Gilles de Rais: A Sadistic Child Killer in 15th Century France
A brave soldier with a terrible secret life
Gilles de Rais (or de Retz) was a Marshal of France, one of the richest and bravest noblemen in the land, cultured, sophisticated and pious. His main claim to fame was that he fought alongside Joan of Arc. But his claim to infamy is that he secretly tortured and killed hundreds of children to satisfy his craving for the shedding of blood.
Born in 1404, de Rais married into an equally noble family at the age of 16. He owned five vast estates, had a private chapel that required the attendance of 30 canons and was so esteemed in the eyes of the court that he was appointed to the post of Marshal so that he could personally crown King Charles VII of France. Of proud and muscular bearing, he was a brilliant warrior, being instrumental in securing Charles’s victories over the English. He rode alongside Joan of Arc and was followed by a personal retinue of 200 knights.
Yet for all those glittering prizes, de Rais maintained a sick and savage secret. He was guilty of what a contemporary described as that which the most monstrously depraved imagination could never have conceived.
He is said to have sadistically tortured and murdered between 140 and 800 children. Obsessed with the letting of blood, he…
