The story of Bluebeard usually refers to a story written by the French author Charles Perrault in 1697. In the story, the young wife of a blue‑bearded chevalier is forbidden to open a certain room in their castle. Curiosity eventually causes her to enter the room, where she finds the bodies of her husband's former wives. Bluebeard had a habit of marrying, then killing his wife and stuffing her body away in this room, then subsequently marrying another woman. He learns that his current wife discovered his dirty little secret, so he plans to kill her. Her brothers intervene and kill Bluebeard.
Inspiration for this story may well have come from Giles de Laval, Seigneur de Retz, better known as Marshal de Retz, who must have had some unusual physical feature, because he was remembered as Barbe-bleue, literally “blue beard.” Born about 1396, he inherited large estates when his father died in 1416, and entered the service of the Duc de Bretagne. At twenty-four he married a woman who added more property to his holdings. Within a few years he entered the service of King Charles VII, fighting the English. He was one of Joan of Arc’s captains in 1429, and distinguished himself to the point of becoming Marshal of France, and counselor and chamberlain to the king. In 1432, a grandfather died and left him another set of estates, and Giles de Retz became one of the richest men in France, if not the richest.
He also became incredibly impressed with himself, and spent his fortunes as if there was no tomorrow. He maintained a guard of honor of two hundred horsemen, and kept fifty servants. He spent no small fortune on a lavish chapel, giving his chaplains the titles of dean, chanter, archdeacon and bishop. The man even sent a deputy to the pope, asking for permission to have someone carry a cross before him (like the pope!). Anyway, he spent so much that he had to begin selling off his property, and his family obtained a legal decree forbidding him to sell off any more of their inheritance.
Throwing your money away may be a bad idea, but it will not earn you a reputation for evil to last for hundreds of years. The real problem is that he would stop at nothing to obtain money to keep up his lifestyle. He tried alchemy, but, surprisingly enough, was never able to transmute base metals into gold. He gave up on alchemy and tried sorcery, under the tutelage of an Italian and an Englishman. The story goes that then, probably around 1433, de Retz made a pact with the Devil. He offered everything except his own life and soul for wealth, although how he could expect to not lose his soul over such a deal strains the intellect.
Giles de Retz’s men went to peasants with pretty children and convinced them to put their children in the care of de Retz, who would see to them. Over the course of several years his agents brought him many boys and girls, generally between the ages of eight and eighteen, who were never heard from again. De Retz’s men used threats and bribery to try to quiet parents who were upset over the missing children.
Eventually the authorities heard about these disappearances, and de Retz was arrested with two of his men, in 1440. The marshal denied all knowledge of these events, but he was threatened with torture, and confessed. He confessed to committing unspeakable atrocities against these children, then putting them to death and using their blood and hearts as charms in his sorcery. During his eight-year reign of terror he burned most of the bodies, but sufficient remains were found at one castle to indicate forty-six victims, and eighty at another. He was condemned to die by strangulation, and begged to have the bishop of Nantes lead his procession to the execution. (There is no indication that this request was honored.) He was executed in 1440, a few days before Christmas (said by some to be on December 22).
