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BRINVILLI

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 572 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRINVILLI ,ERS, See also:

MARIE MADELEINE See also:MARGUERITE D'AUBRAY, MARQUISE DE (c. 1630-1676), See also:French poisoner, daughter of See also:Dreux d'Aubray, See also:civil See also:lieutenant of See also:Paris, was See also:born in Paris about 163o. In 1651 she married the See also:marquis ' de Brinvilliers, then serving in the See also:regiment of See also:Normandy. See also:Con-temporary See also:evidence describes the marquise at this See also:time as a See also:pretty and much-courted little woman, with a fascinating See also:air of childlike innocence. In 1659 her See also:husband introduced her to his friend Godinde Sainte-Croix, a handsome See also:young See also:cavalry officer of. extravagant tastes and See also:bad reputation, whose See also:mistress she became, Their relations soon created a public See also:scandal, and as the marquis de Brinvilliers, who had See also:left See also:France to avoid his creditors, made no effort to terminate them, M. d'Aubray secured the See also:arrest of Sainte-Croix on a lettre de cachet. For a See also:year Sainte-Croix remained a prisoner in the See also:Bastille, where he is popularly supposed to have acquired a knowledge of poisons from his See also:fellow-prisoner, the See also:Italian poisoner See also:Exili. When he left the Bastille, he plotted with his willing mistress his revenge upon her See also:father. She cheerfully undertook to experiment with the poisons which Sainte-Croix,possibly with the help of a chemist, See also:Christopher See also:Glaser, prepared, and found subjects ready to See also:hand in the poor who sought her charity, and the sick whom she visited in the hospitals. Meanwhile Sainte-Croix, completely ruined financially, enlarged his See also:original See also:idea, and determined that not only M. Dreux d'Aubray but also the latter's two sons and other daughter should be poisoned, so that the marquise de Brinvilliers and himself might come into See also:possession of the large See also:family See also:fortune. In See also:February 1666, satisfied with the efficiency of Sainte-Croix's preparations and with the ease with which they could be administered without detection, the marquise poisoned her father, and in 167o, with the connivance of their See also:valet La Chaussee, ' her two See also:brothers. A See also:post-mortem examination suggested the real cause of See also:death, but no suspicion was directed to the murderers.

Before any See also:

attempt could be made on the See also:life of Mlle Therese d'-Aubray, Sainte-Croix suddenly died. As he left no heirs the See also:police were called in, and discovered among his belongings 'documents seriously incriminating the marquise and La ,Chaussee.: The latter was arrested, tortured into a See also:complete See also:confession, and broken alive on the See also:wheel (1673), but the marquise escaped, taking See also:refuge first probably in See also:England, then in See also:Germany, and finally in a See also:convent at See also:Liege, whence she was decoyed by a police emissary disguised as a See also:priest. A full See also:account of her life and crimes was found among her papers. Her attempt to commit See also:suicide was frustrated, and she ' was taken to Paris, where she was beheaded and her See also:body burned on the 16th of See also:July 1676. See G. Roullier,La Marquise de Brinvilliers (Paris; 1883) ; Toiseleur, Trois enigmes historiques (Paris, 1882).

End of Article: BRINVILLI

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