Magic, poison, executions and King Louis XIV came together to create what is now known as the ‘Affair of the Poisons’. How did one woman’s crime lead to a hunt to root out corruption at the heart of the royal court, and what role did the king come to play?
Who Was King Louis XIV?
While the ‘Affair of the Poisons’ didn’t explicitly implicate the king, nor was he involved directly outside of his inner circle being brought into the charges, it is still important to know who was running the country at the time.
King Louis XIV was known as the “Sun King,” and reigned from 1643 till 1715. He was only four years old when his father died of tuberculosis and he became king. By all accounts he was considered a successful and great monarch. The connection to sun comes from Louis saying he was an absolute monarch, with no chief minister and used the sun as his symbol in order to further strengthen his claim that his power and ability to be king came from God. He married Maria Theresa, who was related to King Philip IV. He was also responsible for building the palace of Versailles.
Where Did the Affair of the Poisons Start?
It all started with a death: not from poison, but natural causes. Godin de Sainte-Croix was an army captain. He was involved in an affair with Marie Madaleine Marguerite d’Aubray.’ After his death when going through his property they found evidence in the form of letters that indicated that D’Aubry and the captain were in an agreement to use bottles of poison in the captain’s possession that were used against her father and later her brothers so she could have control over the family estate and money.
This accusation led to rumors that she was involved in poisoning hospital patients. Many people who were rich at the time would visit the sick as part of taking part in good deeds. It would have been relatively easy for her to slip already sick people poison.
D’Aubry was arrested after trying to escape. After being tortured, she did eventually confess. Her letters contain details of the crime so although there is a history of people confessing to crimes they did not actually commit (such as the Mark Smeaton and his supposed affair with Anne Boleyn) in order to end the torture and being executed or spared, it does not appear to be the case here. After being caught out she spent years on the run. She was eventually caught, put on trial, tortured with the water cure and executed.
How Did Other People Get Caught up in the Affair of the Poisons?
In her attempt to commute her sentence or possibly end the torture, D’Aubry stated that she had knowledge of other similar crimes going on. This was passed on to King Louis XIV, who was tasked with the job of rooting out criminals to Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie. De la Reynie was a French magistrate and credited with starting the beginnings of the French police.
Wanting to make the king happy and follow his orders a number of people were brought in. This included the usual subjects who were discriminated against including fortune tellers, alchemists, and those who were thought to have ‘witch’ powers. Many of these people did use “magic” as it was understood at the time.
Unfortunately, as was common in the time torture was used to gain a confession. This led to many false confessions and made the hunt even worse. It also could produce other names that would then get drawn into the trials. The people rounded up were not actually accused of poisoning others, but providing the poison that others would use to get rid of annoying family members or loved ones. It didn’t take long for these names to eventually be a part of the higher ranks in the French court including those close to the king. This included one of his mistresses, Madame de Montespan.
How Did This Come to an End?
According to The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV, by the end of the madness 442 people were accused or named as suspects, 367 arrest warrants were issued, although of those only 218 were actually performed. Many of these were tortured, executed or otherwise condemned without any kind of actual trial. This was especially prevalent to the vulnerable in society, those accused of selling the poisons.
Of those that were taken to trial and convicted of murder or being a part of the larger plot, 36 were executed, 23 were sentenced to exile after any potential possessions and titles were stripped away, and others were sentenced to life in prison. Again, this doesn’t take into account all those that died due to disease and treatment in “pursuit of the truth.”
King Louis XIV’s mistress was not brought to trial as there was no evidence of her involvement outside of accusations. Of course, even those who were cleared or not tried seriously still had to contend with the rumors in the French court and a worse reputation. Only the scandal of the accused being closer to his inner circle caused King Louis XIV to halt the investigations. It remains well-known in French history, and is the subject of numerous books, movies, plays, and even appears in the second season of the BBC tv show Versailles.
