1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:04,560 Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 2 00:00:04,640 --> 00:00:10,879 Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised in one 3 00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:15,960 Speaker 1: of the earliest episodes of this podcast, episode nine, to 4 00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:20,200 Speaker 1: be exact, I told you the story of Marie Madeleine d'Aubray, 5 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:26,000 Speaker 1: the Marquise de Brenvillier, and her collection of poisons as 6 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:29,920 Speaker 1: a refresher. The Marquise learned the art of poison from 7 00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:33,840 Speaker 1: her lover, Gudine de Saint Croix, who had himself been 8 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:37,920 Speaker 1: taught by a fellow prisoner during a three month stay 9 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 1: in the Bastille, an imprisonment which had been thanks to 10 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:47,879 Speaker 1: Marie's angry, powerful father. It was a little twisty and complicated. 11 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:52,159 Speaker 1: Upon the death of Saint Croix, police found a collection 12 00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:56,560 Speaker 1: of incriminating letters and notes that gave them reason to 13 00:00:56,640 --> 00:01:00,280 Speaker 1: believe that the deaths of Marie's father and her two 14 00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:05,080 Speaker 1: brothers may not have been as natural as the coroners 15 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:09,320 Speaker 1: had concluded at the time. The Marquise fled the country, 16 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:14,200 Speaker 1: but was soon captured and arrested under the threat of torture. 17 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:18,760 Speaker 1: She admitted to having poisoned her father and brothers, as 18 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:22,520 Speaker 1: well as having attempted to poison her sister in law 19 00:01:22,840 --> 00:01:28,040 Speaker 1: and her husband. Her motive well possibly revenge, but also 20 00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:31,360 Speaker 1: she claimed she had done it to ensure the futures 21 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:35,280 Speaker 1: of herself and her children after her father only left 22 00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:40,360 Speaker 1: the family fortune to the male line of succession. Three 23 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:44,560 Speaker 1: deaths and two attempts were confirmed, but it's of the 24 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:49,680 Speaker 1: popular belief that Marie initially tested her poisons on the 25 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:55,680 Speaker 1: patients at the hospital where she regularly volunteered, potentially leaving 26 00:01:55,720 --> 00:02:01,240 Speaker 1: a trail of countless unfortunate victims. The Marquis Eastabournevillier was 27 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:07,040 Speaker 1: publicly beheaded and burned on July sixteenth, sixteen seventy six. 28 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:12,919 Speaker 1: A contemporary account reads, quote, never has Paris seen such 29 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:17,440 Speaker 1: crowds of people, Never has the city been so aroused, 30 00:02:17,919 --> 00:02:22,160 Speaker 1: so intent on a spectacle. If it was a spectacle, 31 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:26,440 Speaker 1: Paris wanted from the execution, it was a spectacle Paris 32 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:31,519 Speaker 1: would get. Quote. Out of so many guilty people, must 33 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:35,160 Speaker 1: I be the only one put to death? The marquise 34 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:40,560 Speaker 1: ominously asked before her execution. Quote half the well born 35 00:02:40,680 --> 00:02:43,960 Speaker 1: people are involved, and I could ruin them if I 36 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:49,120 Speaker 1: were to talk. The trial and beheading of the Marquise was, 37 00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:54,680 Speaker 1: as she implied, only the beginning the first domino to 38 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:59,560 Speaker 1: fall in a brief but fascinating period of French history 39 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:04,600 Speaker 1: known as the Affair of the Poisons, as summed up 40 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:09,480 Speaker 1: a little glibly by the famed memoirrist San Simon quote, 41 00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:14,320 Speaker 1: it seems that there are at certain moments crimes which 42 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:19,840 Speaker 1: become the fashion. Like clothes. Poisoning was a la mode 43 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:25,679 Speaker 1: at the time. Despite the Marquise's oblique reference, she refused 44 00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:31,000 Speaker 1: to name names. Before her death, The nobility, including Louis 45 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:35,920 Speaker 1: the fourteenth himself, quickly realized they had cause to fear. 46 00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:41,119 Speaker 1: After all, if a noble and a noble woman at 47 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:45,960 Speaker 1: that was capable of murder using such methods, who else 48 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:50,800 Speaker 1: among them had dirtied their hands? In the words of 49 00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:56,000 Speaker 1: the Parisian chief of Police, Gabrielle Nicola de Larini quote, 50 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 1: who could have predicted that a woman raised in any 51 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: honorable family with a seemingly gentle nature was capable of 52 00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:11,200 Speaker 1: such premeditation and such a litany of crimes. The king 53 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:16,360 Speaker 1: appointed Lachrainy to uncover the Parisian underbelly of black magic 54 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:20,679 Speaker 1: and poisons, but King Louis would be surprised to learn 55 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 1: just how close to home the investigation would take the 56 00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:31,040 Speaker 1: chief today six years later, Oh my goodness, I would 57 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:33,719 Speaker 1: like to pick up where we left off in the 58 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:37,159 Speaker 1: Affair of the Poisons after the death of the Marquis 59 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: de Brinvilliers. I would like to tell you the story 60 00:04:40,520 --> 00:04:44,920 Speaker 1: of the sorceress known as La Vaison and the King's 61 00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:50,880 Speaker 1: mistress Madame de Montespin, the story of their lives, their crimes, 62 00:04:51,240 --> 00:04:56,800 Speaker 1: and the very different outcomes of their unmaskings. This is 63 00:04:56,839 --> 00:05:01,880 Speaker 1: the story of black masses, of of love, potions, of 64 00:05:02,279 --> 00:05:08,760 Speaker 1: literal witch hunts, of court intrigue, and of course of poisons. 65 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:16,560 Speaker 1: I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is noble blood. The arrest 66 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:21,520 Speaker 1: and execution of the Marquise de Brinvillier in sixteen seventy 67 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:24,839 Speaker 1: six was an omen of what was to come. But 68 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:29,039 Speaker 1: it was the following year, marked by the sixteen seventy 69 00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:33,600 Speaker 1: seven arrest of a far less powerful woman named Madeleine 70 00:05:33,640 --> 00:05:38,200 Speaker 1: de la Grange, that historians consider the true beginning of 71 00:05:38,279 --> 00:05:43,200 Speaker 1: the Affair of the Poisons. Though she would be Larini's 72 00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:48,200 Speaker 1: first lead into the dark underground of Parisian poisoners, she 73 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:52,479 Speaker 1: was initially arrested in a scheme that can only be 74 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:58,040 Speaker 1: described as hair brained. Unlike the Marquise, Lagrange was not 75 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:02,039 Speaker 1: a noble woman by eny means. She was instead the 76 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:05,880 Speaker 1: thirty six year old widow of a Parisian tax collector 77 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:11,719 Speaker 1: who had himself been hanged for accepting stolen goods. Following 78 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:15,880 Speaker 1: her husband's death, Lagrange worked as a fortune teller or 79 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:19,960 Speaker 1: divine ess, who made most of her money by suggesting 80 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:24,480 Speaker 1: to clients in poor health that they had actually been poisoned, 81 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:28,919 Speaker 1: and luckily for them, she could sell an antidote. She 82 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:34,000 Speaker 1: attempted a larger grift when she decided to quote Mary, 83 00:06:34,360 --> 00:06:37,159 Speaker 1: an elderly lawyer she knew by the name of Foray. 84 00:06:37,960 --> 00:06:42,080 Speaker 1: In August of sixteen seventy six, Lagrange and a man 85 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:47,520 Speaker 1: who identified himself as Foray visited a notary's office, showing 86 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:51,320 Speaker 1: him their certificate of marriage, and they ordered the notary 87 00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:55,679 Speaker 1: to draw up a marriage contract that left Fore's wealth 88 00:06:55,800 --> 00:07:00,680 Speaker 1: to his new wife upon his death. Forat, perhaps not shockingly, 89 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:04,800 Speaker 1: was an old man who died soon after, and his 90 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:10,720 Speaker 1: confused relatives, upon learning they would receive nothing, lodged a 91 00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:16,200 Speaker 1: formal complaint. The criminal Lieutenant of Paris followed the paper 92 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:21,080 Speaker 1: trail back to Lagrange and concluded that not only had 93 00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:24,800 Speaker 1: the marriage certificate been a forgery, the man who had 94 00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:28,240 Speaker 1: accompanied her to the notary wasn't for a at all. 95 00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:31,960 Speaker 1: He was in fact a priest, the very priest who 96 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:36,560 Speaker 1: had quote conducted the marriage in the first place. The 97 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:40,640 Speaker 1: pair Lagrange and the priest were arrested on charges of 98 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:44,880 Speaker 1: forgery and murder, as there was now reason to believe 99 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:49,440 Speaker 1: the real foray had been poisoned. I must admit these 100 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:53,920 Speaker 1: specific details of this case are not particularly relevant to 101 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:57,480 Speaker 1: the larger story here, But how could I resist telling 102 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:01,840 Speaker 1: you about such an amazing inheritance scamp conducted by a 103 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:06,440 Speaker 1: fortune teller and a priest. It's in the aftermath of 104 00:08:06,480 --> 00:08:10,640 Speaker 1: her arrests that Lagrange becomes a relevant player in the 105 00:08:10,760 --> 00:08:15,280 Speaker 1: affair of the poisons that would captivate France. In February 106 00:08:15,320 --> 00:08:19,840 Speaker 1: of sixteen seventy seven, from prison, she boldly wrote a 107 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:24,080 Speaker 1: letter to the Marquis of Louvois, the King's Secretary of State. 108 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:28,800 Speaker 1: Louvois was a big deal, but the contents of Lagrange's letter, 109 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:33,760 Speaker 1: which implied that she had uncovered an espionage ring from 110 00:08:33,800 --> 00:08:37,760 Speaker 1: one of her fellow prisoners that threatened national security was 111 00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:41,800 Speaker 1: enough of a threat for him to want to investigate personally. 112 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:45,720 Speaker 1: He arranged for Lagrange to be taken to his home 113 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:49,440 Speaker 1: so that she could be questioned. We don't know the 114 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:54,040 Speaker 1: details of that meeting, but while Louvois acknowledged the very 115 00:08:54,080 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 1: real possibility that the prisoner could just be lying to 116 00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:02,680 Speaker 1: delay her forthcoming trial, he declared that one could not 117 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:07,520 Speaker 1: be too careful with an allegation as serious as hers. 118 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:12,440 Speaker 1: Lagrange was transferred to the Bastille for further questioning, and 119 00:09:12,559 --> 00:09:16,360 Speaker 1: Louvois put the investigation in the hands of the Chief 120 00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:21,800 Speaker 1: of Police, Gabrielle Nicola de Loraini. Loraini had been appointed 121 00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:25,600 Speaker 1: the Parisian chief of Police a decade earlier by the 122 00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:29,760 Speaker 1: King himself, who chose him because, as he declared, he 123 00:09:29,880 --> 00:09:33,000 Speaker 1: did not know quote a better man or a more 124 00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:39,600 Speaker 1: hard working magistrate. It's hard to doubt Loraini's dedication or efficiency, 125 00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:44,319 Speaker 1: but his character earned him a fair share of detractors. 126 00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:49,400 Speaker 1: As the chief of police, his work extended far beyond 127 00:09:49,520 --> 00:09:54,280 Speaker 1: today's understanding of the position. In fact, his responsibilities were 128 00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:58,200 Speaker 1: arguably more aligned with the role of a modern mayor. 129 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:03,400 Speaker 1: Some of his most well regarded achievements included installing an 130 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:08,440 Speaker 1: extensive system of street lighting that improved pedestrian life and 131 00:10:08,559 --> 00:10:12,720 Speaker 1: reduced late night crime, as well as measures to improve 132 00:10:12,920 --> 00:10:18,599 Speaker 1: Paris's cleanliness, turning around its reputation as the then filthiest 133 00:10:18,760 --> 00:10:23,960 Speaker 1: city in the world. When he wasn't improving infrastructure, Larini 134 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:29,080 Speaker 1: was leading high profile investigations, usually at the behest of 135 00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:33,240 Speaker 1: the King himself, uncovering a different kind of filth in 136 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:39,319 Speaker 1: the city. As instructed by Lavois, Larini questioned Lagrange at 137 00:10:39,320 --> 00:10:44,600 Speaker 1: the Bastille about this alleged espionage ring. This time she 138 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:48,720 Speaker 1: not only spoke of the espionage ring, but she insinuated 139 00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:52,880 Speaker 1: there was a plot in motion to assassinate both the 140 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:57,600 Speaker 1: King and the Daufont the Prince. After she provided weak 141 00:10:57,720 --> 00:11:02,680 Speaker 1: evidence and refused to speak further, she was transferred back 142 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:07,880 Speaker 1: to her original prison to await trial. However, things took 143 00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:12,400 Speaker 1: a turn for the dramatic when an anonymous letter was 144 00:11:12,520 --> 00:11:16,920 Speaker 1: found in a Paris church. Depending on the level of 145 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:20,120 Speaker 1: drama in the account you read, some say the letter 146 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:24,480 Speaker 1: was slipped directly to a priest through the confessional window 147 00:11:24,880 --> 00:11:28,880 Speaker 1: by a mysterious woman. However it got there. The letter 148 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:32,920 Speaker 1: was ostensibly written by a widow who had been told 149 00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:37,160 Speaker 1: by an admirer of his intent to place a white 150 00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:41,560 Speaker 1: powder on the napkin of a person so powerful his 151 00:11:41,720 --> 00:11:45,040 Speaker 1: name could not be mentioned. The writer of the letter 152 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:48,559 Speaker 1: feared for her own safety, as she would be considered 153 00:11:48,600 --> 00:11:52,839 Speaker 1: a responsible party for merely possessing knowledge of the act, 154 00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:57,800 Speaker 1: the standard in cases of treason. The letter put Laurinie 155 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:02,480 Speaker 1: on alert, but what he truly sought was from where 156 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:07,760 Speaker 1: and from whom this alleged poison was coming from. Could 157 00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:10,920 Speaker 1: this all be connected to the claims of a larger 158 00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:16,480 Speaker 1: ring that Lagrange had been making. Larini gathered further insight 159 00:12:16,880 --> 00:12:21,280 Speaker 1: when a nobleman and his entourage were arrested for fraud, 160 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:25,200 Speaker 1: and as it turned out, they may have been involved 161 00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:30,640 Speaker 1: in the international poison market. When taken into custody, the 162 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:34,559 Speaker 1: girlfriend of one of these men quoted her paramore as 163 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:39,600 Speaker 1: often declaring quote Madame de Brinvillier was not dead. She 164 00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:46,160 Speaker 1: had left behind airs. Larami gained his inn with those 165 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:53,319 Speaker 1: poisoning airs in late sixteen seventy eight. In December, Marie Viguerou, 166 00:12:53,840 --> 00:12:57,720 Speaker 1: a former wet nurse to the aristocracy and present day 167 00:12:57,840 --> 00:13:02,360 Speaker 1: fortune teller, Yes another fortune teller was hosting a small 168 00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:07,760 Speaker 1: dinner party. Guests included a lawyer, Monsieur Perin, and a 169 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:14,800 Speaker 1: wealthy widow, Marie Boss. Boss, evidently overindulged on Vigero's wine, 170 00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:18,760 Speaker 1: declared to the table that things were going so well 171 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:22,440 Speaker 1: for her that once she had poisoned three more people, 172 00:13:22,960 --> 00:13:27,920 Speaker 1: she would be able to retire. A deeply unsettled Monsieur 173 00:13:27,960 --> 00:13:32,680 Speaker 1: Perrin reported Boss's words to the police, and both she 174 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:38,760 Speaker 1: and her host, Marie Vigerou, were arrested in January. They 175 00:13:38,760 --> 00:13:42,400 Speaker 1: were taken to a prison where all suspected poisoners were 176 00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:47,840 Speaker 1: kept over the following three years. Through his questioning, Larini 177 00:13:48,160 --> 00:13:54,160 Speaker 1: soon learned that Laboss and Vigero shared clients, and even 178 00:13:54,440 --> 00:14:00,320 Speaker 1: Lagrange and La Boss sometimes worked together. After countless vague 179 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:06,000 Speaker 1: allusions and dead leads, this was enough confirmation for Larraine 180 00:14:06,520 --> 00:14:10,680 Speaker 1: to seriously believe that there was an active network of 181 00:14:10,880 --> 00:14:16,360 Speaker 1: poisoners in Paris, somehow connected to the world of fortune tellers. 182 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:21,480 Speaker 1: The homes of both Laboss and Vigoro were searched, and 183 00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:26,520 Speaker 1: a casket belonging to Laboss was found to contain nail 184 00:14:26,680 --> 00:14:33,240 Speaker 1: clippings and samples of apologies, menstrual blood, as well as 185 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:38,800 Speaker 1: arsenic and nitric acid. You know, classic girl stuff. From 186 00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:44,280 Speaker 1: that point on, Lraini's investigation focused on the fortune tellers 187 00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:49,080 Speaker 1: and divineresses of Paris. By one estimation, there were at 188 00:14:49,160 --> 00:14:53,600 Speaker 1: least four hundred active practitioners in the city, the vast 189 00:14:53,680 --> 00:14:57,680 Speaker 1: majority of them women. Clients came to these women for 190 00:14:57,720 --> 00:15:02,640 Speaker 1: an extensive variety of reasons. A year before the investigation began, 191 00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:06,600 Speaker 1: the poet Jean de la Fontaine wrote this handy verse, 192 00:15:07,160 --> 00:15:11,720 Speaker 1: lost a hanky, lost a lover, your husband living too 193 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:15,640 Speaker 1: long for your taste, A tiresome mother, a jealous wife. 194 00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:18,880 Speaker 1: Off you go to the sorceress to get the news 195 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:23,040 Speaker 1: you want to hear. Such a client might have wanted 196 00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:27,240 Speaker 1: to know their future through palm reading or a horoscope reading, 197 00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:31,400 Speaker 1: or even a reading of their facial features. I see 198 00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:36,080 Speaker 1: three children in your cheekbones. Perhaps these clients were seeking 199 00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:41,080 Speaker 1: minor remedies for ailments, such as toothaches or herbal creams 200 00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:45,280 Speaker 1: to improve their complexions. Some clients, if they knew the 201 00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:50,560 Speaker 1: right fortune tellers to go to, sought abortions. Perhaps the 202 00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:55,680 Speaker 1: largest number of these clients needed assistance in their love lives, 203 00:15:56,080 --> 00:16:00,720 Speaker 1: and most of them were struggling in unhappy marriages. Some 204 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:05,200 Speaker 1: wanted their abusive or neglectful husbands to treat them better. 205 00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:10,760 Speaker 1: Some wanted predictions on when their husbands would die. The 206 00:16:10,840 --> 00:16:15,520 Speaker 1: divine erresses therefore served a fascinating role in the lives 207 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:19,960 Speaker 1: of Parisian women. The fortune teller was at once a 208 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:27,480 Speaker 1: woman's pharmacist, healthcare provider, emotional support therapist, soothsayer, and sometimes 209 00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:33,680 Speaker 1: best weapon. But divine esses were importantly first and foremost 210 00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:40,600 Speaker 1: business women. As interrogations would prove, many were exceptionally cold 211 00:16:40,680 --> 00:16:45,640 Speaker 1: hearted towards their clients, exploiting their pain for money. They 212 00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:50,360 Speaker 1: did not see themselves as the just liberators of downtrodden women, 213 00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:54,480 Speaker 1: rather just women who had also been dealt poor hands, 214 00:16:54,840 --> 00:17:00,160 Speaker 1: trying to survive and thrive for themselves, same as everyone. 215 00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:05,240 Speaker 1: Business thrived because their network filled a void in society 216 00:17:05,320 --> 00:17:09,760 Speaker 1: where women in distress often had few other options. It 217 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:13,199 Speaker 1: is a grim truth to acknowledge that while a number 218 00:17:13,280 --> 00:17:17,159 Speaker 1: of women turned to poison to gain power or marry 219 00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:21,280 Speaker 1: a younger lover, many other women, especially those who were 220 00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:26,919 Speaker 1: not nobility, sought poison as their last resource to escape 221 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:31,920 Speaker 1: an abusive marriage or to gain financial independence. The connection 222 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:37,200 Speaker 1: between women and poison predates the Old Testament, and by 223 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:42,600 Speaker 1: the seventeenth century it was widely stereotyped as a woman's weapon. 224 00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:47,600 Speaker 1: Much of the reason the more outlandish claims made during 225 00:17:47,640 --> 00:17:51,800 Speaker 1: the Affair of the Poisons were even acknowledged by quote 226 00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:58,679 Speaker 1: sensible men like Lachraini was the existing cultural anxiety surrounding 227 00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:03,880 Speaker 1: the gender dynamic of the crimes of poisoning and witchcraft. 228 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:09,800 Speaker 1: Many divineresses also practiced forms of witchcraft and turned to 229 00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:16,080 Speaker 1: spells for their most troubling cases. Laboss believed rituals involving 230 00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:21,800 Speaker 1: menstrual blood were good for strengthening love, while those involving 231 00:18:22,119 --> 00:18:27,280 Speaker 1: urine were used for harm. Pro tip Lavoison, the most 232 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:32,800 Speaker 1: infamous divineress in Paris, the most infamous fortune teller of 233 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:37,480 Speaker 1: them all, agreed. When a client asked to get rid 234 00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:41,639 Speaker 1: of her husband, Lavoison asked for a sample of his 235 00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:46,160 Speaker 1: urine and the shell of eggs he had eaten. When 236 00:18:46,359 --> 00:18:50,800 Speaker 1: spells didn't work, Lavoison had other tricks of her sleeve, 237 00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:56,679 Speaker 1: as she once supposedly told another client, quote suffice to 238 00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:01,040 Speaker 1: say that for me nothing is impossible. I've made other 239 00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:06,480 Speaker 1: women happy. Just bring the money on paper. The practice 240 00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:10,320 Speaker 1: of magic was punishable by law, but at this point 241 00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:15,879 Speaker 1: in Parisian history it was not actively persecuted. Sixteen twenty 242 00:19:15,920 --> 00:19:20,240 Speaker 1: five had been the last time a quote witch was 243 00:19:20,359 --> 00:19:25,600 Speaker 1: executed by the Parisian parliament. As the historian Alfred Soommann 244 00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:30,480 Speaker 1: has argued, quote witchcraft trials came to an early end 245 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:34,879 Speaker 1: in France not because people stopped believing in witches, but 246 00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:39,600 Speaker 1: because the central authority is considered the trials scandalous and 247 00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:46,320 Speaker 1: unbefitting the dignity of the King's justice. Laurini's investigation, in turn, 248 00:19:46,880 --> 00:19:51,480 Speaker 1: became an unusual kind of witch hunt. He was far 249 00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:55,919 Speaker 1: more interested in the very practical side of a sorceress's 250 00:19:56,040 --> 00:20:00,919 Speaker 1: business than the magical doings. Though the women would not 251 00:20:01,119 --> 00:20:05,200 Speaker 1: be tried as witches, they would often meet similar ends 252 00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:09,360 Speaker 1: as if they had been. Look at. The fate of Lagrange, 253 00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:14,119 Speaker 1: the woman who if you'll recall kick started this investigation. 254 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:20,320 Speaker 1: Despite pressure from Parliament, the King and LORAINI fought to 255 00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:25,159 Speaker 1: delay her execution in the hopes of extracting more information 256 00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:31,280 Speaker 1: from her, but further torture yielded no valuable intel. Lagrange 257 00:20:31,359 --> 00:20:36,040 Speaker 1: and her priest accomplice remember from the inheritance scam were 258 00:20:36,119 --> 00:20:41,600 Speaker 1: ultimately executed on the evening of February eighth, sixteen seventy nine, 259 00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:48,560 Speaker 1: and any of their remaining secrets or lies died with them, 260 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:53,720 Speaker 1: But the interrogations of the fortune teller Labosse and Vigoro 261 00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:59,600 Speaker 1: did prove fruitful. For example, Larini quickly learned that the 262 00:20:59,680 --> 00:21:05,000 Speaker 1: womenomen shared a client, Madame de Poullion, who had recently 263 00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:08,679 Speaker 1: been put in a convent by her husband after he 264 00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:11,280 Speaker 1: had been warned that she was trying to kill him. 265 00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:15,760 Speaker 1: While many women throughout history have been sent to convents 266 00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:21,160 Speaker 1: or institutionalized under fabricated pretenses by the men in their lives, 267 00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:25,399 Speaker 1: Madame de Poullion was in fact actually attempting to do 268 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:29,399 Speaker 1: what she had been accused of. She had worked with 269 00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:33,880 Speaker 1: both laboss and Vigero on multiple failed attempts to poison 270 00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:37,600 Speaker 1: her husband after the charming scammer that she was having 271 00:21:37,600 --> 00:21:41,280 Speaker 1: an affair with kept demanding more and more money from her. 272 00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:46,280 Speaker 1: Turns out, Boss and Vigero knew a lot of would 273 00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:50,959 Speaker 1: be poisoners. The more that the two women talked, the 274 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:55,560 Speaker 1: more divine arresses and their clients end up in prison 275 00:21:55,720 --> 00:22:00,879 Speaker 1: alongside them. A number of the prisoners, especially La Boss, 276 00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:06,840 Speaker 1: spoke at length and in detail about that one notorious sorceress, 277 00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:14,200 Speaker 1: in particular La Voissant. Lavoisont was a rival of Bosses. Quote. 278 00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:18,520 Speaker 1: All of the world came to see her, reported one prisoner. 279 00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:21,720 Speaker 1: Most of the ladies in Paris have been to see her, 280 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:27,000 Speaker 1: claimed another. One. Divineress, when asked about her business with 281 00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:32,760 Speaker 1: pregnant women, diverted suspicion by claiming that Lovoisont was Paris's 282 00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:38,920 Speaker 1: go to abortion provider. Boss estimated that Lavoison made one 283 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:44,080 Speaker 1: hundred thousand livres a year from her quote evil dealings, 284 00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:48,679 Speaker 1: while another put the figure more reasonably close to ten thousand. 285 00:22:49,440 --> 00:22:54,760 Speaker 1: Laaraini was particularly interested in La Boss's divulgence that an 286 00:22:54,920 --> 00:23:01,000 Speaker 1: unnamed lady of rank had offered Lavoisont six thousand if 287 00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:04,960 Speaker 1: she could bring about the death of her husband. On 288 00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:11,360 Speaker 1: March twelfth, sixteen seventy nine, Lovoison real name Catherine Montfoison, 289 00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:17,320 Speaker 1: was arrested leaving her local parish where she regularly attended mass. 290 00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:21,399 Speaker 1: Though this may seem at odds with everything else we 291 00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:25,359 Speaker 1: know about that woman, Lovoisan did not believe her faith 292 00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:30,880 Speaker 1: was in conflict with her practice of alleged magic. At 293 00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:34,080 Speaker 1: this point in her life, she was somewhere between her 294 00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:39,400 Speaker 1: late thirties and early forties, but young Catherine began honing 295 00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:43,960 Speaker 1: her divining skills, or, as she phrased it, cultivating the 296 00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:48,000 Speaker 1: knowledge God had given her since she was nine years old. 297 00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,840 Speaker 1: Part of the reason she was so popular was that 298 00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:57,120 Speaker 1: many clients were comforted by her pious religious nature. An 299 00:23:57,160 --> 00:24:01,919 Speaker 1: anecdote goes that once having performed an abortion with a 300 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:05,920 Speaker 1: midwife she employed, she wept with joy as the fetus 301 00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:11,080 Speaker 1: was baptized, believing that she had been its salvation rather 302 00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:15,320 Speaker 1: than its damnation. Yes, she was, as she had been 303 00:24:15,359 --> 00:24:20,800 Speaker 1: accused of being Paris's go to abortion provider. At the time, 304 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:25,560 Speaker 1: abortion was a capital offense, and both the mother and 305 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:30,119 Speaker 1: the midwife were liable to the death penalty. Still, in 306 00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:35,119 Speaker 1: sixteen sixty, Parliament had been informed by churchmen that in 307 00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:40,080 Speaker 1: the past year alone, six hundred women in Paris had 308 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:45,880 Speaker 1: confessed to aborting pregnancies. When later put on the stand, 309 00:24:46,119 --> 00:24:51,080 Speaker 1: Laveoisson's midwife argued that she was preserving the honor of 310 00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:57,680 Speaker 1: ladies of rank when she terminated their unwonted, perhaps embarrassing pregnancies. 311 00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:01,800 Speaker 1: Leloisson ran her ba business out of the garden of 312 00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:06,320 Speaker 1: her home in the suburbs of Paris. One colleague enviously 313 00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:10,840 Speaker 1: described a typical day in Lavaison's life quote. Before she 314 00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:14,200 Speaker 1: got up every morning, there were folk waiting to see her, 315 00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:16,560 Speaker 1: and throughout the rest of the day she was with 316 00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:20,800 Speaker 1: more people. After that, she kept open house in the 317 00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:26,200 Speaker 1: evening with violins playing, and was always making Mary end 318 00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:32,800 Speaker 1: quote the ideal work from home situation. But despite the merrymaking, 319 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:37,040 Speaker 1: Lavoison was extremely serious about her work, both out of 320 00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:42,520 Speaker 1: pride and necessity. Her husband, Antoine Montvaillant, was a failed 321 00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:47,440 Speaker 1: silk merchant and jeweler, all of his businesses having gone bankrupt. 322 00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:50,760 Speaker 1: It was up to his wife than to feed the 323 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:55,280 Speaker 1: couple and their many children. Antoine did not really seem 324 00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:59,720 Speaker 1: like the grateful type. Catherine Levasson complained that he would 325 00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:03,479 Speaker 1: offer and get drunk and treat her badly. When a 326 00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:08,640 Speaker 1: client or a colleague encountered Lavoison, the standard polite way 327 00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:12,200 Speaker 1: to greet her was to inquire whether her husband had 328 00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:17,320 Speaker 1: died yet. During her interrogation, she told La Regni that 329 00:26:17,359 --> 00:26:21,760 Speaker 1: she never attempted to kill her husband, but evidence would 330 00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:27,440 Speaker 1: suggest otherwise. While her marriage was unhappy, she still maintained 331 00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:33,680 Speaker 1: an active love life through numerous affairs with magicians, alchemists, 332 00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:37,400 Speaker 1: and even a nobleman to whom she had taught palmistry. 333 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:44,600 Speaker 1: Lavoison was first interrogated on March seventeenth. Her initial strategy 334 00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:48,520 Speaker 1: was the same as her rival, Love Bosses, to turn 335 00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:52,359 Speaker 1: all accusations back toward her rival. It appears that in 336 00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:56,320 Speaker 1: earlier years the two had actually had a professional partnership, 337 00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:00,600 Speaker 1: with Voisnant sending clients to Boss, but a fight over 338 00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:04,840 Speaker 1: their share of prophets turned the relationship bidder. It later 339 00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:08,680 Speaker 1: came to light that Voissant believed Boss had denied her 340 00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:13,200 Speaker 1: her fair share of prophets from a poison job, despite 341 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:18,760 Speaker 1: the widow's generous payout. When asked about that widow, Lavoissan 342 00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:22,720 Speaker 1: answered that she had known of Madame Brunet's hatred for 343 00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:26,399 Speaker 1: her husband, but had few interactions with the woman. She 344 00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:31,000 Speaker 1: had instead discussed the situation with La Boss and urged 345 00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:35,760 Speaker 1: her fellow divinerists to do nothing detrimental to quote the 346 00:27:35,800 --> 00:27:40,719 Speaker 1: glory of God in their salvation. La Renie, understanding the 347 00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:45,560 Speaker 1: dynamic between these two women, devised a setup so devious 348 00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:50,359 Speaker 1: it has only been used since by housewives producers. The 349 00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:56,680 Speaker 1: following day, Vassin and Boss were brought together for a confrontation. Laboss, 350 00:27:56,720 --> 00:28:00,800 Speaker 1: having learned what Vasan had claimed the day before, launched 351 00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:05,440 Speaker 1: into her own series of accusations. She claimed that Voissont 352 00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:09,639 Speaker 1: tried to sell that widow a powder allegedly consisting of 353 00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:15,920 Speaker 1: finely ground diamonds that would shred her husband's intestines. When ingested, 354 00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:21,280 Speaker 1: the widow declined to purchase the expensive and likely falsely 355 00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:26,439 Speaker 1: advertised powder, but ultimately paid Voisant for her services in 356 00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:31,320 Speaker 1: four hundred livres cash and a diamond cross. Labos didn't 357 00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:35,480 Speaker 1: stop with her accusations there. She repeated her claim about 358 00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:39,120 Speaker 1: the lady of Rank and the six thousand livres offer, 359 00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:42,760 Speaker 1: adding that the woman had asked her to poison a 360 00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:48,480 Speaker 1: bouquet of flowers. Labos additionally alleged that Voison had been 361 00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:53,080 Speaker 1: involved with another high born woman who had gifted Lavoison 362 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:57,880 Speaker 1: her mourning clothes to thank her for dealing with her husband. 363 00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:03,880 Speaker 1: Still not finished, Labos purported that Lavoison had in fact 364 00:29:04,120 --> 00:29:08,280 Speaker 1: tried to kill her hated husband multiple times, once with 365 00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:12,560 Speaker 1: the aid of her lover, a magician who intended to 366 00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:16,040 Speaker 1: bury a sheep's heart in the backyard as part of 367 00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:20,800 Speaker 1: a spell. Another time, Labos herself had been enlisted to 368 00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:26,280 Speaker 1: poison Montvoison's wine, but she added only a few drops. 369 00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:32,080 Speaker 1: Lavaison denied her dealings with that first widow, but ultimately 370 00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:37,280 Speaker 1: conceded to some of the other claims. Yes, her magician 371 00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:40,960 Speaker 1: lover had buried the sheep's heart, but when her husband 372 00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:44,520 Speaker 1: began to have stomach pains, she was so overcome with 373 00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:49,280 Speaker 1: guilt that she went to confession, and, after having received absolution, 374 00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:54,160 Speaker 1: instructed her lover to undo the spell. And Yes, she 375 00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:58,120 Speaker 1: had been approached by one lady of rank who wanted 376 00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:02,160 Speaker 1: a poisonous bouquet, as well as another who gave her 377 00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:06,680 Speaker 1: her mourning clothes, those she claimed were not gifted for 378 00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:11,720 Speaker 1: performing a service, but instead accompanied by a note reading, 379 00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:16,640 Speaker 1: Madame Voisant, perhaps this will bring you luck, and if 380 00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:20,880 Speaker 1: God permits that your husband dies, you can use them. 381 00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:28,120 Speaker 1: Further into interrogations, Laboss admitted that, with the encouragement of Lavoissant, 382 00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:31,840 Speaker 1: it was she who supplied that first widow with the 383 00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:36,640 Speaker 1: liquid she used to poison her husband. Laboss had received 384 00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:42,719 Speaker 1: the liquid from none other than remember her Lagrange. Thus 385 00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:47,920 Speaker 1: confirming La Renie's long held suspicions that this poison web 386 00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:53,200 Speaker 1: was all Connectedvoisant would go on to name the mourning 387 00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:59,480 Speaker 1: Clothes client as the wealthy, respected Madame Leferent, and the 388 00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:04,960 Speaker 1: Bouquet client as the society figure Madame de Jou. The 389 00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:09,800 Speaker 1: King was shocked to hear these women named, but Voison's 390 00:31:09,840 --> 00:31:14,080 Speaker 1: testimony was substantial enough for him to order their arrests. 391 00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:18,360 Speaker 1: By this point, it was early April and the arrests 392 00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:23,160 Speaker 1: were beginning to cause quite the stir. Quote the multitude 393 00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:28,560 Speaker 1: of distinguished people arrested for poison grows every day. The 394 00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:32,520 Speaker 1: English ambassador to France reported to the Secretary of State. 395 00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:36,800 Speaker 1: The first trials of the affair of the poisons began 396 00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:39,760 Speaker 1: in May, but they would not be conducted through the 397 00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:44,080 Speaker 1: regular courts. Back in March, when it became clear that 398 00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:48,440 Speaker 1: numerous trials would be necessary, the King formed a special 399 00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:53,360 Speaker 1: committee to hear the cases. Fourteen commissioners were chosen by 400 00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:59,000 Speaker 1: the King to serve as judges, including La Regnie. Additionally, 401 00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:03,480 Speaker 1: Lahony was a pointed rapporteur to the commission, which meant 402 00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:06,560 Speaker 1: it was his job to outline the evidence to his 403 00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:11,360 Speaker 1: fellow commissioners. All while still being in charge of the investigation. 404 00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:16,640 Speaker 1: In effect the historian and Somerset wrotes, he acted as 405 00:32:16,720 --> 00:32:22,400 Speaker 1: a detective, prosecutor, and judge. One reason for forming the 406 00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:26,160 Speaker 1: commission was that the King did not want the regular 407 00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:31,960 Speaker 1: courts overwhelmed with poisoning cases, but another, perhaps more relevant 408 00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:37,400 Speaker 1: reason was that the King anticipated numerous high ranking people 409 00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:41,960 Speaker 1: would be implicated, so he preferred to hand pick commissioners 410 00:32:42,240 --> 00:32:47,520 Speaker 1: who could maintain discretion. The committee became known as in 411 00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:55,480 Speaker 1: English the Burning Chamber. On May seventh, Labosse and Madame 412 00:32:55,680 --> 00:33:01,000 Speaker 1: Viguerou were the first accused to stand trial. Two days later, 413 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:05,080 Speaker 1: they were sentenced to death, with the Chamber ordering their 414 00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:09,680 Speaker 1: torture before their execution. The executions took place on May 415 00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:14,760 Speaker 1: tenth and also included Laboss's son, who was hanged for 416 00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:19,840 Speaker 1: admitting to helping his mother prepare her poisons. Boss was 417 00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:24,000 Speaker 1: not afforded such a simple death. For the extent of 418 00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:27,840 Speaker 1: her crimes. The Commission sentenced her to be burnt at 419 00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:33,000 Speaker 1: the stake. It was on their order that Boss's fourteen 420 00:33:33,080 --> 00:33:37,440 Speaker 1: year old daughter be brought to watch her mother burn alive, 421 00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:41,360 Speaker 1: in an attempt to deter the girl from following in 422 00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:45,000 Speaker 1: her mother's footsteps. The Gureau would have met with the 423 00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:49,240 Speaker 1: exact same fate had she not died during the torture. 424 00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:55,160 Speaker 1: Deaths continued throughout the summer. That widow, aided by both 425 00:33:55,280 --> 00:33:59,640 Speaker 1: Boss and vois On, possibly was hanged in June for 426 00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:04,120 Speaker 1: them of her husband. The midwife that Voissan had employed 427 00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:09,719 Speaker 1: meant the same fate in August. Lavoison survived longer than 428 00:34:09,719 --> 00:34:14,160 Speaker 1: her contemporaries, if only because La Reni believed she had 429 00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:19,799 Speaker 1: more to say. On September sixteenth, louvois excitedly informed the 430 00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:25,080 Speaker 1: King that quote Lavoison's really beginning to talk, though she 431 00:34:25,239 --> 00:34:29,040 Speaker 1: claimed it pained her. She began to name names of 432 00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:34,560 Speaker 1: her clients, including a countess and her sister, a duchess. 433 00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:40,120 Speaker 1: The King, growing concerned about the direction the investigation was 434 00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:44,960 Speaker 1: now taking, began to make contingency plans. He ordered that 435 00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:50,120 Speaker 1: when certain prisoners were interrogated, their answers be recorded on 436 00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:55,200 Speaker 1: separate sheets of paper rather than the usual bound volumes, 437 00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:59,280 Speaker 1: easier to erase from the record should the need arise. 438 00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:05,880 Speaker 1: On January twenty third, sixteen eighty, arrest warrants were issued 439 00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:12,319 Speaker 1: for four nobles, including the Countess Comtesse des Sassans, and 440 00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:17,800 Speaker 1: the Duke of Luxembourg. On the same day, five other 441 00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:23,520 Speaker 1: nobles received lesser forms of summons. The court and Paris 442 00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:27,880 Speaker 1: at large were a buzz with the news. In Paris, 443 00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:32,000 Speaker 1: a play called The Divine Arrests was so popular that 444 00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:36,320 Speaker 1: it had to turn away around four hundred eager theatergoers 445 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:40,240 Speaker 1: each night, and ended up making more money than any 446 00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:45,200 Speaker 1: previous French production. It was rumored that La Renie himself 447 00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:49,600 Speaker 1: had advised the playwrights on its accuracy, but that was 448 00:35:49,719 --> 00:35:56,919 Speaker 1: almost certainly untrue. Though many fashionable nobles were now caught 449 00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:01,000 Speaker 1: up in the scandal, two names uncovered and the interrogation 450 00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:06,759 Speaker 1: remained concealed. They were the Duchess de Vivonne and her 451 00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:12,360 Speaker 1: sister in law, Madame de Monte Spin aka, the King's 452 00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:18,080 Speaker 1: official mistress. Montespin was born into one of the oldest 453 00:36:18,239 --> 00:36:22,200 Speaker 1: noble families in France. She joined court when she became 454 00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:25,479 Speaker 1: a maid of honor to the King's new sister in law, 455 00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:30,560 Speaker 1: Princess Henrietta, at age twenty. She was ambitious and quickly 456 00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:34,520 Speaker 1: set her sights on King Louis the fourteenth. As one 457 00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:38,720 Speaker 1: courtier described it, she had designs on the King's heart 458 00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:42,040 Speaker 1: and started laying her plans from the day she came 459 00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:48,400 Speaker 1: to court. Despite Montespin's reported beauty, the king was uninterested 460 00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:52,160 Speaker 1: and even actively disliked her for a time. At age 461 00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:56,120 Speaker 1: twenty three, she agreed to marry the Marquise de Montespain. 462 00:36:56,800 --> 00:37:00,200 Speaker 1: Though they were happy for a time, the marriage fell 463 00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:04,600 Speaker 1: apart after the birth of their second child. At twenty five, 464 00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:07,880 Speaker 1: she was summoned to return to court as a lady 465 00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:12,520 Speaker 1: in waiting for Queen Marie Therese. Within a year, Montespin 466 00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:18,360 Speaker 1: managed to gain Louis's affections, having expertly endeared herself to 467 00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:23,479 Speaker 1: both the Queen and the king's then current favorite, as 468 00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:28,440 Speaker 1: reported by a courtier. By these means, she contrived to 469 00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:33,360 Speaker 1: be constantly in the King's immediate entourage, and she exerted 470 00:37:33,440 --> 00:37:38,280 Speaker 1: every effort to please him, in which she succeeded very well, 471 00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:43,960 Speaker 1: being bountifully endowed with wit and charm, in contrast to 472 00:37:44,719 --> 00:37:49,839 Speaker 1: his previous favorite, who was sadly lacking in these qualities. 473 00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:55,000 Speaker 1: The Marquise and Madame de Montespin were formally separated in 474 00:37:55,080 --> 00:37:59,680 Speaker 1: sixteen seventy. Madame would go on to have eight children 475 00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:03,520 Speaker 1: with us Louis the fourteenth, all of whom were legitimized. 476 00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:08,000 Speaker 1: She was a passionate patron of the arts and actively 477 00:38:08,040 --> 00:38:12,359 Speaker 1: interested in politics, even believed to have influence over the 478 00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:16,239 Speaker 1: workings of the monarchy. She was often referred to as 479 00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:20,680 Speaker 1: the King's second wife or the real Queen of France, 480 00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:27,080 Speaker 1: poor Marie Therese. Even before the affair of the poison began, 481 00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:31,400 Speaker 1: rumors of sorcery existed within the power hungry court of 482 00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:35,600 Speaker 1: Louis the fourteenth. There must be some kind of sorcery 483 00:38:35,680 --> 00:38:39,040 Speaker 1: you practice in connection with the high life you lead, 484 00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:43,560 Speaker 1: wrote the famed letter writer Madame de Savigny to her daughter, 485 00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:47,000 Speaker 1: mystified as to how she kept up with her expenses, 486 00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:51,160 Speaker 1: I think you must resort to black magic, as must 487 00:38:51,280 --> 00:38:57,600 Speaker 1: these impecunious courtiers. Lavoison would never admit her connection to 488 00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:02,600 Speaker 1: Madame de montespainct. She would take that knowledge to her grave. 489 00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:08,200 Speaker 1: On February twenty second, sixteen eighty, Lavoison was transferred to 490 00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:11,719 Speaker 1: the Bastille, where a priest would hear her final confession 491 00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:17,120 Speaker 1: before she was taken to her execution. Despite her lifelong faith, 492 00:39:17,480 --> 00:39:21,680 Speaker 1: she did not find comfort in those final moments. Allegedly 493 00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:26,840 Speaker 1: shoving away the crucifix her confessor stretched towards her. She 494 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:30,480 Speaker 1: did not go gently to the stake either, although who 495 00:39:30,480 --> 00:39:34,200 Speaker 1: can blame her. She reportedly had to be dragged out 496 00:39:34,239 --> 00:39:38,920 Speaker 1: of the tumbril and continued to resist from there. According 497 00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:43,200 Speaker 1: to one spectator, five or six times she pushed aside 498 00:39:43,239 --> 00:39:47,000 Speaker 1: the straw, but finally the flames leapt up, enveloped her, 499 00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:51,800 Speaker 1: and she was lost to sight. It was Lavoison's daughter, 500 00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:58,400 Speaker 1: Marie Margarete Monvalzan who eventually revealed the truth. Though Marie 501 00:39:58,520 --> 00:40:01,239 Speaker 1: had been arrested for a s assisting her mother back 502 00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:06,359 Speaker 1: in January, it wasn't until July, five months after her 503 00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:12,520 Speaker 1: mother's execution, that Marie began to talk a lot. She 504 00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:16,000 Speaker 1: claimed that Madame de Montespin had been a client of 505 00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:20,600 Speaker 1: her mother's for five or six years. Every time she 506 00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:25,360 Speaker 1: feared the good graces of the king were diminishing, Marie explained, 507 00:40:25,719 --> 00:40:28,480 Speaker 1: she advised my mother of it, so she could bring 508 00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:33,040 Speaker 1: a remedy. My mother therefore said, masses over these powders 509 00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:38,320 Speaker 1: destined for the king. They were powders for love. However, 510 00:40:38,520 --> 00:40:44,400 Speaker 1: Marie claimed that in more recent years, Montespan's devotion transformed 511 00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:49,960 Speaker 1: into rage. When she felt the King's affections diminishing, she 512 00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:53,960 Speaker 1: began to ask for more extreme measures to be taken. 513 00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:59,960 Speaker 1: That's when, alongside an elderly priest in her Employois n 514 00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:03,840 Speaker 1: for a black mass to be conducted in her home. 515 00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:08,680 Speaker 1: According to Marie, the lady who participated in a black 516 00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:13,120 Speaker 1: mass laid on a mattress and produced her naked stomach, 517 00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:18,000 Speaker 1: onto which the priest would place the cross and the chalice. 518 00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:22,480 Speaker 1: Most unnervingly, Marie claimed that her mother and the priest 519 00:41:23,080 --> 00:41:26,799 Speaker 1: used the blood of an aborted baby as part of 520 00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:32,000 Speaker 1: the ceremony, taking the place of the sacramental wine. Marie 521 00:41:32,160 --> 00:41:39,479 Speaker 1: alleged that Madame de Montespan herself carried the chalice. In 522 00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:44,360 Speaker 1: his own testimony, the old priest recalled the satanic pact 523 00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:48,800 Speaker 1: he had seen written by Madame de Monte spin quote. 524 00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:52,239 Speaker 1: I ask that the affection of the King and Monseigneur 525 00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:55,960 Speaker 1: the dau Fant be continued towards me, That the Queen 526 00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:59,920 Speaker 1: be sterile, that the King leave her bed and table 527 00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:03,640 Speaker 1: for me, that I be well treated and respected by 528 00:42:03,680 --> 00:42:06,839 Speaker 1: the high nobility, that I can be called to the 529 00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:11,239 Speaker 1: King's councils and know what happened there, that the king 530 00:42:11,440 --> 00:42:17,040 Speaker 1: abandon and not consider his former favorite, and that the queen, 531 00:42:17,320 --> 00:42:23,480 Speaker 1: being repudiated, I can marry the king. Even still, Marie's 532 00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:29,359 Speaker 1: most alarming allegation was that Madame de Montespin, Lavoison and 533 00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:34,680 Speaker 1: several other collaborators had been actively working on a plot 534 00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:39,920 Speaker 1: to poison the king. All those alleged to be involved, however, 535 00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:45,719 Speaker 1: vehemently denied such a plot ever existed. Louis was informed 536 00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:50,719 Speaker 1: of Marie's divulgences during the interrogation, but we don't know 537 00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:56,040 Speaker 1: what he thought of them. Laurni believed Marie was likely 538 00:42:56,200 --> 00:43:00,840 Speaker 1: fabricating the assassination plot, but he was reluctant to dismiss 539 00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:05,360 Speaker 1: everything she had said, and sought to corroborate her allegations. 540 00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:11,879 Speaker 1: Undergoing torture, another divine arreess confirmed that Madame de Montespan 541 00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:18,040 Speaker 1: had indeed purchased love powders and poisons. However, she later 542 00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:21,520 Speaker 1: claimed that she had only said those things to free 543 00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:25,440 Speaker 1: herself from the pain of torture. The details of that 544 00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:29,319 Speaker 1: confession were relaid to the King, who found himself in 545 00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:34,200 Speaker 1: a predicament if he followed his own established procedure and 546 00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:39,279 Speaker 1: shared the transcript with the Burning Chamber, he feared that, 547 00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:43,880 Speaker 1: despite his best attempts, Paris would be a buzz with scandal. 548 00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:49,120 Speaker 1: Still not knowing whether she was truly guilty, Madame de 549 00:43:49,239 --> 00:43:55,160 Speaker 1: Montespin's reputation could be forever tainted by false testimony. It 550 00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:59,200 Speaker 1: would also, of course, reflect embarrassingly upon Louis if the 551 00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:04,800 Speaker 1: public love earned his mistress had ensnared him with love potions. Thus, 552 00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:12,160 Speaker 1: the king asked Larini to continue discreetly. Ultimately, Lurini decided 553 00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:17,480 Speaker 1: to temporarily suspend the burning Chamber to give himself more time. 554 00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:23,600 Speaker 1: By early sixteen eighty one, Larini concluded he had more 555 00:44:23,640 --> 00:44:28,719 Speaker 1: reason to believe than disbelieve that Madame de Montespin had 556 00:44:28,800 --> 00:44:33,400 Speaker 1: been involved in criminal activity. He was, however, reluctant to 557 00:44:33,520 --> 00:44:37,680 Speaker 1: act upon his belief. As he wrote to Louvois, he 558 00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:41,840 Speaker 1: wasn't sure if he believed punishing her was conducive quote 559 00:44:42,239 --> 00:44:45,239 Speaker 1: to the glory of God, in the interests of the 560 00:44:45,360 --> 00:44:49,680 Speaker 1: King and consequently that of the state, or for the 561 00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:53,719 Speaker 1: good of justice to appraise the public of facts of 562 00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:57,239 Speaker 1: this kind. On the other hand, he questioned, quote, if 563 00:44:57,280 --> 00:45:01,480 Speaker 1: these crimes are hidden, what others strained and unknown? Things 564 00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:05,280 Speaker 1: will befall if one does not dare to penalize crimes 565 00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:09,360 Speaker 1: on account of their enormity. In the spring of sixteen 566 00:45:09,400 --> 00:45:12,279 Speaker 1: eighty one, the king called a meeting with those in 567 00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:15,640 Speaker 1: the know to advise his course of action. After hearing 568 00:45:15,680 --> 00:45:19,280 Speaker 1: their arguments, he decreed that he would not formally disband 569 00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:22,520 Speaker 1: the Chamber, but he did not wish it to hear 570 00:45:22,560 --> 00:45:28,200 Speaker 1: any evidence which discredited Madame de Montespain. Historians still debate 571 00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:32,520 Speaker 1: whether he sought to protect his mistress himself or he 572 00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:38,600 Speaker 1: genuinely believed the allegations untrue. The Burning Chamber resumed activities 573 00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:43,080 Speaker 1: after a nine month hiatus on May nineteenth, sixteen eighty one, 574 00:45:43,520 --> 00:45:48,120 Speaker 1: before dissolving for good on July twenty first, sixteen eighty two. 575 00:45:48,719 --> 00:45:53,200 Speaker 1: During its time, the Special Criminal Commission charged four hundred 576 00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:58,760 Speaker 1: and forty two individuals, issued three hundred and nineteen arrest warrants, 577 00:45:59,200 --> 00:46:04,240 Speaker 1: and pronounced one hundred and four judgments, including thirty six 578 00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:10,920 Speaker 1: death sentences, five life imprisonments, and twenty three banishments. Madame 579 00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:15,600 Speaker 1: de Montespin remained at court and perhaps never learned of 580 00:46:15,640 --> 00:46:20,760 Speaker 1: the allegations against her. She perhaps understandably, however, did fall 581 00:46:20,840 --> 00:46:24,560 Speaker 1: out of favor, and following the death of the queen, 582 00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:28,440 Speaker 1: the king went on to secretly marry his new beloved, 583 00:46:28,880 --> 00:46:34,840 Speaker 1: the Marquise de Montaignant. Montespin ultimately left court in sixteen 584 00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:39,719 Speaker 1: ninety one, retiring to Paris. After her death in seventeen 585 00:46:39,719 --> 00:46:43,600 Speaker 1: oh seven and La Regni's death in seventeen o nine, 586 00:46:44,200 --> 00:46:48,040 Speaker 1: the king sought to destroy all evidence from the trial 587 00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:52,839 Speaker 1: related to his mistress. When he received those documents, they 588 00:46:52,880 --> 00:46:58,560 Speaker 1: met the same fate as Lavoison burned to ashes. But 589 00:46:58,719 --> 00:47:05,960 Speaker 1: some things always slip through the cracks. That's the story 590 00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:09,000 Speaker 1: of the Affair of the Poison. But keep listening after 591 00:47:09,040 --> 00:47:12,239 Speaker 1: a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more 592 00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:24,720 Speaker 1: about the affair's larger cultural legacy. Part of the reason 593 00:47:24,840 --> 00:47:28,839 Speaker 1: the accusations made during the affair were not only scandalous 594 00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:33,520 Speaker 1: but believable to the public was a Parisian cultural fascination 595 00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:37,840 Speaker 1: with the figures of Medea and Circe, both of whom 596 00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:44,160 Speaker 1: poisoned their romantic rivals. Twelve productions, including court ballets, plays, 597 00:47:44,200 --> 00:47:50,000 Speaker 1: and operas, depicted Medea. Depicting Medea premiered during the reign 598 00:47:50,160 --> 00:47:54,800 Speaker 1: of Louis the fourteenth Circe for her part, the mythical 599 00:47:54,920 --> 00:48:00,600 Speaker 1: witch featured in eight Medea, like the divine Esses of Paris, 600 00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:07,360 Speaker 1: was both a sorceress and a poisoner. Inspired by Euripides's telling, 601 00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:14,200 Speaker 1: Pierre Cornell's sixteen thirty five tragedy Medie shows its protagonist 602 00:48:14,600 --> 00:48:18,600 Speaker 1: coding a set of robes in poison to kill both 603 00:48:18,640 --> 00:48:23,600 Speaker 1: her romantic rival and her father. See how many serpents, 604 00:48:23,640 --> 00:48:28,080 Speaker 1: at my command, delayed but a moment, and constrained to 605 00:48:28,200 --> 00:48:33,120 Speaker 1: obey my baleful spell, have vomited all their pestilence on 606 00:48:33,239 --> 00:48:38,879 Speaker 1: this fatal gift. The play drew upon the ancient connections 607 00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:44,120 Speaker 1: between women, poison, vengeance, and magic that would arise in 608 00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:48,400 Speaker 1: the case of Madame de Monte Spin. There's another connection 609 00:48:48,640 --> 00:48:53,560 Speaker 1: as well. As Medea ultimately escaped judgment thanks to a 610 00:48:53,719 --> 00:48:58,239 Speaker 1: chariot from the son god Helios, Madame de Monti Spin 611 00:48:58,800 --> 00:49:03,279 Speaker 1: escaped trial thanks to the intervention of the Sun King. 612 00:49:12,680 --> 00:49:16,399 Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of iHeart Radio and Grim 613 00:49:16,480 --> 00:49:20,040 Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by 614 00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:25,640 Speaker 1: me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, 615 00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:29,920 Speaker 1: Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Milaney. The show is 616 00:49:30,080 --> 00:49:35,040 Speaker 1: edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima 617 00:49:35,239 --> 00:49:39,719 Speaker 1: Il Kaali and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and 618 00:49:39,800 --> 00:49:45,320 Speaker 1: Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 619 00:49:45,600 --> 00:49:50,839 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.