“Bluebeard” was once a staple of fairy story collections. These days, it’s almost completely unknown, which is hardly surprising: it’s a dark and gruesome tale that out-grims even the Grimms.
In a nutshell, the fable is that Bluebeard is a wealthy and powerful nobleman who has been married six times to beautiful women who all mysteriously vanish. When he married the next, he leaves her alone in his luxurious palace. Giving her the keys, he tells her she can open any room except a certain underground chamber. As expected, curiosity gets the better and she opens the forbidden door – finding a room drenched in blood and hung with the corpses of the six previous wives.
Sure, it ends ‘happily’, with Bluebeard killed by his bride’s family, who inherit his castle and vast fortune – but where did such a horrific tale ever come from?
Supposedly, from real life: the life and alleged crimes of 15th-century French nobleman Gilles de Rais.
De Rais was, at one time, an esteemed nobleman and French national hero. Fighting alongside Joan of Arc in the 100 Years’ War, de Rais was honoured for his bravery. He was given the high honour of being named Marshal of France, as well as a royal fleur-de-lis on his coat of arms. Before and after his military career, he was also fabulously wealthy.
Joan was, famously, captured by the English and later tried for heresy and burned. A few years later, de Rais retired and retreated to his estate – and his life allegedly took a dark and murderous turn.
Even by that time, it was later alleged, he had been murdering children for two years. In retirement, his lifestyle grew extravagant and decadent. It was during this time that he became interested in the occult – particularly how to regrow his fortune via alchemy.
In this pursuit, Gilles de Rais purportedly started killing children. His crimes began in 1433, when he began to murder his victims at his childhood home of Champtocé. According to trial documents, most of his murders occurred at his castle, Machecoul, where he sodomized his victims before bludgeoning them to death. Then, he decapitated their bodies and kept their severed heads on display – kissing his favorites from time to time.
He was allegedly encouraged by a cleric named Prelati. Alongside Prelati, de Rais would use blood and dismembered body parts from his victims to cast spells and try to summon demons.
Then they got a little too ambitious.
However, on May 15, 1440, de Rais and his men abducted a cleric from the Church of Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte following a dispute. The Bishop of Nantes rapidly launched an investigation, which led church officials and lawmen to uncover evidence that de Rais had murdered 140 children.
When lawmen interviewed Gilles de Rais’ servants, they admitted to abducting children for him. The servants testified that he would masturbate on and molest the children before cutting off their heads. Two French clerics also testified de Rais engaged in alchemy and was obsessed with the dark arts – and that he used the limbs of victims for his rituals.
Several servants from neighboring villages also came forward to testify about children that had gone missing after begging near de Rais’ castle. In one instance, a furrier relayed how de Rais’ cousin had borrowed his 12-year-old apprentice, who was never seen again.
Under threat of torture, de Rais confessed to everything – murder, sodomy, heresy, torture, and necrophilia – on October 21, 1440. The disgraced nobleman told the court: “I have told you… enough to hang 10,000 men.”
De Rais was ultimately sentenced to die by hanging with a fire lit beneath the gallows. The sentence was carried out on 26 October, 1440.
Today, though, some claim that de Rais was merely a victim of a witch hunt. Some have imputed self-interest: John V, Duke of Brittany, who ordered de Rais prosecuted, gained his properties following his conviction. The duke redistributed the properties among his vassals. Even before the trial, de Rais had dismayed his family, who tried to have him legally forbidden from selling off more property to pay for extravagant lifestyle.
Writer and amateur historian Margot K Juby claims that the threat of torture was enough to make the nobleman make a false confession, which begs the question of why someone who’d so distinguished himself in the brutal theatre of mediaeval warfare, and who faced the threat of a gruesome death by confessing, would thus condemn himself.
In the end, torture was never used by the court investigating the crimes. The judges relied solely on the testimony of the 19 witnesses called by the prosecution. De Rais made multiple confessions, outlining his crimes in gruesome detail. On the scaffold, he again confessed his guilt and begged forgiveness.
Most modern historians accept the truth of his confession. Some, such as Georges Bataille, argue that de Rais’ confessions are remarkably similar to the modus operandi of known modern serial killers like Ted Bundy.
