The Real Bluebeard: The Life of Gilles de Rais [UK ed.] 0750934484, 9780750934480

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THE LIFE OF GILLE S DE RAIS

JEAN

BENEDETTI

SUTTON PUBLISHING

This book was firsc published in 1971 by PeLer Da\'ies This edicion first published in 2003 by Sutton Publishing Limited · Phoenix .Niill Thrupp · Stroud · Gloucestershire · GL5 2BU Copyright© Jean Benedetti, 1971, 2003 All rights reserved. No part of this publicarion may be reproduced, scored in a retrie\·al system, or transmicced, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or other\-vise, without the prior permission of the publisher and copyright holder. British Library Cataloguing in P11blicarion Data A catalogue record for this book is available from che British Library ISBN o 7509 34+8 +

Printed and bound in Great Britain bv J .H . H aynes & Co. Ltd, Sparkford. '

Contents Sources and Acknowledgements Introduction

3 13

Part One GLORY

Birth of an Heir Childhood and Adolescence 3. War and Court Politics + Joan of Arc 5. Coronation 6. The Siege of Paris 7. Death ofJean de Craon 1. 2.

27

32 51

65 85 94 102

Part Two DELIRIUM

8. The Murders 9. The Prodigal 10. Le Mistere du Siege d'Orleans l l. Family Reactions 12. Alchemy and Black Magic 13. Jean V 14- The Final Madness

109

122 128

136 145 156 l 66

Part Three PURGATION

15. The Trial 16. Bluebeard Appendix-Chronological List of Known Victims

Chronological Table Index

175 191 I

96

198 201

•

Sources and Acknowledgements Any new book on the life of Gilles de Rais is, of necessity, a study in interpretation. It is doubtful now whether any fresh documentary evidence will be discovered. Rather than burden the text with a multitude of footnotes, many of which will refer to works long out of print, I have chosen to indicate the sources I have relied on at the outset. All biographers of Gilles de Rais are indebted to two main lvorks, the Abbe Bo~'s book Gilles de Rais M arechal de France dit Barbe Bleue, 1404-1440 (Paris 1886) and the Abbe Bourdeaut's short volume Chantoce Gilles de Raiz et les dues de Bretagne (Rennes 1924). In more recent years Georges Bataille has made an invaluable contn1>ution by establishing a detailed chronology of events and also by providing a modem French translation of the Latin account of the trial. Apart from disagreements over detail, it is Monsieur Bataille's chronology which I have accepted. The bulk of the relevant documents concerning Gilles de Rais' life were gathered by the Abbe Bossard in the Appendices of his book. Unfortunately he did not feel able to publish the more explicit passages concerning Gilles' sexual deviations even in Latin, so that the trial record is incomplete. For the full text one must turn either to the facsimile edition published by the Ecole de Chartes (Volume XXIII, l 862) or to the modem translation in Georges Bataille's book Le Proces de Gilles de Rais (Paris 1965). The full text of the Memoire des Heritiers, a list of complaints concerning Gilles' extravagance drawn up by his family some ye~rs after his death when they were trying to recover the lands that had been confiscated, may also be found in Dom H. Marice's Memoires.

Other important details on Gilles de Rais' life are to be found in the Abbe Bourdeaut's book, which was published after a thorough examination of local archives. Details of Georges de la Tremoille's rise to power and his struggle with Arthur de Richemont are taken from E. Cosneau's book Le connetable de Richemont (Paris 1886). The account of the siege of Orleans and the subsequent campaign in the Loire valley is based on the Chronicles collected by Quicherat in Volume IV of his work on the Trial of Joan of Arc. The larger part of the description is taken from the I ournal du siege d'Orleans but further details have been taken from other accounts included in the same volume. Occasional use was made of the Orleans manuscript (Folio Society 1956). The tenns of Gilles de Rais' agreement with La Tremoille are to be found in the history of the La Tremoille family. The full text of the 'Mistere du Siege d'Orleans', edited by Guessard and de Certain, was published in 1862. For the material relating to the general background of the period the reader is referred to Marcellin Defourneaux's book La vie quotidienne au temps de Jeanne d'Arc (Hachette 1952) and to H11izinga's book The Decline of the Middle Ages. Jean de Bueil's Le ]ou vencel has also proved a useful source. This 'novel' comprises a highly self-congratulatory autobiographical account of events in the author's life. The characters in it have been given pseudonyms but are identifiable. The quotation on page 13 is a stage direction from Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan and has been reproduced by permission of the Society of At1thors on behalf of the Bernard Shaw Estate. The quotations on page 43 are from Robert Graves's translation of The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, and are included by permission of the translator. I would like to acknowledge the help given me by Monsieur Jean-Yves Ribault of the Archives Departementales du Cher, in Bourges, who made available his expert advice and knowledge of the period and drew my attention to certain important details. I would also like to thank Dr Ian Grimble for giving up so much of his valuable time to discus.s this project with me and for allowing me to make use of the script of his Third Programme broadcast on the trial of Joan of Arc. It is to be hoped that his findings on Joan's involvement with the Witch

Cult will soon find a wider public. Finally I would like to thank · Mark Barty-King for his advice and sympathetic understanding at all times. Jean Benedetti July 1971

• \

Gilles de Rais (Raics or Retz, 1404-1440) have murdered ritually between 140 and children. The best estimates put the total at was hanged and bu.m ed at Nantes, France 1440.

was reputed to 200 kidnapped about sixty. He on 25 October

Guinness Book of Records Allied through my mother with all the grandeur in the kingdom, and connected through my father with all that was most distinguished in Languedoc .•. as soon as I could think I concluded that nature and fortune had joined hands to heap their gifts on me. This I thought because people were stupid enough to tell me so, and that idiotic presumption made me haughty, domineering and ill-tempered. I thought everything should give way before me, that the entire universe should serve my whims, and that I merely needed to want something, to be able to have it. Marquis de Sade, Aline and V alcour

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