His Maison de la Suze has been described, whether actually or only from similar houses of the epoch, is now impossible to tell; but it is said to have eclipsed, in its luxury and taste, the palace of the Dukes of Brittany. It was ornamented and decorated to a high degree. All countries were laid under tribute to furnish riches for its decoration: Italy for its painting and sculpture, Spain for its Cordovan leather, Flanders for its tapestry, Venice and Bohemia for their crystals and glassware, the Orient for its magnificent stuffs, and Persia for its tiles and faience; while, without doubt, the ceramics of his own and neighbouring provinces, like Tours, Orleans, Gien, Quimper, and Poitou (the latter the forerunner of Limoges), were represented in the luxurious fittings of the houses and châteaux of Gilles, the Baron de Retz.
The Mémoire des Héritiers, setting forth the extravagant and ruinous expenditures by which the principal of the estate was being dissipated, was duly presented to the King and the necessary proof offered to establish its allegations. The date is not given, but it should have been about 1432–33. In 1435–36, the King, having become satisfied of the truth of the matters alleged, through his Council of State and by letters patent, issued his decree of prohibition against the alienation or incumbrance by Gilles de Retz of any of his lands or seigniories. This decree has been preserved to us in Guepin’s Histoire de Nantes, pp. 131–133.
The Decree of Interdiction by the King, against the sale and incumbrance of his property commences with a description of the various noble families from which Gilles de Retz had descended; his titles, his property, baronies, châteaux, seigniories, his marriage, the properties of his wife—that is to say, Pouzauges, Tiffauges, Chabenais, Confolens, Château-Morant, Savenay, Lombert, Grez-sur-Maine, and other beautiful properties, the rental value of which amounted to six or seven thousand livres (pounds, about three hundred thousand francs, actual value); that from his said marriage, he derived also personal property of the value of one hundred thousand golden crowns; that he held in Grosses Baronies thirty thousand livres of true domains; that from his office of Marshal of France he received grand salary and pension from the King, with numerous gratuities; so that he had a yearly income of forty or fifty thousand livres or more. The said Gilles, after the decease of his father, took the administration of his estate to himself and used it according to his pleasure; he established himself in an estate grander than that to which he really belonged; kept two hundred horsemen, maintained a chapel of singers in his château numbering twenty-five or thirty persons, chaplain, clerks, children, and others; these were taken with him when he travelled; and in all things he managed his affairs so as to have in his château, because of the said chapel, more than fifty men or persons at his expense, and as many horses; he had also in said chapel a great quantity or number of ornaments, cloth of gold, silk, chandeliers and censoirs, crosses, plates, dishes, etc.; these were of such sumptuosity that they cost three times more than their value; he had several organs, one of which, carried by six men, was taken with him wherever he went; he often purchased cloth-of-gold at sixty or eighty crowns per aune (ell) when it was not worth more than twenty-five, and a pair of “orfrays” (embroidered cloth of gold) at three or four hundred crowns, when they were not worth more than one hundred; he kept in the said chapel a dean, choir-leader, or singing-master, an archdeacon, vicar, schoolmaster, etc., as in the cathedral, and one of these priests or officers he undertook to establish and treat as a bishop; he paid to some of these four hundred crowns, and to others three hundred; he dressed them in robes with scarlet trains trimmed with plush and fur, with fine hats; all were kept and served with the most costly and expensive viands; the service of all these so-called priests (holy men) was nothing but vanity, without devotion and in defiance of good order. The said Gilles sent on several occasions to the Pope in the endeavour to obtain permission or authority that his choristers, or leaders, should be mitred as prelates, or like the canons of the church at Lyons. He made excessive gifts in wine, viands, and hypocras, to all who desired to eat or drink, keeping open house for that purpose, and those who had the government of his affairs lived like great lords; while the commoners frequently had naught, ni boire ni manger, when they came to table.
He played games, farces, morisques, and, on occasion, he performed the Mysteries of Pentecost and Ascension, on high scaffolds under which were hypocras and strong wines, as in a cave.
The said Gilles constituted one of his familiars, Roger de Briqueville, as his procureur, agent, or attorney-in-fact, empowered to marry his daughter, Marie, at a time when she was only four or five years of age, to whatever man should seem good to the said de Briqueville, against the custom prevailing in the country to marry the daughters, issue of such high nobility, only with the assent of their parents and friends. He took it into his head to deal in alchemy, hoping thus to obtain the Philosopher’s Stone; sent to Germany and to different countries in search of the masters of this art, and brought to his château Monsieur Anth. of Palermo, making, with him, outrageous expenses from which no one derived any profit; in all of which things he acted without sense or understanding, and in a foolish, if not crazy, manner. It is found that he sold and alienated certain lands (describing them).
For these reasons, the King, being fully informed and having fully ascertained of the evil government of the said Sieur de Retz, through his Grand Council, issued his interdiction and prohibition against any alienation, transfer, mortgage, or pledge, by the said Gilles de Retz, of any of his lands or seigniories.
The King enjoined upon his Parliament the duty of carrying this decree of interdiction into effect; and under severe penalties, he forbade any captains, guards, tenants, or persons in charge, from attorning or delivering up to any stranger (to the title) any château or fortress of Gilles de Retz until Parliament should so order.
This decree was published “at the sound of the trumpet” at the principal places concerned—Orleans, Tours, Angers, Champtocé, Pouzauges, Tiffauges, Saint-Jean-d’Angely, and other places. The Duke of Brittany refused to accept, register, or publish the decree, and it was in vain that the “femme, parents, et les amis” of Gilles solicited him. It is alleged that this was to enable the Duke to take advantage of the necessities of Gilles, and purchase his lands at ruinous prices. He purchased some and took mortgages on others; Champtocé, Bourgneuf, Bénate, and Prinçay or Princé, were mortgaged for the sum of 100,000 crowns of gold, to be repaid within six years. In this way did Gilles, during these eight years of his life, dissipate the sum of deux cents mille écus (200,000 crowns) of the heritage.
The King’s interdiction of the sale or mortgage of any of his property aggravated Gilles’s situation by increasing his difficulties in obtaining money. He had no scruples about borrowing money of whomsoever he could, and if repayment could be put off a sufficient length of time, would promise the return of it doubled or trebled, as the creditor demanded. The situation must have been irritating to Gilles, and doubtless proved his incentive to magic, by which he hoped to discover the Philosopher’s Stone, and, thereby, the means of converting the baser metals into gold. Whatever he may have done, or thought, in this direction prior to the passing of the decree, it seems that later he entered into closer relation with the alchemist and magician, and sought to study and practise the “black art” to a greater degree than he ever had done before.
From this on, we have to treat Gilles as a changed man, not only in his conduct, but in his character and desires. He separated from his wife, but established her in the château of Champtocé, while he installed himself with his retinue, including his magician, in the two châteaux, one at Machecoul, which he had received from his father, Guy de Laval, but principally at Tiffauges, which he had received from his wife. Here we have to treat of him no longer as a soldier, or as a noble of France, but in his character of magician, necromancer, debtor, robber, murderer.