{"product_id":"the-affair-of-the-poisons-murder-infanticide-and-satanism-at-the-court-of-louis-xiv-9780297842163","title":"The Affair of the Poisons : Murder  Infanticide and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Affair of the Poisons  as it was known  was a scandal at which all France trembled and which horrified the whole of Europe as it implicated a number of prominent persons at the court of the Sun King  King Louis XIV in the late 17th century. It began with the trial of Marie Madeleine dAubray  Marquise de Brinvilliers  who conspired with her lover  Godin de Sainte-Croix  an army captain  to poison her father and two brothers in order to secure the family fortune and to end interference in her adulterous relationship. The marquise fled abroad  but in 1676 was arrested at Liege. The affair greatly worked on the popular imagination  and there were rumours that she had tried out her poisons on hospital patients. She was beheaded and then burned. The Brinvilliers trial attracted attention to other mysterious deaths. Parisian society had been seized by a fad for spiritualist seances  fortune-telling  and the use of love potions. The most celebrated case was that of La Voisin  a midwife and fortune-teller whose real name was Catherine Deshayes Monvoisin and whose clientele included the marquise de Montespan  Olympe Mancini (niece of Cardinal Mazarin and mother of Prince Eugene of Savoy)  and Marshal Luxembourg. No formal charges were made  and there is no evidence that they were seriously implicated  yet a permanent stain was left on their names. La Voisin was burned as a poisoner and a sorceress in 1680. A special court  the chambre ardente burning court  was instituted to judge cases of poisoning and witchcraft  and the poison epidemic came to an end in France. The affair was sympomatic of the witchcraft trials of the period throughout Europe. This bizarre witchhunt  which embroiled the gilded denizens of Versailles with the most sordid dregs of Paris society  remains both a fascinating enigma and an utterly compelling story.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45652306395189,"sku":"ByrdShop_0297842161","price":57.61,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780297842163.jpg?v=1781850776","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-affair-of-the-poisons-murder-infanticide-and-satanism-at-the-court-of-louis-xiv-9780297842163","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}