An Affair of Poisons(97)
Known as a Duchess Among Witches, La Voisin held an incredible amount of power and influence for a woman of her day. Taught by her mother at the age of nine to read faces and palms, La Voisin turned to fortune-telling to support her family when her husband, the jeweler Antoine Monvoisin, was ruined. At first she offered only tips and suggestions to make her clients’ wishes come to pass, but as she began to notice similarities in their requests—that someone would fall in love with them, that someone would die so that they might inherit, or that their spouses would die so they might marry someone else—she decided to supplement her suggestions with potions and deadly “inheritance powders.” La Voisin was not alone in this dubious business; by the end of the seventeenth century, there was a vast network of fortune-tellers, alchemists, and magicians providing similar services throughout all of France.
As La Voisin’s reputation grew, she began to attract the noblewomen of Paris, including high-profile clients such as Madame de Montespan. It’s difficult to determine the extent of Montespan’s involvement with La Voisin, as all evidence implicating the noblewoman was sealed in a coffer and burned by Louis XIV himself. It is generally agreed that La Voisin provided Montespan with aphrodisiacs and black masses, which she believed were responsible for helping her win and retain the king’s favor. When the king eventually dismissed Montespan in favor of Angélique de Fontanges in 1679, it’s rumored that she hired La Voisin and her associates to poison the Sun King and his new mistress. According to multiple testimonies, La Voisin did create a poisoned petition to be delivered into the king’s hands, but due to the overwhelming crowds that flocked to court with petitions, it was extremely difficult to gain access to the king. La Voisin attempted to deliver her petition three times to no avail. Before she and her accomplices could regroup, they were arrested, having been incriminated by a rival poisoner, La Bosse. La Voisin and 33 of her associates were executed between 1679 and 1682, and another 218 were arrested and imprisoned. The scandal ended when Louis XIV closed the investigation in order to protect members of his inner circle, and, most important, his reputation.
While these events are scandalous and gripping in their own right, I found myself wondering what could have happened if this plot to kill Louis XIV had been successful. I was also fascinated by La Voisin—this woman of little means or consequence, who became a successful businesswoman and leader of a network of witches and alchemists, obtaining fame, fortune, and influence beyond her wildest dreams. (She truly wore a crimson cloak studded with 205 golden eagles that cost as much as garments owned by the queen!) It seemed to me that someone with such drive and ambition might have had higher political aspirations. Since I was already changing history, I decided to give La Voisin her own motivation for killing the Sun King and imagined how things might have played out had her secret society taken hold of Paris.
Most of the characters in this book (excluding Josse and Mirabelle) are historical figures who played a part in the Affair of the Poisons. I endeavored to represent them as accurately as possible; however, I did take some liberties with personalities and timelines to suit my alternate version of history.
La Voison’s husband, Antoine Monvoisin, was alive and well—much to La Voisin’s dismay. She despised the man, whom she complained was financially inept and a vicious drunk. Lesage encouraged La Voisin to murder Antoine on several occasions, but she never followed through with it. It actually became something of a joke among her friends and colleagues; the proper way to greet La Voisin was to ask if her husband had dropped dead yet.
When La Voisin was arrested on March 12, 1679, her eldest daughter, Marie-Marguerite, was treated as a key witness rather than an accomplice in her mother’s criminal network. Marie-Marguerite’s testimony was paramount in incriminating La Voisin and other important players in the Affair of the Poisons. However, it would be hasty to assume she was wholly innocent. Having grown up in such a dangerous and volatile environment, Marie-Marguerite was a very conflicted individual who sometimes assisted her mother and other times did not. I wanted to play with this idea of guilt versus loyalty to one’s family, which is why I chose to make one daughter fiercely loyal to La Voisin and the other rebellious and wary. Guilty or not, Marie-Marguerite was arrested on January 26, 1680, and imprisoned for life by lettre de cachet—a direct order from the king, which could not be appealed—due to her damning knowledge regarding Madame de Montespan and other prominent members of court. The Abbé Guibourg, Lesage, and everyone who was a witness to Montespan’s involvement were similarly imprisoned. I would also like to note that La Voisin attempted to arrange a marriage between Marie-Marguerite and one of her associates, a man named Romani, whose name I changed to Fernand to avoid any confusion or association with the Romani people.
Louis XIV was actually residing at the palace of Saint-Germain when La Voisin and her associates attempted to deliver the poisoned petition into his hands. But since the palace at Versailles is so widely known and associated with the Sun King, I decided to set my coup d’état at this more dazzling location. Historically, it could have been possible. While the courtiers and other officials did not take up residence at Versailles until 1682, Louis XIV began staying there as early as 1674.
I also decided to give Josse’s siblings happier endings than they experienced in life. Louis, the Grand Dauphin, was never king, as he died before his father in 1711. Marie Thérèse, Madame Royale, died at the age of five of tuberculosis; however, I thought this story needed a fierce princess—someone to be caught between Josse and Louis’s quarrels. Louise Marie Anne de Bourbon (Anne) died at the age of six in 1681, which devastated her older sister, Louise Fran?oise de Bourbon (Fran?oise), as the girls were exceptionally close.