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Welcome to Noble Blood, a production

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of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky.

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Listener discretion is advised. Since

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it's the week of Halloween, Let's start

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with a scary story. This

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is one called The Leather Funnel,

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written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It

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was written during one of the many periods in his

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life he was exhausted with writing stories

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about his famous detective Sherlock

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Holmes, and somewhat resentful

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of how successful that one character

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had become. Like all

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good scary stories, this one begins

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with a visitor coming to stay at the mysterious

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residence of a distant, eccentric

0:42

friend. As soon

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as the guest arrives, Thost

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apologizes profusely he

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doesn't have a spare bedroom, but he does have

0:51

a wide, comfortable couch in

0:54

his library. Our guest

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is, of course enchanted by the idea

0:58

of an evening company by

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a low crackling fireplace

1:03

and the warm parchment smell of

1:05

books, and he readily agrees.

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But as soon as the men enter the library,

1:12

the guest realizes that there are more

1:14

than just books there. As

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it turns out, the host is a collector

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and his library is where he displays

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his treasures, strange

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and maccabbre historical objects,

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most of which the guest can't even identify.

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One such object in particular, catches

1:32

his interest a large,

1:35

dark funnel constructed

1:37

of leather with brass accents, maybe

1:40

a foot long at its widest diameter.

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At the tapered side, the tube had deep

1:45

notches in it, like it was whittled

1:48

away by a very sharp knife.

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The host catches the guests staring

1:53

ah. He says, I see you've

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noticed my funnel. I've been wondering

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about this thing. I'll tell you what. Why

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don't you sleep with it next your head and

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see if you can glean anything about it from

2:04

your dreams. Our host was

2:07

not just a collector, but also

2:09

a student of the occult and the paranormal

2:11

workings of the mystical arts. The

2:14

guest agreed and went to sleep

2:16

on the couch in the library that, for

2:19

all of its strange objects, still

2:22

did have a warm, glowing fireplace

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and the familiar and wonderful smell

2:27

of books. As it so

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happened, that night, the man had a

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dream. He dreamt he was in

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a French prison cell where

2:36

a woman in a white night dress was

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being tortured. The woman's

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body was bent over something that looked

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like a wooden beam, just taller

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than her hip. She was pulled

2:47

over it backwards, so that her head

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was pulled down to the floor and her

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belly was thrust upwards. Her

2:54

ankles and wrists were chained to

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the ground while a nervously

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murmuring pre east watched on. The

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prison guards took a funnel,

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the same leather funnel, and

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forced it into her mouth. In

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his dream, the guests saw

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the massive jugs of water set

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nearby. Surely they can't

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be planning on forcing her to drink those.

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He thought, she'll drown, her

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stomach will burst. But

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to his horror, the guards

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in the dream picked up the first jug

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of water and poured it into the

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funnel. The woman flailed

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and recoiled, rattling

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the chains and thrashing violently.

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The priest left the room,

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horrified and seeing that there still

3:42

remained another jug full

3:44

of water to torture the woman with. The

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man awoke from his dream with a start,

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soaked with sweat, as though he had

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been the one doused with water in

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the morning. The host asked if

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he had any dreams. Dutifully,

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the man recount did everything he had seen

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the night before, the woman,

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the wooden beam, the jugs of water,

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the priest. The host's

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eyes lit up, and he raced

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back to a bookshelf to pull out a book.

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After a few moments of frantic flipping,

4:15

he found what he had been looking for, a

4:18

chapter about Madame de

4:20

Brinvillier, a marquise

4:22

who had been found guilty of poisoning

4:25

her brothers and her father, and

4:27

who had been tortured into confession with

4:30

what was ironically called the

4:32

water cure. You see,

4:35

the host explained, what you

4:37

saw in your dream actually happened,

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and this is the very funnel

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they used to inflict her torture. But

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what have the knife marks around the mouthpiece,

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the guest asked, Ah,

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said the host, The Marquise fought

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like a tiger. It seems like she

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had the teeth to match. Sir

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Arthur Conan Doyle's st worry is fictional,

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as is the power of dreams to reveal

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unknown truths, probably, but

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the story Doyle was referencing

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is absolutely true. The

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Marquise de Brinvilliers is one

5:13

of history's most famous poisoners,

5:16

a woman who's often painted as either

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evil or beautifully mad

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with love or both. It's

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impossible to know now the full extent

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of her crimes. What we can

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know is that she was a woman confident

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that she would get away with them,

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and the funny thing is she almost

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did. I'm

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danis sports and this

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is noble blood. If

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you had to be born a girl in sixty

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you couldn't hope to be born much better than Marie

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Meline Marguerite Debre, the

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future Marquise de Brinvilliers. Her

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father was a prominent Parisian bureaucrat,

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himself the son of a much respected treasurer.

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The family was incredibly well connected

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and also very rich, which

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meant that Marie's two brothers would

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each come into a sizeable inheritance,

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and that there was no reason in the world to

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think that their sister wouldn't marry extremely

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well and live in comfort for her entire

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life. Marie was the

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family's eldest child. No

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one would describe her as beautiful, maybe

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striking was a bit closer. After

6:30

meeting her, her general appearance

6:32

would fade from your memory, but

6:34

specific features would be tattooed

6:37

onto your brain. Extraordinarily

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thick, brown hair, bone,

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white, nearly translucent skin,

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blue eyes. She

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was better than her brothers at her letters,

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spelling words easily and writing

6:52

with thick, clean, bold,

6:55

firm lines that made her tutors

6:58

press their lips together in pleasure her and

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made her parents worry. Her

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siblings and playmates thought she came across

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as haughty and distant at best, or

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maybe slow in the head, even for her unwillingness

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to join them in silly games. But

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the truth was Marie was just uncommonly

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observant. She preferred

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to watch and to learn.

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Even as an adolescent, The future

7:24

Marquise de Burunvillier was shrewd

7:26

and sharp as a fresh cut

7:29

blade. Studious as

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she was, she refused to learn

7:33

her prayers or waste her mornings

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in church unless absolutely

7:37

forced. She was bored

7:39

and disinterested by religion, which

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seemed in her youth as just a minor

7:44

defect of an aristocratic woman. But

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looking back on the woman that she became,

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maybe it was a sign from the beginning. Maybe

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there is always a certain wickedness

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that lingered beneath her skin that

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repelled her from studying the Holy

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scripture, the same way a demon news

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to pull itself away from holy water

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at age twenty one. In sixteen fifty

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one, Marie got married to a titled

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nobleman and twine, gou Blond

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de Brunevillier, a marquis and

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a baron. Love might have been

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too much to ask for from the much older

8:19

man, who, even from their wedding night,

8:21

seemed to prefer the company of mistresses

8:23

to his new wife. But the Marquis

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treated Marie with something even less

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than affection, less than

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mild interest, something

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worse even than outright hatred,

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because at least hatred has a spark

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of passion to it. The Marquis

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treated the Marquise with complete

8:43

and utter indifference. He

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left his wife alone while he spent

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evenings in smoke filled parlors,

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sipping champagne and tasting sweets

8:53

and oranges, racking up gambling

8:55

debts and new women to take home. The

8:58

Marquise, who had, above all else

9:00

in childhood hated boredom,

9:03

was left to fend for herself. Well,

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that's not entirely true. The

9:09

Marquis did give his wife one kindness.

9:12

He introduced her to one of his young

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military friends, a tall

9:16

and handsome young officer the

9:18

marquis own age named

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Gaudine de Saint Croix. By

9:23

any estimation, Sant Croix was not

9:25

the sort of person a young, married

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aristocratic woman should be associating

9:30

with. He was an officer, yes,

9:32

but just a simple captain in the cavalry.

9:35

His birth could virtuously be called

9:38

dubious, although everyone knew

9:40

he was probably just a bastard. But

9:42

Sant Croix had a winning habit of smiling

9:45

when he talked to people, acting

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as if he was including them in on a secret.

9:50

He mirrored not only hand gestures

9:52

back at people, but personalities.

9:55

With vicars, he was pious and straight

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backed, with gamblers lush

10:00

an indulgent, and with the

10:02

Marquise de Burnevillier he was

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clever and patient and

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romantic. Far from

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being angry that his wife began in affair

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with one of his oldest friends, the

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Marquis was delighted it

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gave him more time to spend with his mistresses.

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Weeks would go by before the Marquis

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and the Marquise slept under the same roof.

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Husband and wife would occasionally lock

10:31

eyes from across the rooms of salons

10:33

and parties. Parties were the Marquis

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gambled and the Marquise glittered

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like a jewel on the arm of her lover,

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Sancroix. Meanwhile,

10:44

the marquise skill in picking up

10:46

new mistresses was matched only

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by his skill in picking up new debts.

10:51

And when every creditor in town began

10:54

to send out collection notices, the

10:56

nobleman ran, fleeing the

10:58

country and leaving his wife in

11:00

the capable hands of his former

11:02

friend. The Marquise de Burnevilliers

11:05

and Saint Croix were far from subtle.

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People began talking about the

11:10

way the woman behaved, flaunting

11:13

her affair, ignoring even

11:15

the pretense of her marriage. It

11:17

was almost disgraceful. And

11:20

remember this was coming from people

11:22

in France. Word

11:25

got to Madame de Bernevillier's brothers

11:27

about the way their sister was living

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in sin. They were outraged,

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and as a pair they arrived on the doorstep

11:35

of her Paris home unannounced, to

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beg her to abandon Saint Croix

11:40

in order to preserve the honor of the

11:42

family. When she refused,

11:45

their pleads turned to threats. They

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swore they would get a magistrate. The

11:51

Marquise de Bernevilliers laughed

11:53

in their faces. She wished them a

11:55

good day, shut the door and

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returned to her lover in the foyer. Burning

12:00

with humiliation, the marquise's

12:03

brothers went to their father, the

12:05

esteemed bureaucrat Drew d'lbrey.

12:08

The pair told their father what their sister

12:10

had been doing, how she had taken

12:13

up with a common soldier, flaunting

12:15

her disrespect of her marital vows.

12:18

Their father took a deep breath, He

12:21

rose and walked around to his desk,

12:24

where he carefully dipped his favorite pen

12:26

and ink and began to write. In

12:28

silence, The brothers looked

12:31

at one another, confused. For

12:34

several silent moments, they

12:36

watched their father write something on parchment,

12:39

crossing out a word here there before

12:42

Finally, he pursed his lips

12:44

with satisfaction, dusted

12:46

the ink to dry it, and sealed

12:48

the letter with his personalized

12:51

wax stamp. Finally,

12:53

he spoke, I will take

12:55

care of your sister. On

12:57

a brisk day at the end of March,

13:00

police stopped a carriage on a crowded

13:02

street and pulled a man out.

13:05

When the man demanded an explanation,

13:08

the policeman brandished a letter

13:10

from the King himself authorizing

13:12

the arrest. Onlookers

13:15

gawkeed the man agreed to

13:17

go without struggle. But please,

13:19

sir, he told the policeman, there's no

13:21

need to scandalize the young woman. I'm riding

13:24

with the crowds. Don't need to see

13:26

her face. Take me, but

13:28

please let the carriage continue

13:30

its journey home safely. The

13:32

policeman agreed, and

13:34

so, even as the Marquise de Bourunevillier

13:37

shouted from its window in protest

13:39

and anger, the carriage continued

13:42

on further and further

13:44

away, until the sight

13:47

of Sant Croix, her lover, being

13:49

arrested and pulled to prison, disappeared

13:53

in the chaos of the peristree. In

14:02

between Notre Dame and the Palace

14:04

of Justice on the Ille de la

14:06

Cite, in the heart of Paris lies

14:09

the city's oldest hospital, the

14:11

Hotel Dieu. It was

14:13

a grotesque place where

14:15

nuns and priest doctors patrolled

14:17

filthy hallways, three

14:20

thousand patients waiting in varying

14:22

proximity to death. The patients

14:25

with skin diseases and contagious

14:27

viruses lay next to mothers

14:29

in labor beds contained

14:31

six patients, three with their

14:33

heads at one end and three with their heads at

14:35

the other. Operations happened

14:38

in the middle of wards, in the full

14:40

view of other patients, and

14:43

all of the wards were just feet from the

14:45

hospital's dead house and dissecting

14:47

rooms. The stench

14:49

of death never left the place.

14:53

Even so, the noble ladies of

14:55

Paris came regularly to

14:57

bestow their largesse upon the less

14:59

fortune it. They arrived

15:01

in small groups, clutching handkerchiefs

15:04

to their noses to ward off the stench.

15:07

Among the most dedicated visitors

15:09

was the Marquise to Brunevilliers. Nearly

15:12

every day, the Marquise arrived at

15:15

the hospital bearing suits and wine

15:17

and biscuits, treats that she distributed

15:20

among the grateful and lonely sick who

15:22

had been waiting in boredom and misery.

15:26

The Marquise gave each a treat and a winning

15:28

smile and a flick of her

15:30

extraordinarily thick hair, and

15:33

they wondered if she was an angel. Brinvillier's

15:36

lover, San Croix, had been released

15:38

from prison at the Bastille after three

15:41

months, and since he returned

15:43

home, the pair acted as the very

15:45

models of Christian virtue. Brun

15:48

Villiers made her daily hospital visits.

15:51

Sant Croix went to confession and

15:53

the two were never seen at clubs or

15:56

parties together. Instead,

15:59

they were staying home and working

16:01

together side by side in

16:03

the new laboratory the Marquise de Briunflier

16:06

had paid for. In

16:09

prison. Sant Crois roommate was

16:11

a man named Exili, a mysterious

16:13

Italian who had been arrested for

16:16

coming into France while he was in the service

16:18

of the eccentric Queen of Sweden. He

16:20

was being detained while the French government

16:23

figured out exactly what he was there

16:25

to do and which of the stories

16:27

from his past were true and which

16:29

were mere rumors. People

16:32

said that Axily was a magician and

16:34

a poisoner, and that he had

16:37

worked in Rome under the illustrious

16:39

Madam Olympia, and that he had

16:41

been responsible for the deaths

16:43

of over one hundred and fifty people

16:45

with the strange tonics and waters

16:48

that he brewed. San

16:50

Croix had always been a smart man, always

16:53

knowledgeable about the clear, colorless

16:55

liquids that could be tipped into a cup

16:57

of wine, or the inheritance

17:00

powder, as they called it, that

17:02

could be sprinkled over a stew to haste

17:04

in a wealthy relative's demise. But

17:07

in his time in a cell with exili

17:10

he became an expert. He

17:12

learned about arsenic and belladonna,

17:14

and vitriol, and aquato fauna,

17:17

and in particularly noxious poison

17:19

venen de cropas, or toad

17:22

venom, which was brewed by

17:24

boiling down the liquids of a dead

17:26

toad and carefully distilling

17:28

its essence. And when

17:31

Saint Croix returned from prison, the

17:33

Marquise de Burunevilier was still bubbling

17:35

with anger towards her brothers and

17:37

towards her father, the men in

17:40

her life who had sold her to an indifferent

17:42

husband and then denied her the

17:44

only happiness she had ever known. What

17:47

could she take from the men who

17:49

had tried to take everything from her?

17:52

With her brother's gone, the Marquise

17:54

would inherit her father's vast estate.

17:57

She could take their fortunes, but

18:01

the Marquise thought she could

18:03

also take their lives, And

18:15

so the Marquise and Saint Croix

18:17

set to work mixing their own variation

18:20

on the poison aquaitot fauna, which

18:22

was already famous in the back alleys

18:24

of Europe among women who want to

18:27

taste in their widowhood. All

18:29

the while, the pair behaved pious

18:31

as Saints Saint Croix with

18:33

his church going and confessions, and

18:36

the Marquise de Burunevilliers with

18:38

her regular hospital visits. And

18:41

the Marquise had also been transformed

18:43

into a dutiful daughter. Three

18:45

years after Saint Croix had been sent to prison,

18:48

the Marquise's father visited Paris.

18:51

His daughter called on him, begging

18:53

for his forgiveness for her youthful

18:56

scandal and assuring him

18:58

that she had all but forgot in his letter

19:00

to the king. The two

19:02

became so close that when her father began

19:05

to feel ill and decided to retire

19:07

to his country estate for some clean air,

19:10

he invited his daughter to come be at his bedside.

19:13

His mood lifted as soon as she arrived,

19:16

and he jokingly chastised her for

19:18

not coming sooner. But

19:20

then her father's condition deteriorated.

19:24

It was slow at first and

19:26

then suddenly quicker. He

19:28

called upon the best doctors, but in

19:31

the end it was of no use. It

19:33

was his daughter, the Marquise de Burnevillier,

19:36

cooing at his bedside and wiping

19:38

his forehead with a wet cloth to soothe

19:40

him in his final moments before he died,

19:44

and a similar fate befell the Marquise's

19:46

two brothers. Strangely,

19:49

their health began to worsen soon

19:51

after. They hired a servant on their sister's

19:53

recommendation. She assured

19:56

them that there was absolutely no servant

19:58

in Paris more loyal, and

20:00

there wasn't. The servant filled

20:02

their wine glasses with the dedication

20:05

and precision of a man at

20:07

the top of his profession, and

20:09

as they became sicker, he never

20:11

left their sides. He was at

20:14

their bedsides day and night as

20:16

they died, first one

20:18

and then the other. The

20:20

poisons had been masterfully brewed,

20:23

slow acting and subtle, so

20:26

that even to a well trained eye, it

20:28

seemed as though the victims had merely

20:31

taken ill and died of natural causes.

20:34

Brinevilliers had become an expert.

20:36

She had tested the doses dutifully.

20:40

People didn't tend to pay attention to

20:42

the noble woman making a charitable visit

20:44

to a hospital, and people

20:46

paid even less attention to the impoverished

20:49

sick when they got even sicker.

20:52

Who could have noticed the way that the patients

20:54

all seemed to take a turn for the worse

20:57

After the Marquise de Brinvilliers had

20:59

come by to drop off one of her little

21:01

treats. You see, it took

21:03

years of trial and error to perfect

21:06

the dosage of her poisons, but

21:08

fortunately for the Marquise, she

21:11

had found the perfect test subjects.

21:20

For a decade, the Marquise de Brinvillier

21:23

lived a quiet life. Her

21:25

affair with Saint Croix had dampened

21:27

as affairs are wont to do in the aftermath

21:30

of homicide, and the two drifted

21:32

out of touch, although Brinvilliers continued

21:35

to pay for Saint croix laboratory, where

21:37

he continued his experiments with poisons.

21:40

That's where Saint Croix was found dead in

21:43

sixteen seventy two, collapsed

21:45

on the floor of his laboratory, next

21:48

to the broken fragments of the glass

21:50

mask that had been meant to protect

21:52

him from the deadly fumes with which he

21:54

was working. Saint Croix

21:57

was no longer content with poisons

21:59

made from liquid or powder. He

22:01

was chasing the idea that an item

22:03

could be so poisonous that merely

22:06

touching it would kill someone. There

22:08

were rumors that the elder brother of

22:11

Charles the seventh had died after

22:13

wiping his face with a poisoned napkin

22:15

at a tennis match, and that Catherine

22:17

de Medici had designed gloves that would

22:20

kill the wearer. As

22:22

san Croix worked on his own formula,

22:25

his glass mask protected him from the

22:27

fumes. At least it

22:29

had until it fell off

22:31

and broke. Sancroix

22:34

died heavily in debt. Like

22:36

the Marquise de Burnevillier's long disappeared

22:38

husband, her former lover was addicted

22:41

to the rush of gambling. When

22:43

the financiers examined his home, claiming

22:46

whatever looked like it could be sold, they

22:48

came across a strange locked

22:51

box. It was eighteen

22:53

inches long, seemed to be wrapped

22:55

in red dyed leather, and

22:57

there was a letter across the top. I

23:00

very humbly beg those persons

23:02

in whose hands this casket may fall

23:04

into, to be good enough to return

23:07

to Madame the Marquise de Burnevilliers,

23:10

as all that it contains concerns her

23:12

alone, and in case she should

23:14

have predeceased me, everything

23:17

in it is to be burnt without examination.

23:20

But unable to resist temptation, the

23:23

magistrate pried open the lid and

23:26

piqued inside. When

23:28

word reached the Marquise de Burnevilliers, that

23:31

Saint Croix was dead, and that the police

23:33

had found in his possession a small red

23:35

casket. The Marquise de Burnevilliers

23:38

fled the country

23:46

with whatever money she could gather. In a few

23:48

hours, Burnevilliers escaped

23:50

to London, then to Holland, and finally

23:53

to Antwerp, where she found refuge

23:55

in a convent. She lived

23:57

in exile for almost three years,

24:00

but the French police had not stopped

24:02

looking for her. Inside

24:04

that little red casket, the police

24:06

had found tiny vials containing

24:08

a white powder that, when thrown

24:11

on a fire, made it burn blue

24:14

arsenic. Also inside

24:17

the casket, perfectly preserved,

24:19

were letters detailing the exact

24:22

formula for poison that the

24:24

Marquise and her lover had spent years

24:26

concocting. Letters written

24:28

in the clean, bold, firm

24:31

handwriting of the Marquise de Brinevilliers.

24:35

She was found finally in that

24:37

nunnery in Antwerp by a magistrate

24:40

who disguised himself as a priest. As

24:42

soon as she was caught, she broke a glass

24:45

and tried to swallow the pieces to end

24:47

her life. When they no longer

24:49

allowed her glass, she tried to swallow

24:51

a pin, but unable

24:54

to kill herself. The Marquise de Brinvilliers

24:56

was brought to Paris to be tortured into

24:58

confession. Her body was

25:01

bent backwards across a wooden beam,

25:03

with her arms and legs chained to the floor.

25:06

A funnel was shoved into her mouth, and

25:08

the torturers forced down a full

25:11

gallon of water. You're

25:13

killing me, Brunevilliers sputtered.

25:15

When the gallon was finished, they

25:17

demanded that she name her accomplices.

25:20

She claimed that she had none left. The

25:23

torture continued. The

25:26

Marquise de Burunevilier was carried off

25:28

to her execution in a cart meant

25:30

for livestock. Her

25:32

hair was still brown and extraordinarily

25:35

thick. Her eyes were blue.

25:38

Her skin was bone white

25:40

and almost translucent, and

25:43

everyone could see her from the back of

25:45

the cart. When she reached

25:47

the execution platform a rough

25:50

knife, sheared off her hair to give the blade

25:52

a clear path to her neck. She

25:54

was facing the sun when the executioner

25:56

lowered a mask over her eyes. The

25:59

marquis peace began to pray,

26:01

but the axe cut her off mid sentence.

26:05

Usually after executions, the corpses

26:07

were stripped, but the Marquise's

26:10

body remained clothed. A

26:12

distant relative had bribed some one

26:14

or another to preserve her dignity or

26:16

the reputation of their family. In

26:19

that one small, final

26:21

way, the corpse, still

26:24

fully clothed, was placed on a

26:26

pyre and burned to ash.

26:29

History, especially modern history,

26:31

tends to have a problem with glamorizing

26:34

female murderesses. Allow

26:37

me to make it clear that I think the Marquise

26:39

is a villain, But perhaps you'll also

26:41

allow me to tell you the story, maybe

26:43

apocryphal, of what supposedly

26:46

happened when the magistrate had finally

26:48

caught her in that nunnery, and Marquise

26:50

immediately tried to swallow glass. You

26:53

wretched, The policeman shouted at her, you

26:56

want to kill yourself. You already poisoned

26:58

your father and your brothers, And

27:00

the Marquise responded with a bon mo.

27:03

So beautifully modern it seems

27:05

impossible to believe, like it

27:07

should be the final line in a Billy Wilder

27:09

film. Supposedly, the

27:12

magistrate confronted her with her murders,

27:15

and the Marquise looked back at him,

27:17

and she said, we all have our

27:19

bad moments. That's

27:27

the end of the Marquise de brine Villier's life.

27:30

But it's not the end of the story. Keep

27:32

listening after a brief ad break to hear

27:34

how heard. Case shook the French aristocracy

27:37

to its core. Enthralling

27:47

as the Marquise de brine Villiers murders

27:50

and gruesome as her torture and execution

27:52

were, her life was nothing

27:55

compared to the chaos that was about

27:57

to hit the French court of Louis the

27:59

four teeth, Because while

28:01

Brinvillier was being tortured, she

28:04

didn't give up the names of any co conspirators,

28:07

but she did say something that left law

28:09

enforcement reeling. Between

28:11

bouts of water torture, while choking

28:14

on the funnel they pulled from her mouth,

28:16

Brinvillier managed to say something

28:18

truly chilling. So

28:20

many of us are doing it, she remarked,

28:23

But only I get caught. The

28:25

terrifying thing was she was right.

28:29

The Affair of the Poisons, as this

28:31

frenzy of enforcement would come to be known,

28:34

led to three hundred and nineteen

28:36

arrests and thirty six individuals

28:39

sentenced to death. Poisoning,

28:41

especially among the upper class, had

28:44

become modus operandi for eliminating

28:46

enemies and rival airs. Self

28:49

styled witches ran back alley

28:51

apothecaries where they made tonics

28:53

and powders and potions to sell

28:56

to women willing to pay any price.

28:59

Once to woman, it seemed, was Madame

29:02

de Montespa, the official

29:04

mistress of King Louis.

29:07

It isn't known for sure if Montespan

29:10

bought poisons, although there are rumors

29:12

that she attempted to do in the newer

29:14

younger women that threatened to steal King

29:17

louise attention away. What we

29:19

do know is Madame de Montespan did

29:21

almost everything else in her power to

29:24

make sure that the King's attention didn't

29:26

leave her. After all, losing

29:28

her position as official mistress meant

29:31

losing everything in the world. Montespas

29:34

snuck love potions into the King's

29:36

food and wine, drops of menstrual

29:38

blood and sperm, iron filings,

29:41

and the iridescent green wings

29:43

of the Spanish fly beetles ground

29:46

into fine powder, and,

29:49

according to the most damning rumors

29:51

against her, she engaged in black

29:53

mass. They say she watched

29:56

a baby butchered before her in

29:58

a dim palace basement, and

30:00

then extended her tongue to

30:02

accept a communion waper dotted

30:05

with the dead infants blood. When

30:08

the affair of the poisons reached Madame

30:10

de montespan Louis the fourteenth

30:13

cooled down proceedings. He

30:15

spared her a criminal investigation, but

30:18

from that point on her position diminished,

30:21

then dwindled, until she was left with

30:23

nothing. For most

30:25

of recorded history, women have

30:27

been excluded from overt, mainstream

30:30

political participation. They're

30:32

shoved into drawing rooms and forced

30:34

to steal whatever shreds of power they

30:36

can with restrained smiles and

30:39

unrestrained cunning. And it's

30:41

no secret that people become desperate

30:43

when they have no control, when

30:45

their spectators to their own lives,

30:48

seeing themselves becoming boxed

30:50

in like human prey. For

30:53

the cost of a small vial of powder

30:56

and her soul, a woman

30:58

could become the architect of her own life,

31:01

or at least she could try to

31:03

be temporarily.

31:09

Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio

31:12

and Aaron Mankey. The show is written

31:14

and hosted by Dana Schwartz and produced

31:16

by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex

31:19

Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble

31:21

Blood is on social media at Noble

31:23

Blood Tales, and you can learn more about

31:26

the show over at Noble Blood Tales dot

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com. For more podcasts from I heart

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to your favorite shows.