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| Gilles de Rais was once former follower of Joan of Arc's. He was a noted soldier with Joan's. De Rais was a marshal of France and the lord of the Breton marches. He was a liberal patron of music, literature and the arts. After his retirement, rumors spread of satanic and vicious doing in his castle. He was tried in an ecclestiastical court and confessed to kidnapping over 40 children; there he was handed over by the chruch. In 1440 de Rais at 36 years of age, was executed after confessing to the murder of 40 children. He lured children to his castle, where they were strangled, hackd to pieces and disembowled while de Rais gloated over the carnage and drank deep of the children's young blood. Most of the children were boys. De Rais was excommunicated, strangled and burned at Nantes. It is also believed that de Rais is the founder of Satanism. |