Danse Macabre: François Villon, Poetry & Murder in Medieval France

Francois Villon (1431-?1465) is one of the great enigmas of French medieval history: a lyric poet of beauty and depth, he was also a murderer, pimp, thief and denizen of the underworld of 15th-century Paris. This study places Villon in the context of medieval France from the death of Joan of Arc, describing the appalling condition of the country during the Hundred Years War, the time when Gilles de Rais - the original Bluebeard - was practicing his diabolical craft of child abuse and alchemy.