Our hero is known to everyone since childhood. A case in history is by no means an ordinary one, because, according to numerous polls and rather serious sociological studies, our contemporaries know very little even the heroes of the very recently completed and extremely rich in events of the twentieth century. When it comes to the distant 15th century, only a few names are usually remembered. At best, the names of Joan of Arc, Jan Hus, Jan Zizka, Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Tamerlane and Ivan III are named. And practically no one even suspects that the Duke Bluebeard, who is well known to them from Charles Perrault's textbook fairy tale, is a real historical character who took an active part in the Hundred Years War and in the fate of the Maid of Orleans. And, to my great surprise, two participants in the television "Svoy Igry" on NTV quite recently, in the final round of the program broadcast on December 16, 2018, did not answer the question about our hero - only Alexander Lieber coped.
Gustave Dore, Bluebeard, engraving
And yet this is not a joke or even a historical sensation: in the Breton ballads of the 15th – 16th centuries. the names of Bluebeard and the hero of our article alternate so much that it becomes quite obvious: we are talking about the same person. His name was Gilles de Montmorency-Laval, Baron de Rais, Comte de Brienne. A brilliant aristocrat, one of the richest and most distinguished nobles in his country, a peer of France. Of course, he did not dye his beard blue. Moreover, it is assumed that he did not have a beard at all: "blue-bearded" at that time called men shaved "to blue."
Gilles de Laval, Monsieur de Re, painting by Elio-Firmin Feron, 1835
Gilles de Rais was born in 1404, in the castle of Machecoul, on the border of the French provinces of Brittany and Anjou, from the marriage of the offspring of the feuding noble families de Rais and de Craon for many years (thus they tried to end this enmity).
Ruins of the castle of Machekul
At the age of 11, he was orphaned, left in the care of his grandfather, at the age of 16, he married his cousin, Catherine de Toire, who became the only wife of Gilles de Rais and outlived her husband for a long time. Catherine was a relative of the Dauphin (heir to the French throne) Charles (future King of France Charles VII). If you believe family legends and some historical chronicles, in order to get such a prestigious bride for his grandson, Gilles' grandfather simply stole her from her relatives.
King Charles VII of France
True, the Dauphin himself at that time was in the most desperate situation and even doubted the legality of his rights to the French throne. He had no real power, no money, no authority. His small and poorly organized troops barely controlled only the cities located in the Loire Valley. Karl's small courtyard in Chinon lived according to the principle "after us, even a flood", the money received from usurers (and sometimes from robbing passing caravans) was spent on all kinds of court entertainments - tournaments, balls, feasts, some historians also use the word " orgies. " The wealthy young rake Gilles de Rais, who constantly lent money to both the courtiers and the Dauphin himself, was greeted there with joy.
Meanwhile, the war with England (later called the Hundred Years) continued sluggishly - extremely unsuccessful for France. And since 1427, Gilles de Rais took part in hostilities against the British. He did not achieve much success then, but he gained combat experience. The military situation was on the brink of disaster. The British, who had already conquered Paris, were steadily and inexorably advancing towards Chinon. The unlucky Dauphin was seriously thinking about leaving his country to fend for itself and hiding in the southern provinces, but at that very moment Joan of Arc arrived at Charles's court.
Jeanne d'Arc, drawing of the Secretary of the Parliament of Paris, Clément Focombert, dated May 10, 1429, and a medieval miniature of the second half of the 15th century
The Virgin of Orleans made a truly amazing impression on Gilles de Rais: a real miracle happened before his eyes - a shepherdess who came from nowhere suddenly brought the cowardly Dauphin to his senses.
Joan of Arc, medieval miniature
The fate of Gilles was decided: one of the most noble barons of France meekly obeyed a rootless country girl, becoming her bodyguard and commander. Despite a rather dubious reputation, by that time firmly entrenched in Gilles, Jeanne d'Arc completely trusted him. Next to Jeanne d'Arc, the spoiled and licentious Gilles de Rais suddenly became a hero: he followed her on her heels, fought alongside her in battles - in all but the last. His merits were so great and obvious that at the age of 25 he not only received the title of Marshal of France, but also the exclusive right to wear the royal badge of Lily.
Vincent Cassel as Gilles de Rais, a film by Luc Besson
Another very dubious character, who at that moment was next to Joan of Arc, was Etienne de Vignol, lord de Cucy, Gascon nicknamed La Gere ("Wrath").
Louis-Felice Amiel, Portrait of Etienne de Vignoles (La Guira), 1835
De Vignol's character is perhaps best conveyed by his phrase that went down in history: "If God were a soldier, he would also rob." Another aphorism of this "hero": "If you want to survive, hit first." La Hire was considered an "old man" (almost 40 years old!), Severely limped on his right leg, could not read and write, but had a reputation as an incorrigible blasphemer and foul language. Imitating Joan of Arc, who always swore by the "staff of her banner", he also began to swear by the "staff," but not the banner, but "his own," that distinguishes a man from a woman. Contemporaries even called him "the Devil's favorite." And it was this man who was the first to recognize the divine gift of Joan of Arc! Under her influence, he even began to attend communion. De Rais and La Hire were almost the only Frenchmen who did not betray Joan of Arc. On the eve of the execution of the Virgin of Orleans, Gilles de Rais, at the head of a detachment of mercenaries he had assembled at his own peril and risk, tried to break through to Rouen, but was late. De Vignoles, after the burning of Jeanne, took revenge on the Burgundians for several years, whom he considered guilty of her death. He took revenge in his usual manner - he killed, robbed, raped, and this revenge, one must think, brought him great pleasure personally. In 1434 he also became Marshal of France. The third person who tried to help Jeanne was an unnamed English archer who threw himself into the fire to hand over a homemade wooden crucifix to the abandoned 19-year-old girl.
Joan of Arc before execution, medieval miniature
Some historians now argue that Jeanne, in general, was just a symbol, and almost a toy in the hands of "real" commanders. Of course, no one claims that Joan of Arc was the reincarnation of Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great. It's about the strength of the personality. Mark Twain quite rightly wrote in the historically accurate novel Personal Memoirs of Jeanne d'Arc by Sier Louis de Comte:
"She was sent by God or not, but there is something in her that elevates her above the soldiers, above all the soldiers of France, that inspires them to feats, turns a bunch of cowards into an army of brave men, and they gain fearlessness in her presence."
“She was great in her ability to discover abilities and talents wherever they lurk; great for her wonderful gift of speaking convincingly and eloquently; unsurpassed great ability to kindle the hearts of those who have lost faith, instill in them hope and passion; the ability to turn cowards into heroes, crowds of lazy people and deserters into battalions of brave men."
(Louis de Comte is a fellow countryman and associate of Jeanne d'Arc, a witness at the process of her rehabilitation in Paris in 1455, his testimony under oath is recorded in the minutes and, along with other documents of that era, are used by historians as a primary source.)
And in this case, the facts speak for themselves: next to Jeanne, de Rais and de Vignol, who, unlike many others, were able to lift their eyes up and see the stars, became heroes. After her death, they quickly degraded to their usual state: Gilles de Rais became a Breton aristocrat-tyrant, La Hire - a Gascon bandit from the high road.
Allen Douglas, Saint Joan of Arc in the war with the British
So, an unknown young girl who suddenly appeared at the court of the Dauphin, put things in order in the half-decayed army, defeated the British at the walls of Orleans and forced Charles to be crowned in Reims.
William Etty, Taking Orleans
Jules Eugene Leneveux, Jeanne d'Arc at the coronation of Charles VII, 1889
And after Orleans, the city of Compiegne was also released.
Joan of Arc at the siege of Turret, 15th century miniature
However, surrounded by the weak and weak-willed Charles VII, people like Gilles de Rais and La Hire were not the rule, but the exception. Arrogant aristocrats could not forgive the rootless provincial Jeanne for either military successes or influence on the king. The first alarm signal sounded less than two months after Charles's coronation: on September 8, 1429, during the unsuccessful assault on Paris, Jeanne d'Arc was wounded in the leg by an arrow from a crossbow and remained without help until nightfall, although the troops of the Duke of Alencon La Tremois were nearby. …
George William Joy, The Injury of Joan of Arc, Museum of Fine Arts, Rouen
The denouement came on May 23, 1430, when the fortress gates were closed in front of the retreating detachment of Joan of Arc, almost all of her soldiers were killed in front of the gloating French barons. Jeanne herself was captured by the Burgundians, who at that time were allies of the British. Historians are still arguing: would the commandant of the castle have dared to close the gates if next to Jeanne there was an immensely loyal Marshal and Peer of France Gilles de Rais?
But Joan of Arc could still be saved. According to the customs of that time, in the event of a fair ransom offer, the belligerents did not have the right to keep the captured enemy warrior. There was even a kind of scale according to which prisoners of war were assessed, according to which no one could demand a ransom for an ordinary knight as for a noble baron, and for a baron as a duke. But Charles VII did not show the slightest interest in the fate of Joan of Arc and did not even try to enter into negotiations with the Burgundians. But the British offered for Joan a price equal to the ransom of the prince of the blood. They prudently left the right to judge Jeanne d'Arc to the French themselves, and they very successfully coped with the task assigned to them. They still did not dare to torture the folk heroine, but they subjected the young girl, who sincerely believes in God, but not experienced in matters of theology, to the most severe moral pressure. They accused her of denying the dogma of Unam Sanctam etc and blasphemy in many other positions of the Catholic faith, of profanity, idolatry, of breaking the covenant of honoring parents, which was expressed in the unauthorized abandonment of her home, and also of the fact that she “shamelessly denied decency and restraint of her gender, without hesitation, she took on the shameful attire and military guise. " She was declared an instigator to war, "who angrily thirsts for human blood and compels her to shed it." Jeanne's statement that "the saints speak French, because they are not on the side of the British", was recognized as blasphemy towards the saints and a violation of the commandment to love one's neighbor. Jeanne's confidence that she would go to heaven if she kept her virginity was found to be contrary to the foundations of the faith. She was also recognized as a superstitious, idolater, summoning demons, accused of sorcery and predictions of the future. The highest hierarchs of the French Catholic Church and the most authoritative professors of the Sorbonne "established" that the voices that called on Joan of Arc to defend the fatherland did not belong to the Archangel Michael and Saints Catherine and Margaret, but to the demons Belial, Behemoth and Satan. Finally, she was accused of not wanting to rely on the court of the church and obey it. The pressure on Jeanne did not stop even during her illness caused by fish poisoning. Abandoned by everyone, frightened, tired and disappointed, Jeanne agreed to sign the abdication and agree with the verdict of the church. On May 24, 1431, she was sentenced to eternal imprisonment on bread and water and changed into a woman’s dress, but on May 28, she again put on a man’s suit and stated that “she didn’t understand the meaning of her renunciation”. On May 29, the same judges confirmed the fact of a relapse of heresy and passed a resolution on the transfer of Jeanne to secular justice. On May 30, Jeanne was excommunicated and sentenced to be burned at the stake on the same day. Before the execution, she asked forgiveness from the British and Burgundians, whom she ordered to pursue and kill.
Execution of Joan of Arc, medieval miniature
By the way, on the net you can find and listen to the aria "Mass" from the rock-opera "Jeanne d'Arc" (group "Temple"), in which there is the voice of Gilles de Rais ("The False God of the Human Flocks").
The war with the British continued, but Gilles de Rais, disillusioned with his king, left the service. It was only in 1432 that he briefly returned to active military activity, assisting Charles VII in lifting the siege of Linyi. Gilles de Rais settled in the Château de Tiffauges, where he lived, surrounded by a large retinue, enjoying fame and fortune. His guards at that time numbered 200 knights, and 30 canons served in his personal church.
Tiffauges castle
It should be said that, unlike most French aristocrats of that time, Gilles de Rais received a good education. He was known as an art connoisseur, versed in music, collected a large library. The artists, poets and scientists who came to his castle invariably received generous gifts. Large funds were spent on the glorification of Joan of Arc, who at that time was quite officially considered a witch (the savior of France would be rehabilitated only 20 years later - in 1456), in particular, the grandiose Mystery of Orleans was ordered and staged at the theater. But in financial matters, Gilles showed a rare carelessness and after 8 years was faced with a lack of funds. Meanwhile, the baron was not used to deny himself anything, and therefore he took the traditional and pernicious path: he began to mortgage his castles and sell land. But even in these circumstances, Gilles de Rais showed a certain originality, and, in an attempt to prevent ruin, he turned to alchemy and magic. Of course, he found an assistant in these dubious matters very quickly: the Italian adventurer Francesco Prelati, who claimed to have a demon named Barron in his service, who was able to direct their search along the right path. Relatives of Gilles de Rais were indignant, his wife went to her parents, and his younger brother Rene achieved the division of property. Charles VII, who had heard rumors about the extravagances of Gilles de Rais, still remembered the merits of his marshal and tried to stop his ruin. In 1436, he forbade him to further sell the estates, but the king was still very weak and his decree in Brittany was simply ignored. The main buyers and creditors of Gilles de Rais - the Duke of Breton John and his chancellor, the Bishop of Nantes Malestrois, already firmly seized their victim and did not want to let her go, even about the king's order. Having bought almost all of Gilles de Rais' possessions for a pittance, they nevertheless experienced some anxiety, since the contracts they concluded with Gilles gave him the right to buy back. A neighbor could "take his mind", and his broadest connections at the royal court could allow him to gradually regain his pledged estates. But in the event of the death of Gilles de Rais, his possessions would forever become their property.
Meanwhile, rumors spread throughout the district that the former Marshal and the recent hero of France showed the inclinations of a maniac and a sadist, that he, taking advantage of his high position in society, allegedly orders his servants to kidnap boys whom he invariably kills after being abused. It has been argued that the castle's cellars are littered with the remains of innocent victims, and that de Rais keeps the cutest heads as relics. It was also said that the messengers of Gilles, led by his chief hunter, de Briqueville, hunt children in the surrounding towns and villages, and the old woman Perrine Meffre lures the children directly to the castle. Popular rumor associated with Gilles de Rais about 800 cases of disappearances of children. However, these activities of the former marshal did not fall under the jurisdiction of the spiritual or inquisitorial court. It may seem strange, but later these crimes were considered as secondary, in passing, in between cases, on a par with accusations of drunkenness and revelry. The fact is that in the 15th century, at least 20 thousand boys and girls disappeared in France every year. The life of a child of poor peasants and artisans in those days was not worth a penny. Thousands of little ragamuffins who could not be fed by their parents wandered around the district in search of small earnings or begging for alms. Some periodically returned home, others disappeared without a trace, and no one could say with certainty whether they were killed or joined some trade caravan or a troupe of roving acrobats. Too freewheeling treatment of children in the territories subject to the French barons, no matter how scary it sounds today, in those days was not something out of the ordinary, and could not serve as a basis for the imposition of a death sentence on a noble person, in which numerous enemies of the marshal. And therefore, the main crimes that should have been imputed to Gilles de Rais were to be apostasy, heresy and communication with the devil. The practice of alchemy was also taken into account, since the special bull of Pope John XXII, which anathematized all alchemists, was still in force.
De Rais himself gave a reason for openly speaking out against him. He quarreled with the brother of the treasurer of the Duke of Breton, Jean Ferron, who was ordained and on this basis enjoyed personal immunity. This did not stop Gilles de Rais: the baron seized his own castle, sold to the brother of the priest, in which his abuser was at that moment. The priest at that moment was serving mass in the church, which did not prevent Gilles from grabbing him and, shackling him into shackles, then keeping him in the basement. This was already too much, the Duke of Brittany ordered the release of the prisoner and the return of the sold castle to the new owners. However, during his studies of magic, de Rais, apparently, had already lost all sense of reality: he not only refused to fulfill this legal requirement of his overlord, but even beat his messenger. The result was a real punitive military operation: the castle of Tiffauges was besieged by the troops of the duke, and the humiliated baron was forced to submit to force.
However, the position of Gilles de Rais was so high that even now his secular enemies did not dare to bring the baron to trial. But the spiritual authorities acted more decisively. The first to speak was the Bishop of Nantes Malestrois, who at the end of August 1440, during a sermon, informed the parishioners that he had become aware of the heinous crimes of "Marshal Gilles against young children and adolescents of both sexes." The bishop demanded that all persons with significant information about such crimes make official statements to him. In fact, Jean de Malestroix relied on the only statement about the disappearance of the child, which had been submitted to his office by the Eisé spouses a month before, no facts incriminating Gilles de Rais were contained in this statement. Nevertheless, Malestrois's sermon made an impression on the community and soon his office received reports of the disappearance of 8 more children. On September 13, 1440, the bishop summoned Gilles de Rais to a spiritual trial, where the first charges were brought against him of serving the devil and heresy. Two of de Rais' most trusted and close servants (Siglier and Briqueville) fled, but the baron himself boldly appeared at the trial, where he inadvertently agreed to recognize the bishop's right to judge him. Giving consent to participate in the process as a defendant, Gilles de Rais, for some reason, forgot about his non-jurisdiction to the secular court of the city of Nantes and the court of the bishop. He could easily have avoided litigation by appealing to his lack of jurisdiction to any authority other than the royal. The worst thing that threatened him in this case was a harsh penance and a monetary fine for the insults inflicted on the Church in the person of her minister. But the baron, as if blinded by self-confidence (or perhaps the hope for the intercession of the demon Prelati), agreed to answer all the bishop's accusations, thereby voluntarily surrendering himself into the hands of enemies.
The trial of Gilles de Rais
From that moment on, Gilles de Rais was doomed. Prelati and some of the baron's servants were arrested and sent to Nantes. There they were subjected to torture, which an ordinary person simply cannot withstand. As a result, a confession was obtained, in which a terrible truth was bizarrely intertwined with a monstrous fiction.
Initially, Gilles de Rais stood firm, denying all the charges. Recovering himself, he questioned the authority of the spiritual court, arguing that all crimes attributed to him fall under the jurisdiction of the criminal court. However, the church authorities and inquisitors were not going to let go of such a precious booty, Gilles de Rais was excommunicated from the Church and the prosecutor, having examined the charges, went to meet the spiritual authorities. In his conclusion on the distribution of jurisdiction, crimes against children were no longer even considered, but there was a brawl in the church and an insult to shrines, which were attributed to the episcopal court, and service to the devil, apostasy, heresy, which fell under the jurisdiction of the inquisitorial court. Gilles de Rais was broken. In exchange for lifting the excommunication, on October 15, he repented of all the crimes attributed to him. In his testimony, the baron claimed that he took an example from the rulers of Ancient Rome, about whose barbaric perversions he had read in illustrated manuscripts kept in the family library. “I found a book in Latin about the life and customs of the Roman emperors, written by the historian Suetonius (Suetonius),” said Gilles de Rais. the story of how Tiberius, Caracalla and other "Caesars" amused themselves with children and found their only pleasure in tormenting them. I decided to be like the aforementioned emperors in this, and on the same evening began to do the same as they did …"
As we remember, popular rumor attributed to Gilles de Rais the murder of 800 children, but the court proved his involvement in 140 disappearances. At the same time, it was recognized that only one of these children was killed for magical purposes. This circumstance greatly disappointed the judges and therefore the baron's confession did not satisfy the inquisitors, who "in the interests of the truth" demanded to subject him to torture. Discouraged by this turn of the case, Gilles de Rais shouted to the accusers: "Haven't I already taken on such crimes, which would be enough to condemn two thousand people to death!" In the end, Gilles de Rais was sentenced to be hanged and burned to death. Two of his servants were also condemned with him. The verdict was carried out on October 26, 1440. Monster in his chronicle, wrote about this execution:
“Most of Brittany's nobles, especially those who were related to him (de Rais), were in the greatest sadness and embarrassment from his shameful death. Before these events, he was much more famous as the most valiant of the knights."
Execution of Gilles de Rais and his accomplices, medieval miniature
However, was Gilles de Rais really guilty of all the crimes attributed to him? Or, like the Templars, he was slandered and fell victim to greedy neighbors who dreamed of taking possession of his property? Some researchers point out that when reading the minutes of the trial of Gilles de Rais, which, by the way, were published only at the beginning of the twentieth century, very, very much causes, at least, bewilderment. First of all, attention is drawn to numerous procedural violations: not only was Gilles de Rais not provided with a lawyer, even his personal notary was not allowed to attend the court hearings. The proposal of Gilles de Rais to resolve the issue of his guilt by means of an ordeal - "divine judgment", to which he, as a man of noble birth, had every right, and which should have been a trial with a hot iron, was rejected. Instead, the judges decided to use torture. Of the nearly 5,000 servants of the baron, only a few people were invited and interrogated as witnesses, and almost all of them, including even the allegedly possessing personal demon Francesco Prelati and the "supplier of living goods" Meffre, were later released. The judges in this trial were clearly only interested in the sovereign baron Gilles de Rais. This clearly speaks of the custom-made nature of this process and the selfish interests pursued by its organizers. In the marshal's castles, contrary to rumor, not a single corpse was found. Strictly speaking, only the practice of alchemy and attempts to come into contact with the demon maestro Prelati can be considered indisputably proven by the court. De Rais's personal confessions, thanks to which he went down in history as a sadist and murderer, were obtained through cruel moral and physical pressure. Marshal was first excommunicated and then tortured until he promised to confess "voluntarily and freely." For the confirmation of these confessions, he was promised an easy death - the traditional "grace" of the inquisitors in the form of strangulation before burning. Doubts about the guilt of the marshal arose immediately after his execution. After 2 years, Gilles de Rais was rehabilitated by the king of France, who officially announced that his marshal had been convicted and executed without reason. At the place of execution, de Rais's daughter erected a monument that soon became a place of pilgrimage for nursing mothers praying for an abundance of milk. Interestingly, in 1992, on the initiative of the writer Gilbert Prutaud, a tribunal was assembled in the French Senate, consisting of former politicians, parliamentarians and experts, whose purpose was to review the case of Gilles de Rais. It was about this process that a question was asked in the TV show "Own Game" (which was already mentioned at the beginning of the article): one of the players mistook Gilles de Rais for Robespierre, the second for Mazarin, only the third of them answered correctly. This process ended with the acquittal of the defendant, but the verdict of the judicial collegium is not valid, since the assembled composition of the court did not have the authority to review 15th century cases.
