As long as there is a human society, so many of its individual representatives are looking for the most effective ways to send neighbors to their forefathers. Poisons play an important role here. It is not known who first thought of treating an opponent with poisonous mushrooms. Perhaps it was the leader of some ancient tribe, and a certain “mushroom man” from his retinue had previously experienced the deadly properties of specific mushrooms …
Fatal legacy
First, let's go to Italy in the 15th century, because this country occupies a significant place in the history of poisoning. In 1492, the Spanish ruling couple, Isabella and Ferdinand, who dreamed of having support in Rome, spent a fantastic amount at that time - 50 thousand ducats to bribe the Cardinal called the Borgia). The adventure was a success: Borgia became pope under the name of Alexander VI. The Dominican monk Savonarola (accused of heresy and executed in 1498) wrote about him as follows: "While still a cardinal, he gained notorious fame thanks to his many sons and daughters, the meanness and vileness of this offspring." What is true is true - together with Alexander VI in intrigues, conspiracies,the elimination of unwanted persons (mainly by poisoning) played an important role his son Cesare (later cardinal) and daughter Lucretia. Pope Julius II, who occupied the Holy See since 1503, testifies to the poisoning of noble and not so people. Let us quote literally one of the chroniclers. “As a rule, a vessel was used, the contents of which could one day send to eternity an inconvenient baron, a wealthy church minister, an overly talkative courtesan, an overly playful valet, yesterday still a devoted murderer, today still a devoted lover. In the darkness of the night, the Tiber took the unconscious bodies of the cantarella victims into its waves.occupied the Holy See since 1503. Let us quote literally one of the chroniclers. “As a rule, a vessel was used, the contents of which could one day send to eternity an inconvenient baron, a wealthy church minister, an overly talkative courtesan, an overly playful valet, yesterday still a devoted murderer, today still a devoted lover. In the darkness of the night, the Tiber took the unconscious bodies of the cantarella victims into its waves.occupied the Holy See since 1503. Let us quote literally one of the chroniclers. “As a rule, a vessel was used, the contents of which could one day send to eternity an inconvenient baron, a wealthy church minister, an overly talkative courtesan, an overly playful valet, yesterday still a devoted murderer, today still a devoted lover. In the darkness of the night, the Tiber took the unconscious bodies of the cantarella victims into its waves.
Here it is necessary to clarify that "cantarella" in the Borgia family was called a poison, the recipe for which Cesare received from his mother, the Roman aristocrat Vanozza dei Cattanei. Probably, the composition of the potion contained white phosphorus, copper salts, arsenic. Well, and only then some so-called missionaries brought from South America the juices of plants so poisonous that it was not difficult for any papal alchemist to prepare murderous mixtures with the most diverse properties from them.
Death rings
As legends say, either Lucretia or Alexander VI himself had a key that ended in a tiny point. This point was rubbed with poison. The key was handed over to the intended victim with a request to open some secret door "as a sign of absolute trust and favor." The tip only slightly scratched the guest's hand … That was enough. Lucrezia also wore a brooch with a hollow needle, like a syringe needle. Here the matter was even simpler. An ardent hug, an accidental prick, an embarrassed apology: "Oh, I'm so awkward … This brooch of mine …" And that's all.
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Cesare, who tried to unite the principality of Romagna under his rule, was hardly more humane. The above-mentioned chronicler tells about him: “His insolence and cruelty, his entertainment and crimes against friends and foes were so great and so well-known that he endured everything in this regard with complete indifference. This terrible curse of the Borgia lasted for many years, until the death of Alexander VI put an end to it and allowed people to breathe freely again. Cesare Borgia owned a ring containing a cache of poison that was opened by pressing a secret spring. So he could quietly add poison to his companion's glass … He also had another ring. On the outside it was smooth, and on the inside it had something like snake teeth, through which the poison entered the blood when shaking hands.
These famous rings, like others belonging to the ominous Borgia family, are by no means fiction, some of them have survived to this day. So, one of them bears a monogram of Cesare and his motto is engraved: "Do your duty, no matter what happens." A sliding panel was mounted under the frame to cover the poison cache.
Boomerang effect
But the death of Alexander VI could be commented on with sayings: "Don't dig a hole for another, you yourself will fall into it", "For what you fought, you ran into it," and so on in the same spirit. In a word, it was like this. The wicked pope decided to poison several cardinals he disliked at once. However, he knew that his meal was feared, so he asked Cardinal Adrian da Corneto to give him his palace for the feast. He agreed, and Alexander sent his valet to the palace in advance. This servant was supposed to serve glasses with poisoned wine to those whom Alexander himself would indicate with a conventional sign. But something went wrong with the poisoners. Either Cesare, who was preparing the poison, confused the glasses, or it was a valet's mistake, but the killers themselves drank the poison. Alexander died after four days of torment. Cesare, who was about 28 years old, survived but was left disabled.
Cobra strikes
And now let's take a look at France of the 17th century, where no less monstrous events took place. "Poisoning," wrote Voltaire, "persecuted France during its glory years, just as it happened in Rome during the best days of the republic."
Marie Madeleine Dreux d'Aubre, Marquise de Branville, was born in 1630. At a young age, she got married, everything was fine, but a few years after the marriage, the woman fell in love with officer Gaudin de Sainte-Croix. Her husband, a man of broad views, was not shocked by this connection, but her father Dreux d'Aubre was indignant. At his insistence, Saint-Croix was imprisoned in the Bastille. And the Marquis harbored evil … She told Sainte-Croix about her father's enormous condition and about her desire to get it, having finished with the obnoxious old man. This is how this terrible story began.
In conclusion, Sainte-Croix met an Italian named Giacomo Exili. He introduced himself as a student and assistant of the famous alchemist and pharmacist Christopher Glaser. And this Glazer, it should be noted, was a very respectable figure. The personal pharmacist of the king and his brother, who not only enjoyed the patronage of the highest aristocracy, but also arranged public demonstrations of his experiments with the highest permission … But Exili said little about these aspects of his teacher's activities, more about himself. Whether or not Giacomo lied about proximity to Glaser, he said he ended up in the Bastille for "closely studying the art of poisons."
Sainte-Croix in love just needed that. He saw a chance to learn this "art" and with open arms went to meet the Italian. When Sainte-Croix was freed, he presented the Marquise with recipes for "Italian poisons", which soon, with the help of a number of knowledgeable (and poor) alchemists, were embodied in real poisons. From that day on, the fate of the Marquise's father was a foregone conclusion, but the officer's young beloved is not so simple as to act without a firm guarantee. The Marquise became a selfless nurse at the Hotel Dieu hospital. There she not only tested the poison on patients, but also made sure that doctors could not find traces of it.
The Marquis's father was carefully killed, feeding him small portions of the poison for eight months. When he died, it turned out that the crime was committed in vain - most of the fortune passed to his sons. However, nothing could stop the reptile - the one who started killing usually does not stop. The young beauty poisoned two brothers, a sister, a husband and children. Her accomplices (the same alchemists) were arrested and confessed. By that time, Saint-Croix could not help his beloved in any way - he had died long before that in the laboratory, having breathed in the vapors of the potion. The Marquise tried to flee France, but was captured in Liege, exposed, tried and executed in Paris on July 17, 1676.
Queen of Poisons
And soon the baton of poisoning was taken by a woman known as La Voisin. Her "official" profession was fortune-telling, but she earned fame for herself as the "queen of poisons." La Voisin told her clients: "Nothing is impossible for me." And she predicted … But she did not just prophesy to the heirs the imminent death of their rich relatives, but helped to implement (not for nothing, of course) their predictions. Voltaire, prone to derision, called her drugs "powders for inheritance." The end came when La Voisin became involved in a conspiracy to poison the king. After her execution, arsenic, mercury, plant poisons, as well as books on black magic and witchcraft were found in the secret room of her house.
However, the collapse of the poisoner and the widespread knowledge of the circumstances of this helped little and taught few people. The 18th century and the reign of Louis XV did not rid France of conflicts that were resolved with the help of poisons, just as no era has rid any country of them.
Andrey BYSTROV