Trial of Gilles De Rais
Page 10
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1423
June 14
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Bedford disposes, in favor of an English lord, of the castles of Ambrières and Saint-Aubin-Fosse-Louvain, which belonged to Jean de Craon.
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1423-1424
Abduction of the mother-in-law
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In Jean de Craon’s service, the captain of the garrison of Tiffauges, Jean de La Noe, forces Béatrice de Montjean and her younger sister to follow him to Louroux-Bottereau, where he imprisons them. From there they are led to Champtocé, where Gilles and his grandfather threaten to sew Béatrice in a sack and throw her into the river.14 Catherine’s mother is called upon to renounce her dowry at Tiffauges and Pouzauges. But the husband lays claim to his wife. He will never see her again, he is told, unless she renounces her dowry (not to mention other demands). A short while later, Jean de Craon has three of Jacques Meschin’s messengers, including his brother, Gilles Meschin, thrown into a deep pit. At the request of his wife, Anne de Sillé, he sends Béatrice back to her husband but keeps the messengers. Béatrice’s sister has meanwhile married Girard de La Noe, the son of the captain who had abducted the two women. Finally Jacques Meschin must yield to the demands of the rapacious men at Champtocé, who wield a much greater power than his own. He pays the messengers’ ransom, but one of them, Jacques’ brother, dies from his horrible stay in the pit; his companions recover badly. Later the affair comes before the royal parliament, then sitting at Poitiers. There is an amicable settlement, but royal authority is so weak then that it is unable to have the sentences enforced. Béatrice de Montjean’s dowry, protected to the limit, is assigned in Limousin. The choice is given to Meschin and Béatrice between Pouzauges and Tiffauges. But Gilles holds on to them both; Pouzauges under the pretext that his wife goes by that “name in the world.”15
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(1423-1424)
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When the president of parliament, Adam de Cambray, comes to Pouzauges to see that the settlement signed before parliament is observed, he is brutally assaulted by Gilles de Rais’ men. For this, Jean de Craon and Gilles are fined for lèse-majesté, but in 1443 (Gilles has already been dead for three years) the fine is still unpaid. After the disaster at Agincourt, the royal authority is mocked by the great feudal lords, especially if they aid the King with their military forces. This is the case with Gilles and his grandfather.
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1424
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At twenty years old, Gilles assumes the administration of all his property; he uses it from then on for his pleasure without consulting Jean de Craon, who still has the administration of his estate “on lease.”16
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1425
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Yolande d’Aragon, whose daughter, Marie d’Anjou, is the wife of Charles VII, wants the defeat of England. She attempts to reconcile France with Brittany. She convinces her son-in-law to make Arthur de Richemont (the brother of Jean V of Brittany) — now the chief of his army — the Constable of France. She has confidence in the energy, though a bit sluggish, of Arthur de Richemont. She had not counted on Georges de La Trémoille. La Trémoille wins Charles VII over to his side rather quickly, and reduces the new constable to powerlessness. He alienates Charles from Richemont, whose presence draws umbrage over his own. Richemont will not come into power until eight years later, when the opposing party, in turn, will alienate the scheming La Trémoille. Not until after 1433 will Richemont be in a position to consolidate Joan of Arc’s victories. Only then can France, once and for all, free itself of the English.
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October 7
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Yolande d‘Aragon takes the initiative: an interview takes place between Charles VII and Jean V of Brittany. Jean de Craon, some of whose domains depend on the duchy of Brittany but who is Angevin principally, works in accord with Yolande d’Aragon for the reconciliation of France and Brittany. Yolande d‘Aragon asks him to negotiate the marriage of Isabelle de Bretagne, Jean V’s oldest daughter, to her own son, Louis d’Anjou III. Gilles de Rais attends the interview at Saumur, which ends October 7th in an accord between the parties. It is his first known encounter with the young King.
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1426
March 6
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Arthur de Richemont, the brother of the Duke of Brittany and recently Constable of France, is beaten by the English at Saint-James-de-Beuvron. The Chancellor of Brittany, anglophile Jean de Malestroit, is possibly at the origin of this defeat. Salomon Reinach17 thought that the hostility of Jean de Malestroit toward Gilles dated from Saint-James. One knows that Malestroit, in 1440, was to have Gilles hanged. Nothing proves that the hostility between the two men dates back this far. Nothing proves that Gilles even fought at Saint-James. But after this defeat, Jean V reconciles with the English and recognizes for a second time the Treaty of Troyes, which made Henry V heir to the crown of France. With the support of his brother gone, Arthur de Richemont loses his influence to the advantage of Georges de La Trémoille. La Trémoille’s influence at this moment decides the military career of Gilles de Rais, his cousin. It is a known fact: this influence was disastrous. La Trémoille will fight against Joan of Arc’s zeal. He will even hinder her work outside Paris. It is up to him, then, to destroy a prestige that the taking of Paris would have made decisive.
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1427
June 19 Campaign in Maine against the English
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Yolande d’Aragon appoints Jean de Craon her lieutenant general. Evidently with good reason Abbot Bourdeaut18 connects this dignity with the rise of La Trémoille, who had yet to become Yolande d’Aragon’s declared enemy. In fact, it is through the Craons that La Trémoille is a cousin of Gilles; from now on, Gilles himself will occupy an important place in France’s struggle against the English. He is rich, and he generously pays numerous spies. The first role in a pitched battle then belongs, on the French side, to an able captain of low birth, Ambroise de Lore; but judging from the look of things, the entrance of Gilles de Rais on the scene, at the head of Jean de Craon’s troops, provides a new burst of activity. To Gilles’ mad riches are added, moreover, undeniable bravery, resolution, and military valor. The castles of Rainefort and Saint-Laurent-des-Mortiers in Mayenne, and those of Lude and Malicorne in Sarthe, are seized by the English. We have several reasons to associate this favorable French campaign with the intervention of La Trémoille.
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(1427)
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Around 1427
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Étienne Corrillaut, originally from Pouzauges, then about the age of ten, enters Gilles de Rais’ service as a page; later he will become his valet; then he will act as a procurer; he will help kill the children and, on September 16, 1440, will be executed with his master.
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1428
October
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The English prepare the Siege of Orléans. After having hesitated between Orléans and Angers, they will employ all the resources at their disposal in France against Orléans.
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1429
March 6 Chinon and the arrival of Joan of Arc
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Gilles de Rais is at court in Chinon when Joan of Arc, direct from Vaucouleurs, meets the King there. She wants to chase the English from French soil. She wants to first liberate Orléans, then lead Charles VII to Reims. Charles VII must be coronated at Reims in order to possess the sacred character that designates a king.
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April 8 Pact between Gilles and Georges de La Trémoille
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Gilles is engaged by Georges, Lord de La Trémoille, to do everything in his power to serve him, “to death if need be, in spite of everything and against every lord and man, with no exception …, in the good graces and love of the King.” The letter is dated from Chinon, signed in Gilles’ hand and carrying his seal. Gilles’ m
ission answers to this letter; it is Gilles de Rais who will lead the troops entrusted to Joan of Arc by the King. He will not be alone, but he will have this privileged mission. He will have it because of his pact with the man who plays the role of prime minister. This person justly wants to keep the situation in hand; he must control the course of events. He must, above all, maintain his interest. No other can come between the favorite and the King. No one must extract from the events an excessive prestige, dangerous to La Trémoille’s reputation.
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April 28 Departure of Gilles and Joan of Arc for Orléans
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An important convoy of provisions has been prepared at Blois, where Joan of Arc arrives in the company of Lord de Gaucourt. Gilles de Rais and his personal army, as well as the Duke of Alençon and Ambroise de Lore, join the convoy. They leave with an escort of ten to twelve thousand men for Orléans. Joan of Arc begins the march with the song Veni Creator. But, on the advice of Gilles de Rais, the cavalcade passes over the Blois bridge and along the Sologne so that, arriving in front of the besieged city, it will be separated by the Loire. Joan of Arc’s protests were unable to prevent this compromising solution. Joan had wanted to approach Orléans along the right bank, to enter the city without boating across the Loire.
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April 29
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The royal army is on the left bank facing Chécy. Joan of Arc sends two hundred men and provisions in several boats under the command of the Bastard of Orléans, who arrived in the city before her. Gilles de Rais and the bulk of the escort return to Blois.
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May 4 Battles before Orléans
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After some equivocation, the royal army departs from Blois again, this time along the right bank. It will arrive at the city on the side where the assailants are best entrenched, and it will arrive there without detour. Hoisting her banner, Joan of Arc, accompanied among others by Florent d’Illiers and La Hire, will march before the army. The Maid, the companies from within Orléans, and the army from Blois enter the city in good formation past the English forts to the west. Then Joan shows up, on the east, before the fort of Saint-Loup, which she takes after a fierce battle. It is the first battle in which Gilles de Rais is required to participate close to Joan of Arc. On the following day, Ascension Day, the army rests.
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May 6
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The captains hesitate. But the army attacks the English on the right bank, where Joan of Arc determines the success of the assault from the fort of the Augustins. The captains think they have done enough now: the city is full of provisions; they advise guarding it while waiting for the King’s aid. Gilles de Rais is doubtless of the same opinion.
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May 7 Gilles in the decisive Battle of the Tourelles
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Joan refuses to be inactive. First she persuades the Bastard of Orléans and La Hire; but quickly Gilles de Rais and others follow her before the fort of the Tourelles, the bridgehead on the right bank. At one o’clock in the afternoon, Joan of Arc, having erected a ladder, is shot through the shoulder with a quarrel from a crossbow. The captains surround her and express their regret at seeing her hurt; they think that they should resume the assault tomorrow. But Joan is resolute; she demands her horse and the struggle continues. By the end of the day the Tourelles fall. The battered English experience many deaths; their chief, Glasdale, among others, is thrown into the Loire. In this battle that determines the future of a country, Gilles de Rais fights boldly. The Battle of the Tourelles is one of those where he acquires the reputation, which survived his infamous condemnation, “of being a very valiant knight of arms.”
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(1429)
May 8 Liberation of Orléans
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The English lift the Siege of Orléans. The entire city and army celebrate its liberation with an immense procession that, from then on and up to the present, is reenacted May 8th of each year.
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June 12 Taking of Jargeau
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Joan of Arc, with the army placed under the command of the Duke of Alençon, takes Jargeau, on the Loire, twenty kilometers upstream of Orléans. Nothing indicates that Gilles de Rais had any part in the seizure of Jargeau.
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June 17 Taking of Beaugency
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With Gilles de Rais present, the royal army takes Beaugency, twenty-five kilometers downstream of Orléans on the Loire.
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June 18 Victory at Patay
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Defeat of the English at Patay, north of Beaugency. Gilles de Rais fights alongside Joan of Arc.
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June 19
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The victorious army is at Orléans.
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June 24
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The army sets off again. It arrives at Gien that same day, but the departure for Reims gives way to equivocation.
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June 29 Departure for Reims
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Charles VII, Joan of Arc and, among other captains, Gilles de Rais, leave for Reims.
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July 10
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After several days, the town of Troyes surrenders to the royal army marching to Reims.
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July 17 Consecration of Charles VII at Reims Gilles de Rais Marshal of France
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Charles VII is solemnly consecrated at the Reims cathedral in the presence of Joan of Arc. Gilles de Rais is charged with transporting from the Saint-Rémy abbey, which he enters on horseback, the phial containing the Holy Chrism which serves in the royal unction. On this day he is made Marshal of France. He is not yet twenty-five years old. After the coronation, Joan embraces the King’s knees while crying. Charles VII himself and those around him are in tears. At this moment Gilles de Rais, who later laughs with his accomplices about the children whose throats they will have cut, probably cries with the heroine.
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August 10
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Charles VII and the royal army enter Compiègne. Beauvais, Creil, and Chatilly surrender.
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August 23
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Joan and the Duke of Alençon leave Compiègne in the direction of Paris. At the same time, Constable de Richemont invades Normandy. The regent Bedford, preoccupied with Normandy, has left a very feeble garrison in Paris.
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August 26
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Joan of Arc is at Saint-Denis.
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August 29
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Charles VII and the Burgundians, allied with the English, conclude a truce.
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September 7
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Charles VII himself arrives at Saint-Denis. The Bastard of Orléans, Marshals de Boussac and de Rais, La Hire, and Xaintrailles accompany him.
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September 8 Gilles de Rais under the walls of Paris Joan of Arc is wounded
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After having gathered around her those in agreement with her,19 Joan of Arc leads the assault on the walls of Paris in the company of Marshal de Rais and Lord de Gaucourt. Together they take the boulevard protecting the Saint-Honoré gate (close to the Theatre Français square). It seems from within Paris that the city is about to fall. But near evening, Joan is shot through the thigh by a crossbow. The quarrel remains lodged; thinking she is close to death, she asks for Lord de Rais by her side, which indicates, at any rate, that she appreciates his military valor. According to Quicherat, Perceval de Cagny is the best informed and most reliable of all the chroniclers.
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September 9