La Chambre Ardente

7 April 1679, as the Affair of the Poisons erupts in Paris, Louis XIV establishes a secret tribunal to try those involved. Held in a room behind drawn curtains and lit only by a few candles, it was given the sinister name of la Chambre Ardente, or Burning Chamber.

Louis appointed Gabriel-Nicolas de La Reynie, his first lieutenant-general of Police, to investigate the poisoners, many of whom turned out to have connections with the court. So alarmed was Louis that he ordered all records of the interrogations and trials to be burned as soon as the investigation was closed. La Reynie, however, had kept his own copy of the records, and it is thanks to him that we know what went on during that dark and terrifying time.

Most of those who were found guilty were harmless fortune-tellers or peddlers in folk medicine. Only a small minority were involved in satanic rituals and murder.

It is often held that Louis's mistress, Madame de Montespan was heavily involved in the affair. It was said that she had taken part in black mass rituals and ordered poisons to dispatch love-rivals and even to murder the king if he dared to replace her with a new mistress.

This, however, is untrue. It was a common ploy among the accused, and who were awaiting execution, to name imaginary clients from the higher echelons of society. This, they believed, would buy them extra time while the authorities embarked on a new lead. It never worked, and those found guilty went to the fires at their appointed time. Mme de Montespan, who remained a sincere and devout Catholic all her life, occasionally visited fortune-tellers to see what their future held for them, but that was the extent of her involvement. In this, she was no different from any other young lady of her class.