After the conviction of Marie Madeleine, the authorities became suspicious and started an internal investigation at the insistence of the King. The authorities brought together a number of fortune-tellers and alchemists that were suspected of selling “inheritance powers,” or in other words: Poison.
Many confessed but the most infamous case involved a mid-wife named Catherine Deshayes Monvoisin, or La Voisin, who implicated, Marquise de Montespan, the mistress of King Louis XIV.
La Voisin claimed that she and de Montespan laid many love spells onto the King. There was talk of a sacrifice of an infant and a blood bath over de Montespan’s naked body during a Black Mass. The blood was then taken and used to make crackers for the King. This would assure his love for only de Montespan. She did indeed become his mistress after that.
There was so much talk of de Montespan was possibly conspiring to kill King Louis XIV that in order to hush the entire scandal, he had no choice but to send her into exile as a former mistress. History claims he visited her in her private room in the castle everyday. While there is no proof that the young de Montespan partook in anything unholy, she lost the King anyway and was eventually sent to Filles de Saint-Joseph convent, in the rue Saint-Dominique in Paris.
La Voison was sentenced to death for witchcraft and poisoning and burned at the stake.
The marquise de Montespan
Born October 5, 1641(1641-10-05)
Lussac-les-Châteaux, France
Died May 27, 1707 (aged 65)
Bourbon-l'Archambault
Occupation Maîtresse-en-titre (longest in time) to Louis XIV of France from 1667 to 1681, his reign was from 1643-1715
Spouse(s) Louis-Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin, marquis de Montespan
Children
1. Louis-Henri Pardaillan de Gondrin, marquis d'Antin;
2.Marie-Christine de Pardaillan de Gondrin
3. Louise Françoise de Bourbon;
4. Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine;
5 .Louis César de Bourbon, comte de Vexin;
6 .Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Nantes;
7. Louise Marie Anne de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Tours;
8. Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Blois;
9. Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse.
Parents Gabriel de Rochechouart de Mortemart, duc de Mortemart,
Diane de Grandseigne
L' original work " Catherine Montvoisin, known as the Neighbor, empoisonneuse, carried out in place of Strike in 1681 (vers1640-168" was realized by l' artist Chasteau Guillaume (1635 - 1683)
Sources:
All art work is public domain since its copyright has expired.
Petitfils, Jean-Christian, Madame de Montespan, Librairie Arthème Fayard, Paris, 1988 (ISBN 2213022429).
