* * *
(1432-1433)
* * *
4. The disappearance of Mace Sorin’s child is not attested to by the father himself; he does, however, in concert with his wife, depose to the disappearances of children belonging to Aimery Édelin’s widow, Jeannot Roussin, Jean Jeudon (given then, apparently by mistake, as Guillaume Jeudon), and Alexandre Chastelier. Apparently, this is nothing but a gap in the documents handed down to us incomplete, since Jeanne (Aimery Edelin’s widow) herself specifies that, fifteen days after the disappearance of Mace Sorin’s child, Jeanne’s disappeared in turn; this is the most precise fact. We must, however, point out an oddity. Mace Sorin and his wife suggest that the child of Jeanne (Edelin’s widow) was not “of the said Sorin.” Whatever the case, there must be a gap here which could explain this anomaly (pp. 258, 260, 261).
5. The disappearance of Alexandre Chastelier’s son (pp. 257 and 259) is attested to by André Barbe, Guillaume Hilairet and his wife, and Macé Sorin and his wife. We are told that this disappearance took place “about that time” that the child of Édelin’s widow vanished, fifteen days before the loss of Mace Sorin’s son.
These first five testimonies indicate the considerable emotion generated by this series of abductions; such emotion that, eight years later, seven people remember what happened with sufficient precision. On the other hand, a short while after the abductions, people at Machecoul made very little effort to speak out for fear, said the shoemaker André Barbe (p. 257), of the men in Lord de Rais’ chapel or others in his hire; the inhabitants feared imprisonment or abuse if their complaints became known. All of a sudden there is a great clamor in the region. In response, Gilles de Sillé invents a story: the children were led away to ransom his brother Michel, a prisoner of the English; the English had demanded a certain number of young boys to make pages (p. 261). But, the lie revealed, fear swiftly commands silence. The tongues loosen only at the trial. And at the trial eight years later, all the testimonies agree. The role bestowed upon Gilles de Sillé is the same in the parents’ testimony as in Lord de Rais’ confession. This Gilles de Sillé, a cousin of Gilles de Rais, belongs to the same family as Anne de Sillé, who belatedly married Jean de Craon. Gilles de Sillé is the companion of the monster of Machecoul, at the very latest from 1432 up until 1440, when the trial occurs, whereupon he successfully slips away in time. He leads the children to Gilles de Rais, and often kills them before his eyes. This latter never seems to experience difficulty turning his companions — later, his servants — into accomplices. Gilles de Sillé is the first. Then comes Roger de Briqueville, whom Lord de Rais cites immediately in his confession and whom the testimony of Guillaume, Hilairet already mentions, bearing witness to the first attested abduction.
By order of Charles d‘Anjou, the son of Queen Yolande d’Aragon, and the nephew of Charles VII through marriage, Jean de Beuil (a captain in Yolande’s service), Pierre de Brézé, and Prégent de Cöetivy (an important lord who will marry Gilles de Rais’ daughter after 1440) abduct Georges de La Trémoille during the night and from a castle full of people. They kidnap him despite the presence of Charles VII in the castle; La Trémoille was his favorite. “In great danger of death,” he is put up for ransom; he must swear never to return to court. Yolande d‘Aragon and Constable de Richemont’s party take the upper hand. Charles VII has an almost physical aversion to La Tremoille’s adversary, the Constable; by contrast, he evinces the tenderest sentiments for Charles d’Anjou, then twenty years old. From then on, Yolande d’Aragon virtually rules. Charles VII allows his mother-in-law to act, whose son steps forward. Under these conditions, the energetic Arthur de Richemont, the true enemy of La Trémoille, is ready to effectively support the burden of war against the English.
* * *
1433
Around July 10 La Trémoille’s disgrace and the end of Gilles de Rais’ career
* * *
Joan of Arc secured victory for the French, but only Richemont knows how to organize the situation. He alone can repair a situation compromised by La Trémoille’s intrigues and personal politics. In any event, his removal marks the end of Gilles de Rais’ career.
* * *
1434
March The Sillé-le-Guillaume affair
* * *
After La Tremoille’s disgrace, Marshal de Rais appears yet again in the royal army, in the Sille-le-Guillaume affair where the French and English are content to size one another up without fighting. Constable de Richemont commands the royal army this time. He leads “Marshals de Rais and de Rieux, Lord de Rostrenen, and several knights and squires from Brittany and Poitou.” Queen Yolande had sent her son, Charles d’Anjou, with men from the King’s retinue who wanted to follow. Lords de Bueil, de Brézé, de Cöetivy, de Chaumont, and Viscount Thouars responded to the call.21 The Duke of Alençon, Lord de Lohéac, and still others are there. Very few of the captains present, save Gilles de Rais, are not enemies of La Trémoille. This day is merely a demonstration of power on both sides, a parade. Immobile, the enemies observe one another without attempting to attack. Finally, the English retire to a neighboring village where they fortify themselves. They yield by mutual agreement and return to Sablé whence they came. However, they attack the relatively unimportant city of Sillé a little later. Within three days the city capitulates. Richemont returns to court the day after.
* * *
(1434)
* * *
For Gilles de Rais, the Sillé affair is a personal matter: on the one hand, Sillé is the fief of his stepmother, his grandfather’s widow; and, on the other hand, the most faithful of his companions and accomplices in debauchery — we have spoken of him already (p. 86) — is Gilles de Sillé, Anne’s cousin.
Gilles de Rais was seemingly determined to come out ahead in this affair.22 The Angevins, en route from Maine, could admire his men. From now on he has — perhaps he has enriched the pomp after the death of his grandfather — a military company of excessive splendor. The decline of his career and the consciousness of his crimes doubtlessly invite him to appear with all the more luster, whereas in reality, without his possibly doubting it, his star is on the wane; distress must play a role in his growing magnificence and extravagance.
* * *
Spring … The Burgundy expedition
* * *
However, La Tremoille, in disgrace, has retained numerous supports in spite of everything. His influence is now negligible, but it is still of the utmost importance in Gilles de Rais’ life. The town of Grancey in Burgundy belongs to the Duke of Bourbon, who remains on good terms with La Trémoille. This town is being besieged by the Duke of Burgundy’s troops, and La Irémoille has two companies of armed men in the town and region. He wants Marshal de Rais to raise the Siege of Grancey. Gilles needs money. La Trémoille lends him 10,000 royals, with the assurance that Charles VII will compensate him. Gilles collects a sufficient company of men in Brittany, and at Tours obtains from the King the mission to liberate Grancey. Charles VII has ceased calling his old favorite to meetings of council; all the same, he lends him support in this secondary enterprise. But Gilles at least feels he is finished; he knows he can expect nothing anymore from that quarter. He is confined to keeping up a false front. He places the troops under the direction of his young brother, René de La Suze, then twenty years old. From Tours he does not return to Orléans, as some have said, but to Poitiers.
* * *
August 15 Gilles, canon of Saint-Hilaire of Poitiers
* * *
The town of Grancey surrenders on August 15th to Philippe le Bon’s army.
The same day, Gilles — who Charles VII has put in charge of liberating the town of its besiegers — prepares to be received as canon of the church of Saint-Hilaire of Poitiers. The abandonment of Grancey and the ceremony of Saint-Hilaire signify the final orientation taken in the life of this singular Marshal of France. Obviously, something in the violence of battle attracts Gilles. Certainly he excels at it. But soon he places th
e greatest interest in his taste for parades, where his magnificence shines. In the Sillé-le-Guillaume affair, he is noted for the beauty of his company of men-at-arms. From the moment he is Marshal of France, he maintains a splendid military family. He is rich, especially since the death of his grandfather in 1432. He is decidedly lost from the time of his grandfather’s departure. His escort is that of a prince. The triumphant extravagance of great religious ceremonies intoxicates this criminal pederast even more. As on wine and strong drink, he gets drunk on church hymns. Liturgical offices have then, despite the ruins of war, an astonishing allure. They still have a fascinating quality diminished today by other spectacles. Jean de Bourdigné interrupts his recital of historic events to demonstrate the excellence of religious services in the cathedral of Angers that, during a stay in the city, Charles VII hears daily: “In France,” says the chronicler, “there is no other church where the Lord’s service could be celebrated more reverently, or the hymns, anthems, or other things one sings in church more deeply pitched and accentuated, or the ecclesiastical ceremonies performed with greater triumph …”23 Assuredly, Gilles de Rais, who stayed frequently in the city, was familiar with these ceremonies in Angers; he must have observed and been fascinated by them, as he later must have been enraptured passing before the costumes of the canons of Lyon.
In any event, the visit to Poitiers sheds light on essential aspects of Gilles de Rais’ life. The formation of his ecclesiastical entourage and office greatly preoccupies him. Now he travels in the company of men from his chapel, who follow on horseback. This must be the case, particularly on the day he is awarded an ecclesiastical dignity previously only awarded, among the laity, to the dukes of Aquitaine. Moreover, at Poitiers he keeps company with two young men whose voices he finds enchanting, whom he leads into his debauchery: André Buchet of Vannes, who at least twice procures for him two young victims; and Jean Rossignol of La Rochelle. Dressed as a canon, Gilles institutes on that day in the Saint-Hilaire church two stipends for these young men.
* * *
September 27 Stay at Orléans
* * *
From Poitiers the Marshal-Canon returns to Orléans where, publicly, his extravagance runs away with him. He is in Orléans as early as September 27th, when we know that certain of his servants stand guard for him. At this point, the impossibility of regulating his enormous expenditures has become banal.
* * *
(1434)
* * *
Documents preserved in the notarial archives of Orléans, until the fires of 1940, provided precise information on these expenditures, with which Abbot Bossard’s work24 in part familiarizes us.
During his stay (or stays) at Orléans, Gilles de Rais is accompanied by his ecclesiastical entourage and his men-at-arms. He himself resides at the “Croix d‘Or” Hotel which, rather than being a resting place for guests en route, must be put at his disposal as a private home. According to the bill of indictment of 1440, he and his cronies tried invoking evil spirits in this house (p. 174). His brother, René de La Suze, is lodged at the “Petit Saumon.” His “college,” which includes the ecclesiastic dignitaries of his chapel, is at the “Écu de Saint Georges,” Guillaume, Antes’ place; his “cantor” at the “Enseigne de l’Épée,” Jean Fournier’s place; his men-at-arms and, among them, his herald, whom he has called Rais-le-Heraut, at the “Tête Noire,” Agnes Grosvillain’s place; his captain of the guard, Louis I‘Angevin, called Louynot, at the “Grand Saumon,” Guyot Denis’ place; as well as other companions, among them the frightful Gilles de Sillé; his knights, Monsignors de Martigné and Foulques Blasmes, Jean de Rains, and Bauléis at the “Image de Sainte Marie-Madeleine” ; Jean de Montecler at Colin le Godelier’s place; his gunsmith, Hector Broisset, at the “Coupe,” Mace Dubois’ place; his and René’s horses at the “Roche-Boulet” Hotel, run by Marguerite, Thévenon Hué’s widow; his college’s horses, the vicar of his chapel, Ollinet, a man named Petit-Jean, Father Le Blond, and his barber, at the “Enseigne du Fourbisseur,” run by Jean Couturier, called Jeudi; Lord Jean de Vieille, his provost Boisoulier, a trumpeter named Georges, at Jeannette la Pionne’s; Thomas, his “illuminator,” at “Dieu d’Amour,” Marguerite’s place; still other servants are divided among the “Cheval Blanc,” Charles de Halot’s place, the “Homme Sauvage,” Sébille la Trasilonne’s place, and the “Écu d‘Orléans,” Foulques d’Estrapon’s place.25
* * *
October
* * *
Scandalized by a life of dissipation, to which he attributes the capitulation of Grancey, La Trémoille fetches Gilles at Orléans. He wants them to go together to the aid of the Duke of Bourbon. The old favorite apparently has influence over the Marshal; together they reach Issoudun. From there they head toward the Bourbons, where the war continues between Charles VII’s supporters and the Burgundians.
The Orléans documents utilized by Abbot Bossard26 inform us of Gilles’ passage to Montluçon in October. We know that he stays there until December, at the “Écu de France.” There he signs a note for eight hundred and ten gold royals, of which he can only pay four hundred and ninety-five when leaving. He continues to travel with his troops, not to mention a considerable body of retainers. His expenditures have become such that he is in constant difficulty. Georges de La Trémoille continues to travel with him.
* * *
December 28 Roger de Briqueville’s procuration
* * *
On this date, Gilles returns to Orléans for an indefinite length of stay. He signs a deed on December 28th. He was at Montluçon in October and stays in the region for a while with La Trémoille. He was able to return to Orléans as of November, where he remains until January.
The deed he has drawn up on December 28th is strange, to say the least. He receives a very young cousin whose Norman family, loyal to Charles VII, was ruined by the English; the testimonies of Machecoul concerning 1432 or 1433 already mention this Roger de Briqueville. From 1432 onwards he gets his livelihood from Lord de Rais; with Gilles de Sillé, he becomes Gilles de Rais’ counselor and companion in debauchery. According to the Marshal’s own confession, it is not long after Gilles de Sillé that Briqueville is initiated into his secrets. On December 28, 1434, Gilles gives him an outrageous power of attorney. From then on Briqueville can act in his name; according to as he sees fit, he can sell his master’s castles and lands in Brittany; what is more, he is fully empowered to negotiate and conclude the marriage of his master’s daughter! Marie is then about four years old. According to Abbot Bourdeaut, it would be necessary to assume a night of debauchery and drunkenness in order to explain this scandalous power of attorney. At the least, the child’s birthday at the end of 1429 coincides with the subsequent absence of a father who seems to no longer have relations with his wife …
* * *
1435
Beginning of February Expedition against Jean de Luxembourg
* * *
Gilles de Rais strives one last time, at least apparently, to keep his position in the game he began playing with La Trémoille. Traveling together, the cousins arrive at Forez just when peace is signed between Charles VII and Philippe of Burgundy.
This peace, long desired by the King, puts an end to that war between the French that the assassination of Jean sans Peur on Montereau bridge had decidedly aggravated. Duke Philippe decided after seventeen years to forgive his father’s murder, in which Charles VII must have been an accomplice. It was only a great lord’s desire for personal vengeance that had mattered; the sufferings of the people did not. The peace treaty is finally signed at Nevers, February 5 and 6, 1435.
* * *
(1435)
* * *
We have already said that La Trémoille and Gilles are in Forez. They decide to go together to Langres, then to Laon, where the fighting continues ; Jean de Luxembourg, Phillip le Bon’s ally, refuses peace. He persists in menacing Laon. Evidently La Trémoille hopes that by attacking him, and possibly liberating Laon., he can
recover a little of the influence lost viés-a-vis Charles VII.
The two cronies’ troops could have occupied themselves in the area, but money is short. Gilles, evidently in order to rid himself of La Tremoille, accepts going to Lyon and using his influence there to borrow money from bankers to pay the soldiers’ back pay. Gilles returns to Langres with some resources, but as soon as it is a question of marching on Laon he comes up against the captains’ refusal; the distributed money does not suffice. Gilles did not actually know how to handle money matters; he was swindled regularly. It would have been “clear in the eyes of many” that La Trémoille took advantage of his cousin’s credulity and mad extravagance. La Trémoille is reproached for it, but he only laughs; “it is good,” he said, “to encourage him to be bad …”
“A cynical phrase that shows in what degree of esteem Marshal de Rais was held by Charles VII’s former minister and many others.”27 The fact remains that at Langres, Gilles once again abandons the affair in progress, leaving his brother the responsibility of leading the troops, if possible, to Laon. He leaves for Orléans under the pretext of seeking the wanted money. He even signs a declaration at Langres in which Champtocé will go to Georges de La “Trémoille should he and his brother die heiress.28 It is impossible to conclude from this, as Abbot Bourdeaut has done, that Gilles’ intention was to bind himself more closely to Georges de La Trémoille. The clause is purely conventional. At the same time, Gilles decidedly abandons the path on which La Trémoille had started him.
Trial of Gilles De Rais Page 12