Gilles de Rais Gilles de Montmorency - Laval ( also known as Gilles de Rais ) ( prob . c . September 1405 – 26 October 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 by his reputation and conviction as a prolific serial killer of children . 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 . He earned the favour of the Duke of Brittany 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 / 1435 , 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 is believed to be the inspiration for the 1697 fairy tale " Bluebeard " ( " Barbebleu " ) by Charles Perrault . His life is the subject of several modern novels , and referenced in a number of rock bands ' albums and songs . Early life . Gilles de Rais was probably born in late 1405 to Guy II de Montmorency - Laval and Marie de Craon in the family castle at Champtocé - sur - Loire . 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 to Catherine de Thouars of Brittany , heiress of La Vendée and Poitou . Their only child Marie was born in 1429 . Military career . In the decades following the Breton War of Succession ( 1341 – 64 ) , the defeated faction led by Olivier de Blois , Count of Penthièvre , continued to plot against the Dukes of the House of Montfort . The Blois faction , who still refused to relinquish their claim to rule over the Duchy of Brittany , had taken Duke John VI prisoner in violation of the Treaty of Guérande ( 1365 ) . The sixteen - year - old Gilles took the side of the House of Montfort . 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 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 a border of 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 . 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 , requiring 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 Anjou , 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 . 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 knew 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 taking place in the lower hall of his castle at Tiffauges , attempting 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 that the demon 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 his wealth severely depleted . Child killer . In his confession , Gilles maintained the first assaults on children occurred between spring 1432 and spring 1433 . The first murders occurred at Champtocé - sur - Loire ; however , no account of these murders survived . 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 twelve called Jeudon ( first name unknown ) , 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 , the boy ' s father Jean Jeudon , 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 " sous " to have a page ' s doublet made for the victim , who was then assaulted , murdered , and incinerated in August 1440 . Trial and execution . On 15 May 1440 , Rais kidnapped a cleric during a dispute at the Church of Saint - Étienne - de - Mer - Morte . The act prompted an investigation by the Bishop of Nantes , during which evidence of Gilles ' crimes was uncovered . On 29 July , the Bishop released his findings , and subsequently obtained the prosecutorial cooperation of Rais ' s former protector , Jean VI , 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 . Gilles is said to have addressed the crowd 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 but their bodies were reduced to ashes in the flames and then scattered . Question of guilt . Although Gilles de Rais was convicted of murdering many children through his confessions and the detailed eyewitness accounts of his own confederates and victims ' parents , doubts have persisted about the court ' s verdict . Counterarguments are based on the theory de Rais was himself a victim of an ecclesiastic plot or act of revenge by the Catholic Church or French state . Doubts on Gilles de Rais ' guilt have long persisted because the Duke of Brittany , who was given the authority to prosecute , received all the titles to Gilles ' former lands after his conviction . The Duke then divided the land among his own nobles . Writers such as French professor and secret societies specialist , in his book " Plaidoyer pour Gilles de Rais " , contend he was a victim of the Inquisition . In the early 20th century , Anthropologist Margaret Murray and occult ist Aleister Crowley are among those who questioned the involvement of the ecclesiastic and secular authorities in the case . 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 adherent of a fertility cult centered on the pagan goddess , Diana . 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 a pre - Christian religion ; other scholars tend to view him as a Catholic who descended into crime and depravity . In 1992 , Freemason Jean - Yves Goëau - Brissonnière , the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France , organized a court consisting of former French ministers , parliament members and UNESCO experts to re - examine the source material and evidence available at the medieval trial . The hearing , which concluded Gilles de Rais was not guilty of the crimes , was turned into a documentary called " Gilles de Rais ou la Gueule du loup " , narrated by Gilbert Prouteau . References . Notes Footnotes Bibliography