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The Affair of the Poisons

6/25/2026

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The affair of the posions. host: kristin. Image: Black and white drawing of Catherine Monvoisin in a frame held by a winged demon-like creatures. She is a heavy white woman with a serious expression
In 1676, the Marquise de Brinvilliers stood trial in Paris for poisoning. It was a shocking revelation – and result – and, as it turned out, only the beginning of a much larger scandal known as the Affair of the Poisons. Learn about the scandal that rocked Paris on this episode of Footnoting History!          

Host: Kristin 
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Further Reading
 
Benedetta F. Duramy, “Catherine La Voisin: Poisons and Magic at the Royal Court of Louis XIV,” Toxicology in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, (2017), 135-140.
 
Benedetta F. Duramy, “Women and Poisons in 17th-Century France,” Golden Gate University School of Law, (2012). 
 
Philippe Jaussaud, “L’affaire des poisons : entre science et littérature, une ressource pour l’enseignement,” HAL SHS Sciences humaines et sociales, (2013).
 
Lynn Wood Mollenauer, Strange Revelations: Magic, Poison, and Sacrilege in Louis XIV's France, Penn State University Press, (2007).
 
Frances Mossiker, The Affair of the Poisons: Louis XIV, Madame de Montespan, and One of History's Great Unsolved Mysteries, Knopf, (1969).
 
Nicholas Paige, “L'affaire des poisons et l'imaginaire de l'enquête : de Molière à Thomas Corneille,” Littératures classiques, (2000), 195-208.
 
Erika Lea Harmon Pratte, Sabrina Bryant, Cynthia Handley and Margot Hall, “Pick Your Poison,” The Chemist: Journal of the American Institute of Chemists, 84:2 (2014), 19-29.
 
Anne Somerset, The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV, St. Martin’s Press, (2004).  

Images

Catherine Deshayes, veuve Montvoisin, dite La Voisin, Gallica Digital Library, public domain, via Wikipedia.

Portrait of Marie Madeleine Marguerite d'Aubray, Marchioness of Brinvilliers (on the day of her execution, 16 July 1676), by Charles Le Brun, via Wikipedia. 

Related Content

This episode is part of our Women's History and True Crime series.

Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)
Pencil rendition of a woman laying on her back looking pained with her hands clasped on her chest, wearing a bedgown and bonnet
Portrait of Marie Madeleine Marguerite d'Aubray, Marchioness of Brinvilliers (on the day of her execution, 16 July 1676), by Charles Le Brun
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