7 April

Louis XIV creates a special commission, the chambre ardente, to try the poison cases.

Affair of the Poisons Executed

Fortune tellers selling 'inheritance powders' to the Paris elite, a secret court lit by torches, and testimony that reached the king's own mistress.

Turpin is hanged on the Knavesmire, York, and buried in St George's churchyard.

Dick Turpin Executed

No night ride to York, no Black Bess: the real Dick Turpin was an Essex gang robber and killer, hanged at York in 1739 for stealing horses.