or Gilles de Rais or Gilles de Retz
born Sept./Oct. 1404, Champtocé, Fr.
died Oct. 26, 1440, Nantes
Baron and marshal of France renowned for his cruelty.
His name was later connected with the story "Bluebeard" by Charles Perrault . He fought several battles at the side of St. Joan of Arc and was made marshal of France (1429). Back in Brittany he led a dissipated life and eventually turned to alchemy and satanism. Accused of abducting and murdering more than 140 children, he was tried by ecclesiastical and civil courts. Condemned for heresy, he confessed, repented, and died bravely at the gallows; his body was burned. Skeptics have noted irregularities in the trials and the interest of others in his ruin. The fairy-tale Bluebeard takes a wife, who, curious about the one room of the castle to which he denies her the key, discovers there the skeletons of her predecessors.
Bluebeard, illustration by Gustave Doré
By courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co., Ltd.