October 26

Gilles de Rais, nobleman, comrade-in-arms to Joan of Arc, and all around fun guy, kidnapped a clergyman in May of 1440. The disappearance of this cleric would prompt an investigation into de Rais’ behavior, which had long been suspect in his neck of the woods. Ultimately, de Rais would be excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church, a group with a well-deserved reputation for being intolerant of people who kidnap and sexually abuse young boys before killing them. de Rais would face trial for the torture and murder of over 600 boys over the course of many years. On the 25th in 1440, an ecclesiastical court handed down a sentence of excommunication against de Rais and his accomplices. Rather than undergo torture, de Rais readily confessed to the crimes. After tearfully expressing what must surely have been sincere remorse for his crimes, the Church's punishment was rescinded and he was allowed confession. The secular penalty, obtained coincidentally with the Church’s punishment, remained in place however and de Rais was hanged on the 26th in 1440. de Rais would hold the crown for vicious sexual crimes until the beginning of the seventeenth century when the mild mannered bloody Countess Erzsébet Báthory would surpass the scale of de Rais’ horrid crimes.