Princes and Poisoners: Studies of the Court of Louis XIV

ord of Vivonne, and of Diane de Granseigne, daughter of Jean de Marsillac. She was called Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente until her marriage. 'Her mother,'

every day.' In 1679, when she had been for several years the king's mistress, she much astonished the Princess d'Harco

As a lady-in-waiting to the queen, she was fascinated by the magnificence surrounding Louise de la Vallière, the favourite of Louis, who had become, in spite of her reserve and her timid and gentle bearing, the ob

inces and princesses, Madame de Montespan, all her suite, all the courtiers and ladies, in a word, all that is known as the court of France, were found in these handsome apartments of the king. They are divinely furnished, everything is magnificent. Madame de Montespan was dressed in point de France, her hair done in a thousand curls, two hanging from her temples very low upon her cheeks; black ribbons on

ch palliated her high and mighty airs, and were indeed suited to them. It was impossible to have more wit, more fine polish, more striking expressions, eloquence, natural propriety, which gave her, as it were, an individual style of talk, but delicious, and wh

upon gold, gold embroideries, gold edgings, and, over all, gold crimpings, sewed with one sort of gold blended with

ntry villa. 'She said that that might do for an opera girl.' The house was pulled down and the chateau erected, after the plans of Mansard. At Versailles the favourite had twenty rooms on th

wing-room, frequented by all the most distinguished persons in rank and literature, a quite unique style of wit came into existence, which her contemporaries often refer to-a wit at once cho

offered her their homage in great ceremony, and cities sent deputations to her. She passed through the provinces in a six-horse coach, followed by another coach also

try regiment of Marshal Turenne; in 1682, the king gave him the governorship of Languedoc; on September 15, 1688, the office of general of the galleys and the lieutenant-generalship of the Levant. The elder of the daughters, Mademoiselle de Nantes, married the D

There is justice in the saying. She had an immeasurable pride. Mademoiselle de la Vallière lo

as then aspiring to the king's love, and it is precisely at this time that La Reynie, in com

rse to priests whom she got to say masses, and gave my mother powders to be given to the king.' La Voisin's daughter explained that these powders were for love, composed now in one way, now in another, according to the various formulae of witchcraft. Among the ingredients were cant

e king-some which had passed under the chalice and others which had not; my mother sent some to Madame de Montespan by the hand of the demoiselle

mentions so many circumstances and so many different transactions which are not self-contradictory, that it is morally impossible for them to have been invented, in addition to which she is not clever enough to invent and to follow up what she has invented. Several of these facts are proved genuine;

, her mother had been dead for several months.

formation of these evil designs

er; I did not believe myself obliged to tell; I asked advi

l, and that it would be a great crime t

I knew it before I told them, and was sure of it after I had don

ime to make the slightest addition t

ncreased; I had no other idea but to state the truth, having nothing more to fear in regard to my mothe

r relations with the king's mistress, for her greatest fear was that the horrible punishment meted out to regicides might be applied to her. In an expansive moment, she said to her guards at Vincennes: 'I fear, more than anything else that I am asked about, a certain journey to court.' We shall have much to do presently with this journey the sor

e Abbé Guibourg, with whom she had no means of communicating after her arrest.

Now, if we follow in the correspondence of Madame de Sévigné and the court chronicles the checkered story of the relations between Madame de Montespan and the king from 1667 to 1680, and compare it further with the depositions mad

already mentioned: 'that the chevalier de Vanens deserved to be drawn and quartered for the counsel he had given to Madame de Montespan.' La Chaboissière had scarcely let this confession escape him than he wished in great agitation to

, in sacerdotal vestments, uttered incantations, Lesage sang the Veni Creator, then Mariette read a gospel on the head of Madame de Montespan, who knelt before him and recited exorcisms against Louise de la Vallière. She added-the very words are found in one of Lesage's declarations-'I ask for the affection of the king and of the Dauphin, that it may be continued, that the queen may be barren, that the king leave her bed and table fo

Madame de Montespan, recited charms over the hearts of two pigeons which had been consecr

was mingled the pungent scent of incense. Madame de Montespan formulated the incantation. 'This,' declared Lesage, 'was to obtain the favour of the king, and to cause Mademoiselle de la Vallière's death.' Mariette said it was merely to get her sent away. Now it happened that, not long after these proceedings, in that very year 1

ame de Montespan at this time suddenly left Paris. But Mariette and Lesage had too much interest in holding their tongues to inform against her. 'Besides,' writes La Reynie, 'the first judge who heard the case being a cousin-german of Mariette through his wife, La Voisin being at large on the credit of interested persons with whom she had dealings, and these wretched practices being then unknown, investigation was not carried very far. It was solely a question of seeing how the matter could be dealt with in such a way as to save Mariette on account of his family.' The little that could not be concealed brought Lesage condemnation to the galleys and Mariette banishment. The king increased the sentence of the latter to imprisonment; but the prisoner escaped from St. Lazare, where he had been confined. As to Lesage, La Voisin, thanks to her connections, was not lo

at, then, a sch

e de Montespan, and that she recited an incantation in which her own name and the king's occurred; that she performed other ceremonies at Saint-Germain; that she had masses said on the hearts of pigeons at St. Séverin, and other impious and sacril

xplicit commands to tell the truth, and Mariette, impelled by the facts

certain details, afterwards proved to be accurate, of which

rday to Vincennes, and spoke to him in the way Monsieur de la Reynie desired, giving him to hope that your Majesty would pardon him provided he made the declarations necessary for bringing to the knowledge of justice all that has happened in regard to the poisons. He promised to do so, and told me that he was much surprised at my urging him to tell all he knew.' In a letter of October 11, 1679, Louvois renewed his pressure on Lesage to induce him to speak fully and in entire frankness. The magician hesitated, tried to dissimulate, repeating to all who urged him how vastly he was astonished at the

the king. 'When Montespan went to Saint-Germain sermonising thus, Madame de Montespan was in despair. He used to come to see me very often,' says Mademoiselle de Montpensier; 'he is a relative of mine, and I scolded him. He came one evening and repeated to me an harangue he had delivered to the king, in which he quoted innumerable passages of Scripture, about David, for instance, and finally used strong terms to induce him to

xiety was redoubled when his mistress became a mother. The king was very fond of his children, particularly those he had by Madame de Montespan. In the eyes of the l

rchioness, his niece, was living, in open concubinage, and he caused the publication in his diocese of the old canons against the violation of the religious law.' The diocese of Sens included Fontainebleau, where the court was th

ourt in a coach draped in black, to take leave in great ceremony of his relatives, friends, and acquaintances. On that day the husband in his costume of black was not the butt of ridicule; jests were silenced, and th

age avec

tout qui dés

opinion of the Parisian middle class. He was conscious of it; and one day said himself to his mistress that if she had left house, children, and husband to follow hi

of Perpignan or in that about the disorders that occurred at Illes, to implicate the commander of the company (Montespan) and the largest possible number of cavaliers, so that they may take fright and the majority desert, especially the commander; after which it would not be a difficult matter to bring about the ruin of the company. If you have the names of the cavaliers who insulted the sub-bailiff, they must be arrested at once, to make an example of them, and so that you may have, from their depositions at the time of their execution, more proof against the captain-to try in some way or other to implicate him in the informations, so that he may be cashiered with a

t, partly under pressure from the First President de Novion, who had been won by a promise of the Great Seal. The separation was declared on July 7, 1674, by Procureur-Général Achille de Harlay, assisted by six judges. The judgment adduced the wasting of the property of the commonalty by the Marquis de Montespan, the domestic disc

and so that he may have no pretext for remaining in Paris, see Novion so that the Parlement may hurry. I know that Montespan has threatened to see his wife, and that he is capable of it, and that the consequences might be formidable (the question of the children again); I rely on you to prevent him speaking. Do not forget

sible rages; she has seen no one for a fortnight; she writes from morning till night, and when she goes to bed tears it all up. Her state makes me quite sorry. No one pities her, though she has done good turns to many people.' Madame de Montespan returned to La Voisin; and it is not without emotion that we see this wonde

ld; his complexion was that of a confirmed toper. He had a horrible squint. In these monstrous cer

o Orleans, was surrounded by deep moats, filled with running water.' Leroy betook himself to St. Denis, where he saw the Abbé Guibourg. He promised fifty pistoles, that is, about ￡20, and a living worth 2000 livres. At the day fixed there met at Villebousin Madame de Montespan, the Abbé Guibourg, Leroy, 'a tall person' who was certainly Mademoiselle Des?illets, and a person of name unknown who is said to have been a retainer of the Archbishop of Sens. In the chapel of the chateau the priest said mass on the bare body of the favourite as she lay across the altar. At the consecration, he recited his incantation, the words of which he gave later to the commissaries of the Chambre Ardente: 'Ashtaroth, Asmodeu

aled by Guibourg, and further confirmed by

at St. Denis, in a tumbledown hut. The third took place in a house at Paris, whither Guibourg was conducte

cked by dizziness of such a kind that at times his sight became clouded and he felt on the point of collapse. 'Is it rash,' observes Monsieur Loiseleur very justly, 'to see in these headaches

the king, surrounded as he was by officers of the buttery. Two revelations, both of November 8, 1680, made, the firs

o make of it, and that if there was any officer who ought to be suspected, it would be Duchesne, the butler; that Duchesne was a footman in the house of Madame d'Aubray, that he has since served Monsieur Bontemps, and then Madame de Montespan, who was very kind to him, and made him officer of the buttery, and t

were at Versailles, one fast day, about Easter, Madame de Montespan went away,' writes Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 'Every one was vastly astonished at this retreat. I went to Paris, and saw her in the house where her children were. Madame de Maintenon was with her. She saw nobody. As everybody was on the alert about her return, although nobody seemed to pay any attention to it, it was known that M. Bossuet, then tutor to the dauphin, and at present bishop of Meaux, went there every day muffled in a grey cloak.' We have other

La Vautier; but these did not enter Clagny. She could not say if Latour went in with her mother, but they all came back together, and had lunch at the sign of the Heaume, near the Bois de Boulogne, with violins; they made some noise among them. Her brother, who told her about it, told her that her mother brought back fifty louis-d'or. Her mother, besides the powders she gave to Madame de Montespan, did not send any except by Mademoiselle Des?illets, who was the go-between for that purpose. As to the powders which had passed beneath the chalice, they came from a priest called the Prior (the Abbé Guibourg). As to the others which had not been under the chalice, her mother kept them in the drawer of a cabinet of which she had the key. There were black ones, white, and grey, which she mixed in the presence of Des?illets. Her father once wanted to break the cabinet where the powders were kept, saying that some harm woul

with a terrible hunger for a multiplicity of amours, soon over, sudden, and varied. Madame de Sévigné characterises this strange condition in a picturesque phrase: 'There's a scent of new game in the land of Qua

ities, the offices and the hard cash that he desired, Madame de Soubise struck her tents and retired in good order. She had made the least possible stir and went back to her hu

ments, affected cheerfulness, sulks; at last, my dear, it is all over. Some tremble, others rejoice, some wish for immutability, the majority for a dramatic change; in a word, we are all eyes and ears for what the most clear-sighted say.' 'Every one thinks that the king loves her no longer,' we read in a letter of September 30, 'and that Madame de Montespan is embarrassed between the consequences which would follow the return of his favours and the danger of no longer enjoying them-the fear that they are being sought elsewhere. Apart from that, she has not very nicely accep

ame de Maintenon, had been chosen as governess of the children of the king and Madame de Montespan. What strides the governess's fortune had taken in a few years! 'But let us speak of the friend' (Madame de Maintenon), writes Madame de Sévigné on May 6, 1676: 'she is still more triumphant than

man on whose body the mass was to be said. Madame de Montespan had this sort of mass said three years ago (i.e. in 1676) at her mother's house, where she came about ten o'clock and only left at midnight. And when La Voisin told her that it was necessary for her to fix a time when the other two masses might be said, which were necessary if her affair was to be successful, Madame de Montespan said that she could not find time, that La Voisin would have to do what was necessary to assure success, which she promised her and did, and the masses were said on La Voisin her

ly.' She adds that this lady was Madame de Montespan. 'At the mass of Madame de Montespan,' said Marguerite in the course of another examination, 'a child was presented which apparently had been prematurely born, and it was put into a basin. Guibourg cut its throat, poured the blood into a chalice, and consecrated it with the wafer, finished his mass, then proceed

d opened the child, because it would have stai

into the vessel into which the other blood and the rest had been put, which Madame de Montespan took away; and that to

n the heart to get out the blood that was in it, and that he put it into a crystal vase with some portions of the consecrated wafer:

, who were arrested at different dates and examined separately-Lesage, Lacoudraye, Delaporte, Vertemart, Fran?oise Filastre, the Abbé Cotton-confirmed by the declarations of several witnesses who had picked up, before the trial, fragments of talk whi

er torture by Filastre and the Abbé Cotton, which contained the gravest charges against the favourite: 'It is certain, even if we found a legitimate expedient for concealing from the judges for the present the facts which it w

inuous thought as would have been necessary to invent what he had said on this subject, because, even supposing he were capable of such application, he has not enough acquaintance with what goes on in the world, and could not have devised so consistent a story in regard to Madame de Montespan.' Elsewhere he wri

istrate adds the fo

atour, the journeys to Saint-Germain, and the pow

described by Guibourg and the gir

atour, the poisons, Des?illets, and

he feared the business would ruin him. They said at that time that the king had the vapours. He declare

em under torture; but, because the king had not yet allowed this sort of facts to be collected in regard to persons of consideration, and because there was no

gave them powders. As soon as his name was uttered by the prisoner before the Chambre Ardente, an order was given for his arrest. He was flung into prison at Caen on February 23, 1680. While still far away from the other prisoners, detained at Vincennes or the Bastille, h

n the room for an hour. She was in bed, decked out, with her hair done: she was resting for the medianoche (supper about midnight). She launched shafts of contempt at poor Io (Madame de Ludres), and laughed at her having the audacity to complain of her. Imagine all that an ungenerous pride could make her say in triumph, and you will get near the truth. It is said that the little woman (Madame de Ludres) will resume her ordinary duties about Madame. She went off to walk

oved, which persuades us that never was empire seen more firmly established.' And a little later: 'Madame de Montespan was the other day covered with diamonds; the brilliance of so

euquières: 'Madame de Montespan's gambling has reached such a pitch that losses of 100,000 crowns (￡60,000 to-day) are common. On Christmas Day she lost 700,000 crowns; she staked 150,000

wonderment, were a light grey, deep and limpid; her skin was white as milk, her cheeks a lovely rose-pink; and in disposition, said her contemporaries, she was a genuine heroine of romance. She lived at Court in the capacity of maid of honour to Madame, as Madame de Ludres and Mademoiselle de la Vallière had done before her. 'Mademoiselle

him at their own whim. He had imposed on Louise de la Vallière the bitter martyrdom of following as an expiatory victim the triumph of Madame de Montespan; he now compelled Madame de Montespan to witness the triumph of Mademoiselle de Fontanges. The proud marquise resigned herself to it, at least in appearance. On March

e de Fontanges appeared there in great brilliance, and adorned by the hands of Madame de Montespan.' Bussy rejoiced at the d

d you may guess the martyrdom her pride is suffering.' On June 15, she replies to her daughter: 'It is an

y day, became so choleric that she began publicly to abuse Mademoiselle de Fontanges. She told every one that the great Alcandre was surely not very fastidious to love a creature who had had her little love affairs in the country; that she had

ke out. She had a violent scene with Louis, and when the king reproached her with her pride, her domineering spirit, and other defects, she replied with haughty scorn, concentrating all the violence of her wrath in

passed at the house of Trianon (a sorceress, partner of La Voisin), I could not doubt it.' The deserted mistress resolved to put an end to Louis and Mademoiselle de Fontanges. She applied to the sorceress of Villeneuve-sur-Gravois, and had no difficulty in getting together f

easily.' The king would die of decline. But after reflection, La Voisin decided on means, the execution of which struck her as more certain. In conformity with the ancient custom of the kings of France, Louis XIV used to receive in person on certain days the petitions presented by his subjects. Everybody was introdu

, a valet de chambre of Montausier, and asked of him a letter of recommendation to one of his friends at Saint-Germain, who would get her passed in among the first to an audience with the king, so that she might he

ten her, La Trianon cast her horoscope. This document was found among the papers seized on the sorceress by the Chambre Ardente. La Trianon foretold that La Voisin would be implicated in a tria

him the petition. She could have put it on the table placed near the king for that purpose, but the paper was useless unless it were placed in the king's own hands. She said that she would return to Saint-Ge

r daughter to burn, which Marguerite did at dawn on Saturday morning. It is needless to say that the paper had always been kept in an envelope, for to touch it, said the sorceresses, would be certain death. On

lled them out for greater clearness-La Reynie builds up a proof of the attempt on t

and wrote it out, went to learn from La Voisin what she had done, learnt that she had been there since Sunday without being able to present it, had brought

eason; when questioned she gave bad answers; among the facts confessed to, denies the petition; if it were an unimportant ma

questioned as to her various journeys, has never mentioned that one, and

ards in prison, about the fear she had that she would be asked

more considerable, La Trianon and the girl Monvoisin agree that the state crime mentioned in the horoscope was the journey to Saint-Germain.' 'Finally,' observes La Reynie, 'this petition has been mentioned at the trial, long before the girl Monvoisin was arrested.' On September 27, 1679, Louvois wrote to Louis XIV: 'Your Majesty will find in this packet what Lesage has said about th

what a fine thing is a lover's spite!' Romani and Bertrand were engaged to poison the young lady at the same time that La Voisin was killing Louis XIV; but the poisons employed a

not refrain from taking gloves,' said Romani, 'because those he would bring from Grenoble would be very well made, and ladies never failed to take some of them when they were well made, and the glo

of little notes which clearly prove the pl

the case is not th

rument of her passions was about to be interrogated, and would undoubtedly disclose to the attentive eyes of the judges the horrible practices in which the king's mistress had been concerned. It was at this very moment that Madame de Montespan, burning to realise her designs, entered into relations with Fran?oise Filastre, the friend of La Voisin, and after her the most terrible sorceress in Paris. Filastre wa

ion of which was hastened by loss of blood following an accouchement. The young woman died convinced that she had been poisoned, and suspecting her rival. Louis XIV, who had the same idea, feared that the autopsy might reveal the crime, and sought to prevent it; but the relatives

the prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes; and on that very day Louis XIV in terror ordered the sittings of the Chambre Ardente to be suspended. On October 17, 1680, Louvois wrote to La Reynie: 'I have received the letters you have done me the honour to write to me, and the king heard them read with pain.' Louis, then, ordered the closing of the Cham

rceresses. The prisoners almost all knew her: they spoke of her in the most positive manner. The girl Monvoisin pointed out her house, where she had been several times. Mademoiselle Des?

you have been so often to the sorc

not allow me

e beginning and repeated at the end is so strong that it is impossible to prevent her from being confronted with the people who have spoken about her,' his words fell on deaf ears at Versailles. When Madame de Ville

o appear, not before the judges, but before himself in his

ho have deposed against her are confined. She stakes her life that no one will be able to tell who she is. His Majesty has therefore been pleased to decide that I shall take her to Vincennes next Friday, and bring down Lesage, the

the prisoners in Vincennes, who were receiving information from without. This 'some one' was Madame de Montespan. No doubt the lieutenant of police took greater pr

ed with the prisoners, but he had her shut up for the rest of her days in close confinement. The wretched woman died on September 8, 1686, in the general hospital of Tours. And poor Madame d

e had made queen of the French Court, who was the mother of his favourite children-what were the sentiments and the attitude of King L

's declarations, Madame de Montespan had been utterly crushed, had burst into tears of confusion and humiliation; then, regaining command of herself, the masterful woman had risen to the height of her pride, with all the force of her passion and her hatred for her rivals. If it was true, she declared, that she had been driven to great crimes, it was because her love for the king was great, and great also

's nephew. We know, moreover, how much the famous statesman had at heart the national greatness to which he had so arduously contributed, and which in his view could not be dissevered from the greatness of the king. Madame de Maintenon had tenderly trained the children of Madame de Montespan, and retained a real affection for them all her life long. Let us add that Louis, with all his faults-his selfishness, his coarseness, his lack of feeling, his mediocre intellect-had at least a high sentiment of the royal dignity, and that in this awful crisis he did not for a moment depart from that calm and tranquil majesty at which al

10,000 pistoles-￡20,000 of to-day-a month; but when, in 1692, the double marriage of Madame de Montespan's children, Mademoiselle de Blois and the Duke de Mai

at St. Joseph's. 'She aired her leisure and anxieties,' says Saint-Simon, 'at Bourbon, at Fontevrault, at her estate at Antin, and for years wa

e de la Miséricorde-the words which give ease of mind and forgetfulness of the past. Though she tenderly loved those of her children whom she had borne to Louis XIV, it was towards the Duke d'Antin, the son she had by the Marquis de Montespan, that she diverted her solicitude, from a sense of duty, and, as Saint-Simon tells us, 'she occupied herself with enriching him.' 'The king had no manner of dealings with her,' writes the great chronicler, 'even through their children. Their attentions were discouraged, they thenceforth saw her only rarely and after having asked permission. The Père de la Tour

s foundations. 'Beautiful as the day,' says Saint-Simon, 'till the last hour of her life; though she was not ill, she always fancied that she was, and that she was going to die.' This anxiety encouraged a taste for travelling, and in her travels she always took with her seven or eight persons as

hich she amused herself, and at all hours of the day she would leave everything to go and pray in her closet. Her mortification of the flesh was constant: her chemises and sheets were of the roughest and coarsest unbleached linen, but they were concealed under ordinary sheets and underwear. She continually wore steel bracelets and garters, and a girdle of steel which often wounded her; and her tongue, for

ntiment of it a year beforehand. At the first attack of illness s

difying. She then received the last sacraments with ardent piety. The dread of death which all her life had so continually troubled her suddenly vanished and troubled her no more. She thanked God in the presence of them all for permitting her to die in a place where she was far away from the children of her sin, and during her illness spoke of them only this once.

ad counted on never seeing her again, and that she was from that time dead to him. He openly reproved the grief manifested by Madame de Montespan's children; and, to the stupefaction of the Court, he forbade them

rs and artists found in her, the radiant kindliness with which she sweetened the declining years of the great Corneille-in a word, the innumerable deeds of kindness she performed with as much intelligence as affection, the fruits of some of which remain to this day. It would require a Racine, with his penetrating mind, his ability to reconcile opposite extremes in one and