The Trial of Gilles de Rais (1440)

The Trial of Gilles de Rais (1440)

by Douglas O. Linder (2024)

Who was the worst criminal of all time?  Asked that question, a reasonable reply might be, “Worst in what way?”  The criminal who killed the most people?  The criminal who employed the cruelest means of murder?  The criminal who chose the most innocent victim?  But by whatever measure one chooses, a strong candidate for the worst criminal in history is Gilles de Rais, a French nobleman who, in an eight-year reign of terror in fifteenth-century France, tortured and murdered as many as 200 children (or significantly less than that—the exact number is unknown), mostly boys between the ages of 7 and 18.

That Gilles de Rais, with the help a number of his young accomplices, could go on such a prolonged killing spree without facing a serious investigation, much less a trial, for eight years says a lot about privilege and class in the feudal world of the 1430s.  Gilles de Rais was wealthy and connected, with a guard of more than 2oo men, and he carried the title of Marshal of France because of his success in battles with the English during the Hundred Years War, including the key battle to retake Orleans, serving bravely at the side of Joan of Arc.  On the other hand, his victims were young and poor—nobodies in the eyes of the privileged class.  Child victims, who in many cases made the simple mistake of seeking alms outside the gates of one of the several castles he owned.  Who, in a position of power, really cared about these children?  Who, in a position of power, would believe them against the word of Gilles de Rais?

Eventually, though, the many dozens of complaining parents and the complaints of a few better-connected people that Gilles de Rais trespassed in serious ways, proved too much for authorities to ignore.  He faced trial in 1440.  What that trial revealed, through the testimony of Gille de Rais’s accomplices and his own confessions, continues to shock.  What Gilles de Rais did in the tower torture rooms of his castles is almost beyond imagination in its depravity.

Background

Gilles de Rais was born in Champtoce, on the west bank of the Loire, along the border of Brittany and Anjou (in northwestern France), in 1404.  His father, Guy de Laval, had recently inherited a vast fortune. All of Gilles’ close relatives were influential feudal lords, owners of large acreages looked over by huge fortresses.  The houses from which Gilles came, both on his father’s and mother’s side, were among the noblest and most powerful of his time.

In this privileged world of great lords, no one worked.  They might make war against each other, and their fear of the Devil drove might drive them to piety, but mainly they luxuriated in their heavy fortresses, surrounded by servants and men-at-arms ready to respond to their every whim . . .Continued