Catherine Montvoisin, known as "La Voisin" (c. 1640 - February 22, 1680), French sorceress, whose maiden name was Catherine Deshayes, was one of the chief personages in the famous affaire des poisons, which disgraced the reign of Louis XIV. Events December 1 - Portugal regains its independence from Spain and João IV of Portugal becomes king. ... February 22 is the 53rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events First Portuguese governor was appointed to Macau The Swedish city Karlskrona was founded as the Royal Swedish Navy relocated there. ... A sorcerer (from Old French sorcier; fem. ... Poison affair was a murder scandal in France during the reign of the king Louis XIV. It began a period of hysterical pursuit of murder suspects during which number of prominent people were implicated and sentenced for poisoning and witchcraft. ... Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné) (September 5, 1638–September 1, 1715), reigned as King of France and of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death at the age of 77. ...

Her husband, Monvoisin, was an unsuccessful jeweller, and she practised chiromancy and face-reading to retrieve their fortunes. She gradually added the practice of witchcraft, in which she had the help of a renegade priest, Etienne Guibourg, whose part was the celebration of the "black mass," an abominable parody in which the host was compounded of the blood of a little child mixed with horrible ingredients. She practised medicine, especially midwifery, procured abortion and provided love powders and poisons. Her chief accomplice was one of her lovers, the magician Lesage, whose real name was Adam Coeuret. Jewellery (spelled jewelry in American English) consists of ornamental devices worn by persons, typically made with gems and precious metals. ... Chiromancy or cheiromancy, (Greek cheir, “hand”; manteia, “divination”), is the art of characterization and foretelling the future through the study of the palm, also known as palmistry, palm-reading, or hand analysis. ... Witchcraft, in various historical, religious and mythical contexts, is the use of certain kinds of alleged supernatural or magical powers. ... In Christian tradition, Black Mass is the name given to a ceremony supposedly celebrated during the Sabbath, which was a parody of the Christian Mass. ...

The great ladies of Paris flocked to La Voisin, who accumulated enormous wealth. Among her clients were Olympe Mancini, comtesse de Soissons, who sought the death of the king's mistress, Louise de La Vallière; Mme de Montespan, Mme de Gramont (la belle Hamilton) and others. The bones of toads, the teeth of moles, cantharides, iron filings, human blood and human dust were among the ingredients of the love powders concocted by La Voisin. Her knowledge of poisons was not apparently so thorough as that of less well-known sorcerers, or it would be difficult to account for La Vallière's immunity. The art of poisoning had become a regular science. Louise Françoise de la Vallière (August 6, 1644 – June 7, 1710) was mistress to Louis XIV of France from 1661 to 1667. ... Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, marquise de Montespan Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart-Mortemart, marquise de Montespan (October 5, 1641 - May 27, 1707) was a mistress of Louis XIV. Born at the chateau of Tonnay-Charente, in todays Charente-Maritime, France, the daughter of Gabriel... Binomial name Lytta vesicatoria Linnaeus, 1758 The Spanish fly is an emerald-green beetle Lytta vesicatoria, (from Greek lytta = rage and Latin vesica = blister) in the family Meloidae. ...

The death of Henrietta Stuart, Duchess of Orléans, was attributed, falsely it is true, to poison, and the crimes of Marie Madeleine de Brinvilliers (executed in 1676) and her accomplices were still fresh in the public mind. In April 1679 a commission appointed to inquire into the subject and to prosecute the offenders met for the first time. Its proceedings, including some suppressed in the official records, are preserved in the notes of one of the official rapporteurs, Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie. Henrietta Anne Stuart (June 16, 1644 - June 30, 1670) was the youngest daughter of King Charles I of England and Queen Henrietta Maria of France. ... Marquise de Brinvilliers being tortured Marie-Madeleine-Marguerite dAubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers (1630-1676) was a French poisoner. ... Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie is considered to be the founder of the first modern police force. ...

She was convicted of witchcraft and was burned in public on the Place de Grève. Witchcraft, in various historical, religious and mythical contexts, is the use of certain kinds of alleged supernatural or magical powers. ... Burning of two sodomites at the stake outside Zürich, 1482 (Spiezer Schilling) Execution by burning has a long history as a method of punishment for crimes such as treason and for other unpopular acts such as heresy and the practice of witchcraft. ... The Place de Grève was, before 1803, the name of the plaza now the City Hall Plaza (place de lHôtel de Ville) in Paris, France. ...

Reference

• This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

Poison Affair, in French history, scandal implicating a number of prominent persons at the court of King Louis XIV. It began with the trial of Marie Madeleine d'Aubray, marquise de Brinvilliers (c.1630–76). She 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. Her husband escaped the same fate by his complaisance. An investigation was made, and the marquise fled abroad, but in 1676 she was arrested at Liège. The affair greatly worked on the popular imagination, and there were rumors 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 séances, fortune-telling, and the use of love potions. Some of the quack practitioners undoubtedly also sold poison (called “inheritance powders” at the time); after their arrest they furnished the police with lists of their clients, who often were guilty merely of having their palms read or of buying an aphrodisiac, and accused them of complicity in their crimes. 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), her sister Marie Anne Mancini, and Marshal Luxembourg (duke and peer of France and one of the military heroes of the time). No formal charges were made against any of these, 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 symptomatic of the witchcraft trials of the period throughout Europe and in New England; however, the judicial investigation was conducted generally with far more regularity and far less hysteria than elsewhere. Supporters contend that the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1910-1911) represents the sum of human knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century; indeed, it was advertised as such. ...