Case file · Witch trials
The Affair of the Poisons
From 1677 to 1682, a special court (the 'Chambre ardente') uncovered a Paris trade in poisons, love potions and black masses that reached Louis XIV's mistress, Madame de Montespan.
1679 CE · 48.87, 2.35 · status: official
The account
The fortune-teller Catherine Monvoisin, 'La Voisin', was burned in February 1680; the priest Étienne Guibourg was said to have said black masses over a woman's body. 36 people were executed. In 1682 a royal edict treated witchcraft as fraud.