The most famous poisoners. Let's turn to world history and literature

In this article we have collected for you the most famous poisonings, the victims of which were personalities on a global scale, and the consequences changed the course of history. Our “hit parade” includes great politicians, military leaders, scientists and artists from all over the world, who have one thing in common: they all died from poisoning.

Some famous poisonings were intentional, some were accidental, and some are still controversial among historians and toxicologists. Interesting? Then let's go!

Potassium cyanide for Rasputin

Grigory Rasputin is an extremely mysterious and ambiguous person, from the emergence of state power on Olympus to his death as a result of an assassination attempt. His inhuman vitality amazed the poisoners: the “old man” ate cakes with potassium cyanide and wine with the same poison, but Rasputin was... still alive! As a result, the conspirators had to get their hands dirty much more seriously in the murder of the favorite of the royal family.

Why didn't the poison work? Is this due to Rasputin’s superhuman capabilities or an insufficient dose of potassium cyanide?

Version one. The poison was put into small sweet cakes and added to grape wine. The poisoners did not take into account that glucose neutralizes potassium cyanide, forming a non-toxic substance - cyanohydrin.

Version two. Rasputin was very fond of garlic, which, as is known, can remove heavy metal salts from the body. Perhaps this is what delayed his death.

Version three. Rasputin mastered hypnosis and self-hypnosis. By controlling his body, he could slow down metabolic processes in the body, reducing the need for oxygen. Thus, the poison acted slowly, and signs of poisoning appeared only two hours later.

Version four. Rasputin did not eat meat or sweets, not breaking his diet even when he “got drunk.” Perhaps the old man did not even eat cakes. Or maybe the solution of poison in wine was too weak.

Another interesting version: instead of crystals of potassium cyanide, the conspirators were given crystals of citric acid, as the doctor Lazovert told about on his deathbed.

Alan Turing, Snow White and the Apple logo

Alan Turing is a brilliant scientist who solved the Enigma machine code and the Lorenz code of Nazi Germany. Thanks to the scientist’s work, the first electronic computer “Colossus” and the first computer appeared.

The scientist's favorite fairy tale was the tale of Snow White and the dwarfs. Alan was fascinated by the moment when Snow White, after biting into a poisoned apple, falls dead.

The scientist had homosexual tendencies, which became known to the public. In those days, the laws were much stricter: for admitting homosexual relationships, a person was punished by prison or chemical castration.

Alan Turing chose the latter. Subsequently, the scientist lost his job and became an outcast in the scientific community. Having lost everything and having no reason to live, the scientist poisoned himself with cyanide. In the apartment of the dead scientist, on the bedside table lay a bitten apple, like in a favorite fairy tale.

By the way, it was not by chance that the apple became the Apple emblem: Steve Jobs decided to immortalize the memory of the famous scientist in this way.

The mysterious death of Emile Zola

Emile Zola lived a difficult life and died under mysterious circumstances.

That fateful evening was cold and damp, and a fireplace was lit in the room. That night the couple slept poorly and were unwell. In the morning, the servant found the dead master and the hostess, who was unconscious, in the bedroom. Thanks to the efforts of doctors, Alexandra Zola remained alive.

The official version of Emile Zola's death is carbon monoxide poisoning. Poisonous gas entered the couple's room from a burning fireplace. During the investigation of the accident, construction debris was found in the chimney of the apartment, and traces of unknown persons were found on the roof.

In 1953, an article was published in one of the Parisian newspapers - a journalistic investigation into the causes of the writer’s death. According to the author of the article, a certain chimney sweep admitted that he deliberately blocked Zola's chimney. The chimney sweep himself, most likely, was only a performer, but who ordered the poisoning of the writer?

Emile Zola's wife Alexandra reported during interrogation that her husband had bad premonitions on the eve of his death. Zola was persecuted after publicly speaking in defense of Captain Dreyfus, who was accused of espionage. Perhaps the writer’s principled position cost him his life...

The unexpected rescue of Benvenuto Cellini

This “man of the Renaissance” immortalized his name thanks to the sculpture “Perseus with the Head of Medusa”. The name of the brilliant sculptor is Benvenuto Cellini.

In those distant times, venereal diseases were not uncommon, and “this cup” did not pass by for Benvenuto. At the age of 29, the sculptor contracted syphilis. When the artist began work on “Perseus,” he became a victim of swindlers: knowing about the illness and hoping for the master’s quick death, they convinced Benvenuto Cellini to purchase some real estate.

However, the sculptor did not even think about dying, and the scammers decided to “help” him do it. The sculptor was served food poisoned with sublimate (mercuric chloride), after which the victim began to experience abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea.

The sculptor’s suffering lasted more than a year: fortunately, the dose of poison turned out to be painful, but not fatal. Moreover, thanks to the toxic effect of mercury, Cellini was completely cured of syphilis and lived for many more years.

What poisoned Mozart?

The version of the poisoning of the great composer became public thanks to Pushkin’s work “Mozart and Salieri”. Alexander Sergeevich had no doubt that Mozart was poisoned by Salieri out of envy. “An envious person... could poison...” writes the great poet. He could, but did he poison him?

Mozart suffered from rheumatism since childhood. Over time, the illness led to heart failure and the composer went to bed. Perhaps heart disease was the cause of Mozart’s death?

So was there poisoning? Most often, arsenic and sublimate were in the arsenal of poisoners of the 17th century. But the picture of the disease does not fit into the signs of arsenic poisoning or the symptoms of mercury intoxication.

What follows is even more interesting. The last time the composers met was two months after Mozart's death. It turns out that Salieri gave the hated idol a huge dose of poison, which would take effect after many weeks. Toxicologists rightly claim that toxic substances with hidden effects did not yet exist at that time.

There is also a version that Mozart was regularly poisoned for a long time with small doses of some toxic substance. It turns out that people from the composer’s circle could have committed this crime!

Art historians and scientists still cannot come to a consensus about the cause of Mozart’s death; many believe that the version of poisoning is untenable.

Alexander the Great: poisoning or peritonitis?

It’s hard to believe that the great commander who united all countries into one kingdom, Alexander the Great, lived only 32 years.

Unfortunately, Alexander devoted little time to his health. Once, during a traditional feast before a military campaign, the commander drank a lot of wine and after a while complained of stomach pain. For two weeks, the Macedonian’s health deteriorated and he ordered the court physician to give him a decoction of white hellebore with honey. Perhaps it was this poisonous plant that provoked death.

Historians do not exclude the possibility of the deliberate poisoning of Alexander the Great. In those distant times, wood alcohol - methanol - was added to wine to keep it longer. Even a teaspoon of this potent toxic substance leads to severe poisoning.

There is an opinion among scientists that intense abdominal pain provoked by alcohol was associated with peptic ulcer disease, perforation of the ulcer and peritonitis.

Deaf Beethoven

Scientists claim that lead poisoning caused the composer's death. When examining Beethoven's hair and bone tissue using forensic techniques, a high concentration of lead in the body was revealed, 100 times higher than the norm.

As it turned out, this was not a deliberate murder: the doctor who treated Beethoven for cirrhosis, pneumonia and other diseases used compresses with lead on the patient. Toxicologists say that regular and long-term lead poisoning may have been the cause of the brilliant composer's deafness. Nowadays this would be called a medical error.

Saint Helena for Napoleon

During his six years of living in exile on the island of St. Helena, the emperor's health steadily deteriorated. He was worried about weakness in the limbs, chills, headache, fainting, and vomiting. Doctors recognized the official cause of death as stomach cancer.

After his death, Napoleon's body was transported to Paris. There were rumors about the poisoning of the emperor. The truth was established a century and a half later: when diagnosing the emperor’s hair, arsenic was discovered, and the maximum deposition of this poison coincided with Bonaparte’s stay on the island of St. Helena.

The version of violent death was confirmed by letters from General Montonol to his wife, Albina. It turns out that Madame General was Bonaparte’s mistress, and after Albina gave birth to Napoleon’s child, the emperor sent her and the baby off the island, forbidding the general to follow them. Montonol took revenge by daily pouring arsenic into Napoleon, thereby dooming the offender to a slow and painful death.

Genghis Khan: the Deathly Hallows

The reasons for the death of the World Conqueror remain a mystery to this day. Scientists suggest that the cause of the commander’s death could have been poisoning.

Genghis Khan wanted to take revenge for the treachery of the Tangut king - he did not help in the fight against Khorezmshah. Having entered the Tangut land, Genghis Khan betrayed it to fire and sword.

The king's ambassadors arrived at the commander's court with generous gifts and a plea for peace. A few hours after their visit, the Great Mogul felt ill. Historians do not rule out that the gifts were laced with poison.

The Dangerous Spirits of Jeanne d'Albret

When Catherine de Medici decided to interbreed the Bourbon and Valois dynasties, thereby ending the war between Catholics and Huguenots, she offered the hand of her daughter Margaret to Henry of Navarre. When the family of future relatives arrived in Paris, the Medici gave various gifts to Henry’s mother, Jeanne d’Albret.

Five days after arriving in Paris, Jeanne died. On the day of her death, she was wearing gloves that had been given to her, and she perfumed her dress with a gift from the Medici - a magnificent perfume.

Alas, she did not know that Queen Rene’s personal perfumer made for her not only ordinary, but also poisonous perfumes and cosmetics. It was from such “fragrant weapons” that Jeanne d’Albret died. Truly, fear the Danaans who bring gifts!

Famous poisonings: instead of an afterword

Of course, these are not all, but only the most famous poisonings in a world history filled with dramatic turns, wars and other dramatic events, but they are an important part of how we know and experience our world today. If you liked this article, return to our website - we know everything about poisoning!

P.S. Do you know any other famous poisonings that deserve to be on this list? Write in the comments, we will definitely post the most interesting facts on the site!

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All people solve their problems in their own way. Most often, of course, these decisions are consistent with the law and the rules of human morality. But history knows examples of people who did not pay attention to such trifles. This review contains a story about the destinies of famous personalities who were not shy when choosing means and had a special “trademark style” for solving problematic issues.

Caligula

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known under the name Caligula, managed to leave a very vivid memory of himself in less than 4 years of his reign: perhaps all known sins are attributed to him. Addiction to poisons is called one of the main “hobbies” of the tyrant emperor. He dealt with this issue not only to achieve political goals, but also simply out of curiosity - like a real researcher, he compiled new compositions of toxic substances and tested them on slaves.

It is believed that Caligula poisoned a gladiator who irritated him with his fame. For this, the emperor personally decided to intervene in the treatment of a slightly wounded soldier. After a mixture of “medicines” put into the wound, the gladiator very quickly stopped annoying the tyrant. There is an opinion that for the sake of enrichment, a selfish ruler forced his associates to write an inheritance in his favor, and then slightly “accelerated” events.

After his death, a huge chest of poisons was found in the emperor’s chambers. Many vials were carefully sorted and labeled. Many are named after those people who experienced their effects.

Agrippina, Nero and Locusta

Locusta remained in history as a Roman professional poisoner. She was involved in many "high-profile" tragedies of her time. It must be said that the use of poisons in ancient Rome was a very common way to solve problems. So widespread that poison experts were practically the official “assistants” of many influential people. As a response, even the profession of taster - a person who tastes food - arose.

It is believed that Agrippina, Nero’s mother, also used Locusta’s services. In the best traditions of Game of Thrones, this power-hungry woman cleared the path to power for her son, without skimping on her means. The first known victim of Agrippina and Nero was his predecessor on the throne, Claudius. The poison was mixed with the emperor's favorite dish - mushrooms. Claudius began to vomit, and, wanting to help, they gave him a “vomit feather.” However, it was also laced with poison.

The next poisoning, exquisite in its design, was carried out to remove the main rival on the path to the throne - Nero's half-brother Britannicus. The young man was deliberately served too hot food, which the taster tasted. They decided to cool the food by diluting it with water, which contained the poison. After this incident, Locusta received a rich estate and students.

Then 17-year-old Nero tried 3 times to poison his loving mother, but realizing that she was constantly taking the antidote, he simply organized her murder. Agrippina was stabbed to death with a sword.
During Nero's reign, many people were poisoned by the emperor because of their missteps or simply because they bothered him. Fate decreed that the emperor-poisoner did not succeed in dying from the poison prepared by Locusta, although this was the path he had prepared for himself. He, like his mother, was stabbed to death with swords. Having lost her high patron, Locusta was sentenced to death for her many crimes.

Alexander Borgia

Pope Borgia's terrible reputation was perhaps exaggerated by his political opponents. During his lifetime he was called "monster of depravity" And "Satan's apothecary". It was believed that he repeatedly took the lives of cardinals who had large capital, since after their death the property was inherited by the papal treasury. Dad's favorite deadly compounds were Spanish fly and arsenic. It is Borgia who is credited with many sophisticated methods of poisoning.

For example, a fruit knife - poison was applied to one side of the blade, and only half of the cut apple was poisoned; the poisoner could eat the second to demonstrate the safety of the food. Or a key with a poisoned thorn. Guests invited to dinner by this pontiff wrote a will and said goodbye to their loved ones.

The death of Alexander VI also caused many rumors and gossip that he was accidentally poisoned by poison prepared for several cardinals, but there is no confirmation of this fact.

Madame de Brenvilliers

The terrible fate of this famous poisoner became the beginning of the high-profile Case of Poisons, which lasted almost 10 years after the death of the Marquise and cost the lives of another three dozen people, many of whom belonged to high society. France in the 17th century was a turbulent place. Poison was considered a popular weapon in palace intrigue and power struggles. However, Marie-Madeleine, wife of the Marquis de Brenvilliers and mother of seven children, seems to have begun her career as a poisoner as a real researcher, far from emotions and profit.

There were rumors that she tested her poisons on the poor in free Parisian hospitals, hiding behind the guise of a Good Samaritan helping her loved ones. The marquise's lover, cavalry captain Jean Baptiste de Sainte-Croix, was undoubtedly involved in her crimes. With his help, Marie-Madeleine later poisoned her father, two brothers and sister for the sake of inheritance. After her crimes were discovered and the fugitive poisoner was caught, a long trial began. The woman was tortured, then she was beheaded and burned.

Cixi

The fates of famous criminals always attract attention. The story is a tale of love and adventure beyond the law.

Illustration: Proskurin Pavel

As long as human society has existed, its individual representatives have been looking for the most effective ways to send their neighbors to their forefathers. Poisons play an important role here. It is unknown who was the first to think of treating his opponent with poisonous mushrooms. Perhaps it was the leader of some ancient tribe, and the deadly properties of specific mushrooms were previously experienced by a certain “mushroom man” from his retinue...

Fatal inheritance

First, let's go to Italy in the 15th century, because this country occupies a significant place in the history of poisoning. In 1492, the Spanish ruling couple, Isabella and Ferdinand, who dreamed of having support in Rome, spent a fantastic sum at that time - 50 thousand ducats - to bribe the cardinal conclave and elevate their protégé, a Spaniard by birth, Rodrigo Borja (in Italy, to the papal throne) to the papal throne. called Borgia). The adventure was a success: Borgia became Pope under the name of Alexander VI. The Dominican monk Savonarola (accused of heresy and executed in 1498) wrote about him this way: “While still a cardinal, he became notorious thanks to his numerous sons and daughters, the meanness and infamy of this offspring.”

What is true is true - together with Alexander VI, his son Cesare (later a cardinal) and daughter Lucrezia played an important role in intrigues, conspiracies, and elimination of undesirable persons (mainly through poisoning). Not only contemporaries, but also Pope Julius II, who occupied the Holy See since 1503, testify to the poisoning of noble and not so famous people. Let us quote verbatim one of the chroniclers. “As a rule, a vessel was used, the contents of which could one day send into eternity an inconvenient baron, a rich church minister, an overly talkative courtesan, an overly humorous valet, yesterday a devoted murderer, today a still devoted lover. In the darkness of the night, the Tiber received into its waves the unconscious bodies of the victims of the “cantarella.”

Here it is necessary to clarify that “cantarella” in the Borgia family was the name for the poison, the recipe for which Cesare received from his mother, the Roman aristocrat Vanozza dei Cattanei. The potion probably contained white phosphorus, copper salts, and arsenic. Well, and only then some so-called missionaries brought from South America the juices of plants so poisonous that it was not difficult for any papal alchemist to prepare deadly mixtures with a variety of properties from them.

Rings of Death

As legends say, either Lucretia or Alexander VI himself had a key that ended in a tiny point. This tip was rubbed with poison. The key was handed to the intended victim with a request to open some secret door “as a sign of absolute trust and favor.” The tip only slightly scratched the guest's hand... That was enough. Lucretia also wore a brooch with a hollow needle, like a syringe needle. Here things were even simpler. An ardent hug, an accidental prick, an embarrassed apology: “Oh, I’m so awkward... This brooch of mine...” And that’s all.

Cesare, who tried to unite the principalities of Romagna under his rule, was hardly more humane. The chronicler already mentioned above talks about him: “His insolence and cruelty, his entertainment and crimes against his own and others were so great and so well known that he endured everything conveyed in this regard with complete indifference. This terrible curse of the Borgia lasted for many years until the death of Alexander VI put an end to it and allowed people to breathe freely again.” Cesare Borgia owned a ring containing a cache of poison that was opened by pressing a secret spring. So he could quietly add poison to the glass of his dinner companion... He also had another ring. On the outside it was smooth, but on the inside it had something like snake teeth, through which the poison entered the bloodstream when shaking hands.

These famous rings, like others that belonged to the sinister Borgia family, are by no means a fiction; some of them have survived to this day. So, on one of them there is a monogram of Cesare and his motto is engraved: “Do your duty, no matter what happens.” A sliding panel was mounted under the frame, covering a hiding place for poison.

Boomerang effect

But the death of Alexander VI could be commented on with sayings: “Don’t dig a hole for someone else, you’ll fall into it yourself,” “What you fought for, that’s what you ran into,” and so on in the same spirit. In a word, it was like this. The wicked pope decided to poison several cardinals he disliked at once. However, he knew that they were afraid of his meals, so he asked Cardinal Adrian da Corneto to give him his palace for the feast. He agreed, and Alexander sent his valet to the palace in advance. This servant was supposed to serve glasses of poisoned wine to those whom Alexander himself would indicate with a conventional sign. But something went wrong with the poisoners. Either Cesare, who was preparing the poison, mixed up the glasses, or it was a mistake by the valet, but the murderers themselves drank the poison. Alexander died after four days of torture. Cesare, who was about 28 years old, survived but remained disabled.

Cobra strikes

Now let's look at France in the 17th century, where no less monstrous events took place. “Poisoning,” wrote Voltaire, “has haunted France in the years of its glory, just as it happened in Rome during the best days of the Republic.”

Marie Madeleine Dreux d'Aubray, Marquise de Brenvilliers, was born in 1630. At a young age she got married, everything was fine, but a few years after her marriage the woman fell in love with the officer Gaudin de Sainte-Croix. Her husband, a man of broad views, was not at all shocked by this connection, but her father Dreux d'Aubray was indignant. At his insistence, Sainte-Croix was imprisoned in the Bastille. And the marquise harbored a grudge... She told Sainte-Croix about her father’s enormous fortune and her desire to get it by getting rid of the obnoxious old man. This is how this terrible story began.

While imprisoned, Sainte-Croix met an Italian named Giacomo Exili. He introduced himself as a student and assistant of the famous alchemist and pharmacist Christopher Glaser. And this Glaser, it should be noted, was a very respectable figure. The personal pharmacist of the king and his brother, who not only enjoyed the patronage of the highest aristocracy, but also arranged public demonstrations of his experiments with the highest permission... But Exili spoke little about these aspects of his teacher’s activities, more about himself. Whether Giacomo lied about his proximity to Glaser or not, he said he was sent to the Bastille for “close study of the art of poisons.”

Sainte-Croix, in love, needed just that. He saw a chance to learn this “art” and went to meet the Italian halfway with open arms. When Sainte-Croix was released, he presented the Marquise with recipes for “Italian poisons”, which soon, with the help of a number of knowledgeable (and poor) alchemists, were embodied in real poisons. From that day on, the fate of the marquise’s father was sealed, but the officer’s young lover is not so simple as to act without a firm guarantee. The Marquise became a selfless sister of mercy at the Hotel-Dieu hospital. There she not only tested the poison on patients, but also made sure that doctors could not detect traces of it.

The marquise killed her father carefully, feeding him small portions of poison for eight months. When he died, it turned out that the crime had been committed in vain - most of the fortune passed to his sons. However, nothing could stop the reptile - the one who starts killing usually does not stop. The young beauty poisoned two brothers, a sister, her husband and children. Her accomplices (the same alchemists) were arrested and confessed. By that time, Sainte-Croix could not help his beloved in any way - he had died long before in the laboratory, having inhaled the fumes of the potion. The Marquise tried to escape from France, but was captured in Liege, exposed, tried and executed in Paris on July 17, 1676.

Queen of Poisons

And soon the baton of poisoning was taken up by a woman known as La Voisin. Her “official” profession was fortune-telling, but she gained fame as the “queen of poisons.” La Voisin said to her clients: “Nothing is impossible for me.” And she predicted... But she didn’t just prophesy to the heirs the imminent death of their rich relatives, but helped to fulfill (not for nothing, of course) her predictions. Voltaire, prone to ridicule, called her drugs “powders for inheritance.” The end came when La Voisin became involved in a plot to poison the king. After her execution, arsenic, mercury, plant poisons, as well as books on black magic and witchcraft were found in a secret room in her house.

However, the collapse of the poisoner and the wide publicity of the circumstances of this helped little and taught few people. The 18th century and the reign of Louis XV did not save France from conflicts resolved with the help of poisons, just as no era has spared any country from them.

Of course, it would be incomplete without mentioning the Borgia, the famous family of poisoners, famous not only for the number of their victims, but also for the ingenuity with which its representatives used a wide variety of poisons.

Satan's Apothecary

Rodrigo Borgia was a descendant of the Spanish noble family of Borja and a nephew of Pope Calixtus III (who in the world bore the name Alfonso). According to one version, the pontiff could have been in a relationship with his sister, then Rodrigo was his son. Whether this was true or not is unknown, but Calixtus III clearly patronized Borgia, thanks to his patronage he became a cardinal at the age of 25.

Borgia actively sought to occupy an even higher position and for this purpose did not disdain anything; he entered into deals with the Moors, moneylenders, bribed the right people, and sought high patronage in. He managed to interest the Spanish royal couple, Isabella and Ferdinand, who, wanting to gain support in Rome, allocated 50 thousand ducats to bribe the conclave in the election of the next pope. Their protege Borgia was elected, and in the papacy he took the name Alexander VI.

It is worth noting that in order to pave the way for himself to the papal throne, Borgia first poisoned his wife by treating her to poisonous mushrooms, after which he declared himself a monk. Through bribery and blackmail, he forced everyone to turn a blind eye to the fact that he had two illegitimate children (most likely, there were more). The Dominican monk Savonarola wrote the following about him: “While still a cardinal, he became notorious thanks to his numerous sons and daughters, the meanness and infamy of this offspring.” In 1498, Savonarola, so to speak, suffered for the truth: he was accused of heresy and executed; undoubtedly, this was revenge on the part of the Borgia.

The new Pope Alexander VI had far-reaching plans; he was going to unite Italy and the lands adjacent to it. For this he needed a lot of money. They would hardly have been given to him voluntarily, so he developed a simple but effective scheme for taking away property. The pontiff invited rich Italian nobles to feasts, sent them to the next world with poison, and confiscated the property of those who died from “gluttony” in favor of the church.

The fact that Alexander VI was poisoning the nobility was written not only by chroniclers, but also by Pope Julius II, his successor on the papal throne. One of the records of the chronicles of that time reports: As a rule, a vessel was used, the contents of which could one day send into eternity an inconvenient baron, a rich church minister, an overly talkative courtesan, an overly humorous valet, yesterday a devoted murderer, today a still devoted lover.”

The poisonous pope often used a poison called “cantarella”, it was prepared according to a family recipe, which, according to some researchers, Cesare Borgia, the son of Alexander VI, received from his mother, the Roman aristocrat Vanozza Catanea, his father’s mistress. It is believed that this poison could be a mixture of arsenic, copper and phosphorus salts. However, Rodrigo Borgia himself was a great expert in poisons; for his extensive knowledge in this area, he even received the nickname “Satan’s pharmacist.”

Many Borgia poisons were based on arsenic; in solutions it gave neither color nor odor, and its poisoning symptoms resembled natural diseases. In addition, by varying the dosage of arsenic, it was possible to cause both rapid death and slow decline of the victim over several months and even years. The high position of Alexander VI allowed him to obtain various poisonous plants and ingredients from overseas countries, with the help of which his alchemists prepared mixtures of incredible toxicity, capable of killing a mighty bull with one drop. It was no secret to anyone what the Pope was doing, so those invited to dinner with him wrote wills in advance and said goodbye to loved ones.

It is amazing that Alexander VI “stepped on his own rake.” Preparing to eliminate the cardinals who had somehow interfered with him, Borgia, in order to lull their vigilance, started a feast in the palace of Cardinal Adrian di Carneto. His son Cesare prepared the poisoned wine, and the valet carried it to the palace. However, something went wrong with the killers, someone mixed up the glasses, as a result, Alexander VI and Cesare drank the poison themselves. After four days of hellish torment, the famous poisoner Rodrigo Borgia died, and 28-year-old Cesare, who diluted the wine with water, managed to survive, but became disabled.

An apple from an apple tree...

There is a saying, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” and it completely applies to the Borgia family. The illegitimate children of the greatest poisoner in history, Alexander VI, did not lag behind their father in cruelty and the art of using poisons. Cesare Borgia often helped his father in organizing poisonings; he trusted him with many secrets and plans for his upcoming assassinations.

Poisonous snakes are often very beautiful; Lucretia Borgia, the illegitimate daughter of Alexander VI, was also very attractive. Suitors constantly hovered around her, but the fate of her lovers was beyond envy; Lucrezia eliminated the most annoying and annoying ones without a shadow of a doubt. Like her father, she was very skilled in the use of poisons. She had a special brooch with a hollow needle, the cavity of which was filled with poison. While hugging her lover who was boring her, she allegedly accidentally stabbed him with a brooch needle. It would seem like an accidental injection, no big deal, but after a couple of hours or days (depending on the strength of the poison) the lover lost his life.

According to legend, Lucretia had a special key on which there was an almost imperceptible small spike. She rubbed it with poison, and confidentially asked the invited guest to open for them the tight lock on the chest with decorations. In the process of opening the lock, the guest's skin was slightly scratched, which led to fatal poisoning.

Sometimes, without further ado, Lucretia simply added poison to the wine or food with which she treated the victim she had chosen.

Alexander VI's faithful assistant in conspiracies, murders and poisonings was his son Cesare, later a cardinal. He tried to unite the principalities of Romagna under his rule, and did not disdain either the use of hired killers or poisoning. A chronicler, one of his contemporaries, wrote about him this way: His insolence and cruelty, his entertainment and crimes against his own and others were so great and so well known that he endured everything conveyed in this regard with complete indifference. This terrible curse of the Borgia lasted for many years until the death of Alexander VI put an end to it and allowed people to breathe freely again.”

Cesare Borgia had special rings that he used for poisoning. One of them contained a cache of poison, which was opened using a secret spring. Using such a ring, it was not a problem to quietly pour a portion of poison into a glass. This ring was engraved with Cesare's motto: "Do your duty, no matter what happens." On another ring, specially made to order by Cesare, two lion claws protruded, in which there were grooves filled with poison. When shaking hands, such a ring slightly scratched the victim’s hand, the poison entered the wound, and the person was doomed. It should be noted that these rings and other various devices for poisoning are not fiction; some of them can still be seen in museums.

Like Parysatis, the mother of the Persian king Artaxerxes II, Cesare and Lucrezia could pull off a poisonous “trick” with a knife. By applying poison to one side of the blade, they could cut a peach or piece of meat so that they could taste one half and remain alive, but at the same time poison the intended victim with the other half. After the death of Alexander VI, the family of the famous poisoner gradually withered away.