For everyone and about everything. The True Story of Bluebeard
It is believed that the French Marshal Gilles de Montmorency-Laval, Baron de Rais, Comte de Brienne, became the prototype of the terrible killer under the nickname Bluebeard. Who was this man and is he really guilty?
Gilles de Rais was born around 1404 in the castle of Mashcoul on the border of Brittany and Anjou, into a noble and very wealthy family. At the age of eleven, Gilles, with his younger brother Rene, after the death of his parents, came under the care of his grandfather Jean de Craon.
This educated man instilled in his grandson a craving for reading and science. At the age of sixteen, Gilles married the beautiful Catherine de Thouars, receiving vast lands in Poitou and two million livres as a dowry. Their only daughter, Marie de Laval, was born in 1429.
At this time, the Hundred Years War was raging, the British and their allies, the Burgundians, by that time had already occupied half of the territory of France. Gilles de Rais decided to side with the French crown. Thanks to his huge fortune, he endeared himself to the king's heir, Prince Charles of Valois, and received a place in his retinue.
Gilles' military career was successful and he managed to achieve great fame. He was brave and remarkably good with weapons. Having formed large armed detachments at his own expense, Gilles de Rais from 1427 to 1429 captured several castles and made successful raids on French lands occupied by the enemy.
At twenty-five, he was promoted to marshal of France, having the honor of including royal lilies in his coat of arms. When, at the beginning of 1429, the seventeen-year-old Joan of Arc appeared before the Dauphin Charles and declared that she would expel the English and crown Charles VII at Reims, Marshal Gilles de Rais, like many others, was fascinated by her. The king entrusted the Baron with the protection of Jeanne, and from Orleans to the unsuccessful siege of Paris, Gilles de Rais was inseparably with her.
The victories of Jeanne d'Arc followed one after another. On July 17, 1429, the coronation of Charles VII took place in Reims, where French kings were traditionally crowned. On the right hand of the king stood Joan of Arc, on the left - Gilles de Rais.
Confident in the victory of France, Gilles de Rais made a mistake - he made it clear to the newly minted sovereign that now it was time to start paying off the loans. As a result, the marshal fell out of favor and was removed from the court.
Soon the situation at the French court changed. Joan of Arc could not forgive the fact that a girl of seventeen knew more about the conduct of hostilities than the best warriors of France. Gilles heard rumors about the capture of Jeanne and he rushed to the king and queen, but was refused: Jeanne is an unofficial person and is not subject to redemption.
After the execution of Joan of Arc, Gilles returned to the castle of Tiffauges in remote Brittany and began to practice alchemy: there was no hope of repaying loans by the king, and his financial affairs were going very badly. In 1436, the new Dauphin, Louis (the future King of France, Louis XI), who was intriguing against his father, visited his castle.
The Baron de Rais had to finance Louis by mortgaging his castles one by one. Directly, the shadow of enmity between the king and the dauphin also fell on Gilles - by the highest decree of the king, he was limited in commercial transactions with his possessions.
Seeing that his financial situation was deteriorating catastrophically, Gilles and his alchemist Gilles de Sille, with even greater zeal, began to look for a way to obtain gold from lead. Almost the entire first floor of the Tiffauges castle was converted into an alchemical laboratory, and Gilles' agents bought in industrial volumes components that were very expensive at that time, for example, such as shark tooth, arsenic and mercury. However, everything was in vain, he never received the gold.
Saying goodbye in 1439 to his alchemist Gilles de Sille, he invited Francesco Prelatti, a charlatan, who eventually gained great power over him, to take his place. Francesco bluntly stated that he is a sorcerer and has a personal demon through which he keeps in touch with the world of the dead.
Soon rumors of their experiences, some of which were described as diabolical, spread throughout Brittany, with the result that the Duke of Brittany, of whom Gilles de Rais was a vassal, had to react to them.
Monsignor Jean de Malestruet, Bishop of Nantes and chief adviser to the Duke of Brittany, delivered a sensational sermon to his parishioners in the cathedral in 1440, in which he accused Marshal Gilles de Rais of terrible crimes "against young children and adolescents of both sexes."
In the end, he called for everyone who has any information about this to report them to him. The rumors and fiery speech of the bishop gave the impression that the authorities knew a lot about the crimes of Gilles de Rais, although in reality there was only one case of the missing child, which was not even connected with the marshal.
From this we can conclude that the top of the Duchy of Breton took advantage of the opportunity to get rid of the disgraced Gilles de Rais forever. Gilles de Rais was accused of human sacrifice to a domestic demon, the murder of children with their dismemberment and burning of bodies, sexual perversions and witchcraft with "the use of special technical means." Given the worldview of the people of that time, one can imagine what impression all these accusations made on them.
On September 13, 1440, Marshal Gilles de Rais was officially notified of the indictment, which consisted of 47 counts. He was asked to come to the Episcopal Court on September 19 to give explanations. In addition, based on the materials of the indictment, the Duke of Brittany authorized a secular trial.
Understanding perfectly well what threatens him with accusations of witchcraft, Gilles de Rais, unlike his alchemist Gilles de Sille, who went on the run, agreed to come to court. The prosecutor of Brittany arrested the bodyguards of Baron Corillo and Griar, as well as the Italian sorcerer Prelatti.
The trial of Marshal Gilles de Rais was announced in the squares of all the cities of Brittany, and spectators were freely admitted to it. Many of them were very aggressive towards the accused. The marshal's request for a lawyer was rejected by the court. Before the judges, Gilles de Rais behaved haughtily, completely denying his guilt, and then they began to interrogate his people.
Captured alchemist Gilles de Sille confirmed that the accused marshal took part in alchemical experiments, knowing full well that this was forbidden. For some experiments, it was necessary to place different parts of the baby's body in the bowl. He also testified about the brutal sexual abuse of underage boys and girls by Gilles de Rais.
Even more terrible testimony was given by the alchemist Francesco Prelatti, who announced that the marshal had signed a contract with the demon Barron with blood. For the gift of wealth, power and omniscience, he promised the demon to bring bloody sacrifices. According to him, the accused tried to pay off with a chicken, but the demon demanded the blood of babies.
The parents of the missing children were also interrogated, who stated that the children were last seen, sending them to beg in the marshal's domain. The arrested bodyguards of Baron Gilles de Rais did not remain silent either. They unanimously declared that the marshal collected severed human heads and during a search of the baron's castle they were not found only because Gilles de Rais, who sensed danger, ordered them to destroy this collection.
Despite the fact that all these testimonies of witnesses shocked the marshal, outwardly he remained calm and unperturbed, continuing to declare his innocence and demanding to provide a lawyer. However, he was once again denied.
In the end, tired of unfounded accusations, Baron Gilles de Rais declared that he would rather die on the gallows than continue to listen to false testimonies at this shameful trial. As a result, the marshal was excommunicated, and on October 19, 1440, the court ruled that the baron should be tortured in order to “encourage an end to the vile denial.”
Torture of the Middle Ages
The most popular torture in those days in France was applied to him - having tied him by the arms and legs, he was stretched on a horizontal grid, as if on a rack. Having endured terrible pain, Gilles de Rais promised the executioners to be more accommodating in court. Kneeling before the bishop, he asked to remove his excommunication from the church, and then, in the process of testifying, he admitted all his sins.
On October 21, 1440, Baron de Rais was subjected to new tortures, after which he officially admitted that he "enjoyed vice", describing in detail all his favorite methods of killing and his feelings at the same time. Interestingly, the marshal confessed to the murder of eight hundred innocent babies, but the court decided that one hundred and fifty would be enough.
For "such grave sins against the dogmas of faith and human laws that it is impossible for a person to imagine them" on October 25, 1440, the Bishop of Nantes repeatedly "pulled Gilles de Rais from the bosom of the Church of Christ", and the marshal himself was sentenced to death at the stake. He was offered the condition that if he repents and reconciles with the church, he will not be burned alive, but first strangled. The Baron agreed.
On October 26, 1440, Marshal of France Gilles de Rais and two of his close associates, Henri Griard and Etienne Corillo, were executed. Gilles encouraged his bodyguards in every possible way and, as the chronicle testifies, asked to be executed first in order to teach them how to die.
Standing at the stake, Gilles de Rais turned to the crowd and said that he was a brother to all those present and asked everyone, and especially those whose children he had killed, not only to forgive, but also to pray for him. And then the incredible happened - the crowd knelt down and began to pray. Gilles de Rais signaled that he was ready to die. The executioner, throwing a loop of garrote, strangled him, then set fire to the fire. From that moment on, the French king Charles VII no longer had to give him a huge debt.
The execution of Gilles de Rais and his two bodyguards
The body of the baron was removed almost immediately and solemnly buried in the tomb of the barons de Rais. According to other sources, relatives refused to bury him in the family crypt, and he was buried under an unmarked slab in a Carmelite monastery on the outskirts of Nantes.
Centuries have passed, but local peasants still repeat that in these castles on the banks of the Loire there once lived a rich baron, nicknamed Bluebeard, who killed wives and children.
French scientists consider it proven that the prototype of the Bluebeard was Gilles de Rais. But was the Marshal of France, Baron Gilles de Rais, really so guilty? The “posthumous trial”, held in the Senate of the French Republic in 1992, completely acquitted Marshal Gilles de Rais.
Materials used
Bluebeard is a fairy tale for school children. She tells about a rich man whose beard was blue and everyone was afraid of him because of this. One of the girls decided to marry him, he seemed to her a good person and not so scary. And in vain, because he turned out to be the murderer of his wives. The girl almost paid with her life because of her curiosity.
Fairy tale Bluebeard download:
Fairy tale Bluebeard read
Once upon a time there was a man who was followed by a lot of good things: he had beautiful houses in the city and outside the city, gold and silver dishes, embroidered chairs and gilded carriages. But, unfortunately, this man's beard was blue and this beard gave him such an ugly and formidable look that all the girls and women used to, as soon as they see him, so God give them legs as soon as possible.
One of his neighbors, a lady of noble birth, had two daughters, perfect beauties. He wooed one of them, not appointing which one and leaving the mother herself to choose his bride. But neither one nor the other agreed to be his wife: they could not decide to marry a man whose beard was blue, and only quarreled among themselves, sending him to each other. They were also embarrassed by the fact that he already had several wives, and no one in the world knew what had become of them.
Bluebeard, wanting to give them the opportunity to get to know him better, took them, along with his mother, three or four of their closest friends, and several young people from the neighborhood, to one of his country houses, where he spent a whole week with them. The guests walked, went hunting, fishing; dancing and feasting did not stop; there was no sleep at night; everyone made fun, invented funny pranks and jokes; in a word, everyone was so good and cheerful that the youngest of the daughters soon came to the conclusion that the owner’s beard was not at all so blue, and that he was a very amiable and pleasant gentleman. As soon as everyone returned to the city, the wedding was immediately played.
After a month, Bluebeard told his wife that he was forced to leave for at least six weeks on a very important matter. He asked her not to be bored in his absence, but, on the contrary, to try in every possible way to disperse, invite her friends, take them out of town, if she likes - to eat and drink sweetly - in a word, to live for her own pleasure.
“Here,” he added, “are the keys to the two main storerooms; here are the keys to the gold and silver dishes, which are not put on the table every day; here - from chests with money; here - from boxes with precious stones; here, finally, is the key with which all the rooms can be unlocked. But this small key unlocks the closet, which is located below, at the very end of the main gallery. You can unlock everything, enter everywhere; but I forbid you to enter that closet. My ban on this matter is so strict and formidable that if you happen to—God forbid—unlock it, then there is no such disaster that you should not expect from my anger.
The wife of Bluebeard promised to fulfill his orders and instructions exactly; and he, having kissed her, got into the carriage and set off on his journey.
Neighbors and friends of the young woman did not wait for an invitation, but all came on their own, so great was their impatience to see with their own eyes those innumerable riches that were rumored to be in her house. They were afraid to come until the husband left: his blue beard frightened them very much. They immediately went to inspect all the chambers - and there was no end to their surprise: everything seemed to them magnificent and beautiful! They got to the storerooms - and what they didn’t see there! Lush beds, sofas, richest curtains, tables, tables, mirrors so huge that you could see yourself in them from head to toe and with such wonderful, unusual frames! Some frames were also mirrored, others were made of gilded carved silver. Neighbors and friends incessantly praised and extolled the happiness of the mistress of the house, but she was not at all amused by the spectacle of all these riches: she was tormented by the desire to unlock the closet below, at the end of the gallery.
Her curiosity was so strong that, not realizing how impolite it was to leave the guests, she suddenly rushed down the hidden stairs ... ... almost broke her neck. Running to the closet door, however, she stopped for a moment. Her husband's prohibition crossed her mind. Well, she thought, I'll be in trouble for my disobedience! But the temptation was too strong, she could not cope with it. She took the key and, trembling like a leaf, unlocked the closet.
At first she did not make out anything: it was dark in the closet ... the windows were closed. But after a while, she saw that the whole floor was covered with dried blood and in this blood the bodies of several dead women were reflected, tied along the walls, these were the former wives of Bluebeard, whom he slaughtered one by one. - She almost died on the spot from fear and dropped the key from her hand.
At last she came to her senses, picked up the key, locked the door, and went to her room to rest and recover. But she was so frightened that in no way could she completely come to her senses.
She noticed that the key to the closet was stained with blood; she wiped it off once, twice, a third time... but the blood didn't come out. No matter how she washed it, no matter how she rubbed it, even with sand and crushed bricks, the blood stain still remained! This key was magical and there was no way to clean it; blood came out on one side and came out on the other.
That same evening Bluebeard returned from his journey. He told his wife that on the road he received letters from which he learned that the case on which he was supposed to leave had been decided in his favor. His wife, as usual, tried her best to show him that she was very happy about his soon return.
The next morning he asked her for the keys. She handed them to him, but her hand trembled so much that he easily guessed everything that had happened in his absence.
“Why,” he asked, “is the key to the closet not with the others?”
“I must have forgotten it upstairs on my table,” she answered.
- Please bring it, do you hear! said Bluebeard.
After several excuses and delays, she was finally to bring the fatal key.
- Why is this blood? - he asked.
“I don’t know why,” the poor woman answered, and she herself turned as pale as a sheet.
- You do not know! said Bluebeard. - Well, I know! You wanted to enter the closet. All right, you go in there and take your place next to the women you saw there.
She threw herself at her husband's feet, wept bitterly and began to ask him for forgiveness for her disobedience, expressing the most sincere repentance and grief. It seems that the stone would have been moved by the prayers of such a beauty, but Bluebeard's heart was harder than any stone.
“You must die,” he said, “and now.
“If I must certainly die,” she said through tears, “so give me a minute of time to pray to God.”
"I'll give you exactly five minutes," said Bluebeard, "and not a second more!"
He went down, and she called her sister and said to her:
- My sister, Anna (that was her name), please go up to the very top of the tower, see if my brothers are coming? They promised to visit me today. If you see them, give them a sign to hurry up.
Sister Anna went up to the top of the tower, and the poor unfortunate thing from time to time shouted to her:
"Sister Anna, can't you see anything?"
And sister Anna answered her:
Meanwhile, Bluebeard, grabbing a huge knife, yelled with all his might:
"Come here, come, or I'll go to you!"
“Just a minute,” his wife answered, and added in a whisper:
And sister Anna answered:
I see the sun is clearing and the grass is turning green.
- Go, go quickly! yelled Bluebeard, “otherwise I’ll go to you!”
- I'm coming! - answered the wife and again asked her sister:
Anna, sister Anna! can't you see anything?
“I see,” Anna answered, “a large cloud of dust is approaching us.
Are these my brothers?
“Oh no, sister! this is a flock of sheep.
- Are you finally coming? cried Bluebeard.
“Just a little more,” his wife answered, and again asked:
Anna, sister Anna! can't you see anything?
“I see two horsemen galloping up here, but they are still very far away. Thank God,” she added after a while, “these are our brothers. I give them a sign to hurry as soon as possible.
But then Bluebeard raised such an uproar that the very walls of the house trembled. His poor wife came down and threw herself at his feet, all torn to pieces and in tears.
“It will serve no purpose,” said Bluebeard, “the hour of your death has come.”
With one hand he grabbed her by the hair, with the other he raised his terrible knife ... He swung at her to cut off her head ... The poor thing turned her extinguished eyes on him:
“Give me one more moment, just one more moment, to gather my courage…
- No no! he answered, “entrust your soul to God!”
And he raised his hand already... But at that moment such a terrible knock rose at the door that Bluebeard stopped, looked around... The door opened at once and two young men burst into the room. Drawing their swords, they rushed straight at Bluebeard.
He recognized his wife's brothers, one served in the dragoons, the other in the horse rangers, and immediately sharpened his skis; but the brothers overtook him before he could run behind the porch. They pierced him through with their swords and left him dead on the floor. The poor wife of Bluebeard was barely alive herself, no worse than her husband, she did not even have enough strength to rise and embrace her deliverers.
It turned out that Bluebeard had no heirs, and all his property went to his widow. She used one part of his wealth to marry off her sister Anna to a young nobleman who had long been in love with her; for the other part, she bought the captain's ranks for the brothers; and with the rest she herself married a very honest and good man. With him she forgot all the grief she had endured as Bluebeard's wife.
bluebeard prototype
The French marshal is considered the prototype of the Bluebeard. Gilles de Montmorency-Laval Baron de Rais comte de Brienne is notorious as a Satanist, a man with a disturbed psyche. Rumor has it that in addition to the fact that the marshal was suspected of witchcraft, he also corrupted children, both boys and girls; practiced alchemy. However, he did not kill his wives, although many historians try to attribute this sin to him. Now this man is known as Gilles de Rais as an associate of Joan of Arc. He was executed for all his crimes, although in fact they relied more on rumors than on facts. He instilled too much fear in people.
For all the deeds of this man, and this is more than 200 crimes, he was considered and is considered one of the most dangerous and unpredictable criminals. It was for what fear he inspired that the author of Bluebeard, Charles Perrault, took him as a prototype for his fairy tale. By the way, many other writers and composers used this character in their works.
Although Gilles was such a terrible person on the one hand, on the other hand he was the bravest of warriors. The battle of Tourelles, in which he won, brought him fame and sealed his name in history, despite all his other dishonors.
There is also another version of who is the prototype of Bluebeard. They say once Tryphina, the wife of Conomor (the ruler of Brittany) randomly wandered into her husband's secret room, where she found the corpses of his ex-wives. With the help of magic, she learned that all the women were pregnant at that time. As soon as Tryphina became pregnant herself, she tried to escape, but she did not succeed.
Bluebeard: a summary
Bluebeard is a rich man who lives alone in his castle. Everyone around him knows and fears him. There are several reasons for this. The first is, of course, the color of his beard, which confuses with its abnormality, the second is the inexplicable disappearance of all the girls who marry him.
Two girls live near the Bluebeard's palace - sisters. He invites them along with his girlfriends and friends for a week-long vacation outside the city and the youngest of the sisters decides that their neighbor is not so scary. He begins to seem kind and helpful to her. And so she decides and marries Bluebeard.
The wedding is played and the girl moves to the castle. Unexpectedly, Bluebeard is going on the road and orders his wife to walk and have fun, to use any wealth, but only not to enter the closet. (Why does he then give her the key to this closet? Apparently, he still wanted her to enter it.)
Girlfriends come to the girl, they inspect the whole castle together, marveling at all the decorations and unheard-of riches. Then Bluebeard's wife can't stand it, runs into the closet and opens it. Oh, my God, there she discovers the corpses of ex-wives. Out of fear, she drops the key and stains it with blood. The terrible thing is that it is impossible to wash the blood - the key is bewitched. As soon as the girl rubs the stain, it immediately appears again.
In addition, Bluebeard returns ahead of time. He understands that his wife opened the door and wants to kill her. She asks for a couple of minutes, and she sends her sister to see if the brothers are coming, and if they are coming, hurry them up. Here Bluebeard grabs a knife and then the girl's brothers burst in and kill him.
From Wikitranslators
| ← Chapter 4 Condemned | "Gilles de Rais - Marshal Bluebeard" ~ Chapter 5 The Legend of Bluebeard by Zoe Lionidas |
Chapter 6 Vindication in Five Hundred Years? → |
The tragedy and the terrible end of Gilles de Rais remained in the people's memory, merging and whimsically mixing with images and fairy-tale motifs familiar to Brittany, the most famous of which was the story of Bluebeard.
This story is familiar to all of us since childhood. A terrible aristocrat with a blue beard marries time after time, but after a short time, another wife goes missing. For the eighth time, he takes a quiet, modest girl for himself, and gives her the keys to all the premises of the castle, warning, however, that she should not dare to look into one of the rooms. For some time, the newlywed suffers, but curiosity takes over, and looking into the forbidden room, she sees the dead bodies of Bluebeard's former wives. Out of fear, dropping the key to the floor, she realizes that it is stained with blood, but it is no longer possible to wash or wipe the enchanted key, and the strict husband finds out on the same day that the new wife has violated the ban.
Drawing his sword, he orders her to prepare for death, but she delays the execution of the sentence under various pretexts, at the same time asking her sister Anna, who at that moment is at the top of the tower, "Are the brothers coming?" (who, by a happy coincidence, decided to visit her just that day. As usual in a fairy tale, everything ends well, the brothers make it on time, and the villain dies, accepting a well-deserved punishment for all his crimes.
The tale, in the old fashion, ends with a "moral":
"Yes, curiosity is a scourge,
It confuses everyone
Born to mortals on the mountain.
There are thousands of examples
How do you look a little,
Amusing female passion for immodest secrets:
It is well known that it was expensive.
It will instantly lose both taste and sweetness.
(translated by L. Uspensky).
For the first time in the state in which we know it now, the Bluebeard tale appeared in the publication Stories and Tales of Old Times, Tales of Mother Goose, which was published in 1697 (publisher - Claude Barbin). As you know, this collection gained such popularity that it was translated into almost all languages of the world, and the French language was enriched with the saying “to wait as if for sister Anna” - that is, to wait with great impatience. In its initial state, the collection "Tales of Mother Goose" included the following texts:
Later, "Griselda or the patient Marchioness of Salus", "Donkey skin" and "Funny wishes" were added to the original edition. As you know, one of these tales - "Riquet with a tuft", the author, Charles Perrault composed himself, some "materials" were used as the basis for others. In some cases, these original sources are easily detectable, for example, the story of the patient Griselda was well known in Europe in the presentation of Giovanni Boccaccio, however, in the case of interest to us, the situation is not so obvious.
Charles Perrault, author of the fairy tale
Before turning to the question of whether our hero was or was not the prototype of the villain Bluebeard, briefly about the author of fairy tales. There is no profession "writer" and apparently never existed. Charles Perrault, the seventh and last child of Pierre and Paquette Perrault, as often happens with the younger ones, tried not only to catch up, but also to surpass his brothers. By the way, he had a twin - Francois, who died at the age of six months. The Franco-Italian researcher Mark Soriano, who devoted a lot of energy to the study of Perro's biography and work, believed that the motive of the "twin" haunted the writer until the end of his life, giving rise to images of endless mirrors, doubles, heroes acting as a couple, etc. Like it or not, we will not discuss, those who wish to refer to the original source will suffice.
It is known that the young Perrault was one of the best students of the Catholic College of Beauvais (we note in brackets, one of the founders of which was Cauchon, the judge and executioner of Jeanne ... how closely the story nevertheless closes ...) Having received a license from the University of Orleans to practice as a lawyer in the field of civil and canon law (or, as it was customary to say then, “of both rights”), Perrot labored in this field for a short time, but left his activity at the insistence of the brothers, so that in 1654 he finally turned into an assistant under the eldest of them, Jean Perrot, general Comptroller of the Finances of Paris.
In 1663, the young Perrault managed to attract the favorable gaze of the comptroller general (or, as they would say now, "minister") of finance - Colbert, and I must say, very timely. A year later, after the destruction of the farming system, according to which tax collectors were private individuals who, having received the agreed amount for the king, had the right to rob the population for the sake of their own enrichment, Jean Perrot finally went bankrupt and left the political stage. However, the younger brother remained afloat, and moreover, was approved as an inspector of royal property. Moreover, not wanting to lag behind Richelieu, who founded the French Academy of Sciences, Colbert laid the foundation for the so-called. “Small Council” or “Small Academy”, which will eventually turn into the “Academy of inscriptions and belles-lettres”; while the permanent secretary of this new institution will be, you guessed it, the reader, Perrault Jr. The original task of this "small academy" was to smoke incense to Louis the Sun and his family, excelling in composing prose and poetic praises, odes and puns. It must be said that Perro even earlier managed to be worthy of note and in this field he created such “masterpieces” as “Ode to Peace” (in 1659 - in commemoration of peace with Spain), “Ode to the King’s Marriage” (1661), “Ode to the birth of Monsieur Dauphine" (1661). In his new post, he continued to scribble works of the same plan, singing in the verses of Cardinal Mazarin, well known to the Russian reader from the novels of Dumas, poems about balls and holidays held in the royal palace, verses in honor of the victories of French weapons in Franche-Comte, at Cambrai and Monse, etc. It must be said that the hardworking official also did not forget about his direct duties, overseeing the repair of the eastern wing of the Louvre Palace (which, by the way, he entrusted to his older brother Claude), the construction of the Paris Observatory, the triumphal arch in the Faubourg Sainte -Antoine, etc.
In short, the career of the younger Perrault went uphill, and he could have remained one of the hundreds of palace officials and petty sycophants, whose names are known only to professional historians, but, as it often happens, "there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped." In literary matters, Perrault had a violent feud with the famous poet Racine, the creator of the classicist theory of Boileau, and their adherents. We will not go into the reasons for such a hostile relationship between writers - again, anyone can open the necessary literature. We only note that after the death of Colbert in 1683 and the coming to power of a new minister - Louvois, the younger Perrault was thrown out of the academy without any talk, not forgetting to deprive him of the salary due to the secretary. After retiring for several years, Perrault took up the education of his sons, however, he did not give up hope of regaining royal grace. For this, he composed another ode "The Feast of the Gods on the occasion of the birth of the Duke of Burgundy", dedicated, of course, to the birth of the grandson of Louis XIV. Refinement in flattery and servility, Perrault suddenly remembered a conversation he had accidentally overheard: the king loves fairy tales! On this path, the future collector of folklore was a feat, unaware of this Colbert, mentioning on occasion that the young king, when at the age of seven he had time to move from nannies to the patronage of men, bitterly complained that there was no one else to tell him about the “Donkey Skin”, for he was used to falling asleep to the sounds of this old fairy tale.
Not forgetting about the odes and teachings (and the court at that time was zealously imbued with the spirit of Christian humility, which the new favorite brought with her - and later, the secret wife of the king - Madame de Maintenon), Perrot created famous us fairy tales in verse and prose, dedicating his first collection to Mademoiselle, that is, the daughter of Philip of Orleans. As you know, this collection will make him famous, and will live on, while all other writings will be long and safely forgotten.
Gilles de Rais - the prototype of Bluebeard?
Let us dwell on this and ask ourselves the following question: did the author use when writing his obviously literary fairy tale, and was he even familiar with the story of Gilles de Rais, and if so, why did he stop at its transmission in the form of a story about an aristocratic woman-killer, although how could a writer, and by no means a collector of folklore (there was no such thing then!), could freely vary the plot?
The first question can be answered with some confidence, yes, I could be familiar. The Perrot family was originally from Tours, these places are relatively close to Brittany, the memory of the life and death of Gilles de Rais is preserved until the present day. The Gilles process itself was never secret, moreover, it was freely distributed in lists already in the 16th century, and in the next two centuries the number of these lists grew to such an extent that historians find it difficult to determine it with accuracy. To date, about 20 copies have survived, two of which belonged to Cardinal Cesar d'Estre (Perrot's colleague at the Academy), as well as state adviser Nicolas-Joseph Foucault. Yes, and Perrault himself, as a specialist in the field of law, could not help but have a collection of court decisions of the past - such collections were used as precedents for making court decisions. They quite often included the process of Gilles.
But if this is so, why did Perrault still prefer the form of a wife killer for the main villain in his fairy tale? Trying to answer this question, the newest biographer of our baron - Matei Kazaku suggests:
- In those days, everyone heard the so-called. the case of poisons, which scandalized the French court. The fact is that the long-term favorite of Louis, the marquise de Montespan, not wanting to come to terms with the fate of the retired passion, tried to regain the king's favor in numerous ways - both by sending poisoned gloves to his new lover, and with the help of the so-called. "black masses". Under this name, in the 17th century, one of the forms of the ancient spell of the devil was believed. In order for the unclean spirit to favorably react to the request of a new adept, babies were sacrificed to him. This case turned into a grandiose scandal and many executions and exiles, it was at least careless to remind about it, even in literary form.
- Philip of Orleans, the younger brother of the king, was distinguished by homosexual inclinations. However, if in the time of Gilles such encroachments were sometimes punishable by death, in the depraved 17th century, this no longer surprised anyone. Surrounding himself with young "favorites", the duke had fun at his pleasure, not paying attention to the complaints of his abandoned wife. An extra reminder of this could also turn into royal disfavor for the writer.
Like it or not, you can argue for a long time. Not wanting to go into such vicissitudes, the author prefers to end with Plato's famous expression " and then let everyone think what they want».
The fact that in popular memory the image of the very real killer of children Gilles de Rais merged with the archetypal killer of wives has been known for a long time. As mentioned above, local peasants used to show the grave of Maria de Rais to their children as "the grave of Bluebeard's daughter." Having arisen in the midst of village life, this identification gradually found a place for itself in "learned" literature. So, in particular, Edouard Richet, who in 1820 published his essay “Description [of the environs] of the River Hedre”, he mentions the castle of Verrieres, standing on its bank, specifically stipulating that this castle belonged to Bluebeard; in real history, this man's name was Gilles de Rais. By the beginning of the 19th century, this castle had already turned into ruins, adjacent to it was a tiny chapel, also destroyed, around which seven extremely beautiful trees grew, and our author was firmly convinced that their number corresponded to the number of the murdered wives of Bluebeard.
He was echoed by Pierre Fouchet (1772-1845), father-in-law of the famous writer Victor Hugo. Recalling his time in Nantes, he says that on Sundays the locals are in the habit of walking to the castle of Bluebeard, directly calling him Gilles de Rais, and this tradition dates back to time immemorial. J. Colin de Plancy, the author of the Dictionary of Infernal Forces, famous in the 19th century, interprets the old tale somewhat differently. Publishing with his comments the next edition of Charles Perrault's Tales, he stipulates that the story of Bluebeard came from Lower Brittany, and that " in fact, Bluebeard was a noble lord of the house of Beaumanoir».
In later editions, Bluebeard is referred to as "Count". In Perrault's imagination, this obviously medieval character turns into a modern nobleman who lives in a richly furnished mansion with cabinets, sofas and Venetian mirrors. One of the heroine's two brothers is a royal musketeer, the other is a dragoon. Abbé Bossard noted, not without humor, that the heroine of such an opus was the half-sister of Madame de la Fayette or Madame de Monteville, a frequent guest in the Rambouillet salon, and if a ferocious spouse had threatened her with death, she would have asked for a couple of minutes of respite to powder her nose and straighten her hair - to look charming even in a coffin!
distant predecessors
But jokes are jokes, and the plot of the story about the demonic killer of women dates back to much more ancient times than the era of our hero. So French folklorists and collectors of fairy tales - Paul Delarue and Marie-Louise Tenez counted at least three versions of the story of Bluebeard in Brittany.
In the first of them, three sisters are stolen one by one by a certain demonic being, marries each of them, respectively forbidding them to open a locked room, and then kills them for violating the ban. However, the youngest of the three manages to avoid execution by cunning, bring the sisters back to life and exterminate the villain.
The second and most famous within France, based his tale on Perrault, with the only caveat that not only brothers, but also parents or other relatives of the victim can act as saviors in the popular presentation.
And finally, the third is marked by a clear touch of Christian piety. In this case, the devil or his earthly incarnation kidnaps two sisters one by one, wanting to destroy both, but the intervention of the saint or saints stops the execution.
In addition, throughout Europe, already in the Middle Ages, the ballad about "Renault, the killer of women" was known. In total, up to 23 of its variants are known in France alone, of which seven are in Brittany. In the Breton version, a noble seigneur acts as an executioner, and the legend calls him typically medieval titles - Sieur de la Tremblay or Marquis de Coatredez.
Thus, we can say with certainty that the story of Bluebeard existed many years, and perhaps many centuries, before Gilles de Rais; a very real pedophile and murderer of children, folk memory combined with the well-known archetypal image of a tyrant husband. It only remains to answer the question of where the oldest roots of the fairy tale come from, and how such a merger could occur.
In search of an answer to the first question, the naturalist and folklorist and naturalist of the early 19th century, Karl Anastas, Baron Walkener, in his "Messages Concerning Fairy Tales Relying on the Creations of Perrault", traces the story of Bluebeard to the times of Breton paganism. Valckener sees its basis in one of the pious stories typical of this area, set forth in the Great Chronicles and Lives of the Saints of Brittany or Armorica. From his point of view, the original prototype of Bluebeard was the Breton king Comorr the Accursed (VI century AD), who married Tryphina, the daughter of the king (according to other sources, the count) of Vannes. According to legend, the bestial spouse has already managed to execute four wives, and soon he hangs his new wife, but she is resurrected by St. Gildas (or Velthas), while the cruel Commorr perishes under the rubble of his castle.
In the retelling of Alain Bouchard, this story, as it is presented in the Great (Breton) Chronicle, reads as follows:
| Comoros, Breton king of the 6th century. already killed several of his wives, while Gerok, Count of Vannes, refused to marry his daughter Tryphina to him. However, eventually defeated by the king's harassment, he agreed, "forcing him to promise that, in agreement with the king of Comoros, the lord saint Gildas will take the trouble to look after her and return her alive and healthy if he so requests." Some time after the wedding, the queen found out that her husband was putting his wives to death as soon as he noticed what they had carried in the womb, and fearing to undergo the same fate, he ran back to his father, but Comorr, setting off in pursuit, overtook her in a small forest, where she tries to hide, and cuts off her head. The grief-stricken father, Count Gerok, sends for St. Gildas, begging him to keep his word. The saint, soon discovering the body, with the assistance of the forces of heaven, with prayers and tears, brings Saint Tryphina back to life. |
Charles Morin de Souverdal, a mid-19th-century explorer who came to Brittany specifically to inspect the ruins of Mashcoul Castle, in turn believed that Charles Perrault, writing his famous fairy tale, was based precisely on the stories of the atrocities of Gilles de Rais, but wanting to soften too cruel picture, found it necessary to replace the children with women, thus crossing the medieval baron with the polygamist Henry VIII of England.
"What does he intend to do?"
"Avenge the deaths of all you have killed."
"So I'm finished?"
"Not yet, for your hour has not struck."
"Who will stop them?"
"I, with your assistance and help, my good knight."
"You will do this?"
“Yes, I will, because you are a thousand times more useful to me alive than dead. Now, farewell, Gilles de Rais, and remember that you belong to me in body and soul.
And the blue devil disappeared into a sulfur cloud. He kept his word and frustrated the intentions of the nobles from the land of Redon, but from that time onward, Gilles in this land was not called otherwise than the man with the Bluebeard.
And finally, the legends, as they should, tell of the miserable death of the villain:
| "Gilles de Rais was taken to the city of Nantes and sentenced to death there, however, the judges wished that he ended his life where he committed his crimes." On the mountain slope, where the northern side of the castle fortifications was located, and under the feet of the beholder there was a view of the tops of alder trees, poplars and oaks that cover the banks of the Sevres river, they still show the place where the criminal, as if in a fairy tale about the “Smart Princess”, was beaten into a barrel lined with blades and sharp nails, prepared by him for his wife, and thrown down, and this barrel rumbled down from stone to stone, to the very bottom of the river valley, and when at last he reached the water's edge, the criminal was already dead, therefore , as our narrators stated, “a great feast was held in Tiffauges, and also throughout the district, on account of the death of a lord so hard-hearted.” |
We will put an end to this.
Marginal theories
The 19th century was a turning point for the newly formed science of linguistics. This is the heyday of the so-called. comparative linguistics, in other words, the theory that the languages of Europe for the most part date back to a single ancestor that existed about 6 thousand years ago. Now we call this proto-language Indo-European, in those days we preferred the term "Indo-Germanic" or "Aryan language-base", but this did not change things. And at the same time, a revolutionary idea for those times was put forward that not only the languages, but also the mythology of Europe goes back to a single source: the rites and religious beliefs of the Indo-Aryan tribe. Indeed, parallel plots in the mythology and religious teachings of peoples in the modern world located in different parts of the continent drew attention to themselves. In particular, the kinship of the names and functions of the Greek Zeus and the Vedic Dyaus, the name of the Vedic fire god - Agni, clearly related to the Slavic concept of "fire", myths about twin couples, repeated in the cultures of many peoples, etc. that the fairy tale is essentially a savage ritual distorted and deformed in the new environment and a savage myth developed, in particular, by the school of E. Tylor, made a real revolution in cultural studies. One of the tales that was studied was, you guessed it, the reader, the old legend of Bluebeard, and interesting things immediately began to emerge.
So, for example, in Greek, as well as in Scandinavian (which is important, since Normandy is the closest neighbor of Brittany!) The word "blue", in relation to hair, has the meaning of a deep blue-black shade, "the color of a raven's wing", moreover, the owners of such hair are considered noteworthy womanizers and seducers. In particular, Greek mythology endows Zeus with a similar beard color - known for his love affairs, thus stretching the thread from the mythical seductive gods to the image of the demonic killer of women; in fact, it is known that at the beginning of the Christian era, the ancient gods were interpreted as "demons", seducing and trying to lead to the death of orthodox Catholics.
The next, much more extravagant theory did not find followers due to its too obvious curiosity. Its author suggested that the color of the fairy-tale hero's beard is due to the fact that Gilles de Rais (as it is known) labored in the field of alchemical transformations. The first stage of the process was considered to be the coloring of the mixture in a blue-black color - so that this stage in alchemical grimoires bore the special name of the "crow's head" or "crow's wing". Therefore, the color of the protagonist's beard meant that he did not succeed in advancing beyond this stage, and he pursued women, like birds, known for their fickle behavior and flitting from branch to branch. We note, in parentheses, that this tale has many varieties, and the beard of the protagonist is Green, and Blue, and even Red. Interestingly, in such cases, to what stage of alchemical transformation did the main character reach?
Another, no less extravagant theory, extremely fashionable in the 19th century, the so-called. "astronomical" or "solar" wanted to see in the main character the embodiment of the ancient deity of the Sun, which moves across the sky from constellation to constellation, throwing one after another their inconsolable stellar lovers.
Among many other subjects, "Bluebeard" is sometimes considered a reflection of the primitive custom of initiation or initiation. Since, paradoxically, they tried to use the description of this rite to justify our hero, it is worth dwelling on this ethnographic topic in particular.
The rite of initiation or initiation appears, apparently, at the stage of the beginning of the decomposition of the hunting community, the gradual transition to patriarchy and the separation of the tribal elite. The fact is that for a tribe whose survival depends on the luck or failure of the hunter, it is vital not only to teach their youth to shoot accurately and track prey, the beast must be subdued. Indeed, a hunter, no matter how dexterous and experienced he may be, depends largely on blind luck. You can spend a day or two in the jungle, and waste time without stumbling upon a fresh trail. Therefore, it is not difficult to learn how to kill an animal, it should be bewitched, forced to go out to the hunter, substitute for an arrow or a spear. This is what the rite of initiation of youth is dedicated to. It is most often performed on boys entering puberty, although female initiations are also known. Among the tribes of different countries and continents, the rite is sufficiently diverse. In its most general form, it always comes down to the fact that children are taken to a forest or a dense bush - the habitat of animals, a place of danger and possible death, where they are then subjected to painful trials. This can be circumcision, chopping off the little finger, flogging, burning the skin, etc. Sometimes, to stupefy consciousness, which for a savage is tantamount to a transition to the "world of spirits", they offer narcotic smoking or drinking. In a semi-delirious state, the future hunter sees images of animals and spirits, learns to speak with them and finds himself a “spiritual” patron who will henceforth accompany and help him until his death. Finally exhausted, neophytes lose consciousness (“temporarily die”) and “resurrected”, receive all the rights and privileges of adults.
Those who have received initiation, as a rule, are separated from the rest of the tribe, and live as a kind of “brotherhood” until marriage. In fact, this is the training of not only future hunters, but also future warriors. Young men settle in the so-called. "men's house" is the largest and most elegant building in the village. The masks and amulets of the tribe are kept here, and here, behind tightly closed doors, magical rites and dances take place. For women and children, visiting the "men's house" is prohibited on pain of death; However, with a few interesting exceptions. For old women who are no longer considered “women” by age, the entrance to the men’s house is open, as a rule, they are engaged in cleaning or cooking in it, young men respectfully call old women “mothers”. In addition, one (or less often several) selected girls have an entrance to the men's house. Here they play the role of "sisters" with whom young men can satisfy their sexual needs. Children born from such cohabitation are killed. Over time, the girl, as a rule, chooses one of the young warriors, and having married him, settles in her husband's house.
The question of how it becomes possible for the chosen girl to see the secret rites of the tribe has not been fully resolved. There is an assumption that she also undergoes an initiation ceremony, thus becoming equal to the young men. From the rite of initiation of a girl - let's make a reservation, potential, since an ethnographically similar rite has not been recorded! - they tried to bring out the plots of fairy tales about " dead princesses"And" sleeping beauties"- a temporary, magical death, which, as one would expect, ends in marriage.
As you may have guessed, reader, it was the ban on entering the men's house, the ban on pain of death, the violation of which cannot be hidden, that ethnographers tried to discern in the fairy tale motif of "violation of the ban" (Pandora's box, the pantry where the chained Koschey is kept, the room with the boiler, boiling gold), and of course - a closet with the hanged wives of Bluebeard. The entrance to it turns for the heroine into temporary death, that is, initiation, and, as follows from the rite, entry into a permanent marriage.
Like it or not, one can argue for a long time, and the theory itself has not yet been fully formulated, since Europeans almost never managed to observe the rite of passage; at best, they learned about it through an interpreter, from those who went through it in their youth and violated the secret, and most of these cases occur at the time of the death and decay of the tradition, when the sacred awe has already been lost, and at the same time the initial one, the rite, already unclear to the performers themselves, begins to be strongly deformed. But suppose that the theory is correct, and, as it often happens, real memories and events of recent times have been superimposed on the most ancient layer, already forgotten and obscure in the new conditions.
In any case, there is no doubt that the real image of the child-killing baron in the people's memory was superimposed on the already existing archetypes, and gradually merged with them, turning quite real events into a fairy tale, embellished by the imagination and adjusted by him to long-existing and familiar patterns. The debate about Bluebeard continues, but leaving it to folklorists and ethnographers, let's move on to the next, final chapter of this publication.
Literature
- Georges Bataille Le Proces de Gilles de Rais. - Paris: Éditions Pauvert, 1977. - 338 p. -
- Abbe Eugene Bossard Gilles de Rais, Maréchal de France dit Barbe Bleu. - Paris: H. Champion, 1886. - 638 p.
- Matei Cazacu Gilles de Rais. - Paris: Tallandier, 2006. - 382 p. -
© Zoe Lionidas (text). All rights reserved. / © Zoe Lionidas (text). All rights reserved.
April 29th, 2013
Who hasn't heard of the villain immortalized by Charles Perrault under the name of Bluebeard? Since the story was published in 1697 in the collection "Tales of my mother Goose ...". The blue-bearded knight killed his beautiful wives one by one, as soon as they dared to violate the strictest prohibition of her husband: not to use the key to a certain mysterious room. The next mistress of the castle, of course, could not cope with curiosity. She opened the cherished door and ... a terrible picture appeared to the gaze of the beauty: in the cold twilight on the bloody floor lay the lifeless bodies of her husband's former short-lived companions. Stunned by the discovery, the girl finally realized the meaning of the gloomy warning of a strange spouse, however, too late. Taken by surprise, the unfortunate woman joined the monstrous collection in the dungeon. For those who are less well-read, "Bluebeard" is simply a synonym for either a polygamist or a wife killer ...
This tale was read by all the children of Europe, but not every adult knows where it came from. It is believed that Gilles de Montmorency-Laval, Baron de Rais, Marshal of France, hero of the Hundred Years War, contemporary and colleague of the famous Joan of Arc, served as the prototype of the Bluebeard. But did he rightly get the “laurels” of a murderer and a sorcerer?
On the morning of October 26, 1440, the square in front of the Nantes Cathedral was crowded with a huge crowd. Everyone wanted to look at the execution of a noble lord, accused of monstrous crimes. In the cathedral, Marshal Gilles de Rais repented and asked for forgiveness. The church - for apostasy, heresy, blasphemy and witchcraft. From his lord, Duke Jean of Brittany, for the numerous murders of young children. The ceremony was not long - already at ten o'clock a procession of wagons set off from the square to the place of execution: on the first - the marshal himself, followed by his two closest bodyguard servants and, according to their own testimony, assistants in wicked deeds - Henri Griar and Etienne Corillo . These two, people of no nobility, half an hour later will be burned alive at the stake. The executioner will strangle their master with a garrote, "symbolically" set fire to brushwood under the dead body, immediately pull out the corpse, which will be handed over to relatives. Those, however, will beware of burying the "monster" in the family crypt - he will find eternal rest under an unnamed slab in a Carmelite monastery on the outskirts of Nantes ...
Eloi Firmin Fron. Gilles de Laval, sire de Rais. Portrait from the gallery of marshals of France in Versailles.
They also tried to identify Bluebeard with a 6th century Breton king named Kunmar or Komorr, who married Saint Tryphime, daughter of the Duke of Vannes.
The frescoes in the Morbihan church tell the whole story, but since they belong to the 17th century and were painted 6 years after the appearance of Perrault's tale, it is unlikely that the author took that story as a model. For the rest, the legend of Comorra is very old. In the Great Chronicle of 1531, Alain Bouchard writes: “Komorr has already killed several of his wives. Geroch, Count of Vannes, did not want to give him his daughter Trifima as a wife, but then agreed, on the condition that Saint Gild would resurrect her, if necessary. The new queen once entered the chapel where the wives of Commorr were buried, and their shadows appeared to her, warning the queen that the king would kill his wife as soon as she became pregnant. Since Tryphima was in this very position, she was frightened. The Shadows give her various items to aid her escape, and Tryphima flees. Kommorr pursues her, overtakes her and cuts off her head. Count Geroch asks Saint Gild to fulfill his promise, he goes to the corpse, puts his head to the body, and with tears and prayers begs God to resurrect the queen. This story is also legendary. Comorres kills his wives because, like Oedipus, his son must kill him.
In other cases, the scary hero eats corpses. But this is not so important for the main theme of the tale: the test of the wife, usually the prohibition to enter the room to which she is given the key.
There is also such an unusual version that The prototype of the "blue beard" was none other than Henry Vlll, King of England, father of the unforgettable Elizabeth. It was he who showed the height of ingenuity in family matters, despite his commitment to Protestantism, treated his six wives, let's say, harshly.
Why is the beard blue?
This story is the most mystical! A real legend with a surreal development of events, where even the lord of the underworld appears!
“Past the castle of Gilles de Rais, the Count Odon de Tremeac and his bride Blanche de Lerminière rode. The baron invited them to dinner. But when the guests were about to leave, he ordered the count to be thrown into a stone bag, and the frightened Blanche offered to become his wife. She refused. Then he took her to the church and began to ardently swear that, if she agreed, "he would forever give her soul and body." Blanche agreed - and at the same moment she turned into a blue Devil. The devil laughed and said to the baron: "Now you are in my power." He made a sign - and Gilles' beard also turned blue. “Now you will not be Gilles de Laval,” Satan rumbled. “Your name will be Bluebeard!”
But we will still take a closer look at the main version ...
Confidant of the Dauphin
« Once upon a time there was a man who had beautiful houses both in the city and in the countryside, dishes, gold and silver, furniture all embroidered and carriages, gilded from top to bottom. But, unfortunately, this man had a blue beard, and it made him so ugly and so terrible that there was not a single woman or girl who would not run away when she saw him.". Already at the very beginning of the tale, it seems, there is the first slander against the hero of our story, who, judging by the portraits, wore a neatly trimmed dark beard.
Gilles de Rais, born in 1404 in the castle of Mashkul on the border of Brittany and Anjou, is the offspring of an old and noble family that gave France twelve marshals and six constables (the holder of this position combined the duties of commander in chief and minister of war).
Sources do not say anything about his childhood, which is usual for that troubled era. Only the most general information is known. In 1415, eleven-year-old Gilles and his younger brother Rene lost both parents: Guy de Laval's father, Baron de Rais, died either in the war or in a duel, his mother died a little earlier, and the children were under the care of their grandfather Jean de Craon . He, apparently, put a lot of effort into instilling in Gilles a love of reading and the sciences - occupations, in fact, not very popular with the rather rude chivalry in those days. In any case, in adulthood, his pupil passionately collected antiquities and showed extreme inquisitiveness of mind. Having spent most of his life in the saddle and on the battlefield, he nevertheless managed to compile a rich library and never spared money to replenish it.
Monument to Bertrand du Guesclin, the famous commander, ancestor of Gilles de Rais.
Even at a young age, this brilliant knight profitably (but, mind you, for the first and only time!) Married the maiden Catherine, granddaughter of the Viscount de Thouars, and received, in addition to his already considerable fortune, two million livres of dowry and vast lands in Poitou (in including the castle of Tiffauges, which is destined to play a significant role in its future fate). He was little interested in his wife and paid almost no attention to her. Suffice it to say that they had - in 1429 - only one daughter, Marie de Laval.
But the Baron de Rais used his wealth, at least lovingly, carefully and diligently. In a short time, it helped win over the heir, Prince Charles of Valois, and get a place in his retinue. The young dauphin, almost the same age as Gilles, unlike his new courtier, lived forever on the edge of the financial abyss, due to which his chances for the French crown were approaching zero. Yes, and the crown was illusory: half of the country had long been firmly occupied by the British and their allies the Burgundians, and in many provinces local feudal lords were in charge. Poor in all respects, the prince could hardly manage to hold only the cities in the Loire Valley, and at the same time he did not stick his nose out of his residence in the Château de Chinon.
The Hundred Years War raging all around determined the field of our hero. He decided to bet on the Dauphin Charles, in those years the correctness of this choice was not at all obvious. However, the baron did not betray him and did not miscalculate.
Porni, Bluebeard's Castle, Today we see a 19th century building. The French Revolution razed the fortress to the ground - because of the glory of Gilles de Rais, or simply by coincidence. It was restored only in the 19th century.
national hero
In Gilles de Rais, the blood of the famous constable Bertrand Duguesclin, the most famous of the country's commanders, who died in 1380, flowed. Of course, the laurels of the famous ancestor did not give rest to the great-nephew of the "thunderstorm of the British". And he managed to achieve the same loud fame. Overcoming the lethargy and apathy of his overlord and friend Charles, Baron de Rais spared no effort and means. He formed large detachments at his own expense and made - from 1422 to 1429 - very successful raids on lands occupied by the enemy, stormed several castles and finally covered himself with national glory, fighting hand in hand with Joan of Arc near Orleans and at Jarjo. For these exploits, Montmorency-Laval became Marshal of France at the age of 25 - an unprecedented case! Evil tongues claimed that this happened due to the fact that Baron de Rais, with his own money, supported not only the army, but also Charles with his entire court, paying for all kinds of feasts, hunts and other amusements that the Dauphin so adored. However, no one questioned the actual military exploits of the marshal.
After the memorable Orleans victory in May 1429, the war rolled to a successful end for Charles. On July 17 of the same year, he was crowned in Reims, the place where French kings have traditionally been crowned kings since 498. There was already so little doubt about the Valois victory that Gilles de Rais thought it appropriate to carefully signal to the newly minted sovereign that now that everything was going well, it was time to start paying off the loans. And, as often happens in such cases, the marshal not only did not receive back the funds spent, but, in addition, fell into disfavor and was removed from the court. After all, it is well known: a small debt gives birth to a debtor, a large one - an enemy.
Engravings from the 16th century sometimes still depict Gilles de Rais as a noble warrior (left photo: ROGER-VIOLLET/EAST NEWS). But 19th-century lubok sheets for the most part depict “reliable” scenes of the discovery of monstrous “evidence” (photo: AKG / EAST NEWS)
Mistake by Gilles de Rais
Since 1433, our hero is officially retired. He lives quietly in the castle of Tiffauges in remote Brittany and, out of boredom, reads books on alchemy. In the end, there was also an urgent need for her - his financial affairs were still going badly, and the hope of correcting them with the return of the royal debt had disappeared.
Apparently, in search of a way out of financial difficulties, Gilles de Rais also makes the main strategic mistake in life. In 1436, he cordially hosts the new Dauphin, Louis. Accepts as the son of his old fighting friend and king. The baron could not help but know that the Dauphin, the future King Louis XI, the most cunning of the monarchs of Europe, was already intriguing against his father and, in fact, was hiding from the royal wrath on the marshal's estates. Knowing Charles well, how could he doubt that the shadow of enmity between father and son would fall on him in the most direct way (even if formally Louis' visit was presented to him as an "inspector's" check).
Punishment followed immediately. To get at least some cash, the marshal had to mortgage real estate - first one castle, then another ... These operations were absolutely legal and profitable, but a decree followed from the king: Baron Gilles de Rais should be limited in commercial transactions with his possessions. For the disgraced marshal, this was a considerable blow - with great zeal, he began to look for a way to turn lead into gold. He ordered his alchemist Gilles de Silla to concentrate on this task alone.
Almost the entire first floor of Tiffauge Castle was converted into an alchemical laboratory. The owner did not skimp on expenses. His agents bought on an industrial scale the components needed for experiments, some of which - for example, shark teeth, mercury and arsenic - were very expensive at that time.
But, as you might guess, this did not help - it was not possible to get gold. In his hearts, the marshal said goodbye to the more or less sober de Sille and in 1439 invited the chief alchemist Francesco Prelati to take the place, who, apparently, convinced the baron of his exclusivity. Perhaps he was attracted by the fact that the Italian directly stated that he was a sorcerer and kept a personal demon in his service, through which he communicated with the world of the dead (and this at a time when the baron's former "learned men" were mostly priests).
Unfortunately, very soon Francesco Prelati gained enormous power over his master, a man who was both erudite and out-of-the-box thinking. The latter quality made him always want to communicate with extraordinary people, who clearly break the framework of his contemporary ideas about science. However, this time our hero did not recognize the obvious charlatan.
Over time, all of Brittany heard about their witchcraft exercises and was horrified to such an extent that the Duke of Brittany himself, whose vassal was the Baron de Rais, had to intervene. Soon the duke, at the head of two hundred armed soldiers, was knocking at the gates of Tiffauges. Clouds thickened over the marshal's head, but he himself did not yet know how menacing they were.
The ancient old man Bluebeard in the illustrations by Gustave Dore for the fairy tale by Charles Perrault has absolutely no resemblance to the real Gilles de Rais. Photo: ROGER-VIOLLET/EAST NEWS
Another villain...
Most philologists - researchers of fairy tales, as well as historians agree that in the story of Bluebeard, the real plot with the execution of Gilles de Rais was superimposed in a bizarre way on the mythological, literary one, and not vice versa, as is usually the case. From the very early Middle Ages in Brittany (as well as in the Celtic regions of Great Britain - Cornwall and Wales) there was a popular story about the Earl of Conomor, who married a certain Trephinia, later a saint. He asked for the girl's hand from her father, Count Geroch, but he refused "because of the extreme cruelty and barbarism with which he treated his other wives, whom, as soon as they became pregnant, he ordered to be killed in the most inhuman way." So, in any case, reports the "Biography of the Saints of Brittany." Then, through the mediation of one righteous abbot, the wedding - with the solemn oaths of Conomor to behave with dignity - nevertheless took place. But as soon as Trephinia became pregnant, the count - a pagan at heart - nevertheless killed her, apparently performing some kind of diabolical ritual. Further, as the legend says, the resurrection of the saint and the punishment of the murderer followed. Isn't it true that the contours of the future "horror story" about Bluebeard are quite visible? Considering that in the 15th century, when Gilles de Rais lived, stories of this kind were the main body of local folklore, it is not surprising that the fate of the marshal joined them. And it is not surprising that the children, "tortured" by the seigneur de Montmorency-Laval, merged in the people's memory with the wives from the legends of Conomor and already in this form came to Charles Perrault. A common thing in the history of literature...
Trial Strike
At the end of August 1440, Monsignor Jean de Malestruet, Bishop of Nantes, chief adviser and "right hand" of the Duke of Brittany, delivered a sensational sermon to a crowd of parishioners in the cathedral. His Eminence allegedly became aware of the heinous crimes of one of the noblest nobles of Brittany, Marshal Gilles de Rais, "against young children and adolescents of both sexes." The bishop demanded that "people of every rank" who had at least some information about these "chilling deeds" informed him about them.
The bishop's speech, full of meaningful omissions, made the listeners feel that the investigation had serious evidence. In fact, Malestruet was then aware of a single disappearance of a child, which somehow managed to be connected with Gilles de Rais, and it happened a month before the fateful sermon. There was no question of direct evidence - it is obvious that the ruling elites of the Duchy of Breton simply decided to use the opportunity to deal with the disgraced marshal.
Soon the bishop had a reason to inform the head of the Inquisitorial Tribunal of Brittany, Father Jean Blouin, about everything. In general, the investigation has since unfolded in all directions. A few days later, an indictment was issued. He made a strong impression on his contemporaries. What was not here: human sacrifices to the domestic demon, and witchcraft "using special technical means", and the murders of children with the dismemberment and burning of their bodies, and sexual perversions ...
A 47-count indictment was sent to the Duke of Brittany and the Inquisitor General of France, Guillaume Merici. Marshal was officially informed of them on September 13, 1440, and invited him to appear in the episcopal court for an explanation.
The inquisitorial process in Nantes bore little resemblance to a modern adversarial court. Photo: ALAMY/PHOTAS
accusation of witchcraft
The meeting of the tribunal was scheduled for September 19, and Gilles de Rais probably understood that he had more than good reasons to avoid appearing. If he could still consider the accusations of missing children "not dangerous", then the witchcraft manipulations detailed in the indictment could cause great trouble. The Church persecuted them very fiercely. In addition, the Duke of Brittany also authorized a secular trial, and it also gave some results ...
In principle, it remained possible to flee to Paris and fall at the feet of Charles VII, but, apparently, there was very little hope for the help of an old friend, since the accused did not want to use this means. He remained at Tiffauges and announced that he would certainly appear in court. Here his situation was further worsened by his own close associates, whose nerves were not so strong. Gilles' friend, Roger de Briqueville, and a former trusted alchemist, Gilles de Sille, just in case, went on the run. In response, the prosecutor of Brittany Guillaume Chapeillon announced their search, which gave him a legal opportunity to come with the guards to the baron's castle and seize other suspects there: the Italian sorcerer and the baron's bodyguards - Griar and Corillo. All these people spent the last years side by side with the owner and, of course, could tell a lot about his activities. What they, in fact, did at the court, which met in October 1440 in the city hall of Nantes. The authorities tried to give the process as much publicity as possible: it was announced in the squares of all the cities of Brittany, and everyone who could have at least some, true or imaginary, relation to the case was invited to it (at the same time, the accused’s demand for a lawyer was rejected!) . Spectators were admitted freely, and their influx was so great that many had to hang around the doors. Gilles de Rais was insulted, women rushed at the guards in order to break through closer and be able to spit in the face of the “damned villain”.
As for the testimony... Suffice it to say that it lived up to the expectations of the crowd.
The alchemist Francesco Prelati, under oath, stated that Baron de Rae composed and wrote with blood an agreement with the demon Barron, in which he undertook to bring the latter bloody sacrifices for three gifts: omniscience, wealth and power. The witness does not know whether the accused received these gifts, but he made sacrifices: at first he tried to pay off with a chicken, but at the request of Barron he switched to children.
Gilles de Sille spoke in detail about the sexual behavior of his former patron - heinous abuse of minors of both sexes. In addition, he confirmed that the baron participated in alchemical experiments, being aware of their sinfulness, and thus fell into heresy.
Their parents testified about the missing children. Some of them stated that the last time they saw their children was when they sent them to the possessions of the Baron de Rais - to beg. Finally, Griar and Corillo gave the most terrible evidence that the marshal collected human heads that were kept in a special dungeon of the castle, and also that, sensing the danger of arrest, the marshal personally ordered them to destroy these heads (the testimony is especially important, in view of the fact that during numerous searches in the marshal's possessions did not find anything suspicious).
Seal of Evil
How did the connection between the real-life Baron Gilles de Rais and the literary character Bluebeard come about? And why is the "beard" exactly "blue"? It is known that, while collecting Breton legends, Charles Perrault, in particular, wrote down the following: Comte Odon de Tremeac and his bride Blanche de Lerminier were driving past the castle of Gilles de Rais. The baron invited them to dinner. But when the guests were about to leave, he ordered the count to be thrown into a stone bag, and the frightened Blanche offered to become his wife. She refused. Then he took her to the church and began to ardently swear that, if she agreed, "he would forever give her soul and body." Blanche agreed - and at the same moment she turned into a blue Devil. The devil laughed and said to the baron: "Now you are in my power." He made a sign - and Gilles' beard also turned blue. “Now you will not be Gilles de Laval,” Satan rumbled. “Your name will be Bluebeard!” Here you have the combination of two storylines: in the folklore consciousness, allegedly tortured children turned into wives, and the color of the beard became the “seal of evil spirits”. Of course, the legend was also overgrown with topographic features: literally all the ruined castles near Nantes and in the Loire Valley by the time of Perro were attributed to Gilles de Rais, and in Tiffauges, for a couple of coins, they showed a room where he slaughtered either little children or women.
Forced confession
No matter how strong nerves the experienced commander possessed, he must have experienced a shock. All the more respect is caused by the imperturbable calmness with which he continued to repeat his innocence and demand a lawyer. Seeing that no one even thought of listening to him, he declared that he would rather go to the gallows than be present in court, where all the accusations are false, and the judges are villains. This, in turn, could not be tolerated by the “villains”: the Bishop of Nantes immediately excommunicated the accused from the church, and on October 19 the court decided to torture him in order to “encourage him to stop the vile denial.”
Gilles de Montmorency-Laval, Baron de Rais, was stretched out on the so-called staircase. This method of torture, the most popular in France at that time, consisted in the fact that the victim, tied by the arms and legs, was stretched on a horizontal grid, as if on a rack. Under torture, the courageous marshal quickly repented of his former stubbornness and promised to be more accommodating in the future. To begin with, he knelt before the bishop, humbly asked him to remove the excommunication, and later began to testify and little by little "confessed" to everything. True, new tortures were required for a complete “surrender” before the court, on October 21, but after them Gilles de Rais publicly agreed that he “enjoyed the vice”, and described in detail his favorite methods of murder and his own feelings at the same time. The baron himself named the number of children tortured by him - 800 (thus, he had to kill one child a week for the last 15 years!). But the court prudently considered that 150 would be enough.
On October 25, the Bishop of Nantes repeatedly "expelled Gilles de Rais from the bosom of the Church of Christ" for "such grave sins against the dogmas of faith and human laws that it is impossible for a person to imagine them." On the same day, the "sinner", of course, was sentenced to a fire - along with his "talkative" accomplices. As an act of special humanity (after all, it was about the Marshal of France), in the event of repentance and reconciliation with the church, Gilles de Rais was promised not to burn him alive, but to strangle him first.
The marshal chose to reconcile with the church on these relatively humane terms and was executed with his accomplices the next day. Among the relatives of the executed marshal, there was not a single one who would risk defending his name and honor.
Several centuries passed before some historians began to point out all sorts of flaws and inconsistencies in the charges in the trial of the hero of the Hundred Years War. The very fact of committing the acts incriminated to him is doubtful. In any case, his slander by specially trained witnesses seems very likely, and confessions under torture are inexpensive. In addition, the following fact also raises suspicions: the most odious characters of the process, like the sorcerer Francesco Prelati, were only imprisoned (from which, by the way, he quickly and easily escaped). Perhaps they slandered de Rais at the initiative of the king, who had a strong dislike for his former friend: he was sure that Gilles supported the disgraced Dauphin Louis, and most importantly, Charles really did not want to return the huge debt to the marshal.
The name of Gilles de Rais as the maniac Bluebeard, the killer of women and children, was mentioned by various authors of the Gothic or occult genre: Robert Bloch, Arthur Machen, Eremey Parnov ... And in Kir Bulychev's short story "Bluebeard", the villain turns out to be the head of the laboratory, who dismantles the undisciplined biorobots.
Only in 1992, at the initiative of the writer-historian Gilbert Prouteau, a new trial took place that completely rehabilitated Gilles de Rais. Documents extracted from the archives of the Inquisition said that there were no tortured children, no terrible experiments. The researchers took into account a lot, including the testimony of contemporaries. For example, the 15th-century chronicler Monstrelet wrote about the sentence passed on Gilles de Rais: “Most of the nobles of Brittany, especially those who were related to him, were in the greatest sadness and embarrassment from his shameful death. Before these events, he was much more famous as the most valiant of knights.
Everything turned out to be easier than a steamed turnip. Thus, the Duke of Brittany, John V, decided to take over some of the castles that belonged to the baron. So he launched a campaign, bribing clergy and administrative officials. The king, who no longer needed a former associate, gave his “good”, and a cruel show took place in a medieval style.
An explanation was also found for how Gilles de Rais became Bluebeard, the hero of folk legends collected by Charles Perrault. The baron's name was so popular that it was repeatedly mentioned in oral legends. And in one of the Breton ballads, she ended up next to a certain Bluebeard from another story. Chance brought them together, and folk fantasy turned tortured children into murdered wives. Here is such a story.
I want to remind you of a few more stories: , The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -Bluebeard character story
French folk tale character. A rich blue-bearded aristocrat who kills his own wives.
History of creation
Frame from the cartoon "Bluebeard" The plot of Bluebeard has found its way into comics and computer games. The American publishing house "Vertigo" in 2002 began to release the comic book "Fables". The main characters of this comic are the characters of folklore and folk tales, who ended up in New York by chance and are forced to survive among people. Bluebeard is one of those heroes. In 2013, the neo-noir detective video game The Wolf Among Us was released based on this comic. Bluebeard is also one of the main characters here.
Quotes
“A long time ago there lived a man. He was very rich: he had beautiful houses, many servants, gold and silver dishes, gilded carriages and magnificent horses. But, unfortunately, this man's beard was blue.
“Neighbors and girlfriends incessantly admired the treasures of Bluebeard and envied his young wife. But these treasures did not interest her at all. She was tormented by curiosity: she wanted to unlock the little room at the end of the corridor.
Two heads and six legs; four walk, and two lie still
Self-esteem - what is it: concept, structure, types and levels
Cassandra's Path, or Pasta Adventures War on Earth and Underground