How History Repeats Itself
For decades, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell recruited, groomed, raped, and sold young girls to the elite members of society. Epstein's flight records show a long list of prominent names. He was arrested but died in jail under mysterious circumstances. The only one to face trial over this network of abuse was his mistress, Maxwell.
As you read the story below, keep them in your mind.
In the reign of Louis XIV, the French Monarch who ordered the building of the Palace of Versailles, life was good for the nobility. He threw massive parties in his opulent mansion, sometimes burning thousands of candles per night to light the festivities. There was dancing, drinking, gambling, and, of course, plenty of sex.
Louis was smart. He created a system of ranks that the nobles fought for. Those closest to him were honored in unusual ways. They were permitted to wear certain color clothing, they could sit closer to him, and- for the really lucky- they were allowed to hand him his towel after he got out of the bath.
Louis believed that peasants were not worthy to wait on him, so he demanded he be attended only by nobles. The race to impress the king cost these nobles a lot of money, and Louis was generous to those closest to him. He would give them money or treasures. In this system, where a noble would come to Verseilles to seek the king's favor, party and politic his way into financial trouble, then be forced to rely on the King to fix his finances, The Sun King achieved and maintained strict obedience from the aristocracy.
An impressive feat considered against the non stop civil infighting of the previous decades.
Yes, life was good in Louis's court. Money, women, drink, and parties.
That is, until the police accidentally busted open a ring of fortune tellers who dabbled in selling poison (called "inheritance powder" since you could use the stuff to get that inheritance faster). Investigating (aka, torturing fortune tellers until they provided a list of names, and then executing them as a thank you) brought the authorities to one woman: La Voison.
La Voisin was in many ways no different from the other so-called witches who had been named, except that her clientele was made up of the upper echelons of society. She sold love potions and poisons to many of the most prominent members of Louis XIv's court- including his official mistress. That's bad, but worse is the confession that she, with members of the nobility, held black mass rituals which may have involved sacrificing infants on the altar but definitely involved the use of infant blood.
LA Voisin and tens of others were executed by burning for the crime as investigations continued. The people of France, a deeply Catholic population, were shocked and appalled at the news of what their beloved leaders had been doing.
And then it ended. Louis XIV demanded the task force for this investigation be shut down, causing the lead investigator to remark "they have been spared because of the enormity of their crimes."
So the witch burned and the nobles went on partying and playing, albeit a little more quietly and with public declarations of outrage from Louis XIV over the poisoning.
Does it sound familiar? It should.
100 years after this scandal, Louis' grandson and many of France's nobility would lose their heads and the country would crumble. Is it justice? Does it matter?
