Baron Gilles de Rais: The Medieval Serial Killer

on the 26th of October 1440 in a field outside the city of nonte in the duchy of Brittany Jill de Lavelle the baron of Rey stood on a platform above a vast silent crowd before them all the great Lord fell to his knees folded his hands together and begged for God's mercy beneath the platform a mound of Timber lay ready to be ignited from The Gallows above his head dangled the rope that would soon be placed about his neck once he had been one of the wealthiest men in the world owning dozens of castles throughout the richest lands of Brittany Maine and anju he was a war hero and a marshal of France who fought alongside Joan of Arc to drive out the hated English Invaders helping to win the throne for King Charles VII but Gilda Ray had long harbored a darkness in his soul during his scandalous trial he had confessed to the most terrible crimes imaginable the court would hear stories of alchemy and demon summoning accusations of heresy and the admission that the great Lord and his accomplices had abducted abused and murdered countless children but how did he spiral so completely out of control how was he finally caught and prosecuted and what about those who claim that he was in fact an innocent man framed by a conspiracy of powerful Lords who wanted his wealth for themselves this is the shocking story of the famous knight wealthy Baron and serial killer Jill DeRay this video was made possible by my supporters on patreon this channel relies on the supports of these generous people if you enjoy these videos please join us on patreon to access exclusive content and to ensure I can keep making videos like this in future thank you Gilda Ray was born in about 1404 or five supposedly in the Black Tower of the castle of champ to say on the banks of talawar his parents were Guida Lavelle and Marie De crayon who were second cousins both part of an aristocratic clan that spread its influence across what is Northwest France today especially in Brittany anju Main and Portu the union of Gian Marie made them heirs to enormous fortunes that would pass to Jill on their deaths and both his parents had died by 1415 when Jill was about 10 or 11 years old his father ghee was gored by a wild boar when out hunting and then he slowly died likely due to an infection presumably this was a traumatic period in Jill's early life which influenced the formation of his character some speculate that losing the moderating influence of his father started him on the road to uncontrollable Madness but Jill himself claimed that he had always been raised as a spoiled boy Jill had a brother Renee who is commonly said to be two or three years younger however it's possible that he was in fact 10 years younger and perhaps complications from his birth were responsible for their mother's death we don't really know what happened to her though she just isn't mentioned in any records after 1414 or so either way the boys were not close and Renee does not appear much in the story of Jill's life so perhaps he was in fact far younger and not only were they not close they were rather adversarial years later Renee began legal proceedings to stop Jill selling off the family's Holdings to pay the enormous debts the older brother had accrued anyway after they were orphaned in 1415 they were then raised by their maternal grandfather Jean the crayon 1415 is a famous date in French history because of their devastating humiliating defeat at the Battle of Agincourt and when John own son Jill's uncle was killed at ajinko he made his grandson his Heir Instead This may Shield the heir to his father's titles and Estates and now those of his maternal Grandfather at around 11 years old Jill had become one of the wealthiest heirs in France as he was a child however all this wealth the titles and the lands and castles that came with them remained in the control of his grandfather until Jill came of age at 20. now Jean de crayon is generally seen as one of the villains of this story in fact some see him as a monstrous figure who proved a terrible corrupting influence on young Jill one biographer called John de crayon quote rapacious avaricious greedy and unscrupulous end quote they say the old Lord was a thug who believed himself Above the Law a lord who used his henchmen to bully and threaten Rivals and subjects to extract wealth and to further his political interest and there's no doubt he was a high-level political operator catered to advancing his own wealth and influence through political Bargains with his peers subjects and the royal family he was ruthless and yet cunning able to give way and to compromise when it was in his interests and yet he also went beyond the law when he could get away with it there are multiple accounts of him kidnapping other Nobles men and women and holding them captive to further his political and financial aims and it would be exactly this kind of behavior that would lead to Jill's downfall years later where John the crayon knew went to back down Gilda Ray never learned to compromise in 1415 when Jill's father Guida Lavelle was dying he made arrangements for a different Guardian for his children and their Fortune so gee did not want John the crayon to control his children and their Fortune but it wasn't long after his death before Jean took over as the guardian of Jill and his brother Renee he was responsible for their upbringing and education like all noblemen of the era Jill was raised to be a knight and a lord his tutors instructed him in reading and writing French and Latin he needed to understand the law and the administration of his lands and his religious education was vital his first tutors were both priests one with a degree in law but Warfare and violence were a nobleman's primary responsibilities and so he was trained in horsemanship The Sword and other weapons armored wrestling and the whole business of fighting and France had been at War for a long time against the English but now it was also at war with itself the Mad King Charles VI had often expired against bouts of severe psychosis and the lack of leadership led to a civil war amongst the French nobility after the devastating English Invasion that culminated in the 1415 Battle of Agincourt Charles eventually in 1420 made Henry V of England his successor and gave his daughter in marriage to the Victorious English king disinheriting his 17 year old son the dofan Charles complicating matters the great Henry V and the Mad King Charles VI would both die in 1422. Henry V son and Charles VI grandson the infant Henry VI of England would be crowned King of France unsurprisingly the former Dothan Charles sought to gain the throne he believed was his and soon the kingdom was divided between lands controlled by the English and those loyal to Charles in 1422 Jill was about 17 years old and was still under the control of his grandfather they were focused on using the instability and shifting loyalties of the era to further their own local political interests Gilda Ray closely associated with the duchy of Brittany because he had inherited or later married into Estates there the Barony of Rey was in the far south of Brittany but he also had lands in counties within the Royal domain of France so his overlords were both the Duke of Brittany and the King of France John V the Duke of Brittany at this time is an important character in the story of Gilda Ray he was the man ultimately responsible for Jill's arrest and prosecution and those who argue that Jill was in fact innocent point to Duke Jon as the True Villain and Brittany was an important powerful duchy in the decades before zeal's birth at the start of what we call the Hundred Years War the war of the Breton succession became a proxy war between the Kings of England and France the prize was the duchy of Brittany itself and it had been won by the english-backed Montfort faction the Duke now was John V of the House of Montfort while his father and grandfather had relied on English support John V played both sides for his own ends it was in this period of Shifting alliances disorder and skirmishing that Gilda Ray began his career as a soldier first in local skirmishes and then against the English in 1427 his rather elderly grandfather Jean de crayon was appointed Lieutenant General of Anjou and as the role entailed levying and leading troops in battle it was yield aged about 22 who actually took command and he employed some of his great wealth to raise five companies of soldiers for the rest of the war he was ever surrounded by a retinue of well-equipped magnificently clad men at arms especially three veteran Knights who served as his military advisers all his men he kept well supplied and well paid which ensured their effectiveness in battle and their loyalty to him as their captain in his first campaign he took three towns and two castles from the English and their local allies at the siege of lewd after the cannon had blasted the walls the signal was given to attack the Garrison it was a well-defended place protected by a veteran Garrison under a captain Blackburn after charging across the open ground beneath the walls and scaling the breach Gilda Ray was the first Atop The Wall there he fought Captain Blackburn in single combat while the battle raged around them Gilda Ray cut down his enemy and the English morale was broken it was a heroic Victory one through his remarkable personal bravery this was an ERA where taking prisoners and ranting them for cash was the norm indeed it was an important source of income especially for the less wealthy men after this Victory Gilda Ray ransomed the English prisoners but to the disappointment of his men he had all the French captives executed some biographers accused yield array of recklessness in this attack and likewise these executions are seen as an early outward sign of his secret bloodthirsty nature it's more likely though that this was a calculated political move intended to frighten potential future collaborators flushed With Victory yielden attempted to take the town of lemon from the English but they were repulsed by The Garrison led by one of the greatest soldiers of the age John Talbot still early in his career in France though he failed to take Leman Gilda Ray returned from his campaign in Triumph he had made a name for himself on the battlefield and demonstrated that he was willing and able to employ his vast wealth in support of the dofan Charles and his efforts to win the throne Jose is said to have cut a dashing figure at the relatively impoverished court and he was the only man amongst the courtiers rich enough to maintain a private Army as the biographer Jean Benedetti says quote he was very popular at court he was handsome gay and witty and he dressed better than anyone else end quote however we have no idea what he looked like there are no known contemporary portraits or descriptions there are some near Contemporary Images but they are works of imagination the most famous painting depicting him is from the 19th century whatever he looked like he was young and making a name for himself as a soldier he had attached himself to the cause of the disinherited prince a cause which to many seemed doomed to failure but now a miracle was coming Jill's life would become entwined with that of the savior of France the maid of all Leon Joan of Arc the English and their allies controlled the land north of the Loa while the supporters of Charles controlled the South it was a strategic stalemate but the English decided to win the war by taking the stronghold of Orlean and then pushing South beyond the Loire to drive Charles out of his court in bourge it was a bold strategy but if successful the weak Charles still known as the doe fan or more disparagingly as the king of bourge would have seen his support crumble forever and in late 1428 the English marched unopposed to Orlean and began their Siege in February the next year an attempt was made to relieve the town by an army of French and Scots who fell upon an English Supply column which was bringing ammunition and barrels of Herring for the besieging Army under attack the English circled their wagons and then defeated the combined French Scottish forces at what would be called The Battle of the herrings by the way this battle and the siege of Orleans feature in my novel vampire heretic The Immortal Knight Chronicles book 5 which is about Gilda Ray his crimes and his trial and Joan of Arc if you'd like to read it or listen to it on audiobook there's a link in the video description the utter failure to relieve The Siege was a terrible blow to French morale like in so much of the Hundred Years War the French lacked clear leadership there were many powerful dukes and great Lords with their own contingents and all of them wanted to be the overall commander in any particular engagement they all wanted to be the Great Hero to save France and so none of them were and after this debacle most of the French commanders abandoned early on to its Fate The would-be King Charles was with his court at shinon well aware of the situation but doing nothing about the inevitable outcome France needed a miracle and that's exactly what it got Court had word that a young woman was coming a maiden inspired by God who had declared that she would raise the siege of orleon and see the dolphin crowned at Reems Cathedral when Joan was first brought into the court Charles posed as one of his courtiers and yet the maid somehow recognized him at once there is a legend that during this dramatic scene Gilda Ray was the one seated on the throne looking every bit the prince however while he was indeed at the court this part is likely a later invention the relationship between the evil yield array and the saintly made of orleon has been much embellished by a legend and Imagination but it's true that Jill was in overall command of the army that accompanied her to early on along with cart loads of supplies a few days later there was an impromptu attack on the English defenses the townsfolk had been driven into a righteous Fury by the maid's presence and while she was taking a nap they charged the English lines of course they were slaughtered and pushed back by an English counter-attack when Jonah woke and rode out she led an attack on the English another English force was sent out trapping Joan and her company between the two prongs sometimes Joan of Arc has been praised for her military Brilliance but really she had none she had ridden straight into danger with no thought of the consequences and was about to be killed or captured but Gilda Ray alerted to the sudden bizarre Skirmish going on outside the walls assembled the company and rode out to attack the English now it was the English forces who were caught between two prongs and they chose to retreat in the disorder they left one of their Siege forts poorly defended and it was taken by the French a complete disaster had been averted by Jill's decisive actions Jules and the other captains recognized the maid's effect on morale but her military incompetence led her to being excluded from the Council of War held the next day even though they held it in the house she was lodged in they decided that they would not follow up their small victory not only that but they would also bar the gates so the foolish townsfolk would not throw their lives away again Joan railed against them and the next day led a pitiful attack against the strong English Fort beyond the walls she stood in her armor before the fort and planted her flag with a small band of inexperienced men destined to fail once more but once more it was yilda Ray who rode out in support of her after him the French gradually grew in numbers and over overwhelmed the English in the fort after this Victory the captions once again urged delay and consolidation of what they had won but Joan had found an ally in Gilda Ray she had no mind for politicking and strategy all she understood was relentless attack and Blind Faith in Victory this attitude must have appealed to The Reckless bloodthirsty narcissistic Shield array the next day they attacked another Fort together with the French forces trying to scale the wars Joan was shot in the shoulder by a crossbow apparently Jill caught her removed her a safe distance and helped to remove her armor so the wound could be dressed it should have been a terrible injury but Joan was convinced she could not die until her mission was completed and so she soon returned with Jill to the fight the masses of inspired Frenchmen overwhelmed the English Fortress and they won a great victory the English were baffled and disturbed by the sudden change in fortunes the French had been driven into a frenzy by a maiden dressed in armor who was clearly in League with the Devil the English army packed up and abandoned the siege of Orleans Jill was amongst the leaders perhaps foremost amongst them who accompanied Joan back to the dofan Charles she had delivered him the victory she promised and now she urged him to be crowned King at Reams but the victory at Orleans was more symbolic than strategic nothing had really changed the English still controlled the North and it would take a full campaign to win it back in the Loire campaign that followed Jill was present at the capture of Jajo and at the great French victory at Pate when Charles went to be crowned at reims Gilda Ray was one of the commanders of the Vanguard of the royal army during the coronation Jill was given the great honor and responsibility along with three other Lords to bring the holy ampullah with its sacred oil for the anointing of the King on the same day Gilda Ray was proclaimed a marshal of France in recognition of his support for the king he was not the greatest of the military leaders all the most experienced but he was perhaps the wealthiest and he was willing to spend his fortune to support Charles he was also so from a region that Charles wanted to exert his control over the title bestowed more honor than actual power however the new Marshal also began to sit on the Royal Council from the year 1429 records show that he only joined the council every now and then one gets the sense that his positions were largely honorary and he was never that close to the Inner Circle of the royal faction perhaps his character flaws were apparent to the Great Men of the realm or perhaps he preferred to spend his time indulging other Pursuits after the coronation the Royal Army Advanced on Paris during a standoff with the anglo-bagondian Army jilda Ray was given command of a wing of the royal Army but there was no battle the enemy retreated and the French Advanced on Paris during the attack on the city Joan requested that Jill fight alongside her once again and that he did fighting in the great press to cross the siegeworks into the city but Joan was wounded and the attack was defeated the newly crowned King of France retreated from Paris and disbanded his army he preferred to negotiate his way to a political solution Jones fanaticism and warmongering were not only no longer needed they were an obstruction even an embarrassment to Charles the maid and her family were ennobled by the king as thanks but she was then sidelined a maid of orleon however was not willing to support peace and attacked the burgundians with a force of incompetent volunteers she was captured and moved from Castle to castle at one point she leapt from a window of the tower she was locked in and smacked into the dryer mode below her captors found her injured and carried her back inside soon they sold her to the English and she was Tried by a French Bishop in an ecclesiastical Court while she was in prison in Ruan over the winter of 1430. Gilda Ray was in a small town just a few miles away he was there with a company of soldiers and it's been suggested he was preparing a rescue attempt if that's true for whatever reason it was not carried out Jill went home and on the 30th of May 1431 she was burned at the stake for being a lapsed heretic the maid of Orlean might have been the only female Gill was ever really close to how he felt about the death of his former comrade in arms we don't know but it's from this time that Jill starts to become more publicly unhinged many changes occur one after the other and his life turns from one of Glory Fame and virtue to Darkness disgrace and sin [Music] Joe's grandfather Jean the crayon had sought suitable marriages for his Heir that would strengthen their Dynasty politically and financially one proposed Union when Jill was still a boy was to the niece of Jean V of Brittany but it seems the girl died before it could take place eventually though Jill married his fourth cousin Catherine the girls family opposed the union and it was illegal without dispensation from the church due to their blood relationship but in 1420 when Jill was about 15 or 16 he rode to her castle with a party of men under orders from his grandfather and kidnapped Catherine a week later they were married in a remote Chapel as you might imagine there was strong objection from Catherine's family and the church the marriage was declared null and void but after much politicking the union was made official and legal two years later through acts like these Jean the crayon taught his Protege Gilda Ray that it was best to act first and negotiate later later in life Jill would certainly learn to abduct people for his own ends but he was never inclined to negotiate Jill seems to have shown little interest in women throughout his life he spent almost no time with Catherine and their first and only child Marie was born nine years after their marriage in 1429 and Catherine and Marie lived quite apart from Jill for the rest of his life from the moment Jill had control of his finances he had begun spending wildly and especially from 1427 he used his wealth to fund his military Pursuits as well as equipping soldiers supplying them and paying their salaries he also funded spies or Scouts to keep track of enemy movements and paid or loaned money for the ransoming of his allies most of a great Lord's wealth was in the land he had rights to these provided annual incomes as did taxes and fees imposed on Merchants and trade Crossing his lands but even so there wasn't enough cash coming in to pay his enormous expenses to get the coin he borrowed money and to pay his debts in 1430 he sold one of his castles his grandfather was elderly by now but he was driven into a rage his life's work had been the addition of Evermore lands into the family's Holdings making them wealthier even than Kings and now his witless young Heir was Throwing It All Away John the crayon purchased back the castle but still the old Lord must have been doubting the wisdom of his choice of air but Jill had learned a lot from his grandfather now back in his homeland after the king's truce and the execution of Joan of Arc Gilda Ray took up banned a tree legal documents describe how he would hold up merchants and travelers on the roads through his lands stealing their belongings even the great yolonde the Aragon mother-in-law of the king of France and the architect of his victories was not safe Jill and his men attacked part of her escort and stole their horses in some of her baggage Jill also at this time took a possession of a castle belonging to another Lord and abducted and imprisoned the man who owned it in 1432 he went to war for the last time and won a great Victory by relieving the siege of Lani saman on his return to his castle at champtose he found his grandfather dying the old man pointedly left his sword and breastplate to the younger grandson Renee as a public gesture of his displeasure with the Jill but with the old man's death there was no one to restrain Gilda Ray in his later confession Jill states that his assaults on children started at this time the war was over for now and the King wanted nothing to do with him in fact due to Jill's close association with the heretical Joan of Arc to whom Charles embarrassingly owed his kingdom the king would rather have nothing to do with him at all but the king also had to crack down on the tradition or banditry that had grown in the chaos of the long war and so Jill had to curtail those activities too but he owned 24 Estates and of those there were six castles that he preferred to live in he was rich enough to indulge any whim his wife had no influence over him and his brother was little more than an annoyance even a rival but the few cousins he called friends were a part of his inner circle of depravity over the next few years he had two cousins Gilda Sile and Roger de brigville and two servants were too and a man called Henriette to procure boys for him he also abused the boys who sang in his choir and he had two of these older boys help him to procure more accounts recorded in the trial documents relate how this was done for example an apprentice boy might be asked to take a message to the castle and the boy would never return another account tells of a boy being offered a servant's role in one of the castles and never being seen again sometimes children begging at the castle Gates would be taken there were also women servants who helped roaming the countryside procuring lone children by luring them away one old woman in particular named parine Martin came to be known amongst the local communities as the terror I'm not going to relate to what happened to these children once abducted but suffice it to say they were ultimately murdered the court transcripts can be found in George pattaya's book The Trial of Gilda Ray if you really must know the details but I don't recommend it it seems incredible that Gilda Ray could convince so many accomplices to help in his terrible crimes but the man was like a prince over the part of the world that he ruled and he created a world fit for a prince from the outside the high walls of his castles were Grim but inside they were filled with Fine Furniture paintings statues gold and silver ornaments books and precious manuscripts one of his chapels was given a painted ceiling with stained glass windows of the highest quality other rooms were hung with magnificent cloth of gold those who claim Gilda Ray was framed due to a conspiracy of his enemies point out that any other Lord with such a passion for interior decoration would be championed as a patron of the Arts and it's only thanks to our prejudice that we see anything Sinister in such extravagance well charity is a virtue but his lavish spending was shocking to his contemporaries and it seems to me like a kind of mania he moved from Castle to Castle throughout each year and kept an open house to anyone Nobles and commoners residents and visitors alike the tables were always laid and anyone could find food and drink there it was recorded that he sometimes gave away so much that there was nothing left for himself he might give away entire liveries consisting of a hundred separate garments to total strangers for no apparent reason one of his famous expenditures was the foundation of a grand Chapel called The Chapel of the Holy Innocents the name refers to the biblical story of Herod the Great ordering the execution of young boys and the event was commemorated annually in Christendom with the Feast of the Holy Innocents the name of course takes on a twisted and sinister meaning considering the crimes of this Chapel's Patron he poured an enormous amount of money into the building and its ornamentation and to the administration of its services he employed around 50 people including the servants there was a dean choirboys archdeacons and a Schoolmaster for the boys and all of them wore lavish outfits that Gilda Ray designed himself it was as Grand and expensive as a cathedral but it was done without reference to the church authorities Gilda Ray's relatives appalled at the expense and hubris of it appealed to the pope who refused to recognize the dean's position the baron ignored the pope and the head of the chapel continued to use the title and style of a bishop by 1434 he had used up so much cash that when the king called on him to raise an army and bring troops Jill objected that he had no money to do so to fulfill his obligations to the crown he took a vast loan and sent his brother Renee with the Army it paid for while he went home to indulge his other interests and in 1435 he traveled in a great procession and enormous expense to Orlean where he would carry out one of the most extraordinary events of the age he organized and funded a vast mystery play that would be performed repeatedly in the town over the next few months it's difficult to express the scale of this undertaking no one had seen it like before nor were they again every year since the coming of Joan of Arc the people of Orlean had commemorated the lifting of The Siege but it was a small quiet remembrance the play that Jill put on was a reenactment of the relief of oleon and a celebration of Joan of Arc it had 20 000 lines of verse and contained 140 speaking parts and called for up to 500 extras all these required costumes to be made and stages with scenery to be built these people and the hordes of visitors had to be provided with lodgings and enormous quantities of food and drink all paid for by Gilda Ray it was a grand public performance free to anyone and it was more like a festival Jill spared no expense and again it was extravagant beyond belief he insisted that the entire cast have brand new costumes for every single performance to make costumes of Rags he even had expensive new cloth slashed to Ribbons what's perhaps most extraordinary of all is the fact that the baron was almost bankrupt already the value of his land had made him perhaps the wealthiest man in Christendom and yet his rampant spending knew no limits as soon as his grandfather was dead he had begun selling property often for well below its market value he sold to other Lords and even Tradesmen and Merchants some of these wealthy commoners were also providing him loans by this point he had sold off all his Estates in part two in Maine and had only two castles left in anju his relatives were incensed and tried to stop him by every legal means they had but he was a law unto himself and soon he was reduced to selling and pawning his own magnificent personal possessions almost all the cash raised went to fund his Chapel or the vast play at Orlean in fact his agents were desperately selling and seeking loans throughout the duration of the festival so that it could continue his sin here was not greed but neither was this Behavior a manifestation of the virtue of Charity the manic squandering of his inheritance was instead the sin of gluttony a willful profligacy where was entirely self-destructive when he left early on for home massively more in debt his behavior grew even more unhinged for a solution to the problems caused by his Insanity he was driven to indulge in alchemy and demon summoning faced with an Ever worsening financial crisis The Virtuous course of action would have been to address the problem by making savings and seeking more income Gilda Ray however was not a diligent man as usual he chose the sinful path in 1436 or so he by chance met an imprisoned heretic who lent him a grimoire which is a book of spells and incantations and rituals and the like in the Barons growing insanity and Desperation this sparked the Mad hope that magic might be the answer to his problems he first had a Goldsmith brought to him who claimed some knowledge of alchemy Jill gave the man a silver coin and told the man to turn it into gold the man swore he would and locked himself away in a room where he proceeded to get drunk and fall asleep despite this failure Baron was determined to find someone who could help him indeed it became an obsession he heard one of his priests yustas Blanche tracked down a series of practitioners some were experts in summoning spirits and demons that would upon their appearance have helped Gilda Ray with his problems for example by revealing the location of Hidden Treasures initiating him into magical Arts procuring great honors and permitting him to take and hold castles and cities other men were Alchemists who swore they could turn base Metals into gold to pay his debts of course all these charlatans were also fleecing him for as much as they could before they were turfed out for their failure to deliver there was one man however who was so cunning and who exerted so much control over the baron that he was never kicked out despite all his failures this was a priest really a clerk in minor orders called Francois prolati who was brought from Italy by Blanche due to his expertise in these matters he was given a special room in one of the castles in which to conduct his experiments and together with the baron conducted the dark ceremonies prilati had learned from his own Master how to summon demons and had previously made contact with the demon named Baron this demon they hoped would do the Lord's bidding and solve his problems primarily by finding him wealth the priest and his new master attempted to summon this demon through complex rituals in the Hall of the castle for days on end they made a circle on the floor and placed ritual objects within and Drew certain signs on the walls on another occasion the demon appeared to prolati and fueled a closed room in the castle with gold which Gilda Ray was allowed to see through a crack in the door although the Lord has instructed that he could not touch it yet Jill however burst into the room and discovered that the gold was fake he believed that he had been tricked not by his dark priest but by the demon prilati was a brilliant fraudster and a magician whose theatrical tricks absolutely enthralled Gilda Ray and only drove him deeper into Madness by 1439 the rumors of Jill's crimes had reached the ears of Duke John V of Brittany children had been Vanishing from Villages and towns associated with Gilda Ray desperate parents had for years been inquiring at Jill's castles after their missing children and no doubt they spoke to their local priests and anyone else they thought could help finally John V appointed the bishop of nant to begin a quiet investigation into the rumors Gilda Ray increasingly deranged and desperate no longer had a public life to speak of although still technically a marshal of France and one of the king's advisers he was no longer invited to councils as the king grew into his power he sought to bring order to the chaos that had reigned for so long there were still brigands roaming the countryside and plenty of regional Lords acted like Bandits themselves having grown used to the Decades of decentralized power after establishing a royal Army the king had no more need for Warlords like Gilda Ray to supply his soldiers and instead the Lords who won his favor would be those who aligned with and delivered his policies in 1439 Jill received a visit by the young dofan Louis Who Would One Day become king Louis XI one of his nicknames would be the universal spider because he was always spinning webs of plots and accuracies and he was effective at statecraft even as a teenager the Dothan arrested one of Gilda Ray's captains and had him thrown into a dungeon this minor Noble and his crimes of banditry were not important this was a warning to Gilda Ray to stop his own raiding and provided an example of the king's power this rattled Jill who fled to his castles in Brittany it was around this time that Shield's priest Blanche abandoned his master and ran away he had procured Alchemists for his Lord but he was disturbed by the conjurations and the other rumors indeed he heard from one of yield's men that rumors were spreading that their master was killing children and practicing magic so Blanche ran but the man Knew Too Much and Jill was no doubt afraid that he would tell the authorities what had been going on the baron sent his men to hunt down the fugitive priest they captured him and dragged him back no doubt feeling the forces being arrayed against him Jill was reaching a crisis point he had been drinking heavily for years and was falling regularly into bouts of depression he had driven away all his allies and was surrounded only by sycophants as evil as himself he spent his days dealing with money problems alchemical experiments and desperate conjurations his nights he spent in Far darker crimes as the killings continued if anything they increased in frequency at Easter 1440 he attended a local church and even made his confession to the priest although whether he admitted the extent of his crimes we don't know when it was time to receive the sacraments the baron humbly waited his turn amongst the common folk whether this was a typically theatrical display of piety for the sake of public relations or if he was experiencing a burst of Contrition is hard to say he even at this time swore that he would go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land to cleanse his soul but he never did at his trial he would claim to have always been a good Christian and perhaps as he grew increasingly desperate he did consider the path of virtue if so it would not last just a few weeks later at Whitson he would commit a public outrage that forced the authorities to act he decided to take back a castle that he had sold to Jeff Roy leferon who happened to be the treasurer to Duke John V the keys to the castle were held by jean-liferon jeffroy's brother who was also the priest at The Village Church he was looking after the castle for his brother whose work required him to be with the Duke Jill took a company of 60 soldiers and positioned them in the woods around the church when the mass was over and most of the congregation had left Jill marched into the church with a polon shouting new thieving scoundrel you have beaten my men and extorted money from them come outside the church or I'll lay you out dead John leferon either walked out or was dragged out and was then forced to his knees given the choice to hand over his keys or lose his head the priest did as he was ordered and was soon thrown into a dungeon Jill took possession of the castle and was presumably feeling pleased with himself but this time he had gone too far Jeff Royal Ferron was not only the rightful legal owner of the castle he was part of the Duke's household this was therefore an attack on the Duke himself on top of the rumors that were widely circulating the Duke finally acted and fined Jill 50 000 crowns for his transgression this was an impossibly large fine to pay it he would have to sell everything that he had left it was meant to destroy him at the same time the Duke also instructed his Chancellor the bishop of not to begin an official inquiry into the murders the bishop and his agents began interviewing and recording evidence from parents who had lost their children considering the details included on the indictment it is also likely that he obtained unrecorded testimony from someone in the Lord's household who was privy to the crimes probably Blanche possibly one of the cousins or the choir boys or more than one person Jill had nowhere left to turn and he gave up without a fight his accomplices The Alchemist priest prolati the priest who had tried to escape Blanche and the servants brought to and onriyet were arrested with him The Baron's cousins Jill The Silo and Roger the brickville had already left the household and were not arrested despite their part in the crimes the prisoners were taken to knot soon thereafter began the shocking Trials of Jill the ray foreign there were two inquiries and two trials one ecclesiastical and one secular both held on different floors of the castle the bishop of nunt was also chanter to the Duke of Brittany and so he was able to oversee both trials between the preliminary hearings and the sentencing the trials took about six weeks at first Jill was cooperative recognizing the authority of the courts then he was held in custody for about three weeks while the courts held evidence hearings and took further witness statements the next time he was brought to court to hear the full charges read he understood for the first time was a weight of evidence had been gathered against him he reacted explosively rejecting the charges as frivolous and denying the accusations outright he also refused four times to take an oath that was necessary for the trial proper to begin two days later they began the public trial anyway up until now everything had occurred behind closed doors but now most of the local nobility packed themselves into the Hall Keen to hear the horrific details first the formal indictment of 49 paragraphs was read out it's a long list of the events heresies and crimes and it's sometimes inaccurate and contradictory with a confused chronology the first part goes to Great Lengths to establish the legitimacy of the court and its right to prosecute the accused under the law they wanted to do everything right especially if the king ever challenged their Authority the rest describes the acts of demon summoning abductions sodomy murders and the covering up of these crimes through disposing of the bodies Witnesses from Jill's household described in horrific detail how these things were done and how the servants had been tasked to burn the bodies and dispose of the ashes they even described clearing the piles of remains from castles that had been sold before the new owners took possession of them it must have taken a long time to read out the charge when asked if he wished to respond Jill answered with vanity and arrogance that he would not then he asserted that his judges had no authority over him and that they were quote thieving Rogues who took bribes and that he would rather be hanged than he should answer their questions and that it was intolerable that he should be brought before them end quote he continued to strongly object for the rest of the hearing he was told he was in contempt of court and then he was formally excommunicated from the church immediately he appealed and was denied still he would not cooperate with the court the authorities gave him two days to reconsider and adjourned then something happened we don't know what it was or how it happened but when he appeared back in court two days later he was a changed man he recognized the authority of the Court admitted the charges in the indictment except those related to demon summoning and even asked the judge's pardon for his insults and hurtful words so why this change of heart did someone with great power get to him in private and threaten him with something worse than death did a priest convince him to repent no doubt people had been pressuring him but perhaps he had a realization Alone in the Dark of the night it's possible he saw that this was his last opportunity to choose virtue over sin however it happened he gave in and the trial could proceed in public now over the next few days Jill's servants related how they had procured victims for their master and cleaned up afterwards and all else they had witnessed over the years when finally it came time for Jill to comment on the evidence heard thus far he refused he had relapsed into Surly obstruction it was then that the prosecutor suggested the accused should be put to the question that is he was to be tortured to elicit answers because the charges included heresy the court had been assisted by the local representative of the Inquisition the Inquisition was an institution of the Catholic Church that guarded against heresy they not only conducted Trials of suspected Heretics but were authorized to use torture under certain circumstances to extract confessions so the next morning Jill was brought to the castle to be tortured but on arrival perhaps on seeing the implements by which she was to be tortured he asked if he might instead confess to his crimes the authorities granted his request and that afternoon the officers of the Court went to Jill's rooms in the tower where he was being held technically this was an out-of-court confession but it was recorded as he recounted his crimes the chief judge was confused about why he had committed the murders all he could imagine was that they were related to the demon summoning that they were human sacrifices who persuaded you and taught you how to commit these crimes he asked Jill insisted that he had done them according to his own imagination and ideas without anyone's counsel and following his own feelings solely for his own pleasure and carnal Delight the judge simply had no concept of a serial killer and insisted on having an explanation Jill replied alas sir you torment yourself and me along with you to this the judge said I don't torment myself in the least but I'm very surprised at what you've told me and simply cannot be satisfied with it I desire and would like to know the absolute truth from you Jill said truly there was no other cause no other end nor intention if not what I have told you I've told you greater things than this and enough to kill ten thousand men still confused the judges ordered the Alchemists Francois perlati to be brought to the room when he arrived they asked him to confirm whether the murders were offers for the demons prelati admitted that on one occasion only he was supplied with the hand heart and eyes of a child by Gilda Ray in order to offer them to the demon but also that the demon never turned up as prelati was led away again Jill cried out in tears and gasps goodbye Francois my friend never again shall we see each other in this world I pray that God gives you plenty of patience and understanding and be sure provided you have plenty of patience and trust in God we will meet again in the great joy of paradise pray to God for me and I will pray for you upon which saying he embraced prelati and the man was taken away prilati made no response that was recorded but we can imagine the cynical charlatan was not likewise moved to such self-pitying tears the next day Gilda Ray made a full confession in front of the whole Court it was to be a final theatrical performance where he was playing the part of a contrite penitent man looking for salvation perhaps it was heartfelt but I'm not inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt because his long recounting of his crimes was infused with narcissism and self-pity as he laid the blame on his spoiled upbringing he urged all those people present to be strict with their own children to keep watch over them so that they were not too finely dressed and to not allow them to live in idleness claiming that many evils arose from laziness and excesses at table on the surface he was astonishingly daring to give parenting advice ostensibly so that others would not turn out like he had but his words conveyed his true feelings despite his supposed Contrition and his desire to die as a good Christian he was still not accepting the blame for his actions he believed first his parents and then his grandfather were ultimately at fault for not being stricter with him as a child no doubt there's at least some truth to that but it seems to me that his supposed penitence was false his servants part 2 and omriette also repeated in the secular Court the confessions they had made at the ecclesiastical Court then all three men were sentenced to be hanged and burned Jill had been excommunicated but after cooperating with the courts he had been readmitted into the church and the day before the executions he was allowed to make confession to a priest he also requested that he be the first one of the three to die his reason being so that he might set a good example seeing that it was he who had led them into the crimes and also so that they could see he would not Escape punishment in view of his supposed Contrition and Cooperative attitude the court also granted that his body would not be burned to ashes as had been ordered instead his body would only be briefly touched Through the flames before being given a proper Christian burial in nunt he also requested that the bishop and his clergy should walk in solemn procession to the place of execution so that he and his servants might be kept in Hope of Salvation some biographers have wondered if all this cooperation was to enact this final concession the only thing he had left was his Immortal Soul the only thing that frightened him now was the devil coming to claim him from the flames seen in this light his eager cooperation was also a cynical narcissistic attempt to avoid Eternal punishment the procession from the castle to the place of execution in a meadow on an island in the Loire began at nine o'clock in the morning John Bernadette says quote it was impressive and moving with all the Splendor of ritual and music that the church could offer it was yet more theater end quote and right to the end he maintained his performance as a Pious contract Christian when they were standing on the platforms with the gibbits overhead and the beneath Gilda Ray spoke loudly and at length to his servants on the subject of the Salvation of their souls urging them to be strong and virtuous in the face of diabolical Temptations after praying loudly and at length on his knees he was finally hoisted up by the neck and hanged until he was dead his body was lower to the Flames beneath for a short time before it was placed in a coffin and buried in a nearby Church his servants were hanged and their bodies burned to ashes and Scattered despite all the evil he had done he had gotten off rather lightly still at least he had been caught tried and his evil put once and for all to an end but what about those who claim that this whole trial was nothing more than a conspiracy by The Baron's enemies was Gilda Ray innocent in 1992 an informal retrial of Gilda Ray took place in the French Senate where a jury of politicians historians and former ministers acquitted the baron after hearing Arguments for his Rehabilitation this verdict carried no legal weight but it has been influential so much so that many articles and documentaries about Gilda Ray today conclude by saying that he was in fact an innocent man so why do they say this well after his death the legal squabbles over his estate continued for Generations most of those who had been associated with him before his downfall including the king wished to forget him entirely Charles VII owed his kingdom at least to some degree to Joan of Arc and those that supported her it was an embarrassment even shameful that Joan was a convicted heretic and her conviction cast a shadow over the crown a retrial was held in 1456 where Joan was found innocent and she was eventually made a saint in 1920. Gilda Ray was likewise a supporter of the dofan's cause and although he was more easily ignored his conviction reflected poorly on the king and there's the lingering sense that Jill and Jones stories are entwined enough that the Innocence or guilt of one should reflect on the other still the horror of his crimes passed into Legend and he was written about intermittently ever since at some point the folk story about Bluebeard came to be associated with Gilda Ray you'll often see it said that jilda Ray inspired the folk story and even that he was the real Bluebeard but Bluebeard is a story about a wealthy nobleman who kills one wife after another The Story begins when Bluebeard obtains a new wife and then must go away on business leaving her with a key to every door in the castle he warns her that she can go anywhere other than one specific room overcome with curiosity she opens the room and finds it filled with the blood and corpses of the previous wives the key becomes stained with blood that can't be washed off the most important features of this folk story form are the castle the evil owner who has to leave the magic key that opens every door that the Curious hero is entrusted with and the evidence that can't be wiped clean in other variants of this story The Castle belongs to a witch and the hero entrusted with a key and warned never to open a specific room is The Virtuous character Petty Jean clearly therefore this was a separate storage tradition that came to be associated with Gilda Ray at a later date especially thanks to the efforts of one 19th century author and most authors in the centuries after his death enjoyed playing up the horrors of the story in the process adding their own dark twists to the mythology these inventions came to be repeated by later writers and are often reported as facts today in articles and documentary films for example there's the myth that Jill the ray owned in his library and Illustrated copy of the 12 Caesars by suetonius and was inspired by the brutal perversions of Caligula and Nero the number of victims has also continuously been inflated so how many victims were there well we don't actually know from the witness statements of parents of named missing children or at least their family name and other witness statements the number seems to be around 40. the confessions also recount two events where between 36 and 46 bodies were removed from two different Castles to stop them being discovered if both those events happened that would make for around 80 victims the trial elsewhere claims there were 140 where we see numbers like 600 and 800 these are completely made up the many inconsistencies in the trial records generally are considered by some to be evidence for Gilda Ray's innocence the main thrust of the argument is that Jilla Ray was the victim of a conspiracy led by Jean V the Duke of Brittany Gilda Ray was Allied more with King Charles and his faction whereas the Duke historically had favored the English so the motivation was partly political but the goal was for the Duke to seize all of Gilda Ray's great wealth and to distribute it to the Duke's vassals thereby strengthening his own faction while weakening that of the crown the argument for his innocence is put forward best in the book The martyrdom of Gilda Ray by Margot kaijubi she also runs the website Gilda Ray was innocent links to both are in the video description the book strips away the centuries of myths by examining the original sources with a critical eye jubi believes Gilda Ray committed no murders that there were no murders at all and argues that the confessions were all extracted under torture with the details fed to them or falsely recorded Arguments for this are based on discrepancies and contradictions in the confessions and trial records she also finds many of the specific claims Preposterous especially the stories of Gilda Ray keeping the bodies for years in his busy castles without them being discovered or the smell detected she points out that there was no forensic evidence presented at the trial no hard evidence of any kind and she suggests the pair appearance of missing children who gave evidence could have been bribed or were simply looking for someone to blame the author believes there were less than 40 children listed as possible victims from all Gilda Ray lands over a decade and she says this was no higher a rate than normal for war-torn medieval France it's a very worthwhile study and I have no doubt that it served John V very well to destroy Gilda Ray and enrich his own vassals in the process but I find none of the arguments about Jill's innocence convincing there is no evidence that torture was used on the servants contradictory witness statements are perfectly common in Trials as people misremember events from years before in this case the guilty servants and Priests also tried to play down their own involvement in certain crimes leading to contradictions as for the lack of human remains the witnesses claimed to have burned the bodies and disposed of the ashes today there would be detailed forensic investigations but the judges here had no way to find trace evidence and they had no need to there were multiple accounts from named Witnesses who give specific details about their children being given over into the care of Gilda Ray or his agents and never being seen again the hoarding of the remains may seem baffling or even ludicrous but we know of modern cases where this was done in a Suburban home rather than a castle and ultimately we have the confessions of Gilda Ray and his servants there is no evidence that they were obtained under torture other than personal incredulity that they were freely given the evidence was so overwhelming to the courts that they did not need to be any more meticulous than they were to me the patterns of behavior are clear he was rash impulsive emotional and narcissistic despite his education and martial ability he also does not seem to have been especially bright certainly he seems driven by self-destructive tendencies that he occasionally struggled with but always gave way to like other serial killers there were moments of relative peace punctuated by a friend changes of killing that burned themselves out there were moments where he was stricken with feelings of guilt and self-pity but he thrust those aside and sought solace in his crimes some people have looked for answers as to why he committed these crimes pointing to the loss of his parents in his childhood the bad influence of his grandfather and so on but that kind of speculation seems fruitless and we can certainly appreciate the unique circumstances that allowed him to get away with his crimes for so long such as the Decades of war that left his lands in disorder and the weak leaders who failed to stop him earlier but although it took too long the authorities did use the law to bring him to Justice and put a stop to his evil of course none of us need to be told not to commit the kind of crimes he was guilty of but to me Gilda Ray stands as an example of a man who repeatedly chose sin instead of virtue in every aspect of his life as he spiraled into self-destruction he stands as a Counterpoint the dark shadow of virtuous Knights who embodied the chivalric virtues if you'd like to see a video about one of these knights in particular William the Marshall then please subscribe to the channel now as I'll be telling that story in future in the meantime please watch this video about another virtuous man who traveled Halfway Around the World on a mission of Peace thank you for watching

Channel: Dan Davis History

Views: 669,636

Keywords: history of europe, history documentaries, ancient history documentary, medieval serial killers, first serial killer, Gilles de Rais, gilles de rais documentary, gilles de rais jeanne d'arc, joan of arc, joan d'arc, historical serial killers, history serial killers, gilles de rais innocent, gilles de rais guilty, Gilles de rais and joan, historical serial killers before 1900

Id: SqI4qtD45N0

Length: 60min 28sec (3628 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 02 2022