In the seventeenth 100 , no monarch wield as much power as King Louis XIV of France ( 1643 - 1715 ) . From his opulentPalace of Versailles , the " Sun King " ruled over the affluent country in Europe , surrounded by a court of justice of nobles queasy to win his favour and , in many causa , his affections .
" What you have in the court of Louis XIV is a lot of people jockeying for power , view and the ear of the king , " saysLynn Mollenauer , a prof at the University of North Carolina Wilmington who differentiate in this godforsaken period of French history . For noblewomen , who had no real political force , one of the best ways to benefit influence and financial security was in the queen ’s bedchamber .
" For women , the opportunities for behind - the - prospect might under Louis XIV were legion , because , well , the military man got around , " order Mollenauer . Louis XIV fathered15 outlawed childrenwith his " official " kept woman alone .
When so much money and magnate is concentrated in one piece and hisroyal Margaret Court , people will do anything to derive an reward or neutralise a rival , including play around in the dark graphics . Paris in the 17th century was allegedly swarming with sorceress , illusionist and apostate non-Christian priest who perform carousing " black stack " and peddled love potions and odorless poisons .
When a secret plan to envenom Louis XIV was uncovered by Paris constabulary , it triggered a full - blown " magical panic " that led to the arrest of big Gallic aristocrats and their witchy accomplices . Tortured into confessions , dozens of multitude were thrown in prison house , and 36 faced gruesome public executions .
The scandalous spectacle became known as theAffair of the Poisons .
The Case of the Killer Marquise
Like other moral panics in story , the Affair of the Poisons can be traced back to a shocking murder fount that captured the public imaging .
French aristocrat Marie - Madeleine Marguerite d’Aubray , the Marquise de Brinvilliers , was affluent and beautiful . She took a fan , a military skipper named Godin de Sainte - Croix , but her forefather had Sainte - Croix arrested and drop into the Bastille . While in prison , Sainte - Croixallegedlylearnedalchemyfrom a " master poisoner " named Egidio Exili .
When Sainte - Croix was secrete , he and the Marquise went on a toxic condition fling , testing their increasingly toxic intermixture on unsuspecting hospital patients . When the odorless , tasteless poison was perfect ( likely arsenic , says Molleneau ) , the Marquise used it to kill her father and two of her brothers , lay down her first in line to inherit the family ’s riches .
In 1675 , the Marquise was accused of the murders and fled to England , the Netherlands and Belgium , where she was stop . There she was tortured with " the H2O cure " and was hale to drink 2.4 gallons ( 9 liters ) until she confessed .
The Marquise reportedly claimed that " half the multitude in [ Paris ] are involved in this sort of matter " and hinted at the universe of a gang of alchemist and sorceresses dabble in the dark arts . Suddenly , every mysterious aristocratic death over the previous decade came under misgiving . The stage was place for the explosion of wild accusal during the Affair of the Poisons .
" The case of this beautiful noblewoman being found hangdog of poison her family member in cold lineage made it conceivable for the police , for the king and for the judge that these character of murders were widespread , " say Mollenauer . " If somebody like the Marquise de Brinvilliers is up to of that , so too would other people . "
The ‘Criminal Magical Underworld’ of Paris
Soon after the Marquise amour , the air force officer of the Paris constabulary , Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie , learned of an unrelated plot to poison King Louis XIV . La Reynie ordered his ship’s officer to leave no stone unturned in their investigating of Paris ' " criminal magical underworld , " as Mollenauer order it .
There were indeed peck of fortunetellers , wizard and self - proclaim sorceresses ply their service in 17th - century Paris . Mollenauer says that these supernatural practitioners were " Renaissance man , " meaning they splash around in everything from treating toothache to place hidden treasure .
If a woman go to the local sorceress complaining of a cruel and violent husband , she might go home with a few hole-and-corner prayers to recite at mass . But if the prayers did n’t work , say Mollenauer , the wife might return to the sorceress for something inviolable , something that would make the " husband problem " go aside for proficient .
Beginning with the Marquise typesetter’s case , rumors swirled around Paris that alchemist and enchantress had secure the element for an odorless , tasteless , truly insensible poison . They enjoin it was educe from toad malice and go away by the name " taking over powder , " because it could quietly pour down off your rival for a handsome inheritance .
When La Reynie ’s humanity stormed the magic workshop and alchemists , they confiscated phial of suspicious powders , bubbling caldron and foul ingredient for black magic including " blobs of hanged - man ’s juicy , nail clippings , osseous tissue matchwood , specimen of human pedigree , excrement , urine , [ and ] semen,“accordingto one historiographer .
A Witch Hunt a Decade Before Salem
One of La Reynie’sfirst arrestswas a fortuneteller named Magdalene de la Grange , who was accused of fudge a man and wife to a wealthy Parisian lawyer and then poisoning him for his money . De la Grange was flow and La Reynie was convinced that even more homicidal " witches " were operating in Paris .
The next big arrest , says Mollenauer , was Marie Bosse , a well - connect fortune teller who drunkenly brag at a dinner party party of cause full-bodied from selling poison to plotting aristocrats . A shocked lawyer in attendance result an anonymous " denouncement " at the local church and " La Bosse , " as she was known , was arrested and condemned to burn at the stake .
But the most high - visibility conjurer capture in the Affair of the Poisons was Catherine Deshayes Monvoisin , aka " La Voisin . " A gifted sorceress and dear Christian , La Voisin ’s services were enounce to be in high requirement , making her a rich " witch " indeed . Among her stronger " cures , " La Voisin dealt in chemically induced abortions , poison and love potions .
" I do n’t necessarily conceive there was a patch to envenom the king , but Iamconvinced there was a plot to slip him a lot of pretty distasteful love potions , " says Mollenauer . " These were made out of thing like smoothing iron filing , the blood of give infants ( allegedly ) , and Spanish tent-fly , which is an aphrodisiac . "
Under torture , La Voisin gave up the names of dozens of fellow fortuneteller , sorcerer and sorceresses working in Paris , who in turn dropped the names of their clients , some with close tie-up to the crown , including the king ’s brother , Philip of Orleans .
Mistress of the ‘Black Mass’
Some of the most shocking accusations in the Affair of the Poisons were reserve for a woman named Athénaïs de Montespan , Louis XIV ’s favorite mistress . De Montespan bore seven tiddler to the king , far more than any of Louis ' official buff .
When La Voisin was interrogated , she name de Montespan as one of her client . La Voisin spun a sordid narration . She claimed to have provide de Montespan with the muscular love potion that keep the king under his mistress ’s enchantment for so many years . Mollenauer receive it plausible that Louis ' mistresses would have recur to drugging the Riley B King .
" The greater de Montespan ’s hold over the magnate , " she enjoin , " the greater her personal and familial benefits . "
Far more distressing , La Voisinclaimedthat de Montespan also participated with a defrocked non-Christian priest in satanic " black tidy sum " in which demons were conjured to attack their foe . La Voisin was accused of proffer her au naturel trunk as an altar upon which horrific rituals were perform , admit infanticide .
The Affair of the Poisons lasted more than five foresighted twelvemonth , during which accused conspirators implicated others to pull through their necks . In the remnant , 36 people were action and innumerable more were imprisoned or exiled .
