He is best known for his reputation and later conviction as a confessed serial killer of children. An important lord as heir to some great noble lineages of western France, he rallied to the cause of King Charles VII of France and waged war against the English. He gradually withdrew from the war during the s. His family accused him of squandering his patrimony by selling off his lands to the highest bidder to offset his lavish expenses, a profligacy that led to his being placed under interdict by Charles VII in July Arrested on 15 September at his castle in Machecoul , he was brought to the Duchy of Brittany , an independent principality where he was tried in October by an ecclesiastical court assisted by the Inquisition for heresy , sodomy and the murder of "one hundred and forty or more children.
The vast majority of historians believe he was guilty, but some are wary of reading the records of his double trial at face value. Medievalists Jacques Chiffoleau [ fr ] and Claude Gauvard note the need to study the inquisitorial procedure employed by questioning the defendants' confessions in the light of the judges' expectations and conceptions, while also examining the role of rumor in the development of Rais' fama reputation , without disregarding detailed testimonies concerning the disappearance of children, or confessions describing murderous rituals unparalleled in the judicial archives of the time.
A popular confusion between the mythical Bluebeard and the historical Baron de Rais has been documented since the early 19th century, regardless of the uncertain hypothesis that Rais served as an inspiration for Charles Perrault 's " Bluebeard " literary fairy tale Gilles de Rais or "Retz" , [ a ] the eldest son of Marie de Craon and Guy de Laval-Rais, descended from a number of great feudal houses. His birth has been variably dated between and , and more frequently towards the end of Jean de Craon's son Amaury died at the Battle of Agincourt in October , a confrontation in which several members of his household perished in addition to his sole male successor.
However, the Parlement of Paris forbade the marriage until Jeanne Paynel came of age. This marriage project never materialized but not because of Jeanne Paynel's presumed death, as some authors have argued, since she became certainly an abbess of Lisieux 's Benedictine convent.
In addition to the obstacle posed by the consanguinity of Rais and Catherine de Thouars, who were 4th-degree relatives, [ 56 ] disputes arose between the House of Craon and Miles II de Thouars, lord of Pouzauges and Tiffauges. After the death of Miles II de Thouars, matrimonial alliances brought the houses of Craon and Thouars closer together, [ g ] helping to regularize the situation of the couple.
