1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:22,599 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting 5 00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:39,000 Speaker 1: To survive the court of King Louis the fourteenth you 7 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:42,800 Speaker 1: needed one thing money. The sun King had a penchant 8 00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:46,279 Speaker 1: for excess, and a typical day in court meant wild parties, 9 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:50,240 Speaker 1: grand feasts, high stakes gambling, and the funds to keep 10 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:52,840 Speaker 1: all of that going. To stay in the King's favor, 11 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:56,320 Speaker 1: some nobles were forced to extremes, and starting in the 12 00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:58,720 Speaker 1: late sixteen hundreds, the rush to keep up with the 13 00:00:58,800 --> 00:01:03,800 Speaker 1: royals led to a scandal of supernatural proportions. The whole 14 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:06,960 Speaker 1: thing started with a break in. One night in Paris, 15 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:10,240 Speaker 1: somebody was seen going into the laboratory of Captain Goudon 16 00:01:10,319 --> 00:01:13,720 Speaker 1: de Saint Croix, which wouldn't have been unusual except that 17 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:17,080 Speaker 1: the captain had just died. The police were called in. 18 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:19,840 Speaker 1: While they didn't find any burglars, they did soon discover 19 00:01:19,959 --> 00:01:23,760 Speaker 1: a curious red leather trunk. Inside were letters between the 20 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:27,759 Speaker 1: handsome captain and his lover, the beautiful, married noble woman 21 00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:31,800 Speaker 1: Marie de braun Villiere. This was itself not very strange. 22 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:34,559 Speaker 1: All of Versailles knew that Godon and Marie were having 23 00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:37,240 Speaker 1: an affair. It was what was in the letters that 24 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:40,959 Speaker 1: was shocking. These weren't simple declarations of love. Many of 25 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:45,280 Speaker 1: the letters instead detailed Marie and Goudon's shared passion trying 26 00:01:45,319 --> 00:01:49,240 Speaker 1: to develop the perfect poison, and, judging by the vials 27 00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:52,720 Speaker 1: of tasteless, odorless liquid inside the case, it seemed the 28 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:57,800 Speaker 1: two had been successful. As news soon broke, Marie fled Versailles. 29 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:00,640 Speaker 1: She moved from town to town into sky and under 30 00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:04,720 Speaker 1: assumed names, always one step ahead of King Louis's royal authorities. 31 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:08,160 Speaker 1: She was finally captured, though in Belgium. After four years. 32 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:12,560 Speaker 1: Between the crown's investigation and Marie's own confessions, a horrifying 33 00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:16,280 Speaker 1: picture emerged. While Goudon was still alive, She and the 34 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:19,560 Speaker 1: captain laced cakes with arsenic and fed them to poor 35 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:22,640 Speaker 1: hospital patients to test them. When they finally crafted an 36 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:27,040 Speaker 1: undetectable poison, they moved on to family. Marie poisoned her 37 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:30,320 Speaker 1: father and two brothers, so that she could inherit their wealth. 38 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:33,720 Speaker 1: With this money, she could shine in court and pay 39 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:38,480 Speaker 1: off Goudon's substantial debts. But Marie's execution did nothing to 40 00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:41,840 Speaker 1: calm the excitement in court. King Louis was horrified that 41 00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:44,440 Speaker 1: someone who could have killed him so easily and without 42 00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:48,080 Speaker 1: suspicion had been so close to the crown. Not only that, 43 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:51,200 Speaker 1: the court began to question whether any noble person's death 44 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:54,600 Speaker 1: in the past decade was truly due to natural causes, 45 00:02:54,919 --> 00:02:58,720 Speaker 1: or whether there had been other poisoners on the loose. Poisoning, 46 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:01,279 Speaker 1: you see, was thought to be the work of witchcraft. 47 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:04,320 Speaker 1: So King Louis appointed the Chief of Paris Police to 48 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:07,240 Speaker 1: head a new task force, one that would root out 49 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:11,640 Speaker 1: any poisoners, witches, or practitioners of black magic hiding in 50 00:03:11,639 --> 00:03:15,359 Speaker 1: the court. The Chief took his new assignment with enthusiasm. 51 00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:20,200 Speaker 1: He quickly rounded up scores of fortune tellers, magicians, and apothecaries. 52 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:22,880 Speaker 1: Many of these people gave up lists of clients to 53 00:03:22,919 --> 00:03:25,720 Speaker 1: save their own skin. It was common for nobles to 54 00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:29,160 Speaker 1: buy charms and love potions from low level alchemists and 55 00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:33,360 Speaker 1: sorceresses like these, But now these purchases were cast under 56 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:37,360 Speaker 1: a new suspicious light. Over the next decade, dozens of 57 00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:41,080 Speaker 1: people were arrested for poisoning or witchcraft, which had basically 58 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:43,840 Speaker 1: become the same in the eyes of the law. In 59 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:48,280 Speaker 1: sixteen eighty, perhaps the most startling accusations rocked Versailles. A 60 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:51,800 Speaker 1: famous sorceress had named names of her clients, and one 61 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:55,480 Speaker 1: of her best customers was Madame de Montespan, the king's 62 00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:59,880 Speaker 1: favorite royal mistress. According to the sorceress, Madame de Montespan 63 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:02,360 Speaker 1: had used the black arts for years to get to 64 00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:05,520 Speaker 1: the top. Before she was Louis's lover. She allegedly had 65 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:08,840 Speaker 1: a priest perform a black mass over her naked body. 66 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:12,160 Speaker 1: The sorceress claimed that Madam had poisoned the previous royal 67 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:15,080 Speaker 1: favorites and had fed Louis love potions made with the 68 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:18,800 Speaker 1: body parts of murdered infants, just as Louis had feared 69 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:22,200 Speaker 1: there was a witch in his court and in his bed. 70 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:25,680 Speaker 1: Hearing these shocking revelations about his own lover, the king 71 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:28,279 Speaker 1: began to realize that he had taken things too far. 72 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:31,400 Speaker 1: Madame de monte Spain had seven children with the king. 73 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:34,599 Speaker 1: She was his close friend and confidant and one of 74 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:37,200 Speaker 1: the most powerful women in court, and it would be 75 00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:39,680 Speaker 1: foolish to admit that the King of France could be 76 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:43,719 Speaker 1: influenced by such a simple love potion. The Affair of 77 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:46,440 Speaker 1: the Poisons, as it became known, finally came to an 78 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:49,559 Speaker 1: end in sixteen eighty two. By the time King Louis 79 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:52,360 Speaker 1: pulled the plug, over four hundred people had been charged 80 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:57,320 Speaker 1: with witchcraft and thirty six had been executed. More were jailed, exiled, 81 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:01,279 Speaker 1: or died from torture in prison. The French court was 82 00:05:01,400 --> 00:05:04,800 Speaker 1: a fraught place where politics and gossip could make or 83 00:05:04,839 --> 00:05:08,640 Speaker 1: break a career. Normally, you would expect the deadliest weapons 84 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:11,000 Speaker 1: in such a place to be words, but for a 85 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:14,279 Speaker 1: brief stretch under Louis the fourteenth, if a rival wanted 86 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:17,520 Speaker 1: to poison the opinion against you, they might just take 87 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:34,680 Speaker 1: things a bit too literally. It's good to be king, 88 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:37,080 Speaker 1: or at least that's what mel Brooks says in his 89 00:05:37,279 --> 00:05:40,080 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one film History of the World, Part One, 90 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:43,279 Speaker 1: And while that may sound true to us peasants, history 91 00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:47,039 Speaker 1: would actually suggest otherwise. Many kings throughout history met with 92 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,920 Speaker 1: grisly deaths, and that was especially true during the Roman Empire. 93 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:54,799 Speaker 1: In fact, their kings or emperors were murdered more often 94 00:05:54,839 --> 00:05:57,919 Speaker 1: than not, frequently by their own people. This led to 95 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:02,360 Speaker 1: a complicated political structure that was constantly changing. Emperors made 96 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:05,719 Speaker 1: alliances and broke them practically every year. How bad did 97 00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:08,200 Speaker 1: it gets? Well? By two eighty six a d. There 98 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:12,000 Speaker 1: were actually two Roman emperors and more would be successors 99 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:15,840 Speaker 1: waiting in the wings, and this included a man named Karazius, 100 00:06:15,920 --> 00:06:18,680 Speaker 1: who first gained renown not as an emperor, but as 101 00:06:18,839 --> 00:06:22,279 Speaker 1: a pirate. Karazius was a member of a tribe that 102 00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:24,599 Speaker 1: was an offshoot of the Celts who had settled in 103 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:28,760 Speaker 1: modern day northern France. His people were conquered centuries before 104 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:32,320 Speaker 1: by none other than Julius Caesar, and so while Karazius 105 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:35,480 Speaker 1: was born into the Roman Empire, he was also part 106 00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:38,680 Speaker 1: of a separate, distinct culture, and this perhaps led to 107 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:42,120 Speaker 1: mixed loyalties. But by the third century AD, the Romans 108 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:44,920 Speaker 1: couldn't be too picky about who they picked as their soldiers. 109 00:06:45,200 --> 00:06:48,919 Speaker 1: They were fighting rebellions throughout the Empire. Karazias fought in 110 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:52,160 Speaker 1: the Roman Navy, helping to secure Gaul modern day France 111 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:55,960 Speaker 1: for the Empire. One of the two emperors at the time, 112 00:06:56,160 --> 00:07:00,800 Speaker 1: Maximian promoted Karazius to commander of his entire non northern fleet. 113 00:07:01,160 --> 00:07:04,120 Speaker 1: But this was a bit of a miscalculation. You see, 114 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:08,359 Speaker 1: Karazias had been happy to fight against other tribes in Gaul. However, 115 00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:11,080 Speaker 1: now that he had power, why would he not try 116 00:07:11,080 --> 00:07:13,520 Speaker 1: to rule over the land that was first settled centuries 117 00:07:13,560 --> 00:07:17,880 Speaker 1: before by his own ancestors. Karazis, you see, was supposed 118 00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:21,040 Speaker 1: to use his fleet to stop pirates, but instead he 119 00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:23,760 Speaker 1: captured the pirates and then hired them with their own 120 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:27,000 Speaker 1: confiscated plunder, and he used this practice to grow his 121 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:32,480 Speaker 1: fleet until finally Maximian ordered his execution. But Karazias moved 122 00:07:32,520 --> 00:07:34,920 Speaker 1: fast on the sea, and so he took his fleet 123 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:38,400 Speaker 1: north and quickly conquered modern day Britain. He once again 124 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:42,400 Speaker 1: showed his aptitude for making unusual alliances when he joined 125 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:45,640 Speaker 1: forces with the so called Barbarians of the North who 126 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:49,840 Speaker 1: lived beyond Hadrian's Wall, a massive fortification that divided modern 127 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:53,040 Speaker 1: day England straight across the middle. And because of this, 128 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:55,920 Speaker 1: Karazias was protected in the north, and he had his 129 00:07:56,040 --> 00:08:00,000 Speaker 1: pirates fortify the coast to the south Maximian couldn't touch 130 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:03,680 Speaker 1: by about two ninety a d. Maximian and his co 131 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:07,440 Speaker 1: emperor Diocletian had no choice but to recognize Karazius as 132 00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:11,040 Speaker 1: the third Emperor of Rome, ruling over both Britain and 133 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:14,880 Speaker 1: Northern France. But as I said, Roman emperors were not 134 00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:18,280 Speaker 1: known for keeping their alliances once they had put down 135 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:22,040 Speaker 1: rebellions in other parts of the empire. Maximian and Diocletian 136 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:25,000 Speaker 1: developed a plan to get rid of Karazias. In two 137 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:28,120 Speaker 1: ninety three AD. They appointed two new caesars, which were 138 00:08:28,280 --> 00:08:31,880 Speaker 1: basically emperors in waiting. I did say that Roman politics 139 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:35,160 Speaker 1: were complicated, didn't I. Well, one of these caesars was 140 00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:38,120 Speaker 1: sent to kill Karazias, who was back in northern France 141 00:08:38,160 --> 00:08:41,920 Speaker 1: and out from behind his barricades in Britain. Sadly, Karazius 142 00:08:41,920 --> 00:08:44,920 Speaker 1: wouldn't get the chance to prove himself against this new upstart. 143 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:48,000 Speaker 1: He was assassinated by one of his own subordinates that 144 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:51,560 Speaker 1: very same year, and that subordinate then fled back to Britain, 145 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:55,880 Speaker 1: only to declare himself as yet another new emperor. The 146 00:08:55,880 --> 00:08:58,480 Speaker 1: rest was a bit of a blur. The Romans chased 147 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:01,400 Speaker 1: down this new upstart, beat nim in battle, and reunited 148 00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:04,800 Speaker 1: the empire. Maximian would later be hounded by another new 149 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:07,880 Speaker 1: emperor and ultimately took his own life. In the end, 150 00:09:07,920 --> 00:09:11,760 Speaker 1: Diocletian became the only Roman emperor to ever retire peacefully, 151 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:14,800 Speaker 1: marking one of the few moments in Roman history when 152 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:18,280 Speaker 1: it truly was good to be king. Still, I wouldn't 153 00:09:18,320 --> 00:09:21,880 Speaker 1: recommend it. Sure the pay is good, but the turnover 154 00:09:22,559 --> 00:09:29,760 Speaker 1: is atrocious. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of 155 00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:33,760 Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, 156 00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:37,319 Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast 157 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:41,400 Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey 158 00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:45,200 Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award 159 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:48,760 Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, 160 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:51,400 Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it 161 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:56,440 Speaker 1: over at Theworldolore dot com. And until next time, stay 162 00:09:56,520 --> 00:10:00,120 Speaker 1: curious y