Practitioners of the occult have always had a curious connection
to sex and money. The fifteenth century French aristocrat named
Gilles de Rais was no exception. Originally considered a prominent
citizen, the military leader turned landowner and theater director’s
life ended at the end of a rope, condemned and executed for
committing some of the worst crimes ever committed on French soil.
Whether he was a real magician or an easily conned dupe is a matter
that historians have yet to settle.
Probably born in 1405 in his family’s modest castle, Gilles de
Rais appeared to have a privileged life in the making. As a boy he
developed an interest in religious art and learned to speak Latin
fluently. When his parents died at the age of ten, Rais was sent to live with
his maternal grandfather Jean de Craon. The elder man had plans to
increase his familial property and wealth by arranging for the young
Rais to marry a rich daughter of the aristocracy and thereby inherit
her wealth in the form of a dowry. Meanwhile, the student Rais
studied his passions, religion, ethics, and military strategy in
school. The upwardly-mobile grandfather eventually found success and
hitched his grandson to Catherine de Thouars of Brittany; she was an
heiress from the province of Poitou and Gilles de Rais’s
landholdings increased considerably.
Life took off for the prodigal young upstart. Catherine gave
birth to their only daughter and Rais became a courtier in the Duchy
of Brittany; he took sides with the House of Montfort in the Breton
War of Succession, a decision that resulted in him being granted
tracts of land as a gift for helping negotiate the release of an
imprisoned duke. Soon after, the 100 Years War between France and
England began. Gilles de Rais was appointed as a commanding officer
in the Royal Army and fought side by side with Joan of Arc. Whereas
Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for heresy after claiming to have
heard the voices of fairies who helped her lead the army to victory,
Gilles de Rais went home to his castle and took up the study of
religion once again. His own death penalty would come later.
In the 1430s, Rais spent a considerable sum of his fortune on
having his own church built which he called the Chapel Of the Holy
Innocents. Dressed in flamboyant robes of his own design, he used the
chapel to stage performances of a theatrical extravaganza that he
wrote called the Mystery Of the Siege of Orleans. The sprawling and
overblown performances had over 200 cast members, each wearing a
sparkling custom-made costume which was discarded after each play. A
new set of clothes for the actors was tailored each time a show was
given. Gilles de Rais also showed his appreciation for the actors by
not only paying them, but also by holding lavish banquets with piles
of gourmet food and endless casks of wine.
The performances and excessive revelries in decadence were a
financial black hole. Gilles de Rais began selling land to raise
enough money to continue the productions; soon he was near
bankruptcy. His family petitioned the government to end the plays but
legally there was nothing they could do. They turned to ecclesiastic
law for aid and the church agreed to condemn his theater as a sin.
The devoutly religious Rais was confronted with the possibility of
excommunication if he did not cease and desist on his spendings and
so the performances stopped.
Gilles de Rais was almost broke. He needed funds to continue the
lifestyle he craved. He sent word out across Europe that he wanted to
hire a magician or alchemist to help him bring back his fortune.
One day an Italian cleric from the Catholic church showed up at
the castle of Gilles de Rais. His name was Francois Prelati and he
claimed to be a practitioner of necromancy and the alchemical arts.
He had brought with him a manuscript on demonology and black magic.
After studying the grimoire, Rais agreed to help summon a demon named
Barron who could help him obtain the wealth he desired. Some say that
Prelati and Rais became lovers; sexual relations between the two were
preparations for the ceremonial magic that was soon to come. While
the two men became intimate with each other’s bodies, Prelati also
became intimate with Gilles de Rais’s castle, learning where the
hidden vaults for storing money and jewels were located.
Prelati drew up a contract for Rais to sign in blood in exchange
for wealth. One night, when the moon and the weather were right, the
two men brought it out to the woods. With swords and chalices, the
incantations began. While the demonic summoning increased in
intensity, an accomplice of Prelati sneaked out of Rais’ castle
with a bagful of gold. Meanwhile in the forest, no demon appeared.
The ceremony was declared a failure and Prelati said that something
else was required.
Months went by and more rituals were performed but nothing
supernatural ever came of it. One day Prelati finally said that the
one thing missing from the magical rites were the bones of a
sacrificed human child. It was at this time that peasant children
began to disappear. The next time they met in the woods at midnight,
Gilles de Rais produced a bag of small bones. The invocations were
resumed and as usual nothing happened.
Like the impoverished children, Prelati also disappeared. He was
said to have arrived back in Italy with a collection of coins and
gems. The Catholic church reinstated him in his old position as a
cleric.
The poor peasant children continued to vanish. When young boys
went to the village to beg for food, they often did not return. The
financial fortunes of Gilles de Rais also continued to dwindle.
Rais’s servant Poitou would lure naive boys to the castle with
promises of endless supplies of rich food and drink. Back in the
dining hall, Rais and Poitou would sit with the kidnapped kid while
he gorged himself on meats, fruits, and vegetables. They gave him
goblets of wine spiked with drugs and when the boy began to get
dopey, they took him off to a bedroom draped with red velvet curtains
and illuminated with black iron candelabras. The pair took turns
torturing the boy. Gilles de Rais then raped him. Poitou would chop
off the child’s head with an ax and the two took turns mutilating
the corpse and ripping out the internal organs. Poitou would then
burn the body in a fireplace and scatter the ashes in the nearby
woods. Official records of the time show that about 200 young boys
disappeared; most, if not all of them, were victims of Gilles de
Rais.
In 1440, the demon Barron had still not come but the court
officials did. The murders stopped when investigators detained
Rais’s two servants, Poitou and Henriet; they confessed quickly and
gave extensive details of what had gone on. Gilles de Rais was put on
trial in both secular and ecclesiastical courts. When threatened with
the possibility of torture, Rais confessed to everything and asked to
be pardoned for his sins. The church officials granted this request
most likely after some Catholic palms were greased. Rais’s only
defense was that he was tricked into committing the atrocities by the
manipulative and sadistic thief Prelati. The courts did not buy it;
Gilles de Rais was sentenced, along with his two servants, to be hung
and burned simultaneously.
Gilles de Rais’s last request was that he be executed before
Poitou and Henriet were put to death. The court granted the request.
They took him to the gallows, put the noose around his neck, and hung
him. While they were kindling the fire under his feet, four women
rushed up the platform, cut the body down, and hauled it away before
the flesh could burn. His body was later found buried in a grave; the
aristocrat Gilles de Rais had secretly made arrangements with his
sister to be given a Christian burial and entombed since Catholics
believed a cremated body would prevent a departed soul from being
given an eternal home in heaven. Criminals of the lower class could
not afford such luxuries. Poitou and Henriet, the two servants, were
subsequently hung and then burned at the stake, never to be given a
funeral or a grave.
Reference
Mackay, Charles. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness
of Crowds. Wordsworth Editions Ltd., 1995
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