From the house of Montmorency-Laval, the original ancestry of his father,—independent of his adoption by Joan la Sage,—the seigniories of Blaison, of Chemillé, of Fontaine-Milon, and of Grattecuisse in Anjou; of Ambrières, Saint-Aubin-de-Fosse-Louvain, province of Maine; and others in Brittany.

From the house of Craon, through his grandfather and his mother, the Hôtel de la Suze at Nantes; the seigniories and châteaux of Briollay, Champtocé, and Ingrandes, province of Anjou; of Sénéché, Loroux-Botereau, Bénate, Bourgneuf-en-Rais, Voulte, and others.

From his wife, on their marriage, Tiffauges, Pouzauges, Chabanais, Confolens, Châteaumorant, Savenay, Lombert, Grez-sur-Maine, with “plusiers autres terres fort belles, et leurs dépendencies.”

The value of this immense property has been estimated at four and a half millions of francs, though this may be exaggerated. His personal property was valued at one time at a hundred thousand golden crowns, and his income was variously estimated from thirty to sixty thousand pounds per annum.

It was alleged that he had made sales and transfers of property in an improvident manner and to an unjustifiable extent, dissipating to that extent his patrimony, to the damage of his estate and the detriment of his heirs. These were given somewhat in detail in the Mémoires, etc., viz.:

To Gauthier de Brussac, Captain-at-arms, the towns and seigniories of Confolens, Chabanais, Châteaumorant, and Lombert;

To Jean de Marsille, the châtellenie, land, and seigniorie of Fontaine-Milon in Anjou;

To Messire William de la Jumelière, the château and lands of Blaison, of Chemillé, in Anjou;

To Hardouin de Bueil, Bishop of Angers, the land and seigniory of Grattecuisse, the châtellenie and château of Saveny, half the forest of Brecilien;

To Messire Guy de la Roche-Guyon, the château and lands of Motte-Achard, and of Maurière, in Poitou;

To Jean Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes (who was soon to be his judge), the château and lands of Prigné, of Vue, Bois-aux-Treaux in the parish of Saint-Michel-Sénéché, and un grand nombre de terres situés dans le clos du pays de Rais pour une somme énorme;

To William de Fresnière and Guillemot le Cesne, merchants of Angers, the lands and seigniories of Ambrières, Saint-Aubin-de-Fosse-Louvain in the province of Maine;

To Jean de Montecler, one of his men-at-arms, and to Guillemot le Cesne, aforesaid, the lands and seigniories of Voulte and Sénéché;

To Jean Rabateau, president of the parliament, the lands and seigniories of d’Auzence, de Cloué, and de Lignon;

To William (apothecary at Poitiers), Jean Ambert, and Jacques de l’Epine, the lands Brueil-Mangon-lez-Poitiers;

To Georges Tremoille, late favourite of the king, now in retirement, twelve hundred “reaux” of gold on the rents of Champtocé, to pay interest money on twelve thousand “reaux” of gold formerly borrowed from him;

To Perrinet Pain, bourgeois and merchant of Angers, much interest money on loans secured on his lands and seigniories;

To the Chapter of Notre Dame, Nantes, his superb Hôtel de la Suze;

To Jean le Ferron, Saint Étienne-de-Mer-Morte, etc., etc., etc.

During some period, most likely in his younger days and before his services in the army, Gilles de Retz became enamoured of the theatre. His taste in this luxury was in the same extravagant style as the chapels, the bishop, and his religious secretaries.

There have been many histories of the theatre and the drama in France written by French historians. Histoire du Théâtre en France, Paris, 1881, two volumes, Monsieur Petit de Julleville; Histoire de la Société Française au Moyen Âge, Paris, 1880, by Monsieur Rosières; Mise en Scène des Mystères, Paris, 1885, by M. Paulin, Paris; Le Drame Chrétien, by M. Marius Sepet; Tableau de la Littérature au Moyen Âge, by M. Villemain; Histoire du Théâtre Français, Paris, 1745 to 1749, fifteen volumes, by les Frères Parfaict; Dictionnaire du XIXme Siècle, by La Rousse; and there may be many others, but with them all, our understanding of the extravagance and expenditure, and the consequent elegance and richness attained by theatres in France during the period in which we are now interested, would be incomplete without a study of the life of Gilles de Retz. His love for the theatre manifested itself not simply in looking at the spectacle and hearing the play, but in organising, arranging, and presenting the plays of the time in theatres established and conducted by himself. Some of these presentations were in his own châteaux, but others were given in the neighbouring cities—Nantes, Angers, Blois, Orleans, and minor places in the provinces of Brittany, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and Poitou.

One cause of his indulgence in theatrical display appears to have been the desire to make himself popular with the people. That he loved the theatre and its plays, and that they gave him pleasure, is not to be doubted, but after all, it is supposed that his ambition to shine among the people formed the real foundation.

The theatre had always been intended as a means of amusement. An attempt was made in France and the Latin countries during the fifteenth century, to combine in the theatre instruction of a religious kind with pleasure and amusement. This attempt was fostered by the clergy, and, in its execution, theatrical plays were performed in sundry chapels and sanctuaries. Whether the Passion Play at Oberammergau is a revival or continuation of this custom, is suggested but not decided. But such plays were common enough in the fifteenth century and met with favour in the Church. In its origin, this departure was exclusively religious, and was adopted by the Church as an ingenious and original continuation of the education of the people in the mysteries of the Christian religion. Originally, it employed only sacred topics, and used only terms taken from the ritual, or from the Bible, and was altogether in prose Latin.