Gilda Rice, the Dark Knight of Paris, and other AI Horrors

YouTube has looked favourably on Artificial Intelligence for some years, but it is only quite recently that it has impinged on my little corner of history. Over the past few months a suspicious number of shorts about Gilles de Rais have been appearing. They all have brand new illustrations, although they mostly do not look particularly fifteenth century.. 

The main giveaway is that the integral subtitles, and sometimes even the titles themselves, are laughably misspelt. So we find -

Giold de Rais

Gilda Rice

Jilas Derais

Gillister Rice

Gil Dorae

Giladerese

Gila Deriz

Giel da Reyes

He is routinely called Jill. At one point his surname is rendered as Darius.

Prelati is once memorably rendered as "Pilate". 

Please note, these are not the auto-generated subtitles YouTube provides, which are routinely hilarious. These are part of the videos and cannot be turned off and on. 

So far so funny, but the content is similarly distorted. Bizarrely, Gilles is executed by guillotine in one video. AI really cannot cope with his mode of death, so he may be hanged, burned, hanged and burned (not necessarily in that order), or sentenced to be burned but the sentence commuted to hanging.

One of his alleged crimes is "prostitution", apparently. There is a reference to Brittany, France, which is as wrong as it gets. The title I borrowed for this post is real; there are now people in YouTubeland who think that Gilles (or Gilda) stalked the streets of Paris like a French Jack the Ripper. For the record, Paris was occupied by the Burgundian allies of the English; Jehanne was unable to liberate it and Gilles never set foot inside its walls. 

Certain phrases, mostly connected with satanic rituals and a descent into infamy, are recycled endlessly. AI clearly feeds on clickbait, and when it starts feeding on itself we shall really see some fun. 

And if this is happening to Gilles de Rais, imagine the other disinformation being created out there, and the knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers who will swallow it unquestioningly. 

Now more than ever, just because you read it on the internet does not make it true. Caveat lector.

Gilles de Rais rides a bike in Hartlepool, AI image courtesy of David J Allenby 

 

FAQs #4

Do we know for certain that Gilles was homosexual?

We know few things for certain about Gilles de Rais. Everything we are told about his sexual tastes comes from the trial and is automatically suspect. The main charge against him in the ecclesiastical court was heresy. At that time, sodomy and heresy were virtually synonymous. If Gilles was a heretic, he was necessarily a sodomite, and vice versa; the two charges went together.

It is important to understand that this particular FAQ would have been incomprehensible in 15th century terms. The word homosexuality, and probably the very concept of same-sex preference, is anachronistic. The word used was sodomy, which, to the Church, meant any sexual act which was not open to procreation. Bestiality was also sodomy, and even marital sex was sinful unless it was vaginal and no contraception was used.  In all its forms, sodomy was regarded as a hideous crime against nature,  worse than murder, since it had the potential to spread and wipe out the human race.

There is an indication in the Acts of Indictment (#39) of exactly how seriously this offence was taken: unpunished “crimes against nature” would lead to divine retribution in the form of natural disasters, earthquakes, famines and plagues. This was probably an allusion to a remark by the Emperor Justinian, via the fire and brimstone that rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah. No community would wish to risk incurring the wrath of the deity, and there had recently been a widespread famine, affecting much of Europe, for which Gilles' apparent crimes were a most convenient scapegoat.

Gilles' accusers were in no way interested in whether or not he was primarily attracted to men; the idea would never have crossed their minds. Their sole concern was to accuse him of acts of sodomy. Since his alleged victims were (mostly) male, (mostly) pre-pubertal and all assaulted in a manner that avoided penetration, they certainly succeeded in their aim.

Nothing in the trial indicates that Gilles was what we would now call homosexual. He may have been, or he may not. There are certainly few women mentioned in accounts of his life, but one might say that of most men of the period. One of his closest comrades, however, was one of history's most famous androgynes, and this has certainly influenced how we see him...

I heard that he was in love with Joan of Arc and went mad when she died? 

This is an appealing myth, beloved by fiction writers and bandes dessinées, and leapt on with indecent enthusiasm by the band Cradle of Filth. There is no evidence whatsoever of any relationship between the two other than that of close comrades, and given Jehanne's commitment to her virginity, none was likely. Gilles was charged with looking after her, probably at her own request. He went to her rescue at Orléans and Paris and it is indisputable that he and La Hire planned to try and liberate her from prison while she was on trial. Beyond these sparse facts, everything is speculation or fiction.

Further reading -
Gilles at Louviers

From a bande dessinée by Paul Gillon

A curious find

ANCIEN CACHET / SEAU/ EN BRONZE ARGENTE 

 FIGURANT JEANNE D'ARC ET UN COMPAGNON D'ARME

 très probablement Gilles de Rais .. de Montmorency Laval

non chiffré / usure d'age/ légère désargenture / sans casse

 hauteur 11,8 cm environ

This mysterious little object is a seal which may (or may not) depict Gilles de Rais and Jehanne d'Arc. There are no markings and the actual seal has been removed, making it impossible to date or place, although it was bought from vendors in Provence, France. It seems to be reasonably old and to have been used for its intended purpose, judging by the wear.

Looking at the iconography of the piece, it is highly likely that it is meant to represent Gilles and Jehanne. Both figures have fleur de lys markings on their armour. The taller figure is leaning on a double-headed battleaxe in what appears to be a deliberate allusion to Féron's imaginary portrait of 1835. He is bearded; Gilles is almost always depicted with a beard, uniquely among Jehanne's companions. The smaller figure is clinging to him for support; we know that Gilles rescued Jehanne on the battlefield twice and the second time she had a leg injury. This little piece might well represent that moment at the nadir of the Loire campaign when Paris had failed to fall, Jehanne was wounded and the next day Charles VII broke up the army, leaving both Gilles & Jehanne to go on alone to their respective fates. No wonder the male figure has such a solemn, melancholy air.

This would have been a controversial piece to own at any time, since Gilles de Rais is the dominant figure and Jehanne is leaning on him. It might have been made in the 1920s, when Jehanne was canonized and there was much revisionist interest in Gilles, or possibly in the late 1890s when Huysman's Là-Bas had such a succès de scandale. But to speculate further would be to make up fairy stories, like Bossard. 

It is a beautiful object and it is posted here for its beauty and its rarity. 

(The pictures and description were taken from the eBay listing. Obviously this item is now sold, but it was bought from this shop.)