Gilles De Rais: Medieval Child-killer

Rais himself confessed that, ” when the children were dead I would hold up the heads of the most handsome ones to admire them.” He also took great pleasure in splitting open their stomachs and admiring their internal organs. Most of his victims were killed with a large double-edged sword known as a braquemard. The bodies were them dismembered and the remains burned in the fireplace of his private bed chamber. The room would then be heavily perfumed to disguise the smell of dead and burnt flesh.

Much of the testimony that was heard at the trial that began on 15 September, 1440, was so graphic that the judges ordered it be struck from the records. As so many of the victims remains had been burned an exact body-count was impossible. The Court, however, estimated that at least 200 young boys and girls had been killed by Gilles de Rais and his accomplices during an 8 year killing spree. Others have put the total much higher.

On 23 October, 1440, Poitou and Henriet were condemned to death. Two days later Gilles de Rais was found guilty of murder and heresy and condemned to hang and then be burned to death. On 26 October, the sentences were carried out.

Gilles de Rais was the first to die. He had requested that this be so and given his rank, his service to France, and his previous good reputation, his request was granted. Before sentence was passed he addressed the crowd and asked for their forgiveness. He then turned to his two accomplices and urged them to be brave, to not fear death, and think only of their coming salvation. He was then hanged until barely conscious before being lowered onto the scaffold where he had been standing which had since been set alight. His body was then consumed by the flames.

The name Gilles de Rais survives in infamy along with that of Elisabeth Barthory, Countess of Blood, that other notorious medieval serial-killer.