On the occasion of the King’s coronation at Rheims, Gilles de Retz received the baton of Marshal of France. There is a question as to the date, but none as to the fact. Some authorities give the date as June 21, 1429; others, again, say that with other peers of France he was promoted on the day of the coronation of the King, July 17, 1429; still others assert it to have been in the month of September. It is explainable that all three of these dates are correct, for the King might well have announced, on the earliest date, that he was to be promoted to the rank of Marshal of France; the ceremony of installation may have taken place upon the occasion of the King’s coronation, and yet the commission not have been signed, or recorded, until September. That he was an officer in high command upon that occasion, and in favour with the King, cannot be doubted.
The Kings of France, from Clovis, the first convert to Christianity, down to Louis XIV., were crowned in the cathedral at Rheims. There is a tradition that upon the crowning of King Clovis a white dove miraculously descended from Heaven and hovered over, if it did not alight upon, the King’s head, bearing in its beak the ampulla containing the consecrated oil for his coronation. The latter was retained and became a holy emblem under the name of Sainte Ampoule, and was preserved in the Abbey of Saint Remy, near the cathedral at Rheims, until it was destroyed during the French Revolution. From Clovis to Louis XIV. it figured in the coronation of every king of France. At the coronation of Charles VII., Gilles de Retz as Marshal of France, Marshal Boussac, Admiral de Culan, and Lord Graville were the four nobles of France chosen as its escort and guard of honour. After the coronation, Gilles remained in the service in his former position of guard, or captain of the guard, of Joan of Arc. He accompanied her to Paris, which the English evacuated and left to the care of the Duke of Burgundy.
The capture of Joan at Compiègne took place May 20, 1430, and her execution May 30, 1431. There is no evidence reported of Gilles’s presence during any of this time. There has been found among the records of the barony of Rais, a paper wherein he acknowledged a debt to “Roland Mauvoisin, Captain of Prinçay, the sum of huitvingtes [twenty-eight] crowns of gold, for the purchase of a horse, saddle, and bridle, promised to his dear and well beloved Michel Machafer, captain of a certain company, as soon as they arrived at Louviers, in order to engage said captain to come with him on this voyage.” This paper was dated December 26, 1431, at Rouen, and is signed with his own proper hand.
Gilles’s signature and rubric.
Note.—The army service of the Baron de Retz, his relation to Joan of Arc, and his investiture as Marshal of France, are authenticated in sundry histories of France.
Monstrelet (vol. ii., p. 96) mentions him as a Marshal of France.
Michelet (vol. v., p. 71) mentions the Marshal de Retz as one of the Bretons who went to the aid of the city of Orleans.
Sismondi (Histoire des Français, vol. xiii., p. 124), speaking of the advent of Joan of Arc, says:
“Le Roi l’envoya à Blois, après de la petite armée qu’y rassemblaient les Marécheaux de Rais et de Saint Sevire, Ambroise de Loré et le sire de Goncourt.”
In Jeanne d’Arc, by H. Wallon (Paris, 1860), the author says:
“Le Maréchall de Boussac et le seignieur de Rais, investés du Commandement y rentrent Ares—peu aprés, avec La Hire, Polon de Xaintrailles et tous ceux que devaient faire l’escort, 10 ou 12000 x hommes.”
And again in Jeanne d’Arc, by Harriet Parr (London: 1866, vol. i. p. 91). “The captains appointed to command the exploration (to Orleans) were the Marshal de Boussac, the Marshal de Retz, and Louis de Culant, Admiral of France.”
The extent of the relation of Gilles with the incident of Joan of Arc may be obtained by taking Quicherat’s history of the Process for the Condemnation and Rehabilitation of Joan of Arc (5 vols., Paris, 1849) the references in the index under the title of “Gilles de Rais”:
Rais (Gilles de Laval, sire de) present at the arrival of Joan before the King at the castle of Chinon, iv., 363, 407.
He accompanies her to Orleans, iii., 4; iv., 5, 41, 53, 213, 491; v., 290; vi., 12, 20.
His return to Blois, iv., 54, 56, 152, 155, 221, 222; v., 290.
He assists at the Council with Jacques Boucher, iv., 57, 158. Combat at the capture of St. Loup, iv., 6, 43; at the capture of St. Augustine, iv., 61, 158, 226; at the capture of Tourelles, iv., 44; v., 261.
His departure from Orleans with Joan, iv., 165.
Took part in the expedition of Jargeau, iv., 12; v., 108, 261.
Combat at Patay, iv., 238, 239, 319, 371, 419.
He goes to Rheims, vi., 69, 180, 248, 378.
He is escort of the Sainte Ampoule on the occasion of the coronation of the King, iv., 77, 185; v., 129.
Made Marshal of France, v., 129.
In command at Montepilloy, iv., 83, 193.
Is sent to Senlis, iv., 24.
Figures in the attack on Paris, iv., 26, 86, 87, 197, 199.
Opposes (makes war on) the false Jeanne d’Arc, v., 333.
The Livres de Comptes, the official accounts of the Royal Exchequer, mention Gilles de Retz in connection with Joan of Arc on sundry occasions.
The eighth account of Guillaume Chartiers, receiver-general of finance, published by Godfrey in Histoire de Charles VII. (p. 89).
To Messire Gilles de Rais, Councillor and Chamberlain of the king, Sire and Marshal of France, the sum of one thousand pounds that our lord the king by his letters patent of xxi juin (M) CCCCXX at-arms in the Company of Joan of Arc and the employment in her service preparing for the siege of Tarjean.
Paid by the city of Tours to John Colez 10 livres tournois for having brought the good news of the capture of Orleans by la pucelle [Joan of Arc], Mgr. de Rais et les gens de leur compagnie.
