Hi, this is William Ramsey. Welcome to William Ramsey Investigates on Tonight Show. I'm going to read from a book. I've been, on a subject matter, I've been very curious about. It's the story of Gilles de Rai, or Gilles de Retz, or Gilles de Montmorency. So he's known by many names, but he was the Marshal of France during the 15th century.

And he came to my attention through my readings of Crowley, who wrote something called the

Band of Lecture about Jill DeRye, which was supposed to be given at Oxford University in 1930,

but it was banned. And the lecture that he was supposed to give is still in his writings, but it's based upon

the light, like I said, the life of Gilles-D-Rye.

There's a bunch of French historical authors who have written about Gilles-D-Rai, and

there's a number of books about him.

He's also known as Bluebeard.

This particular book that I'm going to read from in its entirety,

it's fairly short.

It's written by Thomas Wilson, published in 1890 in New York, the Knickerbocker Press.

And the title of his book is Bluebeard,

a contribution to history and folklore,

being the history of Gilles de Retz of Brittany, France,

who was executed at Nance in 1440 AD, and it was the original of Bluebeard in the Tales of Mother Goose.

I'm going to read from the entirety of the book, which is seven chapters. There's also four appendices,

and the titles of the chapters are Chapter 1, Gilles de Retz, 1404, 1420,

his name, family, marriage, and education. Chapter 2, Jill as a soldier, 1420, 1429.

First for John, the 5th, Duke of Brittany against the House of Blas. He joins the Army of France

and is assigned to duty with

Joan of Arc. Crowning of the King and Jill made Marshal of France. Chapter 3. Jill's life at home in

Brittany 1430, 1439. The personal appearance of Gilles de Retz, an epitome of his life, his

...