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[Illustration: Château (Castle) of Nantes, where Gilles was
tried.--From the river Loire.]
BLUE-BEARD
A CONTRIBUTION TO HISTORY AND
FOLK-LORE
BEING THE HISTORY OF GILLES DE RETZ OF BRITTANY,
FRANCE, WHO WAS EXECUTED AT NANTES IN 1440 A.D.
AND WHO WAS THE ORIGINAL OF BLUE-BEARD IN THE
TALES OF MOTHER GOOSE
BY
THOMAS WILSON, LL.D.
CURATOR, DIVISION OF PREHISTORIC ARCHÆOLOGY, U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM
COUNSELLOR OF THE BAR OF THE SUPREME COURTS, COURT OF
CLAIMS AND OF APPEALS IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
FORMERLY U.S. CONSUL AT GHENT, BELGIUM; AT NANTES AND NICE, FRANCE
_ILLUSTRATED_
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
NEW YORK & LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press
1899
COPYRIGHT, 1899
BY
THOMAS WILSON
Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
TO
MY DEAR WIFE
THE COMPANION OF MY TRAVELS
WHILE THE MATERIAL FOR THIS VOLUME WAS GATHERED
THE PARTNER OF MY MANY JOYS
THE SHARER OF MY FEW SORROWS
THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
T. W.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION ix
CHAPTER I
GILLES DE RETZ. 1404–1420
His Name, Family, Marriage, and Education 1
CHAPTER II
GILLES AS A SOLDIER. 1420–1429
First for John V., Duke of Brittany, against the House of
Blois. He Joins the Army of France and is Assigned to
Duty with Joan of Arc. Crowning of the King, and Gilles
made Marshal of France 9
CHAPTER III
GILLES’S LIFE AT HOME IN BRITTANY 1430–1439
The Personal Appearance of Gilles de Retz. An Epitome of his
Life. His Extravagance and Ruinous Expenditures. His
Inheritance. His Sales and Transfers of Property. His
Love for the Theatre. Mysteries. That of the Siege of
Orleans. Mysteries at Nantes. The Cathedral. Expensive
Visit to Orleans. Maison de la Suze. The Decree of the
King Interdicting his Sale or Incumbrance of Property. An
Increasing Demand for Money Drives him to Magic in Search
for the Philosopher’s Stone and the Transmutation of Base
Metals into Gold. Magic 24
CHAPTER IV
GILLES’S CRIMES
Gilles’s Abduction of Children. His Familiars. Château de
Tiffauges. First Process against Gilles. Warrant. Arrest
and Imprisonment. Château de Nantes 64
CHAPTER V
GILLES’S TRIAL BEFORE THE ECCLESIASTICAL TRIBUNAL
The Ecclesiastical Tribunal. Record in the Archives of
Loire-Inférieure. The Trial. His Confession. Judgment and
Sentence 93
CHAPTER VI
THE TRIAL BEFORE THE CIVIL COURT
Trial before the Civil Court. Depositions. Conviction and
Sentence 167
CHAPTER VII
THE EXECUTION 177
APPENDIX A
MOTHER GOOSE PUBLICATIONS 183
APPENDIX B
BLUEBEARD STORIES 186
APPENDIX C
MYSTERY OF THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS 189
APPENDIX D
DEPOSITIONS IN CIVIL COURT AGAINST GILLES 195
[Illustration]
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
CHÂTEAU (CASTLE) OF NANTES, WHERE GILLES WAS TRIED.--FROM THE
RIVER LOIRE _Frontispiece_
GILLE’S SIGNATURE AND RUBRIC 22
A STREET IN NANTES--ANCIENT HOUSES 47
FACSIMILE OF FOLIO PAGE FROM ARCHIVES OF TRIAL AT NANTES.
CONFESSION OF GILLE DE RETZ 138
GROTTO OF BONNE VIERGE DE CRÉÉ-LAIT. EXPIATORY ALTAR OF
GILLES ERECTED BY HIS DAUGHTER 179
[Illustration]
INTRODUCTION
The story of Bluebeard has become a classic in infantile mythical
(folk-lore) literature wherever the English and French languages are
spoken. Rev. Dr. Shahan suggests its possible existence in earlier
languages and more distant countries (see p. xiv.). The story is more
or less mythical. While it does not follow history with any pretence of
fidelity, it has come to be recognised by the historians and literati
of France as representing the life of Gilles de Retz (or Rais), a
soldier of Brittany in the first half of the fifteenth century. He was
of noble birth, was possessed of much riches, was the lord of many
manors, had a certain genius and ability, made some reputation as a
soldier at an extremely early age, fought with Joan of Arc, and was
Marshal of France. At the close of these wars he retired to his estates
in Brittany, and, in connection with an Italian magician, he entered
upon a search for the Elixir of Youth and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Together they became possessed by the idea that the foundation of this
elixir should be the blood of infants or maidens, and, using the almost
unbridled power incident to a great man (at that early date) in that
wild country, they abducted many maidens and children, who were carried
to some one of his castles and slain. Suspicion was finally directed
toward him; he was arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced to death, and
executed at the city of Nantes, October 27, 1440, at the early age of
thirty-six years.
The author of this volume was sent, in 1882, to the good city of Nantes
as United States Consul. While resident there he entered upon the
investigation which resulted in this volume. He obtained access to the
original records of the trial in the archives of the department, and
made a photographic copy of one of its manuscript Latin pages which is
shown in its proper place. The trial of Gilles de Retz took place in
the château of Nantes, sentence was pronounced at the Place Bouffay,
and he was executed on the Prairie de la Madeleine, the exact locality
being now occupied by the Hospital of St. Anne. The author procured
photographs and drawings of some of these localities, which will appear
in this volume.
* * * * *
Monsieur Charles Perrault was the author of the story of
_Bluebeard_. He was born at Paris, January 12, 1628. His father was
an advocate, originally from Tours. He was the youngest of four
brothers: the oldest, Peter, was destined for the Bar, but became
the Receiver-General of Finances under Louis XIV. and his Prime
Minister Colbert, though he afterwards fell out of favour and died
in poverty; Claude studied medicine; and Nicholas, theology. Charles
was taken up by Colbert and made Superintendent of Public Buildings
throughout the kingdom. While in this position, the erection of the
Observatory and the reconstruction and completion of the Palais du
Louvre were determined upon. Plans for these buildings were to be
decided by competition, and the renown of the name of Perrault is
greatly increased by the fact that Charles’s brother Claude, although
educated as a doctor of medicine and not as an architect, designed
plans which, after much discussion and investigation, extending even
to Rome, were finally adopted by the King and his Minister. Charles
Perrault became a member of the Academy--one of the “Immortal Forty.”
He introduced many improvements into their methods, the principal of
which was for securing the attendance of members, and a continuance of,
and devotion to, the work of preparing the great French Dictionary.
An episode in his life, covering several years, was his poem of _Le
Siècle de Louis le Grand_ and the parallel between the ancients and
moderns, which produced a discussion among the most brilliant writers
of France. Boileau, Racine, La Fontaine, Longpierre, Buet, Arnauld, and
other illustrious champions took up the cudgels against Perrault and
Fontanelle, and in favour of the ancient classic heroes.
In 1662, Perrault retired from his office in the Public Buildings,
selling his right therein to Monsieur de Blainville, a son-in-law
of Colbert. Until his death, May, 16, 1703, he devoted himself to
literature and to the education of his children, and this was probably
the happiest portion of his life, for he loved to be in the bosom of
his family. He wrote for the amusement of his children that which has
now become the most celebrated of his writings, which has done more to
perpetuate his name and fame, and by which he is better known than by
the more pretentious and serious papers and poems,--the _Contes de Mère
l’Oye_ (Stories of Mother Goose). The first edition was published in
1697 under the name of his son, Perrault d’Armancourt, and dedicated
to Mademoiselle Elizabeth Charlotte d’Orléans, the sister of the Duke
of Chartres and the niece of Louis XIV. These Mother Goose stories
were as follows: _Little Red Riding-Hood_, _The Fairies_, _Bluebeard_,
_The Sleeping Beauty_, _Puss in Boots_, _Cinderella_, _Requet à la
Houppe_, to which _Le Petit Poucet_, _The Adroit Princess_, and _The
Ass’s Skin_ were afterwards added. There were still others in verse and
fable translated. Perrault was more poet than prose writer--his serious
works were in poetry: _Painting_, _The Apology for Women_, _The Century
of Louis the Grand_, _Genius_ (to Fontanelle), and _A Portrait of the
Voice of Iris_. We, however, are interested alone in _Bluebeard_.[1]
[1] See Appendix A.
Studious historians or astute critics may dispute Perrault’s history
of Bluebeard having been founded upon the life of Gilles de Retz, but
the country people (the folk) of Brittany will simply smile at such
erudition and continue in their former belief that Bluebeard represents
a cruel, wicked man who lived here hundreds of years ago and who was
executed for his many crimes against humanity; and the old men and
women and the nurses will repeat the story of Gilles de Retz under
the name of Bluebeard,--sometimes how he abducted and murdered the
children, and other times how he murdered his wives. In that country
Gilles de Retz will always be known as Bluebeard, and we must accept
their verdict as final.[2]
Rev. Dr. Shahan writes:
DEAR PROFESSOR WILSON:
I have looked through your interesting work with the greatest
pleasure. It is just such a tale as I would delight in tracing
through its strange genesis and stranger propaganda....
I wonder if the actual facts were not soon plaited back into
ancient nursery tales of a kindred tone, and a fresh lease of
life thus given to mythical narratives that would otherwise not
have had strength enough to perpetuate themselves to our time,
at least in such intensity and vitality.
I would suggest as complete a literature of the _Bluebeard_
subject as possible[2] and think perhaps it would be well to
see what roots it had struck in German, Spanish, and Welsh
soil,--fields always susceptible at that time to anything odd
or romantic.
When I was a child how often I cried with Sister Anne on the
high tower, and looked for the three specks out on the ocean
“no bigger than the head of a pin.” Thank God! their steeds
always breasted the flood bravely and _arrived in time to save
injured innocence_. Is not that the true origin of _Bluebeard_,
in an age of chivalrous ideal, of strict theologico-popular
views of justice and of feudal individualism?
The box of Pandora and the key of Bluebeard may have some
relationship--CURIOSITY, irrepressible though dangerous,
is its keynote, and I wonder if it does not all come from
India, like those mediæval tales that Gaston Paris tells
about, or if it is not an old Gaelic myth, like that of
_Balor-of-the-Mighty-Blows_ so well translated by Standish
O’Grady in his _Silva Gadelica_....
Yours very truly,
(Signed) THOMAS J. SHAHAN.
[2] See Appendix B.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
BLUEBEARD
CHAPTER I
GILLES DE RETZ
_His Name, Family, Marriage, and Education_
The original of Bluebeard in the Mother Goose story was Gilles de Rais
(changed in 1581 to Retz), though he is sometimes called _Gilles de
Laval_ in history. Neither the date nor place of his birth is known
with precision, but it took place in the autumn of 1404, probably at
Machecoul, one of the family châteaux in the southern part of Brittany.
The ancestors of Gilles de Retz belonged to four noble and illustrious
families in Brittany: 1. Laval, sometimes called Montmorency-Laval;
2. Rais (changed to Retz in 1581); 3. Machecoul; and 4. Craon.
These families could trace their ancestry to the eleventh or twelfth
centuries. Gilles’s father was a Laval or Montmorency-Laval, named Guy;
his grandfather was also Guy, and many of his ancestry bore the same
surname. His grandmother was a sister of the great Du Guesclin; his
great-grandmother was Joan, called _la Folle_, or “the Crazy.”
The House of Rais in that day was represented by Joan la Sage (the
Wise), 1371–1406. Being without heirs she, in 1400, by solemn act,
adopted Guy de Laval, the father of Gilles, as her heir and successor.
A legal impediment existed in an act of disinheritance which had been
passed against Joan la Folle, the grandmother of Guy de Laval, and it
required a special decree to enable Guy to accept the inheritance. This
was finally done under the condition that he should abandon the name,
arms, and escutcheon of the family of Laval, and bear those of Rais.
But Joan la Sage afterwards repented of her choice and attempted, by
act of May 14, 1402, to change her succession in favour of Catherine
de Machecoul. This begat a suit-at-law, which was taken by appeal to
the Parliament at Paris. By this time Jean de Craon had come to be the
heir of his mother, Catherine de Machecoul. He had a daughter named
Marie, and for the settlement of a contest which, it was feared with
reason, might be interminable, it was agreed between the families, as
it was between York and Lancaster, that the representatives of the
two respective houses should be intermarried, and accordingly, in the
spring of 1404, Guy de Laval (changed to be Guy de Rais) was married
to Marie de Craon, and thus it was that Guy de Laval, the father of
Gilles, became the heir and successor of Joan la Sage (of Rais),
received her property, and took her name.
There has been some dispute among the historians of Brittany as to
dates, but it is agreed that the contest at law between the two
families was begun in 1402, was still found on the parliamentary
records in 1403, and was settled by the marriage, which the best
authorities agree took place February 5, 1404.
Guy de Laval (Rais) and Marie de Craon were the parents of Gilles de
Rais, who was their first-born. His birth is believed to have taken
place at the château of Machecoul during the last months of the year
1404. A doubt has been thrown over these dates, especially that of
his birth, because of his extreme youth when he made his appearance
in public affairs. If born at that time, he would appear to have been
a Marshal of France at twenty-five years of age; but this was not
impossible, and the weight of the evidence seems to favour the dates as
given.
The parents of Gilles had another son, René de la Suze, but he seems
to have made but little figure compared with his redoubtable brother.
Guy de Laval, the father, died on the last day of October, 1415, and
the records show his last will and testament dated on the 28th and 29th
of that month. He gave the tutelage of his sons to a distant cousin,
John de Tournemine; but by some means not appearing, the maternal
grandfather, Jean de Craon, took upon himself their guardianship. The
mother, Marie, was remarried soon after the death of her husband, to
Charles Desouville, the Lord of Villebon. The grandfather of Gilles
and René seems to have been excessively indulgent and devoted to the
children, and if he was old, he was of strong will, fiery temper,
staunch patriotism, and obstinate disposition.
In 1417, when Gilles was but thirteen years old, he was engaged by
his grandfather to Joan Peynel, the daughter of Foulques Peynel,
the Lord of Hambuie and Briquebec; but the contract was voided by
her death. In November, 1418, the grandfather made for him a second
contract of marriage, this time with Beatrice de Rohan, the eldest
daughter of Alain de Porhoet. The contract was signed at Vannes with
great ceremony in the presence of an illustrious throng of Breton
nobles. But this contract came to an end, as did the former, by the
unfortunate death of the young lady. This double failure did not,
however, discourage the doting grandfather. He immediately proceeded
with his arrangements for a third contract, this time with Catherine
de Thouars, the daughter of Miles de Thouars and Beatrice de Morgan,
and this marriage was celebrated on the last day of November, 1420. The
young wife, Catherine, brought to her husband, Gilles, the property
of Tiffauges, Pouzauges, Savenay, Confolons, Chabenais, and others
of minor importance. The first two mentioned were well provided with
châteaux. The property and château of Machecoul came to Gilles through
his mother’s family, and the château and property of Champtocé came to
him upon the death of his grandfather. This, with the fortune of his
father, Guy de Laval, to which must be added that of the family of Rais
left by Joan la Sage, made Gilles de Rais one of the richest barons of
the province.
Under the conditions of the adolescence of Gilles de Retz, his
education may be better imagined than described. Left at the age of
eleven an orphan or a half-orphan, by the death of his father; the
remarriage of his mother within a year thereafter; the contest of
greater or less gravity over his guardianship, which ended in the
success of his maternal grandfather, whose best recommendation for the
position seems to have been his love for his grandchildren and his
subsequent willingness to indulge them, and also his great desire to
get them (especially the elder) married and off his hands, a proceeding
which he conducted with such celerity that the young man was engaged
three times with all pomp and formality, and finally married by the
time he was sixteen years old: this would seem to afford but little
time or opportunity to obtain an education, even under the best
facilities, however studious and seriously inclined he might have been.
Education did not stand very high in the province of Brittany at this
era. There was much excuse, especially for the nobles and barons of
Brittany, for their lack of education. The profession of war seems to
have been the highest recommendation, and the shortest, as well as
the easiest and most agreeable, road to preferment. There is much to
be said on the score of patriotism and the needs of the country, for,
as will be seen farther on, it was an era of war, and Brittany was in
the midst of it. The education in arms was almost inevitable; it had
greater attraction for Gilles than books, arts, or sciences; and it
appears that his grandfather allowed him to pursue his own wishes and
desires without even an attempt at control. Gilles, during his trial,
said: “In my youth I was allowed to go always according to my own sweet
will.” Nevertheless, he spoke three languages, Latin, French, and
Breton, had some knowledge of chemistry, and it seems to be without
question that he had a library, so well chosen as to be an object
of commendation and attraction to highly educated persons. In the
inventory of his effects, taken in 1436 and found among his records, is
a receipt of Jean Montclair given to Jean Bouray, for a book a copy
of Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_, described to have been in parchment covered
with leather-gilt, with copper clasps and locks of silver-gilt, with a
crucifix of white silver on the back.
[Illustration]
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