Pick Your Poison

During the 16th to the 18th centuries, the royal courts were renowned for their dangers, intrigues and deceptions. There were constant threats to the throne and there are entire libraries dedicated to the lengths a royal family would undergo in order to ensure that their offspring would either inherit the throne or to ensure they themselves would keep the throne. One way that royalty could ensure that their family line stayed in the ruling position was simple … remove the threat. This time in history is filled with tales of this royal having that royal poisoned, this mistress having that wife killed and so forth. The list is endless. Though there were many routes the royals utilized to exterminate their competition, some fairly inventive, this paper will focus on the more mysterious aspect utilized: poisoning. This topic was inspired by certain special ladies of the royal court such as Catherine de' Medici, the Marquise de Brinvillers and Catherine Deshayes, or as she was later called "La Voisine" (Hooper, 2006). This paper will focus on a select few of the plant derived poisons. Some of these poisons need to be introduced into the body via the skin while others can simply be ingested or inhaled. While there are some poisons that simply irritate the skin this paper focuses on poisons with serious enough side effects to end the life of an enemy. The poisons included in this paper are separated into three groups: poisons found in the wild, a poison that can be found in a garden (i.e., can be homegrown) and the last section covers the major poison of the Medici age. In the "Poisons Found in the Wild" section the toxins from the Curare plants and Hemlock plants will be discussed. The section titled "A Poison from the Garden" will cover the toxin isolated from the Castor bean of the Spurge family. The last section, "Especially Potent Poison," will focus on an especially nasty poison of the de' Medici era: strychnine.