The Royal Art of Poison- Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul by Eleanor Herman

Author:Eleanor Herman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2018-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

CONTEMPORARY POSTMORTEM

Henri’s physicians and surgeons conducted an autopsy and announced that they found “a lung and the liver corrupt, a kidney stone and an injury to the brain.” Kidney stone aside, the other changes could have been postmortem or, especially in the case of the brain hemorrhage, could have been the result of her final illness rather than the cause of it. They found nothing unusual in her digestive tract, but blamed her death on “a corrupt lemon,” the fumes of which had risen to her brain, killing her. The Tuscan ambassador to France reported in his dispatch of April 17, “The body was opened. One could not discover the least indication from which one could deduce any suspicion of poison.”

After the funeral, Gabrielle’s effigy was placed in a small chamber in the king’s private apartments in the Louvre and dressed in a new gown daily. Henri wrote, “The root of my love is dead; it will not spring up again.” He visited the figure for many years, even after he had caved in to the pope’s wishes and married Marie de Medici and, perhaps as a protest, taken the first in a series of nubile young mistresses. Despite the king’s genuine sadness at the loss of Gabrielle, the root of his love continued to spring up until his dying day. In fact, Henri had fifty-six known mistresses. But he was faithful only to Gabrielle.

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