L’Affaire des Poisons
In the late 17th century all of Paris and the court of Versailles were embroiled in the Poison Affairs and not many were immune from its reaches including the Sun King.
It all began in 1662 when a gentleman named Godin de Sainte-Croix began an affair with Marie-Madeline Dreux d’Aubray Marquise de Brinvillers. The Marquise was born on July 2, 1630, in Paris. Her father served in the military and her mother Marie Olier was the brother of Jean-Jacques Olier who created the Society of Saint Sulpice.
The oldest of five children her mother would die shortly after giving birth to her youngest brother. As the oldest her father expected her to help with her siblings and be in charge of the house. At just 7 years old she was raped by a neighbor and at 10 she began to have sexual relations with her two younger brothers up to three times a week.
At the old age of 21 on December 20, 1651, in the Eglise Saint Eustache Marie-Madeline married Antoine Gobelin, Marquis de Brinvilliers. The marriage resulted in three children, Antoine already had 4 illegitimate ones that she was to care for when he was away as commander of the Regime of Auvergne. They had a high standing in the Marais where they lived, holding parties and salons that everyone wanted to attend.
In 1662 Marie-Madeline met Godin de Saint-Croix who began quite the affair. When her husband learned of the relationship he had Godin locked up in the Bastille for three months in 1663. While there Godin met Egidio Exili who was in the Bastille for poisoning the sister-in-law of Pope Innocent X, Olimpia Maidalchinin Rome.
Godin was already fascinated with chemistry and poisons and Exili taught him all he needed to know about creating tasteless, odorless poisons that could not be detected. Exili told him upon his release to visit Christopher Glasser, a master chemist at the Jardin Royale des Plantes to get everything he needed.
A prison stint couldn’t keep these two apart and as soon as he was released he was once again at her side and teaching her everything he had learned in the Bastille.
Godin lived at no 5 Rue Hautefeuille, the Hotel des Abbes de Fécamp they were a short walk to the garden to get their supplies. The two would test out their poisons mixed in with sweet cakes and take them to the patients of the Hotel Dieu where they would track the symptoms, dosage, and length of discomfort before their victim’s death. Killing numerous people in their research just for the thrill of it. It is not known just how many were killed but the list could be quite long.
Marie-Madeline took what she learned and tried it out on her father on September 10, 1666, killing him, and a few years later in 1670 her two brothers Antoine and Francois, and a sister were also victims of her potions as a way to knock out all obstructions to get to her inheritance.
Fearing for his own life her husband Antoine fled Paris with their children.
Saint-Crox also became concerned for his own life and began to document and make note of her actions and even take evidence of her crimes and lock it all away in a red leather box. A note was left that if anything was ever to happen to him before she herself died to go look inside the red box. Unfortunately for Marie-Madeleine, he died of natural causes on July 31, 1672, and it set off the Affair of the Poisons.
Upon his death, he had a long list of creditors looking to be paid and demanded that the king intervene. A search was authorized of his property and the note was discovered a week after his death on August 8. His trusted valet Jean Amilin de La Chaussée was brought in for questioning and he backed up all of the mystery evidence in the red box.
Upon the discovery, Marie quickly left for London and eventually hit out at the Benedictine convent in Avray where she managed to hide for three years. Charged with murder even though she was nowhere to be found a few determined investigators kept looking for her. One investigator even dressed up as a priest and intragretiated himself with the convent and waited for his moment to arrest her and bring her back to Paris on April 17, 1676.
On April 26 the questioning and torture began that lasted weeks. she admitted to killing her brother and father
A second trial began on April 29 and culminated on July 14 with Madame de Sévigné in the front row noting everything that was said. Sevigne, the lady of letters we covered before was born in 1626 in the Place des Vosges. Spending time at the court of Versailles her daughter Francoise could have been a victim if she spent any more time under the watchful gaze of Louis XIV. Francoise married Francoise de Grignan and left Paris on April 19, 1678, and thus began the letters that would document all of Parisian society.
It was discovered in 1669 that Marie-Madeliene attempted to kill Jean-Baptiste Colbert twice on February 18 and again on May 5. He was a close member of the court of Louis XIV and chief minister of State but this was nothing compared to what his court of Versailles would soon go through.
When Henriette of England, wife of Philippe I, Duc d’Orleans, and brother of Louis XIV died on June 30, 1670, it is believed that the poison came from Marie-Madeline. A glass of Chicory was given to Henriette by the Knight of Lorraine that was also the lover of her husband and wanted her out of the way. Later that day she died at just 26 years old. Upon her death, her autopsy revealed that she died from suspicious causes.
The entire ordeal captured the attention of all of Paris. The documenter of the day Madame de Sévigné gives us the strongest account of the details. “Assassination is the safest, it is a trifle compared to the eight months of killing her father and receiving all his caresses and sweetness where she always responds with doubling the dose.” Alexander Dumas also noted all the details of the trial and used them in his books.
On July 16, 1676, she met her final fate on the Place de Grève, now Place de Hotel de Ville. Beheaded and burned on a stake her ashes were tossed into the Paris wind. Sévigné said that “Never has the city been so aroused, so intent on a spectacle”. She also remarked that Paris had now inhaled her evil and it was to return in the next seven years.
As Marie-Madeline was taken the short way to her death she said “Out of so many people, must I be the only one to be put to death? Half the people in Paris are involved in this sort of thing and I could ruin them if I were to talk”. When news reached the king he ordered an investigation. Louis XIV appointed Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie the lieutenant general of the police to create a group to look into the allegations. He never knew how close to home it would get
Stay tuned next week for part 2