He Fought With Joan d'Arc, But May Have Been A Sadistic Murderer of Children

 

Handsome as well as rich and of a noble family of great repute, so why was Gilles de Rais (c. 1404-1440) arrested and executed in 1440? Well, he was tortured, and confessed - not surprisingly - to the horrendous crimes, he was accused of, one of them murdering children. Was he guilty, as claimed, or was he innocent? When one learns that he fought side by side with another executed victim of these rough ages, it's difficult not to suspect foul play: The illustrious Joan of Arc. 

Joan of Arc (1412-1431)  

One of the "crimes" of Joan was that she wore men's clothes, at least sometimes. As both she and Gilles de Rais were active soldiers in the Hundred Years' War, fighting and killing their adversaries, that choice in clothing seems quite rational, but it was part of the accusations against her.

As to Gilles de Rais then he had become the Baron of Retz as a child. Later he became Marshall of France. Both his large inheritances from his parents as well as the dowry from his very wealthy wife made him so rich and powerful that one would have expected him to be untouchable, but no. Somehow that fact may even have made him a special target for the accusations that lead to his death. At least, it's well known that his family wanted to curb his spending a lot of money, e.g. on artists, when returning to his estates after the war. They made the king, then he was made to forbid that he sold his lands. That means that there were strong forces against him at the time when he allegedly started his murder sprees. 

Many children did disappear, and it was obvious that they might very well be abducted by some evil minded individual, but whom? Why would a rich nobleman like Gilles be interested in kidnapping children? Well, in the aftermath of the war he became more and more interested in the occult. He befriended a shady monk by the name of Prelati who was assumed to know a lot about sorcery, the summoning of demons and the like. All of it was of great interest to the war veteran and that didn't go unnoticed by his contemporaries. 

He, the rich nobleman, was accused of torturing and murdering children, and he was sentenced to death after a trial that counted loads of testimonies from more or less trustworthy witnesses. Even today there has been disputes about the validity of the accusations: Did he, or didn't he, do it? I don't think it's possible to know for sure, but the trial and the sentence secured his presumed status of being the world's first serial murderer.

He was executed by hanging, but also he was tortured by a fire being lit and burning beneath his feet. 

 

Wikipedia

 

Britannica

 

https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Gilles_de_Rais