Podcast Episode

The Affair of the Poisons - Part 1

Historical True Crime··17 July 2026·24 min

About this episode

In 1670s Paris, the deaths of a noblewoman’s father and brothers sparked fears of a hidden poison network. As police investigated, they were drawn into a world of fortune-tellers, love powders, secret remedies, and La Voisin , setting the stage for a scandal that would reach Louis XIV’s court.Source MaterialsAnne Somerset, The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIVHolly Tucker, City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of ParisAntonia Fraser, Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun KingNancy Mitford, The Sun King: Louis XIV at VersaillesBenedetta Faedi Duramy, “Women and Poisons in 17th Century France,” Chicago-Kent Law Review, Vol. 87, No. 2, 2012Erika Carroll, “Potions, Poisons and ‘Inheritance Powders’: How Chemical Discourses Entangled 17th Century France in the Brinvilliers Trial and the Poison Affair,” Voces Novae, 2012