Affair of the Poisons
1676 CE to 1682 CE
The Affair of the Poisons (L'affaire des poisons) is a major murder scandal in France during the reign of King Louis XIV.
During it, a number of prominent members of the aristocracy are implicated and sentenced on charges of poisoning and witchcraft.
The scandal reaches into the inner circle of the king.The furor begins in 1675 after the trial of Marie-Madeleine-Marguerite d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, who had conspired with her lover, army captain Godin de Sainte-Croix, to poison her father Antonine Dreux d'Aubray in 1666 and two of her brothers, Antoine d'Aubray and Francois d'Aubray, in 1670, in order to inherit their estates.
There were also rumors that she had poisoned poor people during her visits in hospitals.
She fled but was arrested in Liège.
She is forced to confess, sentenced to death and on July 17 is tortured with the water cure (forced to drink sixteen pints of water), beheaded and burned at the stake.
Her accomplice Sainte-Croix had died of natural causes in 1672.
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