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The Affair of the Poisons: the political judicial hurricane under the reign of Louis XIV
It touched very important persons
even Madame de Montespan, the King's mistress and mother of his children
Re-opening this case means stumbling on incredible discoveries
because poison at this time was a plague that corrupted the entire society
It's so simple to prepare a broth to get rid of a husband too old
or to inherit from an aunt a bit too tough...
In fornt of the events, Louis XIV himself takes the head of an army of high ranking officials
with only one goal in mind: erasing these practices
The Affair of the Poisons is much more than just a scandal
and much more than a political case
It is a turning point in french history
and if some shadows remain, it's because Louis XIV himself
destroyed the most scandalous documents
Our team overcame this obstacle to bring you, 3 centuries and a half after
some new lights upon this story
This is a ruling from the King's council
dated July 13, 1709
stating the King's decision concerning a small casket
The whole story of this small casket is evoked
we are told to whom it was given to, that it was sealed
Nobody had broken the seals until that day of 1709
and the King says, after having reread the papers contained in the box
that everything must be burnt
O that day of July 13, 1709, Louis XIV decided to settle the balance of the past
The great King is now an old man near the end of his reign
In a dreary and austere Versailles, he decides to turn the page
of one the the most mysterious events of his life
Inside this mysterious casket,
29 big packets of various registers
statements of offence and police reports
It's July, he lit the fire, in a scene worthy of a great movie
He consults the papers one by one and give them to a servant who throws them in the fire
These pages were about the Affair of the Poisons
perhaps the largest criminal affair of the Ancien Regime
These papers were so scandalous that Louis XIV wanted to make them disappear forever
All had to disappear
And we have a document that even mentions to "forget for eternity"
the King wanted this case to be forgotten forever
What heavy secret did this casket contain?
What truth did Louis XIV want to erase from history?
Let's go back 40 years before
Paris, in the present area of Saint Germain
In July 1672, a man is found dead at his house
His name: Godin de Sainte-Croix
a cavalry officer but also an adventurer crippled of debts
His numerous creditors immediately write to the King's prosecutor
to claim their due
Sainte-Croix has just died, from a natural cause
and people go to his house for the post-mortem inventory
and there a box is discovered, containing phials and papers
belonging to 2 important persons:
the Marquise de Brinvilliers
and a certain Pennautier
it is immediately supposed that these phials have tragic properties
The phials and sachets are analyzed the following night by an apothecary
He tests them on animals and discover
that they are indeed poisons
Poisons even more worrying that they're unknown to doctors
and leave no trace
But the casket also contains some very incrimating papers
There are love letters from the Marquise de Brinvilliers to Sainte-Croix,
debt recognition letters from Brinvilliers and her husband to Sainte-Croix
and from Pennautier to Sainte-Croix
The Marquise de Brinvilliers, here is a title that draws attention
even more as she is the daughter of Dreux d'Aubray, civil lieutenant of Paris
At that time "civil lieutenant" means "prefect"
He combined the administrative duties of the capital
with police duties
That man died 4 years earlier
in strange circumstances
The father died, as well as the two sons
in weird circumstances
That's enough for a case to be opened
to determine if there's a link between these curious deaths and the Marquise de Brinvilliers
There is also Pennautier
At 48, Pierre Louis Reich de Pennautier is receiver-general for the clergy
In other words: he manages the Church of France's fortune
He collects taxes for the clergy
So he has extraordinary financial powers
Besides he still holds the post of receiver-general of the region Languedoc
which means he also collects taxes for this province,
extremely rich at that time
He was a very wealthy financier who had a private townhouse
on what is now Place Vendôme, and the mansion still exists nowadays,
he was a considerable man
that became receiver-general for the clergy after an almost miraculous
combination of circumstances
All the other applicants, more qualified than he was, died one after the other
from sudden and unexplained deaths
Logically, the police wonder about these events
And if Pennautier owed his dazzinlg rise to Sainte-Croix's poisons?
The fact is that poison is popular
Two years before, Louis XIV's sister-in-law, Henrietta of England
denounced having been poisoned before dying in terrible pain
Since then, a climate has set in: poisons frighten people
Let's go back to Pennautier
The receiver-general is a close friend of Colbert
the main minister of Louis XIV and the strong man of the kingdom
Pennautier is friends with Colbert, he finances the Canal du Midi
he finances factories and many more economic complexes
serving Colbert's policy
So inevitaby when Pennautier is mentioned, Colbert's figure appears behind
The link Pennautier-poisons alerts the high circles of the state
For instance, Louvois, minister of war
who's working in the shadows against Colbert
Colbert and Louvois can't stand each other
They are great rivals in front of the King
and the King uses that rivalry
Colbert is like a Prime Minister
he runs several ministerial departments
Louvois is minister of war and foreign affairs
He is also a very important person since at that time
the kingdom nearly started wars one after the other
If ever there was a plot against the king, the two would be concerned too
When Louvois hears about Pennautier, I think that immediately
even if there's no proof and the historian can't know this for sure,
that he thought "this may be the occasion to bring down Colbert's haughtiness
and make him fall"
This means behind the story of Sainte-Croix's casket, a political story appears
Louis XIV himself becomes interested in this affair involving a Marquise
and the receiver-general of the clergy
From the start, the king personally took care of the matter
It may seem extraordinary but that's how it is
The King had many other things to take charge of,
but he chose to also take care of this
Why? Because this is a criminal affair
but also a diabolic affair
And I think Louis XIV can't stand this combination since he wanted to
establish a reign based on reason
To manage this burning case
the King makes his two main ministers compete
Louvois and Louis XIV are in their 40s
Colbert is over 60, he's tired
Besides Louvois is rather brutal
he's a man of action who rushes into things
So Louis XIV ends up choosing Louvois
Poison, power, all the ingredients of a dark affair are there
But the police and justice have trouble disentangling the case
This is the moment when one of Sainte-Croix's valets is arrested
A certain La Chaussée
The police discover La Chaussée worked for la Marquise de Brinvilliers's brother
when the latter suddenly died
La Chaussée will confess under torture
having murdered people for Sainte-Croix
He also explains his master was in cahoots with other people
from aristocracy or bourgeoisie
The police interrogate La Chaussée's relatives
They reveal he prided himself about soon climbing the social ladder
Sainte-Croix was supposed to buy him the "Gobelet's office"
with Pennautier's support
The post of "Gobelet of the King" means serving wine at the King's table
It's a very prestigious office that you can buy
To think that a poisoner can place his servant near the King
It's big. There's no written document proving it, but after my research as an historian
I think there was a fear that Sainte-Croix was part of a network
that could have threatened the King's life
Could this be a vast plot touching the heart of the power?
After several testimonies, the Marquise de Brinvilliers appears
as a key character
But she's nowhere to be found
Two weeks after the discovery of the casket
she suddenly left the somptuous personal mansion she owns in the Marais area
Marie-Madeleine de Brinvilliers becomes the most wanted woman of the kingdom
She's pushed to escape by Pennautier
who was very scared to be involved in a case
that he knew could go very far
So he almost pushed her in a coach to get rid from her
The Marquise flees in England. Informers see her in Dover
They had received the description of this woman that didn't look at all like a murderer
She was not 40 yet. She had deep blue eyes
People mentioned her very pretty hands
She was small and slim
She was tiny and had a very white skin
So her appearance is striking
And she had thick black hair
In the only picture we have of her we see a rather curvy woman
But it's after the time she spent in prison
and after she was tortured
I don't think it's a very faithful representation
While the Marquise is in England
La Chaussée, Sainte-Croix's servant, is judged in Paris
He's found guilty of poisoning
and sentenced to die on the wheel