronga
directed the film Tras El Cristal
, with an original script based on the killings of Gilles de Rais.
In the 2000 Sailor Moon
musical Transylvania no Mori
and its 2001 revival, Baron Gilles de Rais is brought back to life as a homunculus
under the control of Dark Cain in order to further the war between humans and demons.
In the 2006 PSP game Jeanne d'Arc
Gilles de Rais is a playable character on the side of Joan of Arc
throughout the game.
In the 2007 games Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War
, Gilles de Rais appears as one of the most important commanders of the French faction. He usually accompanies La Hire in the battlefield.
In the Japan
ese light novel and TV series Fate/Zero
, Gilles de Rais is summoned as Servant Caster.
In Luc Besson
's The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
, Gilles de Rais is played by Vincent Cassel
.
In the Japanese manga series Drifters
, he, alongside Joan of Arc, is part of the Offscourings.
Pays de Retz
The Pays de Retz is a historical region of France that currently forms part of the Loire-Atlantique department, but which previously formed part of the Duchy of Brittany....
, was a Breton
Breton people
The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...
knight, a leader in the French army and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
. He is best known as a prolific serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
of children. There is significant controversy over his guilt; some maintain he was framed for political reasons.
A member of the House of Montmorency-Laval, Gilles de Rais grew up under the tutelage of his maternal grandfather and increased his fortune by marriage. Following the War of the Breton Succession, he earned the favour of the Duke and was admitted to the French court. From 1427 to 1435, Gilles served as a commander in the Royal Army, and fought alongside Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
against the English and their Burgundian
Duchy of Burgundy
The Duchy of Burgundy , was heir to an ancient and prestigious reputation and a large division of the lands of the Second Kingdom of Burgundy and in its own right was one of the geographically larger ducal territories in the emergence of Early Modern Europe from Medieval Europe.Even in that...
allies during the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...
, for which he was appointed Marshal of France
Marshal of France
The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...
.
In 1434/5, he retired from military life, depleted his wealth by staging an extravagant theatrical spectacle of his own composition and dabbled in the occult. After 1432 Gilles engaged in a series of child murders, his victims possibly numbering in the hundreds. The killings came to an end in 1440 when a violent dispute with a clergyman led to an ecclesiastical investigation which brought Gilles' crimes to light. At his trial the parents of missing children in the surrounding area and Gilles' own confederates in crime testified against him. Gilles was condemned to death and hanged at Nantes
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
on 26 October 1440.
Gilles de Rais has had some cultural impact and is one among several candidates believed to be the inspiration for the 1697 fairy tale Bluebeard
Bluebeard
"Bluebeard" is a French literary folktale written by Charles Perrault and is one of eight tales by the author first published by Barbin in Paris in January 1697 in Histoires ou Contes du temps passé. The tale tells the story of a violent nobleman in the habit of murdering his wives and the...
by Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault was a French author who laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk tales. The best known include Le Petit Chaperon rouge , Cendrillon , Le Chat Botté and La Barbe bleue...
. His life is the subject of several modern novels, and referenced in a number of rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
bands' albums and songs.
Early life
Gilles de Rais was born in late 1404 to Guy II de Montmorency-Laval and Marie de Craon in the family castle at MachecoulMachecoul
Machecoul is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.Its 5,732 inhabitants are called Machecoulais.-Geography:The commune of Machecoul is surrounded by the following communes:...
, or, according to other sources, at Champtocé-sur-Loire
Champtocé-sur-Loire
Champtocé-sur-Loire is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department of western France....
, 60 kilometres (37.3 mi) east of Nantes
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
. He was an intelligent child, speaking fluent Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, illuminating manuscripts, and dividing his education between military discipline and moral and intellectual development. Following the deaths of his father and mother in 1415, Gilles and his younger brother René de La Suze were placed under the tutelage of Jean de Craon, their maternal grandfather. Jean de Craon was a schemer who attempted to arrange a marriage for twelve-year-old Gilles with four-year-old Jeanne Paynel, one of the richest heiresses in Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, and, when the plan failed, attempted unsuccessfully to unite the boy with Béatrice de Rohan, the niece to the Duke of Brittany. On 30 November 1420, however, Craon substantially increased his grandson's fortune by marrying him off to Catherine de Thouars of Brittany, heiress of La Vendée and Poitou
Poitou
Poitou was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers.The region of Poitou was called Thifalia in the sixth century....
. Their only child Marie was born in 1429.
Military career
In the years following the Breton War of SuccessionBreton War of Succession
The Breton War of Succession was a conflict between the Houses of Blois and Montfort for control of the Duchy of Brittany. It was fought between 1341 and 1364. It formed an integral part of the early Hundred Years War due to the involvement of the French and English governments in the conflict; the...
, sixteen-year-old Gilles took the side of the Dukes of Brittany of the House of Montfort against a rival house led by Olivier de Blois, Count of Penthièvre. The Blois faction, who still refused to relinquish their rule over Brittany, had taken Duke John V
John V, Duke of Brittany
John V the Conqueror KG was Duke of Brittany and Count of Montfort, from 1345 until his death.-Numbering:...
prisoner. Rais was able to secure the Duke's release, and was rewarded with generous land grants which were converted to monetary gifts.
In 1425, Rais was introduced to the court of the Charles VII
Charles VII of France
Charles VII , called the Victorious or the Well-Served , was King of France from 1422 to his death, though he was initially opposed by Henry VI of England, whose Regent, the Duke of Bedford, ruled much of France including the capital, Paris...
at Saumur
Saumur
Saumur is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.The historic town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgueil, Coteaux du Layon, etc...
and learned courtly manners by studying the Dauphin. In combat at Saint-Lô
Saint-Lô
Saint-Lô is a commune in north-western France, the capital of the Manche department in Normandy.-History:Originally called Briovère , the town is built on and around ramparts. Originally it was a Gaul fortified settlement...
and Le Mans
Le Mans
Le Mans is a city in France, located on the Sarthe River. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Mans. Le Mans is a part of the Pays de la Loire region.Its inhabitants are called Manceaux...
between 1427 and 1429, Gilles was allowed to indulge his taste for violence and carnage. At the battle for the Château of Lude, he climbed the assault ladder and slew the English captain Blackburn. He was young, handsome and rich with companions-in-arms of his own stripe about him.
From 1427 to 1435, Rais served as a commander in the Royal Army, distinguishing himself by displaying reckless bravery on the battlefield during the renewal of the Hundred Years War. In 1429, he fought along with Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
in some of the campaigns waged against the English and their Burgundian
Duchy of Burgundy
The Duchy of Burgundy , was heir to an ancient and prestigious reputation and a large division of the lands of the Second Kingdom of Burgundy and in its own right was one of the geographically larger ducal territories in the emergence of Early Modern Europe from Medieval Europe.Even in that...
allies. He was present with Joan
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
when the Siege of Orléans
Siege of Orléans
The Siege of Orléans marked a turning point in the Hundred Years' War between France and England. This was Joan of Arc's first major military victory and the first major French success to follow the crushing defeat at Agincourt in 1415. The outset of this siege marked the pinnacle of English power...
ended.
On Sunday 17 July 1429, Gilles was chosen as one of four lords for the honor of bringing the holy ampulla
Ampulla
An ampulla was, in Ancient Rome, a "small nearly globular flask or bottle, with two handles" . The word is used of these in archaeology, and of later flasks, often handle-less and much flatter, for holy water or holy oil in the Middle Ages....
from the Abbey of Saint-Remy to Notre-Dame de Reims for the consecration of Charles VII
Charles VII of France
Charles VII , called the Victorious or the Well-Served , was King of France from 1422 to his death, though he was initially opposed by Henry VI of England, whose Regent, the Duke of Bedford, ruled much of France including the capital, Paris...
as King of France. On the same day, he was officially created a Marshal of France.
Following the Siege of Orleans
Siege of Orléans
The Siege of Orléans marked a turning point in the Hundred Years' War between France and England. This was Joan of Arc's first major military victory and the first major French success to follow the crushing defeat at Agincourt in 1415. The outset of this siege marked the pinnacle of English power...
, Rais was granted the right to add the royal arms, the fleur-de-lys on an azure ground, to his own. The letters patent authorizing the display cited Gilles’ "high and commendable services", the "great perils and dangers" he had confronted, and "many other brave feats".
In May 1431, Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
was burned at the stake; Gilles was not present. His grandfather died 15 November 1432, and, in a public gesture to mark his displeasure with Gilles' reckless spending of a carefully amassed fortune, left his sword and his breastplate to Gilles' younger brother René de La Suze.
Private life
In 1434/5, Rais gradually withdrew from military and public life in order to pursue his own interests: the construction of a splendid Chapel of the Holy Innocents (where he officiated in robes of his own design), and the production of a theatrical spectacle called Le Mistère du Siège d'Orléans. The play consisted of more than 20,000 lines of verse, 140 speaking parts, and 500 extras. Gilles was almost bankrupt at the time of the production and began selling property as early as 1432 to support his extravagant lifestyle. By March 1433, he had sold all his estates in Poitou (except those of his wife) and all his property in Maine. Only two castles in AnjouAnjou
Anjou is a former county , duchy and province centred on the city of Angers in the lower Loire Valley of western France. It corresponds largely to the present-day département of Maine-et-Loire...
, Champtocé-sur-Loire
Champtocé-sur-Loire
Champtocé-sur-Loire is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department of western France....
and Ingrandes
Ingrandes, Maine-et-Loire
Ingrandes is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France....
, remained in his possession. Half of the total sales and mortgages were spent on the production of his play. The spectacle was first performed in Orléans
Orléans
-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...
on 8 May 1435. Six hundred costumes were constructed, worn once, discarded, and constructed afresh for subsequent performances. Unlimited supplies of food and drink were made available to spectators at Gilles' expense.
In June 1435, family members gathered to put a curb on Gilles. They appealed to Pope Eugene IV
Pope Eugene IV
Pope Eugene IV , born Gabriele Condulmer, was pope from March 3, 1431, to his death.-Biography:He was born in Venice to a rich merchant family, a Correr on his mother's side. Condulmer entered the Order of Saint Augustine at the monastery of St. George in his native city...
to disavow the Chapel of the Holy Innocents (which he refused to do) and carried their concerns to the king. On 2 July 1435, a royal edict was proclaimed in Orléans
Orléans
-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...
, Tours
Tours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
, Angers
Angers
Angers is the main city in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France about south-west of Paris. Angers is located in the French region known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou, and its inhabitants are called Angevins....
, Pouzauges
Pouzauges
Pouzauges is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France....
, and Champtocé-sur-Loire
Champtocé-sur-Loire
Champtocé-sur-Loire is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department of western France....
denouncing Gilles as a spendthrift and forbidding him from selling any further property. No subject of Charles VII was allowed to enter into any contract with him, and those in command of his castles were forbidden to dispose of them. Gilles' credit fell immediately and his creditors pressed upon him. He borrowed heavily, using his objets d'art, manuscripts, books and clothing as security. When he left Orléans
Orléans
-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...
in late August or early September 1435, the town was littered with precious objects he was forced to leave behind. The edict did not apply to Brittany and the family was unable to persuade the Duke of Brittany to enforce it.
Occult involvement
In 1438, according to testimony at his trial from the priest Eustache Blanchet and the cleric François Prelati, de Rais sent out Blanchet to seek individuals who know alchemy and demon summoning. Blanchet contacted Prelati in Florence and convinced him to take service with his master. Having reviewed the magical books of Prelati and a traveling Breton, de Rais chose to initiate experiments, the first being in the lower hall of his castle at TiffaugesTiffauges
Tiffauges is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France.-History:Gilles de Rais had his castle there....
, to summon a demon named Barron. de Rais provided a contract with the demon for riches that Prelati was to give to the demon at a later time.
As no demon manifested after three tries, the Marshal grew frustrated with the lack of results. Prelati responded the demon summoned, named Barron, was angry and required the offering of parts of a child. de Rais provided these remnants in a glass vessel at a future invocation. All of this was to no avail, and the occult experiments left him bitter and with a severely depleted wealth.
Murders
In his confession, Gilles maintained the first assaults on children occurred between spring 1432 and spring 1433. The first murders occurred at Champtocé-sur-LoireChamptocé-sur-Loire
Champtocé-sur-Loire is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department of western France....
; however, no account of these murders survives. Shortly after, Gilles moved to Machecoul
Machecoul
Machecoul is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.Its 5,732 inhabitants are called Machecoulais.-Geography:The commune of Machecoul is surrounded by the following communes:...
where, as the record of his confession states, he killed, or ordered to be killed, a great but uncertain number of children after he sodomized
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
them. Forty bodies were discovered in Machecoul in 1437.
The first documented case of child-snatching and murder concerns a boy of 12 called Jeudon, an apprentice to the furrier Guillaume Hilairet. Gilles de Rais' cousins, Gilles de Sillé and Roger de Briqueville, asked the furrier to lend them the boy to take a message to Machecoul, and, when Jeudon did not return, the two noblemen told the inquiring furrier that they were ignorant of the boy's whereabouts and suggested he had been carried off by thieves at Tiffauges
Tiffauges
Tiffauges is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France.-History:Gilles de Rais had his castle there....
to be made into a page. In Gilles de Rais' trial, the events were testified to by Hillairet and his wife, Jean Jeudon and his wife, and five others from Machecoul.
In his 1971 biography of Gilles de Rais, Jean Benedetti tells how the children who fell into Rais's hands were put to death:
Gilles' bodyservant Étienne Corrillaut, known as Poitou, was an accomplice in many of the crimes and testified that his master hung his victims with ropes from a hook to prevent the child from crying out, then masturbated
Masturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
upon the child's belly or thighs. Taking the victim down, Rais comforted the child and assured him he only wanted to play with him. Gilles then either killed the child himself or had the child killed by his cousin Gilles de Sillé, Poitou or another bodyservant called Henriet. The victims were killed by decapitation, cutting of their throats, dismemberment, or breaking of their necks with a stick. A short, thick, double-edged sword called a braquemard
Braquemard
Braquemard may be:*the French term for a short, thick, double-edged sword. It is believed that a Braquemard was one of several weapons utilized by Gilles de Rais to commit murders.*An Argot expression for "penis"...
was kept at hand for the murders. Poitou further testified that Rais sometimes abused the victims (whether boys or girls) before wounding them and at other times after the victim had been slashed in the throat or decapitated. According to Poitou, Rais disdained the victim's sexual organs, and took "infinitely more pleasure in debauching himself in this manner ... than in using their natural orifice, in the normal manner."
In his own confession, Gilles testified that “when the said children were dead, he kissed them and those who had the most handsome limbs and heads he held up to admire them, and had their bodies cruelly cut open and took delight at the sight of their inner organs; and very often when the children were dying he sat on their stomachs and took pleasure in seeing them die and laughed”.
Poitou testified that he and Henriet burned the bodies in the fireplace in Gilles' room. The clothes of the victim were placed into the fire piece by piece so they burned slowly and the smell was minimized. The ashes were then thrown into the cesspit, the moat, or other hiding places. The last recorded murder was of the son of Éonnet de Villeblanche and his wife Macée. Poitou paid 20 sou
Sou
Sou may refer to:* Sou , a type of food pastry* Sou , a film by Theodore Ushev for Shorts in Motion: The Art of Seduction* Solidus #France, French slang for coins...
s to have a page's doublet
Doublet (clothing)
A doublet is a man's snug-fitting buttoned jacket that is fitted and shaped to the man's body which was worn in Western Europe from the Middle Ages through to the mid-17th century. The doublet was hip length or waist length and worn over the shirt or drawers. Until the end of the 15th century the...
made for the victim, who was then assaulted, murdered, and incinerated in August 1440.
Controversy
Some hold that Gilles de Rais was framed for murder by elements within the Church as part of an ecclesiastic plot or act of revenge, with the Duke of BrittanyDuke of Brittany
The Duchy of Brittany was a medieval tribal and feudal state covering the northwestern peninsula of Europe,bordered by the Alantic Ocean on the west and the English Channel to the north with less definitive borders of the Loire River to the south and Normandy to the east...
giving permission to prosecute Gilles de Rais and receiving his lands after the conviction. Title to the lands was ultimately transferred to the Duke, who in turn divided them among his nobles. The guilty verdict was based on the detailed eyewitness accounts of his confederates and the testimony of his victims' parents. However, since confessions in cases of heresy
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
and witchcraft
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
were often extracted through torture, similarities in confessions do not of necessity imply truth or accuracy in the content of the confessions. While none of the parents claimed direct knowledge of the crimes, spectral evidence
Spectral evidence
Spectral evidence is a form of evidence based upon dreams and visions. It was admitted in court during the Salem witch trials by the appointed chief justice, William Stoughton. The booklet A Tryal of Witches taken from a contemporary report of the proceedings of the Bury St...
and hearsay
Hearsay
Hearsay is information gathered by one person from another person concerning some event, condition, or thing of which the first person had no direct experience. When submitted as evidence, such statements are called hearsay evidence. As a legal term, "hearsay" can also have the narrower meaning of...
were not barred from consideration, as they are in most modern justice systems.
Anthropologist
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
Margaret Murray
Margaret Murray
Margaret Alice Murray was a prominent British Egyptologist and anthropologist. Primarily known for her work in Egyptology, which was "the core of her academic career," she is also known for her propagation of the Witch-cult hypothesis, the theory that the witch trials in the Early Modern period of...
and occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
ist Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...
are among those who have questioned the account of the ecclesiastic and secular authorities involved in the case. Murray, in her book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (pp. 173–174), speculated that Gilles de Rais was a witch and adherent of a fertility cult centered on the pagan
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...
goddess, Diana
Diana (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt and moon and birthing, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals. She was equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, though she had an independent origin in Italy...
. According to Murray, "Gilles de Rais was tried and executed as a witch and, in the same way, much that is mysterious in this trial can also be explained by the Dianic Cult." However, many historians reject Murray's theory. Norman Cohn
Norman Cohn
Norman Rufus Colin Cohn FBA was a British academic, historian and writer who spent fourteen years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex.-Life:...
argues that her theory does not agree with what is known of Gilles' crimes and trial. Historians do not regard Gilles as a martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
to an antiquated religion; recent scholars tend to view him as a Catholic who descended into crime and depravity.
Trial and death
On 15 May 1440, Rais kidnapped a cleric during a dispute at the Church of Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-MorteSaint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte
Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.-References:*...
. The act prompted an investigation by the Bishop of Nantes, during which evidence of Gilles' crimes was uncovered. On July 29, the Bishop released his findings, and subsequently obtained the prosecutorial cooperation of Rais's former protector, Jean V, the Duke of Brittany. Rais and his bodyservants Poitou and Henriet were arrested on 15 September 1440, following a secular investigation which paralleled the findings of the investigation from the Bishop of Nantes
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
. Rais's prosecution would likewise be conducted by both secular and ecclesiastical court
Ecclesiastical court
An ecclesiastical court is any of certain courts having jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters. In the Middle Ages in many areas of Europe these courts had much wider powers than before the development of nation states...
s, on charges which included murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
, and heresy
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
.
The extensive witness testimony convinced the judges that there were adequate grounds for establishing the guilt of the accused. After Rais admitted to the charges on 21 October, the court canceled a plan to torture him into confessing. Peasants of the neighboring villages had earlier begun to offer up accusations that since their children had entered Gilles' castle begging for food they had never been seen again. The transcript, which included testimony from the parents of many of these missing children as well as graphic descriptions of the murders provided by Gilles' accomplices, was said to be so lurid that the judges ordered the worst portions to be stricken from the record.
The precise number of Gilles' victims is not known, as most of the bodies were burned or buried. The number of murders is generally placed between 80 and 200; a few have conjectured numbers upwards of 600. The victims ranged in age from six to eighteen and included both sexes.
On 23 October 1440, the secular court heard the confessions of Poitou and Henriet and condemned them both to death, followed by Gilles' death sentence on 25 October. Gilles was allowed to make confession, and his request to be buried in the church of the monastery of Notre-Dame des Carmes in Nantes
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
was granted.
Execution by hanging and burning was set for Wednesday 26 October. At nine o‘clock, Gilles and his two accomplices made their way in procession to the place of execution on the Ile de Biesse. There, Gilles addressed the throng of onlookers with contrite piety, and exhorted Henriet and Poitou to die bravely and think only of salvation. Gilles' 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 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; their bodies however were reduced to ashes in the flames and then scattered.Several years after Gilles' death, his daughter Marie had a stone memorial erected at the site of his execution. Over the years, the structure came to be regarded as a holy altar under the protection of Saint Anne
Saint Anne
Saint Hanna of David's house and line, was the mother of the Virgin Mary and grandmother of Jesus Christ according to Christian and Islamic tradition. English Anne is derived from Greek rendering of her Hebrew name Hannah...
. Generations of pregnant women flocked there to pray for an abundance of breast milk
Breast milk
Breast milk, more specifically human milk, is the milk produced by the breasts of a human female for her infant offspring...
. The memorial was destroyed by rioting Jacobins during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
.
Cultural references
In literature, Gilles de Rais appears as a character in George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's 1920 play Saint Joan
Saint Joan (play)
Saint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw, based on the life and trial of Joan of Arc. Published not long after the canonization of Joan of Arc by the Roman Catholic Church, the play dramatises what is known of her life based on the substantial records of her trial. Shaw studied the transcripts...
, about the passion of Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
. David Oxley
David Oxley
David Oxley was an English actor who made many film and television appearances over a 35 year period. He is best known for portraying Sir Hugo Baskerville in The Hound of the Baskervilles and for the major role of Captain W...
played the part in Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
's 1957 film version. Under the name Gilles de Retz, he is the villain in the 1899 novel The Black Douglas by S.R. Crockett
Samuel Rutherford Crockett
Samuel Rutherford Crockett was a Scottish novelist, born at Duchrae, Balmaghie, Kirkcudbrightshire, the illegitimate grandson of a farmer....
. The novels The Life and Death of my Lord Gilles de Rais by Robert Nye
Robert Nye
Robert Nye FRSL is an English poet who has also written novels and plays as well as stories for children. His bestselling novel Falstaff published in 1976 was described by Michael Ratcliffe as 'one of the most ambitious and seductive novels of the decade,' and went on to win both The Hawthornden...
and Là-Bas
Là-Bas
Là-Bas is a novel by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans, first published in 1891. It is Huysmans' most famous work after À rebours. Là-Bas deals with the subject of Satanism in contemporary France, and the novel stirred a certain amount of controversy on its first appearance...
by Joris-Karl Huysmans
Joris-Karl Huysmans
Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans was a French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans . He is most famous for the novel À rebours...
are among the works which retell his life. H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
also makes extensive reference to Gilles de Rais in his works, Crux Ansata
Crux Ansata
Crux Ansata, subtitle An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church by H. G. Wells is a wartime book first published in 1943 by Penguin Books, Hammonsworth : Penguin Special No. 129. The U. S...
and '42 to '44 in 1943 and 1944, respectively. The novel Gilles & Jeanne by Michel Tournier
Michel Tournier
Michel Tournier is a French writer.His works are highly considered and have won important awards such as the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française in 1967 for Friday, or, The Other Island and the Prix Goncourt for The Erl-King in 1970...
covers his campaigning with Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
. This relationship partly informs David Rudkin
David Rudkin
James David Rudkin is an English playwright of Northern Irish descent. Coming from a family of strict evangelical Christians, Rudkin was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and read Mods and Greats at St Catherine's College, Oxford...
's play The Triumph of Death. Gille de Rais's worship of Barron, and that creature itself, form the backdrop to Shaun Hutson
Shaun Hutson
Shaun Hutson is a writer of novels including horror novels and dark urban thrillers. A native of Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire, England, Hutson now lives and writes in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire....
's 1991 novel Renegades. Gilles is one of the main characters in Valerio Evangelisti
Valerio Evangelisti
Valerio Evangelisti is one of the most popular Italian writers of science fiction, fantasy, historical novels and horror. He is known mainly for his series of novels featuring the inquistor Nicolas Eymerich and for the Nostradamus trilogy, all bestsellers translated into many languages...
's 2002 novel Mater Terribilis. He is also the main character in the short story Rumfuddle by Jack Vance. Gilles de Rais turns up as a character in two novels by Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
: Image of the Beast
Image of the Beast (novel)
Image of the Beast is a science fiction novel by Philip José Farmer. The story follows Herald Childe, a private detective, who is sent a snuff film of his partner being murdered by what appears to be a vampire. His investigation into the identity of the killers leads him into a world of apparent...
and its sequel Blown.
In music, Swiss avant-garde metal band Celtic Frost
Celtic Frost
Celtic Frost was a metal band from Zürich, Switzerland. They are known for their heavy influence on the extreme metal genres. The group was first active from 1984 to 1993, and re-formed in 2001. Following Tom Gabriel Fischer's departure in 2008, Celtic Frost decided to break up again...
based their 1984 song "Into the Crypts of Rays" from the Morbid Tales
Morbid Tales
Morbid Tales is the debut album by the Swiss extreme metal band, Celtic Frost. It was released in June 1984. The first American release by Enigma/Metal Blade added two tracks, making Morbid Tales an LP....
album on the atrocities committed by Gilles. Belgian black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
band Ancient Rites
Ancient Rites
Ancient Rites is a Flemish black metal band formed in 1988. Initially, the line- up consisted of guitar players Johan and Phillip, drummer Stefan, and Gunther Theys on bass and vocals. In 1990 the Dark Ritual demo was released in the underground scene, getting worldwide attention just as black...
based their 1994 song "Morbid Glory (Gilles de Rais 1404-1440)" from Diabolic Serenades on the life of Gilles de Rais. The shock
Shock rock
Shock rock is an umbrella term for artists who combine rock music with elements of theatrical shock value in live performances.-History:Screamin' Jay Hawkins was arguably the first shock rocker...
/thrash
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
band GWAR
GWAR
Gwar is a satirical heavy metal band formed in Richmond, Virginia, United States, in 1984. The band is best known for its elaborate science fiction/horror film inspired costumes, obscene lyrics and graphic stage performances, which feature humorous enactments of politically and morally taboo...
mentions Gilles in their song "Blimey", from the album America Must Be Destroyed
America Must Be Destroyed
-Line-up:*Dave Brockie – Lead vocals*Pete Lee – Lead guitar, backing vocals tour only*Mike Derks – Lead guitar, Rhythm guitar, backing vocals...
. American surrealist
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
black/death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
band Sangraal released Unearthly Night, a concept album based on Gilles de Rais, in 2005. British extreme metal
Extreme metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...
band Cradle of Filth
Cradle of Filth
Cradle of Filth are an English extreme metal band, formed in Suffolk in 1991. The band's musical style evolved from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic black metal, and other extreme metal styles, while their lyrical themes and imagery are heavily...
released Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder
Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder
Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder is the eighth studio album by English extreme metal band Cradle of Filth. It was released on October 27, 2008 by Roadrunner Records. A special edition containing bonus material was also released...
(subtitled The Life and Crimes of Gilles de Rais), a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
based on the life of Rais, in 2008. Avant-garde legends The Residents
The Residents
The Residents is an American art collective best known for avant-garde music and multimedia works. The first official release under the name of The Residents was in 1972, and the group has since released over sixty albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects and ten DVDs....
included a narrative about Gilles' life on the track "The Beards!" from their 2006 album River of Crime (Episodes 1–5). American death metal band Cannibal Corpse
Cannibal Corpse
Cannibal Corpse is an American death metal band from Buffalo, New York. Formed in 1988, the band has released eleven studio albums, one box set, and one live album...
include a quote Gilles de Rais in the insert of their 1991 album Butchered at Birth
Butchered at Birth
-Personnel:* Chris Barnes – vocals* Jack Owen – guitar* Bob Rusay – guitar* Alex Webster – bass* Paul Mazurkiewicz – drums* Glen Benton – guest vocals on track 6...
, giving an account of his methods of murder. Another American death metal band, Brodequin
Brodequin
Brodequin is a death metal band from Knoxville, Tennessee. Formed in 1998 by brothers Mike and Jamie Bailey, the band has released three full-length albums to date.-The band's music:...
, produced the song "Gilles de Rais" about crimes of de Rais on their Festival of Death
Festival of Death (Brodequin album)
Festival of Death was the second full length album by Brodequin. The album is considered to be of the brutal death metal genre.-Track listing:# "Mazzatello" - 02:30# "Judas Cradle" - 02:12# "Trail By Ordeal" - 02:48# "Torches Of Nero" - 01:54...
album. Macabre
Macabre
In works of art, macabre is the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere. Macabre works emphasize the details and symbols of death....
produced a song called "The Black Knight" about the murders he perpetrated on their album Grim Scary Tales.
In the 1980s, Quentin Crisp
Quentin Crisp
Quentin Crisp , was an English writer and raconteur. He became a gay icon in the 1970s after publication of his memoir, The Naked Civil Servant.- Early life :...
told the story of Gilles de Rais in his one-man show, An Evening With Quentin Crisp.
In manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
, Gilles de Rais was featured as the chief antagonist in the comic book Tetragrammaton Labyrinth
Tetragrammaton Labyrinth
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by manga author Ei Itou. The manga was serialized in the Japanese seinen manga magazine Comic Gum between January 26, 2005 and November 26, 2007, published by Wani Books. The manga has been licensed by Los Angeles-based company Seven Seas...
.
In Castlevania 64
Castlevania 64
Castlevania, known in Japan as , is an action-adventure video game developed by Konami's Kobe branch for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It was released on a 64-megabit cartridge in North America on January 26, 1999, in Japan on March 11, 1999, and in Europe on May 14, 1999...
and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness is a video game that was developed and published by Konami for the Nintendo 64. It was first released in North America on November 30, 1999 and is a sequel to the first Castlevania game on the Nintendo 64, but also contains a remake of the original game with improved...
, "Gilles de Rais" is one of Dracula's closer companions.
In 1987 the Spanish director Agusti Villaronga
Agustí Villaronga
Agustí Villaronga Riutort is a Balearic Spanish film director, screenwriter and actor. He has directed eleven films since 1976. His film El niño de la luna was entered into the 1989 Cannes Film Festival....
directed the film Tras El Cristal
Tras el cristal
Tras el cristal is a 1987 Spanish art house horror film written and directed by Agustí Villaronga and starring Günter Meisner, Marisa Paredes and David Sust. The plot follows an ex-Nazi sadistic child abuser who is now paralyzed and depending on an iron lung to live. A young man who comes to...
, with an original script based on the killings of Gilles de Rais.
In the 2000 Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon, known as , is a media franchise created by manga artist Naoko Takeuchi. Fred Patten credits Takeuchi with popularizing the concept of a team of magical girls, and Paul Gravett credits the series with "revitalizing" the magical-girl genre itself...
musical Transylvania no Mori
Sailor Moon musicals
The , commonly referred to as , are a series of live theatre productions based on Naoko Takeuchi's metaseries Sailor Moon. The series consists of 29 musicals which have had more than 800 performances since the show opened in Summer 1993...
and its 2001 revival, Baron Gilles de Rais is brought back to life as a homunculus
Homunculus
Homunculus is a term used, generally, in various fields of study to refer to any representation of a human being. Historically, it referred specifically to the concept of a miniature though fully formed human body, for example, in the studies of alchemy and preformationism...
under the control of Dark Cain in order to further the war between humans and demons.
In the 2006 PSP game Jeanne d'Arc
Jeanne d'Arc (video game)
is a tactical role-playing game developed by Level-5 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable . The game was first released in Japan on November 22, 2006 and was then localized in North America on August 21, 2007. It was never released in PAL regions...
Gilles de Rais is a playable character on the side of Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
throughout the game.
In the 2007 games Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War
Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War
Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War is a historical fantasy video game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms. It was published by Koei and developed by Omega Force....
, Gilles de Rais appears as one of the most important commanders of the French faction. He usually accompanies La Hire in the battlefield.
In the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese light novel and TV series Fate/Zero
Fate/zero
is a prequel to Type-Moon's visual novel Fate/stay night. It is a light novel by Gen Urobuchi, illustrated by Takashi Takeuchi. The first volume was released on December 29, 2006, and is a collaboration between Type-Moon and fellow developer Nitroplus. The second volume was released on March 31,...
, Gilles de Rais is summoned as Servant Caster.
In Luc Besson
Luc Besson
Luc Besson is a French film director, writer, and producer. He is the creator of EuropaCorp film company. He has been involved with over 50 films, spanning 26 years, as writer, director, and/or producer.-Early life:...
's The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc is a French/American historical drama film directed by Luc Besson. The screenplay was written by Besson and Andrew Birkin, and the original music score was composed by Éric Serra....
, Gilles de Rais is played by Vincent Cassel
Vincent Cassel
Vincent Cassel is a Cesar award winning French actor probably best known to English-speaking audiences through his performances in the Ocean's Trilogy of films and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.-Personal life:...
.
In the Japanese manga series Drifters
Drifters (manga)
is a fantasy, alternate history Japanese manga written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano. The manga started serialization in Shōnen Gahosha's magazine, Young King Ours on April 30, 2009...
, he, alongside Joan of Arc, is part of the Offscourings.
Further reading
- Bataille, Georges. The Trial of Gilles de Rais. Amok Books. ISBN 978-1-878923-02-8.
- Bordonove, Georges. Gilles de Rais. Pygmalion. ISBN 978-2-85704-694-3.
- Cebrián, Juan Antonio. El Mariscal de las Tinieblas. La Verdadera Historia de Barba Azul. Temas de Hoy. ISBN 978-84-8460-497-6 (Spanish).
- Huysmans, J.-K. Là-Bas. Dover. ISBN 978-0-486-22837-2.
- Hyatte, Reginald. Laughter for the Devil: The Trials of Gilles De Rais, Companion-In-Arms of Joan of Arc (1440). Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. ISBN 978-0-8386-3190-4.
- Lampo, Hubert. De duivel en de maagd. 207 p., Amsterdam, Meulenhoff, 1988 (11e druk), ISBN 9029004452. (1e druk: ’s-Gravenhage, Stols, 1955).
- Lampo, Hubert. Le Diable et la Pucelle. 163 p., Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2002, ISBN 2-85939-765-5. (traduction française de De duivel en de maagd).
- Morgan, Val. The Legend of Gilles De Rais (1404-1440) in the Writings of Huysmans, Bataille, Planchon and Tournier (Studies in French Civilization, 29). Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0-7734-6619-7.
- Nye, Robert. The Life and Death of My Lord, Gilles de Rais. Time Warner Books. ISBN 978-0-349-10250-4.
External links
- De Rais at the Crime Library