In 1440, French nobleman and former marshal Gilles de Rais was tried and executed after accusations of murdering children. The proceedings mixed criminal charges, aristocratic power, and religious language. His case became one of the most infamous examples of monstrous behaviour hidden behind rank.

Gilles de Rais entered folklore and later literary culture as a possible source for the Bluebeard legend. His story gave writers a dark model of the powerful predator, influencing Gothic, decadent, and psychological treatments of evil beneath nobility.