The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV (78 page)
Read The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV Online
Authors: Anne Somerset
Tags: #History, #France, #Royalty, #17th Century, #Witchcraft, #Executions, #Law & Order, #Courtesans, #Nonfiction
Savoy, Marie-Jeanne-Baptiste de Savoie-Nemours, Duchess of
Savoy, Victor Amadeus, Duke of: death and poison rumours
Scarron, Mme
see
Maintenon, Françoise, Marquise de
Scudéry, Madeleine de
Senef, battle of (1674)
Sévigné, Marie, Marquise de: as source; and Mme de Brinvilliers’ attempted mutilation; on Mme de Brinvilliers’ water torture; on Mme de Brinvilliers’ execution; on Pennautier; attends court at Versailles; on battle of Senef; on court extravagance; on Cessac’s banishment; on Lionne; praises Mme de Maintenon; on Louis’ tripartite relations with mistresses; on Mme de Montespan’s achievements for family; on Louis’ relations with Mme de Montespan; and Louis’ relations with Princesse de Soubise; on Mme de Montespan’s jealousy of Mlle de Fontanges; on Mlle de Fontanges’ decline; on relations between Mme de Montespan and Mme de Maintenon; and Mme de Maintenon’s relations with Louis; on Louis’ improved relations with Queen; on arrest of aristocrats; on Comtesse de Soissons’ supposed activities; and Louvois’ antipathy to Comtesse de Soissons; on Luxembourg’s arrest; on Duchesse de Bouillon; on interrogation of la Voisin; sees la Voisin on road to execution; on trial of Mme Leféron; on Mme de Dreux’s trial; on Bonnard’s testimony for Luxembourg; on acquittal of Luxembourg; on La Reynie’s unpopularity; on Colbert’s coldness; on international effect of poison accusations; on avoiding discussion of poison affair; on scandal of poisons case
Simon, Mme (divineress)
sodomy
see
homosexuality
Soissons, Eugène Maurice de Carignan Savoie, Comte de
Soissons, Olympe, Comtesse de (
née
Mancini): warrant for arrest and flight; witnesses Mme de Brinvilliers on way to execution; dispute with Comtesse de Gramont; stoicism; and clairvoyance; informs Queen of Louis’ affair with Louise de La Vallière; position at court; la Voisin names as client; suspected of poisoning Lamoignon; relations with Louis; affairs; suspected of poisoning husband; Louvois’ hostility to; exile in Brussels; in Spain
Sophia, Electress of Hanover
sorcery
see
witchcraft
Soubise, Anne de Rohan-Chabot, Princesse de
Soubise, François de Rohan-Chabot, Prince de
Sourches, Louis François de Bouchet, Marquis de
Spain: war with France (1667)
Spanheim, Ezechiel
spells (magic)
superstition
see
fortune-telling
Sweden: effect of poison trials in
taxation
Termes, Roger de Pardaillon de Gondrin, Marquis de
Thianges, Gabrielle, Marquise de
Tingry, Marie Louise Charlotte, Princesse de
torture: used for confessions; Duplessis recommends discontinuing
Toulouse, Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, Comte de (Louis/Mme de Montespan’s son)
Tournet, Bernard
Tours, Louise Marianne de Bourbon, Mlle de (Louis/Mme de Montespan’s daughter)
Tremouille, Mme de
Trianon, Catherine
Trichâteau, Érard du Châtelet, Marquis de
Turenne, Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne, Prince de
Uzès, François de Crussol, Duc d’
Uzès, Marguerite, Duchesse d’
Vallot, Dr Antoine
Vanens, Louis: arrested; and Bachimonts; alchemical practices; and death of Duke of Savoy; Mme La Grange denies knowing; Lesage on; rents house from Magdelaine Chapelain; tried and sentenced; associates imprisoned; death
Vardes, François-René du Bec-Crespin, Marquis de
Vassé, Mafie-Madeleine, Marquise de
Vautier, M. & Mme
Vendôme, Philippe, Duc de
Vermandois, Louis de Bourbon, Comte de (Louis/La Vallière’s son)
Versailles: royal court at; Louis XIV develops; conditions; court intrigues; protocol and precedence; entertainments at; morality at; homosexuality at; religious observance at
Vertemart, Marie
Vexin, Louis César de Bourbon, Comte de (Louis/Mme de Montespan’s son)
Vienne, Quentin
Vigoreux, M.
Vigoreux, Marie: profession and clients; arrested and interrogated; and Mme de Poulaillon; tried and sentenced; conspiracy with la Voisin; Feuquières consults; and Luxembourg
Villarceaux, Louis de Mornay, Marquis de
Ville, Marie-Anne de la
Villeroi, François de Neufville, Marquis (
later
Duc) de
Villeroi, Nicolas IV de Neufville, Maréchal de
Villeroy, Marie-Marguerite, Duchesse de
Vincennes: prison conditions
Violet, M. and Mme
Visconti, Giovanni-Battista Primi
see
Primi Visconti, Giovanni-Battista
Vitry, Duchesse de
Vivonne, Antoinette, Duchesse de: applies to Lesage for help; la Voisin claims Lesage has information on; Louis asks to be kept informed of; implicated; background and character; as client of la Bergerot; and la Filastre; Louis defers arrest of and subsequently aids; ignorant of allegations against; Lesage accuses
Vivonne, Louis Victor de Rochechouart, Duc de (Mme de Montespan’s brother)
Voisin, Mme (Catherine Montvoison;
née
Deshayes): as divineress; on poisoning of M. de Saint-Laurens; named by Mme Bosse; success and prosperity; marriage and lovers; arrested and interrogated; enmity with Marie Bosse; and Mme Leféron; names Françoise de Dreux; questioned on abortion; allegations and depositions; relations with Lesage; clients and profession; and Duchesse de Vivonne; alleged relations with Mme de Montespan; Louvois on; accuses Racine of poisoning mistress; and Father Davot; denies knowing Mlle des Oeillets; and Comtesse de Soissons; rumoured abortions on Princesse de Tingry; accuses Comtesse du Roure; burnt alive; confesses to priest; exonerates Mme Leféron; on Mme de Dreux’s marriage; and Guibourg; involves daughter Marie; plans petition to Louis on Blessis; daughter testifies about assassination plot against Louis; denies visits to Saint-Germain; and practice of black mass; helps Mariette escape; and Mme de Montespan; denounces Mme Lescalopier; accuses Mme Brissart; and Mme Vertemart; as potential danger; on debauchery as incentive
Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de: on Louis XIV; on diviners; on court of Versailles; on immorality at court; on fear of poison
witchcraft (sorcery): belief in; and poisoning; accusations of; and infanticide; existence questioned
Yvon, Mme (client of la Voisin)
Also by Anne Somerset
Elizabeth I
Unnatural Murder: Poison at the Court of James I
Ladies-in-Waiting: from the Tudors to the Present Day
The Life and Times of William IV
THE AFFAIR OF THE POISONS.
Copyright © 2003 by Anne Somerset. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
ISBN 0-312-33017-0
EAN 978-0312-33017-0
First published in Great Britain by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, a division of the Orion Publishing Group, Ltd.
First U.S. Edition: October 2004
eISBN 9781466862807
First eBook edition: December 2013
*
Quanto was Mme de Sévigné’s nickname for Athénaïs.
*
To put this in context, the annual income of the French crown has been estimated at approximately 80 million livres.
*
Mme de Caylus was actually Mme de Maintenon’s cousin but because of the generation gap is usually referred to as her niece.
*
François Ravaisson asserts that Chasteuil was preceptor to the Duke of Savoy’s son but he is never described as such in any of the documents printed in
Archives de la Bastille.
*
Intriguingly when this Duke of Savoy’s father, Victor Amadeus of Savoy, had died in 1637, after attending a banquet given by the French Maréchal de Créqui, it was rumoured he had been poisoned.
*
Her second husband, the flautist Philbert, was tried for the same crime the following April but was acquitted.
*
Ravaisson dates this encounter 31 January 1678. However, several witnesses state that the Marquis de La Vallière was present and since he died in October 1676, the meeting must have occurred prior to that.
*
Lesage must have been lying about this because when this meeting happened the siege of Philippsburg had not yet taken place.
*
La Reynie mistakenly thought it had happened in 1676.
*
Both Ravaisson and Funck-Brentano believed that Mme de Montespan was guilty. Of more recent authors, Georges Couton thinks it ‘probable’ that she was present during black masses when babies were sacrificed.
*
In
L’Affaire des Poisons
Petitfils nevertheless argues that the accusations against Mlle des Oeillets were well-founded.
Table of Contents