murderous husband in a story, “La Barbe bleue,” in Charles Perrault's (Perrault, Charles) collection of fairy tales, Contes de ma mère l'oye (1697; Tales of Mother Goose). Similar stories exist in European, African, and Eastern folklore; the essentials are the locked and forbidden room, the wife's curiosity, and her 11th-hour rescue. Perrault's version probably derived from Brittany and may have been based on the career of the 15th-century marshal of France Gilles de Rais (Rais, Gilles de) and that of Comorre the Cursed, a 6th-century Breton chief, each of whom committed crimes similar to those in the Bluebeard stories.