Gilles de Rais Strikes Fear Everywhere for Kidnapping and Killing Many Children
Duke of Brittany’s Castle
Address: 4 Place Marc Elder, Nantes, Western France
Quietly nestled in the quaint city of Nantes, Duke of Brittany’s Castle is a popular tourist attraction for those who love exploration. This site harbors a mysterious story about one of the first serial killers in human history: Gilles de Rais.
Gilles de Rais has become a model associated with the character Bluebeard, known for harming women in Charles Perrault’s fairy tales.
The tale tells of Bluebeard, a wealthy nobleman with an ugly blue beard. He married three times, but all three wives mysteriously disappeared. However, due to his wealth, he eventually married a fourth wife.
Gilles de Laval conducting alchemical experiments on his victims. (Source: Wikimedia).
One day, Bluebeard had to travel far, entrusting all the keys of the castle to his wife, including the key to a secret room. Out of curiosity, the wife opened this room and discovered a horrifying truth: the floor was covered in blood, and the bodies of his three previous wives were hanging.
Terrified, she dropped the bloody keyring. When Bluebeard returned and saw the keyring, he immediately understood that his wife had opened the secret room. He threatened to behead her.
However, her brothers arrived just in time to rescue her and ended the life of the man known for harming women. This is also the origin of the term “Bluebeard” in Vietnamese, often used to refer to men who harm women.
In reality, the character Gilles de Rais was not known for harming women, but was a notorious murderer who targeted children. He took the name Bluebeard because the glossy coat of his horse shimmered blue in the sunlight.
After being captured, during his trial, he shocked everyone by detailing how he kidnapped, tortured, and executed children. Perrault drew inspiration from these details to create his nightmarish character, Bluebeard, combining elements from another character who was prophesied to be killed by his own son.
Painting of the trial of Gilles de Rais at the National Library of France (BnF). (Source: Wikimedia).
Thus, any wife of his who became pregnant met a tragic end.
Gilles de Rais is a notorious figure in history as he was Duke of Brittany and supported Saint Joan of Arc during the Hundred Years’ War. However, he also instilled fear everywhere with his bizarre murder record.
Gilles de Rais was arrested for kidnapping and killing many children. Many historians estimate that he killed between 80 to 200 innocent children.
Although Gilles de Rais did not disclose the reasons behind his barbaric actions, legends tell that he exchanged the innocent souls of children with demons to acquire alchemical secrets for immortality.
Many ancient and violent demons are recorded to have enjoyed child sacrifices, such as the god Moloch. When discovered, he was imprisoned in his own castle and tortured. After being executed by burning, many believe that his soul still lurks somewhere in the castle, waiting for the day to return from the dead to seek revenge.
When visiting the Duke of Brittany’s Castle, the most common feeling is that the atmosphere here is stifling and damp, even though it has been renovated many times, as if the anguished cries of the souls of children still echo here. Have those souls been freed or not?
