Posted on 04/05/2005 12:03:22 PM PDT by blam
Was Agnès Sorel, the first official royal mistress of France, poisoned?
Grenoble (France), 2 April 2005 - The ESRF has gone back in time to study the reason behind the sudden death of the beautiful mistress of French king Charles VII, in the XV century. Thanks to synchrotron light, pieces of Agnès Sorel's hair and skin have been studied. The evidence obtained makes it possible to suggest plausible causes of death. The way she died is not known yet, however, incredibly high levels of mercury have been found in her remains. This finding opens the door to numerous hypotheses. The results of this study were presented today in Loches (France), where the corpse has been buried again following its exhumation last September for this research.
Reconstitution of Agnès Sorel's face superimposed on the remains of her skull and her recumbent statue. Credits: artwork and photo by Philippe Charlier / CHRU de Lille - 2005.
The history of Agnès Sorel would make a good plot for a soap opera. She was the first mistress of a French king to be officially recognized as such. It is said that she was an extremely beautiful woman, as well as very intelligent. She wielded considerable influence over the king and his policies, which earned her a number of powerful enemies at court. She gave birth to three daughters and, while pregnant with her fourth child, she joined Charles VII on a campaign against the English in 1450 in Jumièges, Normandy. Shortly afterwards, she fell ill and died of "flux of the stomach" according to the official account of events. Nevertheless, a lot of people believed she had been poisoned because of her sudden death and because of her numerous enemies.
Agnes Sorel's death was premature: she was only about 28 years old. To clarify the cause, a team led by Dr. Charlier from the CHU hospital in Lille is studying her remains through a variety of techniques. Hair and bits of skin have been examined in minute detail using the X-rays of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. They have unveiled some indications that could lead researchers to discover the cause of Sorel's death. X-ray micro fluorescence experiments were performed on beamline ID18F at the ESRF. Scientists found that Sorel's remains contained abnormal levels of mercury.
This chemical element appears in the body of people who have been poisoned; nevertheless, one should not come to premature conclusions. Mercury is also present in pharmaceutical purgative treatments. Scientists found eggs from worms in other parts of her body, as well as remains of a plant used during that period to treat these worms. This could indicate that she was trying to heal herself by taking medicines and that she ingested too high a dose, which caused her death. Other possible sources of mercury contamination could have been the result of mummification or contamination from the mummies' environment. There is also a hypothesis that she could have accumulated these metals throughout her life, for instance, by using cosmetics, since they often contained metals. According to Dr. Charlier, "the results from the experiments at the ESRF, in contrast with experiments carried out in other institutes, have proven that mercury did not enter her hair after death but before, and that it was the cause of death".
Marine Cotte, the researcher from the ESRF who carried out the experiments with Sorels' hair and skin.
In addition to the historic interest of this research, it also has consequences today: "Our research validates the medical and legal techniques which are used in criminal investigations", explains Dr. Charlier.
This research is funded by "Le Conseil Général d'Indre et Loire" and it will be presented to the scientific community in a workshop from 22 to 24 April 2005 in Loches.
Published: 02/04/2005
I think mercury was also used to treat venereal diseases like syphillis up until the 19th century.
Arsenic was another popular cure-all believe it or not.
Still is: Arsenic Trioxide (Maybe not so popular though)
mercury was used back then to treat venereal disease...
Very broad brow, room for plenty of brains, especially frontal lobes, which control executive skills of problem solving, abstract reasoning, insight, judgment, planning, information processing, and organization. Nice to read about women who were valued for their brains as well as their beauty.
Columbus brought syphilus back from the New World circa 1492. La belle Sorel died in 1450, which predates syphilus by a couple of generations.
Mercury was used to treat other disease,prior to what Columbus did or did not bring back from the "new world". :-)
Reminds me why I don't like fifteenth century French painters.
A current member of the Sorel family?
Johan Huizinga, the great Dutch historian, bluntly abhorred this work:
"...as a most appalling example of a dangerous blend of amorous and religious feelings. There is a flavour of blasphemous boldness about the whole"
Because history is fascinating.
Queen Elizabeth I used a thick lead paste on her face and chest to get that white look (It hid her smallpox scars and the pale look was in) and mercury on her lips and cheeks (vermilion). I've read that her lips partially eaten away because of the chemicals she used on them and that's why she refused to get her portrait painted as she aged. All that and she lived to be 70.
And we're suppose to worry about Chinese food and popcorn!
Belladonna is still used in Ophthalmology today. In a very controlled dose, of coarse, but it's not uncommon to see reactions to it. That's stuff's dangerous.
Sad lol. It was a last ditch effort for a kind of leukemia but it's pretty much been abandoned. Side effects are horrendous.
But they're still producing it so somebody must still be using it.
They would pluck back their hairline 3 or 4 inches for the sake of fashion. Look at paintings of QEI and check out her hairline. Yuck.
Then of coarse you may not be committing on her baldness at all and I'll just go away.
North and South America had their own form of the bacteria, yaws and pinta
We brought syphilis and small pox to the New World and in exchange we took back the potato. Not a very PC exchange.
I enjoy history as much as the next person but, after 300 years, what difference does it make if a royal mistress was poisoned? Who will be charged and punished for her murder??
Now, if you want to talk about whether or not King Tut was murdered, well, THAT'S different!!!!
:-)
I used it for decades in the manufacture of micro-chips...it has some desired electrical properties whin diffused into silicon.
A population explosion occurred in Europe due to the importation of the potato. There are over 2,000 varieties of potatoes in South America and unfortunately only 1-2 are in widespread use. The Irish paid the price in the mid-1800's for having only one variety that was ravished by a fungus and many died as a consequence.
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