Continuing our spooky month theme of women and the supernatural is this post looking at Catherine Deshayes, also known as La Voisin. As well as being a fortune teller, and wealthy businesswoman, Catherine was also an alleged witch who attempted to kill a king…intrigued read on to find out more.
Catherine was born sometime around 1640, as she was no one of note nothing is known about her early life, at some point she met and married Antoine Monvoisin, a jeweller and silk merchant with a shop in Pont-Marie, Paris. When his business failed it fell to Catherine to support their family; she did this by practising fortune telling, a skill she supposedly learned as a child. Although they had six children together it was not a happy marriage, Catherine was known to have multiple lovers, including the magician Adam Lesage, who attempted to get her to kill her husband. Although Catherine initially agreed, she later changed her mind.
By the late 1660s Catherine was living at Villeneuve-sur-Gravois, which allowed her to see clients during the day and entertain “…the Parisian upper class society at parties with violin music in her garden at night.” Catherine went to great lengths to create the perfect atmosphere to make her more believable to her clients, this included spending 1,500 livres on a crimson red velvet robe embroidered with gold eagles to perform in. Her clients were among the highest aristocracy of France, and included; Olympia Mancini, comtesse de Soissons; Marie Anne Mancini, duchess de Bouillon; Elizabeth, comtesse de Gramont, and François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg. In either 1665 or 1666, Catherine’s abilities were questioned by the Congregation of the Mission at Saint Vincent de Paul’s order. When called in for questioning in front of the professors at Sorbonne University, she was able to represent herself successfully and as such was allowed to continue her business as a fortune teller. Speaking of her success as a fortune teller Catherine said; “…she had merely used and developed what God had given her, which she developed her art by studying the modern methods of physiology, and the art of reading the client’s future by studying their face and hands.”
Her success led to Catherine expanding her business to include services which “…purported magic to make their wishes come true.” At first she told her clients that their wishes would come true, “…if they were also the will of God.” This then grew to her recommending actions her clients should take to make their dreams come true, initially this was to visit a church which was dedicated to particular saints, but evolved to the selling of amulets, recommending rituals and the manufacturing of love powders. Ingredients for which supposedly included;
- Toad bones
- Moles teeth
- Spanish fly
- Iron fillings
- Human blood
- Mummy dust.
The most radical and expensive service she offered were Black Masses. During a Black Mass, clients could “…pray to Satan for their wish to come true.” It was alleged that during some masses; “…a woman performed as an altar, upon which a bowl was placed: a baby was held above the bowl, and the blood from it was poured into the bowl.” It is debated whether the babies used were killed specifically for the ritual or if they were already dead from natural causes.
Catherine also offered midwifery services, and began offering abortions, which were illegal at the time, amoungst her clients were wealthy members of the aristocracy. Another service Catherine offered was the selling of fatal poison to those who wished for someone to die. She didn’t work alone and had a network of people she worked with including the notable the apothecary Catherine Trianon, Catherine Lepère who performed abortions, Adam Lesage, who performed ‘magical tasks’, and Étienne Guibourg and abbé Mariotte, who officiated at the black masses.
Away from her business Catherine was interested in science and alchemy and used some of her wealth to fund “…several private projects and enterprises,” but sadly she was not always the best judge of character and was swindled by con artists. Her known alcoholism likely contributed to lapses in judgement. She also found herself embroiled in a feud with rival poisoner Marie Bosse who claimed that the foetuses of babies aborted late in pregnancy were “…burned in a furnace at the house of La Voisin and buried in the garden of her house.” Given that abortions were illegal, this could have spelled the end of Catherine’s career, however, Louis XIV ordered that the part of her business that delt with abortions was not to be investigated, and it has been suggested that this is because her client list included members of the French aristocracy.
Amongst Catherine’s clients was Madame de Montespan, the official royal mistress to King Louis XIV of France, in fact, some argue she was the most important of all Catherine’s clients. It is alleged that in 1667 Montespan hired Catherine to arrange a black mass to be held in a house in Rue de la Tannerie, during which she “…prayed to win the love of the king.” That same year, Montespan became the official mistress of the King, and from then on would employ Catherine “…whenever a problem occurred in her relationship with the King.” Such as in 1673, when the King’s interest in her began to wane, and she once more had Catherine provided a series of black masses, where on at least one occasion, Montespan acted as the human altar. Catherine also gave her an aphrodisiac to give to the king. Things turned towards the darkside in 1679 when Montespan asked Catherine to kill the King and his new mistress Angélique de Fontanges. Catherine was said to have been reluctant at first, but eventually agreed and along with Catherine Trianon, who tried unsuccessfully to get Catherine to change her mind, formed a plan to kill the king by poisoning a petition that would be placed directly into his hands.
On the 5th of March, 1679, Catherine herself visited the royal court in Saint-Germain to deliver the petition, the plan was thwarted because there were too many petitioners that day, and the King didn’t take their petition. Catherine ordered her daughter Marguerite Montvoisin to burn the petition and made plans to meet with Catherine Trianon to plan their next murder attempt, however, she was arrested on the 12th of March, before they could meet to form a new plan. Catherine’s arrest was soon followed by the arrests of the rest of her network.
Despite a formal order giving permission to use torture during her interrogations, Catherine was never tortured, some historians belive this is because there was a fear that she would reveal the names of her influential clients if questioned under torture. Tourture it seems wasn’t needed as her interrogators took advantage of her alcoholism and “…kept her in a state of drunkenness during her interrogations.” Initially, she claimed to have referred anyone who wanted to buy poison to Marie Bosse, and denied burning the bones of aborted infants that could not be buried in her garden. By October she admitted she had “…sold poison and magical services to several members of the royal court,” but denied ever meeting or serving Montespan. Catherine likely feared that if they knew Montespan had been her client and that she attempted to kill the King, she would be executed for regicide.
Catherine’s trial began on the 17th of February, 1680, she was convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to execution by burning. In the days before her execution Catherine continued to be questioned, it is debated if tourture was used during these interrogations. One account claimed that she was tortured to the point she “…begged for mercy.” However, Madame de Sevigne, who observed La Voisin before her execution, described her as being “….able to move so freely and so seemingly healthy that it did not seem possible for her to have been subjected to torture.” Whatever the truth, the authorities learned nothing new from their questioning. Catherine was executed on the 22nd of February, in Paris. It is said she was drunk at the time of her execution and “…desperately tried to push away the hay which was piled up around her,” as the flames grew.
Catherine was an intriguing figure who came from nothing and wound up being a key player amongst the highest ranks of Parisian society. With a life story that reads more like fantasy than fact, Catherine is a historical figure everyone should know about, especially in spooky season.
Author: Gemma Apps.
Sources:
The Royal Art of Poison by Elanor Herman.
Madame De Montespan Biography – Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline (thefamouspeople.com)
Who Was La Voisin? France’s Socialite Poisoner For Hire | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net)
Sagas of She 