Page 66 - All About History - Issue 70-18

Medieval murders

A ghoulish Victorian
re-imagining of Gilles’ crimes “Jeudon disappeared,

seemingly swallowed

up by the castle itself”

devilish forces and none was more devilish than Gilles de
devilish forces and none was more devilish than Gilles de
Rais. He and a priest named François Prelati held Satanic
ceremonies in Rais’ homes. Unholy rites and the blackest
enchantments were performed to sate the inhuman lusts
of the wealthy marshal. Something very rotten indeed was
lurking in the lands of Gilles de Rais.
The horrifying story began to unravel when an adolescent
boy with the surname Jeudon was sent to Rais’ home at
Machecoul carrying a message from the baron’s cousins,
Roger de Briqueville and Gilles de Sillé. Young Jeudon
disappeared, seemingly swallowed up by the castle itself.
He was the first of innumerable children to vanish from the
area. Many of them worked as pages in the households of
nobles, but their disappearances – if noticed at all, by their
aristocratic masters – were chalked up as runaways.
The die was cast when Rais took a priest hostage during an
argument in 1440. The priest was the brother of the treasurer
of Brittany and Rais hoped that he could negotiate a ransom,
ensuring that his debts would be written off in return for the
priest’s safe return.
Instead, Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes, ordered an
investigation into Rais’ outrageous behaviour and suddenly
found himself dealing not just with a rogue noble, but with a
bona fide mass murderer.
Malestroit turned his evidence over to the secular
lawmakers and they gathered statements from terrified
witnesses and families, grieving for children whom had
disappeared into the yawning darkness of Gilles de Rais’
castles. For all his chapels and heroism, it seemed that there

A manuscript miniature depicting Jean
de Malestroit overseeing Rais’ trial

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