ISBN: 9781156241233

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Gilles de Rais, seigneur et baron de Rais (1404-1440), was a Breton knight, a leader in the French army and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He is best known as a prolific serial killer of children. A member of the House of Montmorency-Laval, Gilles de Rais grew up under the tutelage of his maternal Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Gilles de Rais, seigneur et baron de Rais (1404-1440), was a Breton knight, a leader in the French army and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He is best known as a prolific serial killer of children. A member of the House of Montmorency-Laval, Gilles de Rais grew up under the tutelage of his maternal grandfather and increased his fortune by marriage. Following the War of the Breton Succession, he earned the favour of the Duke and was admitted to the French court. From 1427 to 1435, Gilles served as a commander in the Royal Army, and fought alongside Joan of Arc against the English and their Burgundian allies during the Hundred Years War, for which he was appointed Marshal of France. In 1434/5, he retired from military life, depleted his wealth by staging an extravagant theatrical spectacle of his own composition and dabbled in the occult. After 1432 Gilles engaged in a series of child murders, his victims possibly numbering in the hundreds. The killings came to an end in 1440 when a violent dispute with a clergyman led to an ecclesiastical investigation which brought Gilles' crimes to light. At his trial the parents of missing children in the surrounding area and Gilles' own confederates in crime testified against him. Gilles was condemned to death and hanged at Nantes on 26 October 1440. Some conspiracy theories consider Gilles the victim of a plot to acquire his lands, though the majority of historians have rejected this hypothesis. Gilles de Rais has had some cultural impact and is one among several candidates believed to be the inspiration for the 1697 fairy tale Bluebeard by Charles Perrault. His life is the subject of several modern novels, and referenced in a number of rock bands albums and songs. Gilles de Rais was born in late 140. More: Books, , French-Rapists~~Books-LLC, , , , , , , , , , General Books LLC<

2010, ISBN: 1156241235

Kvalitets paperback, [PD: 01/05/2010], [PU: Books LLC], Seiten: 34