Item, he declared that Catherine, the wife of a man named Thierry, who was living in Nantes, gave him her child to be admitted as a chorister of the said Lord. And he, Henriet, led him to his room at Machecoul. And there the said Lord and Poitou made him swear to reveal nothing of their secret. The child delivered, the said Henriet returned to Nantes, where he remained for three days. But on returning to Machecoul, he did not see the child again and was told that he was dead. Henriet said that this was the first child that he had delivered to the said Lord; and he thinks that it was about four years previously.
Item, he said that he delivered to the said Lord, at his house, La Suze, in Nantes, a child of Guibelet Delit’s, another of Jean Hubert’s, another of one named Donete, another of one named Lemion, all four from Nantes. The said Lord had sexual intercourse with them in the said house, and they were killed and burned.
Item, he said that Hillary, a Breton, belonged to the said Lord’s chapel, then left it, putting his brother in his place.
Item, he said that Poitou conveyed a beautiful child from La Roche-Bernard to the said Lord at Machecoul, who was likewise put to death.
Item, he said that children were taken to Nantes, and brought to the house of La Suze, where they were killed and burned in the room where the said Lord slept, who was in bed when they burned them; by his order, they placed large or long logs on the andirons in the fireplace, and two or three dry faggots on top of the logs, after which they placed the children; and the ashes of those burned were dispersed in various spots at Machecoul.
Item, he said that he had a beautiful page of Master François’ killed at Machecoul.
Item, he said that a young and beautiful boy who was living with Rodigo at Bourgneuf-en-Rais had been brought by Poitou and killed at Machecoul, so Poitou told him. And Henriet said that he was not present at the death of the said child, but that he had heard it said by Poitou or by Gilles de Sillé that this child had been put to death like the others.
Item, he said that Prince delivered to Poitou a young page who was living with him, whom Henriet knew, who was put to death as well; he adds that the said murders of children had occurred in the room where the said Lord slept at Machecoul, or at the entrance, and that after burning their bodies, to move more quickly, they sometimes burned the garments and shirts of these children piece by piece in the flames, in such a manner that no one could detect the smoke.
Item, he said that Master François Prelati often went into the room of the said Lord and remained there an hour or two alone with him.
Item, he said that Master Eustache went looking for the said Master François and that he heard him say that he would summon Master Aliboron, that is, the devil; and that he heard Master Eustache say that Master François would make him come for a jug of wine.
Item, he heard that André Buchet, who belonged to the chapel of the said Lord, and presently belongs to that of the Duke, sent children from Vannes to the said Lord at Machecoul, and that his own servant, named Raoulet, brought him one who was put to death, and that this was around the time when the Duke paid the said Lord money due on Champtocé. He also said that the said Raoulet presently lives with Jamet Thomas of Nantes, and that the said André received from the said Lord a horse worth sixty royals.
Item, he said that Milord Roger de Briqueville, Gilles de Sillé, Poitou, and Rossignol knew about the aforementioned.
Item, he said that he had heard that he loved to see the children’s heads cut off after having had sex with them on their bellies, their legs between his own; and sometimes he was on their bellies when the heads were separated from their bodies, other times he cut them behind the neck to make them languish, which he delighted in doing; and while they languished it happened that he had intercourse with them until their death, occasionally after they were dead, while their bodies were still warm; and there was a braquemard to cut their heads off with; and if occasionally the beauty of these children did not conform to his fantasy, he cut their heads off himself with the said cutlass, whereupon he occasionally had intercourse with them.
Item, he heard the said Lord say that there was no man alive who could ever understand what he had done, and it was because of his planet that he did such things.
Item, he said that occasionally the said Lord had the said children dismembered at the armpits and that he delighted in seeing the blood; and he heard Master Eustache Blanchet say that the said Lord could not accomplish what he had set out to do without offering up the feet, legs, and other members of the said children to the Devil; that he, Henriet, killed twelve by his own hand; and sometimes the said Lord asked Milord de Sillé, him, Henriet, and Poitou which of the slaughtered children had the most beautiful heads.
Item, he declared that he heard Gilles de Sillé say that since recovering the place, which had been seized by Lord de La Suze, in a room at Machecoul with hay in it, they had discovered forty dead children, who were dried out and had been burned; and he heard Lord de Sillé say that they were fortunate that the said children had not been discovered; [he further stated] that Milord Roger de Briqueville had a woman watch below, there where the said children were; and that when he noticed them he exposed the deed, in which he had not participated.
Item, he stated that one day at Tiffauges, he, Henriet, entered the said room of Lord de Rais’, after the latter and Master François Prelati had remained there alone for a long time and then left, and that he noticed on the ground of the said room a large circle, inside of which were characters and crosses, the meaning of which he did not know.
Item, he said that the said Lord had a small book written in blood or red ink, but he is not certain which.
Item, he stated and confessed that to prevent the children from crying out when he intended to have intercourse with them, the said Lord de Rais had a cord put around their necks beforehand, and had them suspended about three feet off the ground in a corner of the room, and before they were dead he let them down or had them let down, asking them not to say a word, and he rubbed his penis in his hand, after which he spilled his seed on their belly; that done, he had their throats cut, having their heads separated from their bodies, and occasionally, after they were dead, asked which of these children had the most beautiful heads.
Item, he declared that the said Lord sometimes gave him two or three crowns for the said children; the said Lord chose them himself when they came begging, asking them where they were from and, when they were not from the region and said they had neither a father nor a mother, and they pleased him, he had them admitted to the castle of Machecoul. He then had the gates of the castle drawn apart.
Item, he said that occasionally the said Lord chose little girls, whom he had sex with on their bellies in the same way as he did with the male children, saying that he took greater pleasure in doing so, and had less pain, than if he had enjoyed them in their nature; thereafter these girls were put to death like the said male children.
Item, he stated that if two of the children were brothers, and if they were brought together, he took his pleasure with just one of them but kept them both in the castle, and so that he who remained would not reveal anything of his brother’s fate they were both put to death.
Item, he stated that occasionally, when the said Lord did not have intercourse with the said children, he had it instead with those in his chapel, which was not the witness’ concern, because he kept it a secret.
Item, he stated that on the last trip the said Lord made to Vannes, pretending to be waiting for money that the Duke owed him, and staying there two or three days, — and this was last July, it seems to the witness, — André Buchet led to the said Lord’s lodging a child, who was killed, whose body was thrown into the latrines of the house, where the said Poitou descended by means of a cord to shove the said body down, whence Buchet and he, Henriet, who helped in the task, had difficulty removing him.
Such was the said Henriet’s confession.
Poitou’s confession161
And as to that which
concerns the said Étienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, he acknowledged and confessed the following without torture:
Firstly, that nearly ten years after he had come to stay with the said Lord de Rais — whose page he was for the first five years, when Milord Roger de Briqueville, knight, was looking after Rais’ affairs, and whose child valet he was for the next five years — within about two or three months, he saw two dead children in the room of the said Lord, who wanted to kill him, but the said Milords Roger and de Sillé prevented him. That he was subsequently kept in a room by the said Milord Roger for four days, and, this done, they made him swear to conceal what he had seen and would see later; but before this oath, the said Lord had sex with the said Corrillaut on his belly.
Item, he said that Milords Roger and de Sillé ordered him to abduct children and lead them to the said Lord; and the aforesaid brought him many, whom the said Lord got excited over, holding his penis in his hand and spilling his seed onto their bellies; after which he had their throats cut; and sometimes while they were languishing he had intercourse with them. And it was five years before that he, Poitou, began to steer the said children to him and be his accomplice in crime.
Item, he said that since the day when the said Lord regained Champtocé from the said Lord de La Suze, his brother, which the latter had held for two years,162 the said Lord went to Champtocé, where he stayed only one or two nights. The said Lord then told him, Poitou, Henriet, Petit Robin, and a man named Hicquet that for a long time there had been dead children in one of the towers, and that they had to be removed. Poitou and Robin went down, put them in a sack, and removed them. Henriet, Hicquet, and Sillé were on the lookout. They found forty-six that were put into coffers and transported to Machecoul and burned in a tower. The said children were dried out and rotten.
Item, he said that after the recovery of the place, which had been taken by Lord de La Suze and Lord de Lohéac, eighty dead children were found at Machecoul, who were likewise burned in the said place of Machecoul.
Item, he said that from the time of the deceased Lord de La Suze, the said Lord killed them in his room at the said place of Champtocé, according to what the said Poitou heard him say, and that it was about fourteen years before that the said Lord had begun to do so.
Item, he stated that occasionally he killed the children by opening their throats with a great braquemard; sometimes he kissed their heads after they had been severed, and he had intercourse with them; occasionally he killed them by his own hand, having had intercourse with them beforehand; he placed a cord around their neck that, with the help of a pole, he attached to a hook in his room.
Item, he stated that if there were two children who were brothers, the said Lord had them both snatched so that the one would not cry aloud about the other; and after having diverted himself with the one, he kept the other until his appetite returned.
Item, he stated that once the said Lord took the heart and hand of the said child, put them in his room, and ordered Poitou through a window to watch them; a little while later the said Lord tucked them up his sleeve, then went into the room of Master François, to whom he was bringing them; he does not know what they did with them, and the said heart was in a glass.
Item, he stated that the said Lord and François Prelati stayed one night in the said Lord’s room at Machecoul, where they traced a large circle containing characters and crosses; they made a drawing on the wall in the manner of arms, which arms resembled a head; then they made him, Poitou, leave the room, and he went with the others into the hall and, eavesdropping, they heard a beast, like a dog, walking on the roof. After this the said Lord asked whether they had heard anything, and he responded no.
Item, he stated that one night the said Lord sent him and Master François into a field close to Esperance, and the said François performed an invocation in a circle where he stood with Poitou. The said François lit a torch and called Barron and devils having other names, of which he, Poitou, was terrified. The said Lord and François had forbidden him to make the sign of the cross. But nothing came of it except for a strong rain, such that they could not leave.
Item, he said that Papelais, Guillemin le Portier, Guillemain Le Beille and Le Muet, Lord Gentelou, the prior of Chéméré, and the Marquis163 knew nothing of the deaths of the said children; even a nephew of the said prior of Chéméré, whom the latter had entrusted to a fellow named Tabard to learn singing and writing, was killed like the other children.
Item, he said that once a man named Master Jean, an Englishman, and the said Lord went to perform invocations, and that before they went the first squeezed the pinky of the said Lord and then pricked its tip with a needle to make it bleed, and with the blood the said Lord signed a letter written in his own hand in ink. Thereafter, they left to perform the said invocation, and the latter returned as drenched as if he had fallen into a river. A man named Guillaume Cievaye had gone looking for the said Master Jean, who was English or a native of Picardy, and the latter told Lord de Rais before the said invocation that he should not cross himself or they would all be dead; and this took place in a field not far from Machecoul, that side of Esperance, near a house where someone named La Picarde lived. On another occasion the said conjuror returned wounded to such an extent that he could not speak; and after he left, Poitou heard it said by La Picarde that he was only faking it.
Item, he said that eleven or twelve had been killed in the house of La Suze, among them a young boy named Jenvret, from Nantes.
Item, he stated that on the last trip that the said Lord made to Vannes, pretending to be waiting for money that the Duke owed him, and staying there two or three days — this was last July, it seems to him — André Buchet led to the said Lord’s lodging a child who was killed, whose body was thrown into the latrines of the house, where he, Poitou, descended by means of a rope to shove the said body down, whence Henriet and Buchet, who helped him with this piece of work, had difficulty removing him.
Item, he spoke of a beautiful child he brought from Roche-Bernard with the mother’s approval; moreover, of another beautiful child, the son of the deceased Éonnet de Villeblanche, whose mother, living in Nantes, is named Macée: she entrusted her son to him to become a page, whom he, Poitou, outfitted; as well as a beautiful young child who was living at Bourgneuf with Guillaume Rodigo, whom he fetched away and brought to his master, and who was a page of the same age; also a page of Master François’; also a page of Princé’s; and again, among others, a son of Georget Le Barbier, a tailor, living near the entrance of the said castle of Machecoul; the said Lord had sexual intercourse with them, and they were killed and burned. Finally, he spoke of many others whose mothers and fathers he did not know, many of whom were taken while begging for alms, as often at Machecoul as at Tiffauges and elsewhere.
Such was the said Poitou’s confession, as it is contained in the preceding articles.
Condemnations of Henriet and Poitou
After the confession of the said Henriet and Poitou, and on the advice of many people present, lawyers and others, in view of the cases and all things considered, it was judged and declared by my said Lord the President and Commissioner that the said Henriet and Poitou would be hanged and burned.
Condemnation of Gilles de Rais
And afterwards, after the trial conducted and concluded by the ecclesiastical court against the said Lord, the latter was brought to Bouffay of Nantes on October 25th, where there was such a big crowd that the said Bouffay was practically filled. After the said prosecutor, by his deputy, had accused him of having committed the crimes indicated and laid out above, he acknowledged that he had committed them, and Monsignor the President asked him for a full confession, the shame he should experience in doing so before him equalling an alleviation of the punishment he would have to suffer in the next world; the said Lord then acknowledged before his judges that he had seized the place and fortress of Saint-Étienne-de-Mermorte by his own authority and with offensive arms, while Geoffroy Le Ferron was Lo
rd of it and possessed it by a transfer that the said Lord had formerly made over to him; he acknowledged that in front of the said place he had constrained and obliged Jean Le Ferron to hand it over to him; and that at the said place of Saint-Étienne, he had abducted the person of Jean Le Ferron, and that he had had him led to Tiffauges, outside this duchy, where he had been detained a long time, until the day he was liberated through the intervention of Monsignor the Constable. Likewise he acknowledged that he had disobeyed the restraining orders placed on him by my said Lord Duke, who requested that he hand over and vacate the said place and release Jean Le Ferron under penalty of a fine of fifty thousand crowns. He further acknowledged, with a great show of remorse and grief, that he had killed a large number of small male children, whom he had burned and turned to ashes to eliminate any trace of his crimes and to avoid disclosures by the said children; and that, moreover, he had committed other crimes described in his confession; which was then read out to him and which he acknowledged and confessed to be true.
After this confession, my said Lord the President requested the advice of many upright men and council members present at the trial; the latter declared that he deserved to die, some asking that he suffer it one way, some that he suffer it another. After having taken counsel with the said men of probity and the witnesses, my said Lord the President and Commissioner of the Duke adjudged and declared, so far as the first case was concerned, that the said Lord had incurred the pecuniary penalties already mentioned, and that these should be paid in favor of Monsignor the Duke, and levied on the possessions and lands of the said Lord, with just moderation. Further, so far as the other crimes committed and confessed by the said Lord were concerned, my said Lord the President and Commissioner of the Duke adjudged and declared that the said Gilles de Rais was to be hanged and burned. After which he stated and declared that, so that he might beg God’s mercy and prepare to die soundly with numerous regrets for having committed the said crimes, the said Gilles would be executed the following day at eleven o’clock. Then the said Lord thanked God and my Lord the President for having notified him of the hour of his death, and addressed this request to my Lord the President: he and the said Henriet and Poitou, his servants, having together committed the horrible and enormous crimes for which they were condemned to death, that it might please my said Lord the President that they be executed together, at the same hour of the same day, so that he, who was the principal cause of the misdeeds of his servants, might be able to comfort them, speak to them of their salvation at the hour of execution, and exhort them by example to die fittingly; he feared, he said, that were it otherwise, and the aforesaid servants did not see him die, that they should fall into despair, imagining that they were dying while he, who was the cause of their misdeeds, went unpunished; he hoped, on the contrary, with the grace of Our Lord, that he who made them commit the misdeeds for which they were dying would be the cause of their salvation.
Trial of Gilles De Rais Page 38
