The Abb\u00e9 Guibourg could not identify the lady who allowed her naked body to be used as an altar <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
Later, as a part of de La Reynie\u2019s investigation, Marie Marguerite was required to identify Claude. At first, she declared that she did not know who the lady was. She later retracted this and admitted that the woman she had been shown was, indeed, Claude.<\/p>\n
As for Ath\u00e9na\u00efs, she had no reason to kill the king. Everything she had \u2013 her position, her influence \u2013 originated with him. The future prospects of their children also rested with the monarch. Circumstantial evidence for Ath\u00e9na\u00efs\u2019 innocence is provided by the fact that she did not know of Louis\u2019 liaison with Mademoiselle de Fontanges until spring 1679. Since La Voisin had already been arrested by this time, Ath\u00e9na\u00efs could not have had anything to do with the conspiracy against the lovers.<\/p>\n
None of this was enough to save Ath\u00e9na\u00efs\u2019 relationship with Louis. The king did not dismiss her from her post of superintendent of the queen\u2019s household, nor did he send her away from court, but their love affair was over. She continued at court until 1691 and retired to a life of piety and charitable works.<\/p>\n
What happened to Claude?<\/h3>\n
But what of Claude de Vin des \u0152illets, the true mastermind behind this extraordinary crimewave? On Louis\u2019 orders, Claude was not investigated about her involvement in the Affair of the Poisons \u2013 the king didn\u2019t want people to know that he was an assassin\u2019s target, and also sought to keep his relationship with Claude out of the spotlight.<\/p>\n
Instead, she retired to a luxurious life, dividing her time between her home on the rue Montmartre, Paris, and her ch\u00e2teau just outside the capital. Claude died in 1687, taking the true motivations behind her remarkable vendetta against the most powerful monarch in Europe with her to the grave.<\/p>\n
Josephine Wilkinson is an author specialising in French history. Her books include Louis XIV: The Power and the Glory<\/em> (Pegasus, 2020)<\/strong><\/p>\n
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This article was first published in the June 2023 issue of BBC History Magazine<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n
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What was Claude\u2019s connection to England?<\/h2>\nThis last point raises questions over Claude\u2019s motives, for she was frequently accompanied (and possibly bankrolled) by a mysterious Englishman, referred to in the records only as an \u201cEnglish milord\u201d.<\/p>\n