Louis de Vanens

Who is Louis de Vanens?

Louis de Vanens, was a French alchemist and poisoner. He was implicated in the Poison Affair. It was owing to the connection between him and Magdelaine de La Grange that the Paris police came to suspect the existence of an illegal organization of poisoners in Paris.

Vanens came from Arles and called himself Chevalier de Vanens. He was arrested by the direct orders of Louvois in 5 December 1677, after having declared that he was able to make gold and had been observed with a banknote of 200,000 livres. In connection to his arrest, his valet La Chaboissiere and the banker Pierre Cadelan, who signed the banknote, were taken into custody. In 1678, La Chaboissiere's lover, Jeanne Leroy, was arrested along with chemist Dalmas and his lover, Louise Duscoulcye. Leroy testified that Chaboissiere and Vanens were commissioned poisoners and that Cadelan sold their poisons abroad. She further confessed that she and Duscoulcye had committed murder. It was known that Chaboissiere had visited Abbé Nail, an accomplice of the poisoner Magdelaine de La Grange, in prison. This formed a link between Vanens and de La Grange and caused the Paris police suspect Vanens of being the leader of an international organization of assassins, and part of a network of poisoners in Paris.