History UsefulNotes / GillesDeRais

Just how much he was 'innocent' was still a source of hot debate. However, Gilles's time as a mass murderer seems to have eclipsed his good deeds, and thus he is now mostly remembered as a depraved child-murderer and one of the most infamous {{Serial Killer}}s in the history of Europe.

** He makes a late appearance in ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'' as an apparition by the Caster Creator/WilliamShakespeare to torture Ruler/Jeanne (in his Saber appearance). However, it also delves into Gilles' psyche. He actually felt truly guilty at his acts as a SerialKiller, but knew that there was just no salvation for him. Jeanne, ever the compassionate girl she is, assures him that God would forgive him as long as he takes the first step towards it. And so, Gilles did his redeeming act of protecting Jeanne, but it remains ambiguous if his soul was truly saved.

** He debuted in ''LightNovel/FateZero'' as the Caster class Servant, where his Noble Phantasm is [[TomeOfEldritchLore the book]] that was given to him by Francois Prelati, allowing him to summon several grotesque {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, including an {{expy}} of Cthulhu himself. His Master, Ryuunosuke Uryuu, is also a depraved child murderer and SerialKiller, taking gleeful joy and admiration at Gilles' grotesque art of killing, making them surprisingly one of the more stable, if evil, Master-Servant relationships. Gilles' motivation was to [[RageAgainstTheHeavens spite God]] for taking Jeanne d'Arc away from him unfairly despite his servitude to Him by creating something so grotesque that it would disgust even God (but in his and his master's words, it would be COOL). He claims that he was executed not because of his crimes, but because the greedy nobles wanted to seize his land, which to him was further proof that God is unfair. Before his defeat in the Holy Grail War, Gilles sees a vision of Jeanne (throughout the series, he kept mistaking Saber/[[Myth/KingArthur Artoria]] [[HistoricalGenderFlip Pendragon]] for Jeanne) and realizes how far he has fallen before perishing. He was also suggested to be called 'Bluebeard' (despite not having any facial hair) rather than his true name before his identity was revealed.

Eventually, Gilles's actions were found out and he and his accomplices were put on trial, where they did confess all their depraved actions and were rightfully sentenced to death. He was hanged on October 26, 1440. His LastRequest to be buried in the church of the monastery of Notre-Dame des Carmes in Nantes was granted. His only daughter, Marie, turned the spot where he was executed into a memorial that was eventually regarded as a holy site, but it was destroyed by rioting Jacobins during UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution in the 18th century. While France would be free from one depraved SerialKiller, years later, some people put doubts in the trial that ended Gilles's life, citing theories that perhaps Gilles was innocent, only falling victim to propaganda from the Catholic Church and ganged up to the point that he died and was the perfect slander target. And another popular theory was just [[MoralityPet how much influence Joan of Arc had on him]]; after all, Gilles's StartOfDarkness can be speculated to begin somewhere after Joan's unfair execution, had Joan lived on or at least died more fairly, perhaps Gilles wouldn't have been pushed to the desperation that led him to become the SerialKiller he's known as.

* The GothicHorror novel ''Literature/DoveKeeper'' has [[spoiler:a resurrected]] Gilles de Rais as the BigBad. Somehow, he's shown to be even ''[[UpToEleven worse]]'' [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade than he was in reality]], with it being revealed that [[spoiler:[[DealWithTheDevil he sold his soul to the Devil]] to come back from death as a demon, and he's been [[HumanSacrifice ritualistically killing enough innocent children over the centuries]] (the novel takes place in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI) that he was able to drag Joan of Arc out of {{Heaven}} and bring her BackFromTheDead as an amnesiac child]].