Gilles de Rais

Baron (1404-1440) French politician and marshal of France. In his pursuit of riches he turned to alchemy and Satanism, and was executed for heresy and child murder.

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Gilles de Rais was not burned at the stake

Rank has its privileges. Though he confessed 'voluntarily and freely' (albeit after extreme torture) to murdering and sodomizing a whole host of little boys in the service of The Devil, and was found guilty of dealing with The Devil, op apostasy, of heresy, of sodomy, and murder, he was not burned alive. He was strangled at the place of execution (because he had proved cooperative and had not revoked his forced confession) on 26 October 1440 and his body placed on the pyre with two of his fellow criminals. But his relatives were allowed to take it off the pyre before the flames got to it.

Though excommunicated, Gilles de Rais, 'Blue Beard' of the fairy stories, was buried in a Carmelite convent church. And a terrible priest, Prelati, the one who led the Marshal of France astray and participated in all his monstrous deeds, walked away unscathed after a few short months in prison.