Gilles de Rais, Baron de Rais (; also spelled "Retz"; 1405 – 26 October 1440) was a French knight and lord whose estates extended across Brittany, Anjou and Poitou. He served as one of the captains of the French royal army during the Hundred Years' War and took part in the same campaigns as Joan of Arc in 1429, ending with the failed siege of Paris. Little is known about the nature of his relationship with Joan of Arc, despite fictional portrayals that depict them as close companions. He is best known for his conviction for the rape and murder of numerous children.
As heir to several major noble houses of western France, Gilles de Rais became a powerful lord and supported Charles VII. In April 1429, he entered into an alliance with his cousin Georges de La Trémoille, the Grand Chamberlain of France. Later that year, he was appointed Marshal of France. He gradually withdrew from military affairs during the 1430s. His family accused him of squandering his inheritance through extravagant spending, and in July 1435 Charles VII placed his lands under royal interdict. In May 1440, Gilles de Rais assaulted a senior cleric at the church of Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte and seized the neighbouring castle, violating ecclesiastical immunity and defying his overlord, John V, Duke of Brittany. Arrested in September, he was tried the following month before both ducal and ecclesiastical courts on charges of heresy, sodomy and the murder of numerous children. He was executed on 26 October 1440.
Since the early 19th century, Gilles de Rais has often been associated with the fairy-tale character Bluebeard, although the hypothesis that his life inspired Charles Perrault's 1697 tale remains speculative. From the late 19th century onward, his case has been reinterpreted through successive criminological and psychiatric approaches, including sexual sadism and serial murder. Some scholars caution against applying modern diagnostic categories to a 15th-century figure.
Although the validity of his conviction has occasionally been questioned, most professional historians reject claims of his innocence. The detailed witness testimony concerning missing children continues to be regarded as significant, while some of his servants' confessions, though reinterpreted in light of inquisitorial procedure, have no parallel in inquisitorial testimony.
Ancestry
In the aftermath of the Breton Civil War (1341–1365), the Duchy of Brittany remained formally a fief of the French Crown, but in many respects operated as a semi-independent principality, with its own institutions, taxation, currency, army, and diplomatic representation.
Within this political order, the Barons of Retz (whose name appears in medieval sources as Rais, Rays, or Raiz) were among the leading vassals of the dukes of Brittany, while also maintaining close ties to the French royal court. The barony of Retz, one of the duchy's largest and most prestigious lay lordships, served as a significant counterweight to ducal authority. The lordship was centered on the ,. on Brittany's southern frontier, south of the Loire. This border position generated substantial revenues for the barony and gave it considerable strategic importance.
The House of Retz became extinct in the male line in 1371 with the death of Girard V Chabot. The barony of Retz passed to his sister, Jeanne Chabot, known as la Sage (the Wise). Seeking to expand the ducal demesne and secure control of the lands south of the Loire, Duke John IV of Brittany laid claim to her inheritance. In response, King Charles V of France entrusted the protection of the lands of Jeanne Chabot, Dame de Rais, to her kinsman Guy "Brumor" de Laval.
After Guy Brumor's death (at an unknown date after 1375),. attempts to reach an amicable settlement between Jeanne Chabot and Duke John IV failed. The duke then demanded that she cede her estates to him. When she refused, he sent troops to occupy the barony’s principal strongholds. The ensuing protracted legal proceedings were temporarily suspended under pressure from the Royal Council and eventually led to a compromise that restored Jeanne Chabot to possession of her lands. Faced with mounting military and political difficulties, John IV accepted the settlement in order to ease tensions with the Breton nobility and secure the succession of his son, the future Duke John V. The agreement was finalized in 1400, shortly after John IV's death on 1 November 1399..
Having no children, Jeanne Chabot named Guy de Laval, the son of Guy Brumor, as her heir in 1401, on condition that he adopt the name and arms of Retz.. She later revoked this decision in favor of another relative, Jean de Craon, seigneur de La Suze and Champtocé.. The ensuing succession dispute ended in a compromise between Guy de Laval and Jean de Craon, sealed by a planned marriage between Guy and Jean de Craon's daughter, Marie. The Parlement of Paris ratified the settlement in 1404. Later that year, Jeanne Chabot transferred several lordships to Guy de Laval in exchange for a life annuity. Guy de Laval and Marie de Craon were probably married after these arrangements had been completed. Guy thereafter assumed the title of Sire de Rais.. The couple settled at the Château de Machecoul, where they lived with Jeanne Chabot until her death in 1407..
Gilles de Rais (or "Retz"), the eldest son of Marie de Craon and Guy de Rais, descended from several prominent feudal houses.. Through his mother, he belonged to the House of Craon, a wealthy family of western France. Through his father, he belonged to the House of Laval,. one of the two leading Breton lineages of the fifteenth century. The Laval family's earlier marriages had also allied it with the Barons of Retz, described as the "oldest barons of the Duchy of Brittany",. and with the prestigious House of Montmorency.
Biography Early life
Gilles de Rais was born "in a room called the Black Tower" at the , at an unknown date. His birth has been variably dated between 1396 and 1406, and more frequently towards the end of 1404. However, he was probably born not before 1405 given the delays caused by the legal procedures before the Parlement of Paris that conditioned his parents' marriage.. Furthermore, an archival document indicates Gilles's age ("14 to 15 years old") in February 1422.
Gilles's younger brother René was probably born around 1414... Gilles and René's mother Marie de Craon died at an unknown date, while her husband Guy de Rais died after, at the end of October 1415 in Machecoul, "suffering from a serious bodily infirmity" according to the terms of his will and testament.
The cause of Guy de Rais's death remains unknown, although several authors have mistakenly repeated a fictional account, first depicted in a French novel published in 1928, in which he is disembowelled by a wild boar during a hunting accident. Malaria or wounds sustained at the Battle of Agincourt have also been proposed by historians as possible causes of death, but neither is supported by contemporary documentary evidence.
The House of Craon suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Agincourt in October 1415. Among those killed were Jean de Craon's only son, Amaury de Briolay, and several other members of the Craon family. Gilles and René consequently became the sole heirs of Jean de Craon, who raised them at the Château de Champtocé after they were orphaned. In doing so, their maternal grandfather disregarded the provisions of the last will and testament of Guy de Rais, which had appointed Jean II Tournemine de la Hunaudaye as the "guardian, tutor, protector, defender and lawful administrator" of the two orphans..
Marriage and Issue On 4 January 1417, Jean de Craon betrothed his grandson, Gilles de Rais, to Jeanne Paynel, the wealthy Norman heiress and daughter of Foulques VI Paynel, seigneur de Hambye and Bricquebec. Although the Parlement of Paris forbade the marriage until Jeanne Paynel came of age, it never took place for unknown reasons. Jeanne later became abbess of the Benedictine convent of Lisieux..
Jean de Craon then betrothed Gilles de Rais to a niece of John V, Duke of Brittany: Béatrice of Rohan, daughter of Alain IX of Rohan and Marguerite of Brittany.. The contract, dated Vannes 28 November 1418, was not carried out,. possibly due to Beatrice's death..
Gilles de Rais eventually became engaged to Catherine de Thouars,. the daughter of Miles II de Thouars and Béatrice de Montjean. The match faced several obstacles. Gilles de Rais and Catherine de Thouars were related within the fourth degree of consanguinity under canon law, requiring an ecclesiastical dispensation. The House of Craon was also involved in disputes with Miles II de Thouars, seigneur de Pouzauges and Tiffauges.. Gilles de Rais ignored these obstacles. Before obtaining the required dispensation, he abducted Catherine de Thouars and married her in a chapel outside his parish, without the publication of the banns. The couple signed a marriage contract on 30 November 1420,. but the Church annulled the union and declared it incestuous..
After the death of Miles II de Thouars, matrimonial alliances brought the houses of Craon and Thouars closer together, helping to regularize the situation of the couple. On 24 April 1422, the papal legate approached Hardouin de Bueil, bishop of Angers, asking him to pronounce a sentence of separation against Gilles de Rais and Catherine de Thouars, and to impose a penance before absolving them of the crime of incest and allowing them to marry in due form. After conducting an investigation, Hardouin de Bueil celebrated their marriage with great pomp and ceremony on 26 June 1422, at Chalonnes-sur-Loire castle. This union strengthened Gilles de Rais's position in Poitou by "linking him to the house of the Viscounts of Thouars, who dominated the Bas-Poitou region as far as the Atlantic.".
Gilles de Rais and Catherine de Thouars's only child, Marie, was born in 1433 or 1434..
Family disputes
The marriage contract allowed Catherine de Thouars's mother, Béatrice de Montjean, to retain several estates, including the castles of Tiffauges and Pouzauges, as her dower. Jean de Craon and Gilles de Rais expected to recover these lands upon Béatrice's death. Béatrice's remarriage to Jacques Meschin de la Roche-Aireault, chamberlain to Charles VII, complicated their claims to her estates. They instructed Jean de la Noë, captain of Tiffauges, to abduct Béatrice. She was imprisoned first at Le Loroux-Bottereau, then at Champtocé, where Jean de Craon and Gilles de Rais threatened to sew her into a sack and throw her into the river unless she renounced her dower rights. Jean de la Noë also captured Jacques Meschin's younger sister...
Jacques Meschin repeatedly brought proceedings before the Parlement of Paris to obtain the release of his wife and sister, but without success. He then sent a bailiff to Champtocé, followed by his brother Gilles Meschin, who led a delegation carrying the summons. Jean de Craon imprisoned all the envoys. At the request of his wife Anne de Sillé, who was also Béatrice's mother, he nevertheless agreed to release Béatrice. The remaining captives were released after the payment of ransoms. Gilles Meschin died a few days later, probably as a result of his imprisonment at Champtocé. Jacques Meschin's younger sister was taken to Brittany and compelled to marry Girard de la Noë, son of the captain of Tiffauges.