The personal Appearance of Gilles de Retz. An Epitome of his Life. His Extravagance and ruinous Expenditures. His Inheritance. His Sales and Transfers of Property. His Love for the Theatre. Mysteries. That of the Siege of Orleans. Mysteries at Nantes. The Cathedral. Expensive Visit to Orleans. Maison de la Suze. The Decree of the King interdicting his Sale or Incumbrance of Property. The increasing Demand for Money drives him to Magic in Search for the Philosopher’s Stone and the Transmutation of base Metals into Gold. Magic.
There are but two known portraits of Gilles de Retz. That in the palace at Versailles is purely imaginative, and was only made to complete the series of the Marshals of France. It is not known by whom or at what time the other was made. In 1438, Gilles was thirty-five years old, tall, handsome, and well formed. He showed in his face, figure, and in every movement, his pride and spirit. He had a high, rather than broad, forehead; his nose was prominent and slightly aquiline; the nostrils were large and thin, and, on occasions of anger, spread and quivered in an interesting and threatening manner. His lips were rather thin but well coloured, and had a tinge of delicate and refined sensuality.
Like many of the Breton race, his complexion was fair, his eyes large and blue, and his eyebrows and lashes long and black. His hair was also long and black, and beard the same. It was soft and silky, and with its raven blackness became shiny, giving it a tinge of blue-black, which may have served as a foundation for his pseudonym in that country. His neck was neither too short, too long, nor yet too large, but seemed a column full of nervous strength, calculated to support solidly and well his head and brain, with whatever of pride, audacity, and confidence it might have. His shoulders were square, his body long, his waist small, while the bust and hips were large and fairly placed upon the muscular legs, which stood straight under him, giving his body firm support. His fingers were long and tapering, his hands small, and their fair complexion, when brought in contact with his velvet costume and lace ruffles, showed them to good advantage. Thus, he had the physical appearance of an athlete trained in all the exercises of the body; of much strength, a good walker, a good rider, and capable of any feat at arms.
Michelet (Hist. de France, vol. v., pp. 208–213) describes Gilles as of “bon entendment, belle personne et bonne façon, lettré de plus, et appréciant fort ce qui parlaient avec élégance la langue latine.”
Lemire says (p. 39) that Gilles, when he appeared before the Court, was dressed in pantaloons, skin-tight, after the fashion of the day, and shirt and vest, all of white wool, with boots also white. Over this was a doublet of pearl-grey silk embroidered with gold, with a hood of ermine; a sash of scarlet about his waist which supported a poniard with red velvet scabbard. He wore his military and seigniorial medals and orders, and about his neck a chain of gold with a reliquary. From the latter he never parted.
How much of this description is actual and how much imaginary will probably never be known; but in the attractiveness of his person and manner, Gilles de Retz compared with the best of his race in that country, and the foregoing might have been a fairly truthful representation. He seems the model of a gentleman of his time; his life being divided between the chase, war, and his adventures. He had beauty, force, riches, and occupied the highest rank among the nobility of his province. To him, nature and fortune had been blindly prodigal in their gifts.
On Gilles’s return from service in the army of France, after the murder of Joan of Arc, he retired to his château, dwelling alternately at Machecoul and Tiffauges, with an occasional visit to his Hôtel de la Suze in Nantes. He engaged in no serious business, but apparently resigned himself to domestic pleasures and happiness. He established himself in a princely fashion. The interiors of his châteaux were decorated in the most magnificent and luxurious manner possible. He maintained a small army, the members of which were in his own pay. He was passionately fond of music; he purchased instruments and organised all sorts of musical competitions and displays. He established a religious hierarchy, having as a member of his own household a pseudo bishop with a large retinue, and all the necessary paraphernalia, including rich vestments for his servants and expensive decorations for his chapels.
This luxurious, magnificent, expensive mode of living was carried on for so long a time, increasing to such an alarming extent, that his brother René presented a memoir or petition to the King, called in history Mémoires des Héritiers, wherein these expenditures and extravagances were set forth at as great length and with as much detail and redundant phrase as though it were a bill in equity. This memoir ended with the prayer that the King should pass a decree against Gilles, interdicting him from making sale, transfer, or alienation, or mortgaging or pledging any of his property. This process is not unknown to French law. Without having the law of primogeniture as in England, the heirs yet had certain rights which, consequent upon the death of Gilles, would accrue to them under the law of France, and thus it was that the King was prayed to take the necessary steps for the protection of the rights of the heirs. In this proceeding his brother, René de la Suze, seems to have been the principal and moving spirit, although he was afterwards aided and abetted by his cousin, Guy de Laval.
From the Mémoires des Héritiers we get a knowledge of the property of Gilles de Retz. The list of his lands, possessions, and income, with his family ancestry, through which he received them, was as follows:
From the house of Rais, left by Joan la Sage, first the title of Baron and then the rank of Dean of Barons in the duchy of Brittany, with its châteaux and dependencies in great number, of which the principal only are named—Machecoul, Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte, Pornic, Prinçay (or Princé), Vue, Ile de Bouin, etc.