Gilles de Rais as war hero; which is how we should remember him.
Tuesday, 27 December 2011
From a bande dessinée by Jean Pleyers, 'La Trilogie Gilles de Rais'.
Gilles de Rais as war hero; which is how we should remember him.
Sunday, 25 September 2011
From Inside Bluebeard's Castle by Carl Stuart Leafstedt
The Emergence of a Sympathetic Bluebeard
in Turn-of-the-Century Literature
A French abbot named Eugene Bossard published portions of the extensive
court documents for the first time in a massive study of Gilles de Rais that appeared
in 1885 (a second edition followed in 1886). Such was the authority of
Bossard's book that it became the point of departure for all subsequent debate on
the Baron of Rais, a status earned in part due to its exhaustive coverage of the
relevant fifteenth-century source material. From archives in Paris, Nantes, and
across the Loire Valley, Bossard gathered the surviving historical records and,
with impressive scholarship, used them to build a case, surprisingly, for Gilles's
spiritual salvation.
in Turn-of-the-Century Literature
A French abbot named Eugene Bossard published portions of the extensive
court documents for the first time in a massive study of Gilles de Rais that appeared
in 1885 (a second edition followed in 1886). Such was the authority of
Bossard's book that it became the point of departure for all subsequent debate on
the Baron of Rais, a status earned in part due to its exhaustive coverage of the
relevant fifteenth-century source material. From archives in Paris, Nantes, and
across the Loire Valley, Bossard gathered the surviving historical records and,
with impressive scholarship, used them to build a case, surprisingly, for Gilles's
spiritual salvation.
Friday, 22 July 2011
Saturday, 11 June 2011
Forensic evidence
Qu'ont-ils détecté, déniché, découvert au cours de leurs exploration? Rien, pas un indice. Pas une dent. Pas un vestige, pas un cheveu. Pas un témoin qui puisse dire: «J'ai vu». Pas une mère en pleurs qui clame: «Voilà la robe souillée de sang de ma fille morte.» Pas un père qui vienne apporter un coeur d'enfant arraché de la poitrine et enveloppé dans un linge maculé.
(Gilbert Prouteau, Gilles de Rais ou la gueule du loup)
"What did they find, unearth, discover during their exploration? Nothing, not a clue. Not a tooth. Not a trace, not a hair. Not one witness who can say: "I have seen." Not a weeping mother who claims: "There is the dress stained with the blood of my dead daughter" Not a father who brings a child's heart ripped from its chest and wrapped in a spotted cloth."
No forensic evidence was produced at the trial of Gilles de Rais.
(Gilbert Prouteau, Gilles de Rais ou la gueule du loup)
"What did they find, unearth, discover during their exploration? Nothing, not a clue. Not a tooth. Not a trace, not a hair. Not one witness who can say: "I have seen." Not a weeping mother who claims: "There is the dress stained with the blood of my dead daughter" Not a father who brings a child's heart ripped from its chest and wrapped in a spotted cloth."
No forensic evidence was produced at the trial of Gilles de Rais.
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Gilles de Rais ou la gueule du loup by Gilbert Prouteau
http://culture-et-debats.over-blog.com/article-3157111.html
Short French language article on Gilbert Prouteau's 1992 revisionist biography.
Short French language article on Gilbert Prouteau's 1992 revisionist biography.
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Plaque, Champtocé
The birth of Gilles de Rais is marked by a plaque with strangely anodyne wording... It must have taken the Association Croix de Sable and the Mairie de Champtocé sur Loire a great deal of agonising to come up with a form of words that would offend neither the revisionists nor the traditionalists.
The charges related to alchemy were, interestingly, the only ones Gilles admitted in his first confession, before the threat of torture and the production of the forced testimony of his servants.