Brinwilliers, MARIE MADELEINE, MARQUISE DE

Brinwilliers, MARIE MADELEINE, MARQUISE DE, poisoner, was the daughter of Dreux d'Aubray, lieutenant of Paris, and in 1651, while still young, was married to the Marquis de Brinwilliers. A gay and careless spendthrift, he allowed her to do very much as she pleased, and even introduced to her a handsome young officer, the Seigneur de Sainte Croix, who inspired her with a violent passion. Her father caused Sainte Croix to be arrested and imprisoned in the Bastille, where he learned from an Italian the properties of arsenic. On his release he imparted his fatal knowledge to his mistress, who, during his incarceration, had affected the greatest piety, spending most of her time in visiting the hospitals and in attending the sick. She now resolved to destroy her father, and, to test the efficacy of the poison, tried its effects on patients in the Hôtel Dieu. Having satisfied herself, she commenced operations on her parent, kissing and poisoning him continually for eight months, until her diabolical patience was exhausted, and she was at last induced to administer a very violent dose. He died, and no one suspected his daughter, who, aided by Sainte Croix and a domestic, Jean Amelin or Chausséc, next poisoned her two brothers and her sisters; her object being to find means of supporting her extravagant style of living with her paramour. She made several attempts to poison her husband; but Sainte Croix is said to have given him antidotes, dreading that he should be compelled to marry the widow. Sainte Croix died suddenly in 1672—his glass mask having fallen off while he was engaged in preparing a poison—and left documents incriminating the marchioness. She escaped to England, afterwards travelled into Germany, and next took refuge in a convent at Liège. From this, however, she was decoyed by an officer of justice disguised as an abbé, and conveyed to Paris. Among her papers was found a general confession of her crimes, whose truth she acknowledged after having been put to the torture, and on 16th July 1676 she was beheaded and burned at Paris (see CHAMBRE ARDENTE). Scribe made her the subject of a comic opera, and Albert Smith of a romance (1856). See also Bauplein, La Marquise de Brinwilliers (1871).