0:00:06 > 0:00:10Bonjour. Welcome to Inside Versailles, where it's got...
0:00:10 > 0:00:14- It's pretty dramatic - I think we can agree on that one.- Hot stuff.
0:00:14 > 0:00:15Literally hot stuff.
0:00:15 > 0:00:20So we have seen, in this series, the rise and fall of Athenais and
0:00:20 > 0:00:24the introduction of a new... well, mistress.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26How would you describe that relationship?
0:00:26 > 0:00:29Louis does the classic - he falls for the nanny!
0:00:29 > 0:00:32And here we see Louis completely fascinated by
0:00:32 > 0:00:34Madame Scarron, Madame de Maintenon.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37They love having these conversations about religion and philosophy.
0:00:37 > 0:00:39The court is shocked.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41They can't believe he's with this old woman,
0:00:41 > 0:00:44with this dreary woman, with this quite plain woman.
0:00:44 > 0:00:46But it does seem clear that Louis is falling in love with her.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49So, across the series, we've seen poisons and murdering,
0:00:49 > 0:00:54we've seen strange dark masses. People at home might be thinking
0:00:54 > 0:00:57this is all sort of made up and sexed up for telly.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00Actually, this is real, this is one of the biggest scandals in French
0:01:00 > 0:01:03history from that period, and it's called the Affair of the Poisons.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06And what happens is Louis begins to realise that everyone's been
0:01:06 > 0:01:09poisoning each other - it's not just natural causes.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12And he really launches this very special investigation.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14Except, as soon as they launch the commission,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17they realise there's a huge number of people involved here,
0:01:17 > 0:01:20and some of these people are big, high-profile names.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24For Louis, he can't allow this to get out cos it's humiliating,
0:01:24 > 0:01:28and the people at his court are implicated in the most horrific crimes.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32So the public investigation is redacted and de la Reynie goes
0:01:32 > 0:01:34undercover and does a private investigation.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39And the real problems come with this lady here, and this is La Voisin.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42- She is the basis of Agathe in the drama.- Yep.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45They burn her at the stake. It's a public execution.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47We can see here everyone's watching it, then there were all these
0:01:47 > 0:01:49- cartoons and pictures of it. - And pamphlets, yeah.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52And Louis thinks that if you get rid of her,
0:01:52 > 0:01:54you put the fire out but, unfortunately,
0:01:54 > 0:01:58the minute that she is dead, her daughter, Marie Marguerite,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01who's been rather oppressed by her mother, she says,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04"There's one client that my mother never mentioned,"
0:02:04 > 0:02:06and that is Athenais.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09And you couldn't imagine a bigger bombshell.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12This is also terrifying because we're now talking treason of
0:02:12 > 0:02:16the highest order against the King himself from his lover.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19- As with all murder, you have to ask, who benefits?- Yes.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23And what benefit did it possibly have to her to kill the King?
0:02:23 > 0:02:26Yes, use love potions, yes, use beauty potions,
0:02:26 > 0:02:29but what would be the point of killing him when the Dauphin
0:02:29 > 0:02:31would become king and, the minute the Dauphin became king,
0:02:31 > 0:02:34he would push her out of favour?
0:02:34 > 0:02:38There's also this interesting sort of cover-up notion because
0:02:38 > 0:02:41Nicolas de la Reynie, the chief of police, has sort of spent six years
0:02:41 > 0:02:44piecing this all together, he's interrogated all the suspects,
0:02:44 > 0:02:49La Voisin's daughter, several other sort of key names,
0:02:49 > 0:02:52and he then burns his papers or maybe the papers are burned,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55but some survive, and that's how we know about the Affair of the Poisons
0:02:55 > 0:02:58- because Louis did a really good job of just sort of... - Trying to cover it up.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01..covering it up, and this is where it gets technical and tricky
0:03:01 > 0:03:04because some of the others, who have not yet been burnt at the stake,
0:03:04 > 0:03:07who have certainly done pretty serious crimes, well,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10they can't be allowed to go free because they might be guilty,
0:03:10 > 0:03:13and you can't burn them at the stake because that means they're guilty
0:03:13 > 0:03:15and then everyone goes, "Hang on a minute!
0:03:15 > 0:03:16"How many poisoners were there?"
0:03:16 > 0:03:18You know, you can't have that scandal,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21so the only course of action is you chuck them in prison,
0:03:21 > 0:03:24throw away the key and never hear from them again.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28So the aftermath of the Affair of the Poisons - it has some pretty big effects.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30It wipes out a lot of this magical underworld,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33but also Louis says, "You know what?
0:03:33 > 0:03:35"The best way to deal with this is through law,
0:03:35 > 0:03:38"and this is by saying that these people aren't witches or criminals,
0:03:38 > 0:03:40"they're just frauds, and they're actually just making it all up,
0:03:40 > 0:03:43"so we're not going to arrest them." So he decriminalised it.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45Yeah, he does.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48What he does is, rather cunningly, instead of coming down hard
0:03:48 > 0:03:52on witchcraft, he goes, "No, it's just bunkum, it's just hokum."
0:03:52 > 0:03:54So the Affair of the Poisons - it's a huge scandal,
0:03:54 > 0:03:56Versailles becomes a laughing stock,
0:03:56 > 0:03:58it's talked about all over Europe, and it has
0:03:58 > 0:04:01this huge effect on Louis that he changes,
0:04:01 > 0:04:04he moves towards morality, he moves towards virtue,
0:04:04 > 0:04:08he moves away from Athenais towards Madame de Maintenon.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12And that is really a beginning of a new type of Versailles, isn't it?
0:04:12 > 0:04:13But is it going to last?
0:04:13 > 0:04:16Well, we'll have to see in the next series because, obviously,
0:04:16 > 0:04:18we've run out episodes.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22But absolutely, we've seen perhaps the great scandal and maybe
0:04:22 > 0:04:24the emergence of a new type of king.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27Well, thank you so much for joining us for Inside Versailles,
0:04:27 > 0:04:30both this episode and all of the episodes.
0:04:30 > 0:04:31It's been wonderful to have your company.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35I hope you've enjoyed our explorations into scandal,
0:04:35 > 0:04:38murder, mistresses, poisons, love potions - the whole lot.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42- Orgies.- Orgies.- Yeah.- Everything. Bonsoir.- Bonsoir.