The Diamond Necklace Affair: A Scandal That Precipitated the Fall of the Monarchy
The Affair of the Diamond Necklace remains one of the most sensational scandals of the Ancien Régime. This audacious fraud, which erupted in 1785, irreparably tarnished Marie-Antoinette's reputation and helped fuel the popular hatred that would lead to the French Revolution four years later.
The Diamond Necklace: An Extraordinary Jewel
It all began with an exceptional necklace created by Parisian jewelers Boehmer and Bassenge. Composed of 647 diamonds weighing 2,800 carats, this masterpiece of jewelry was intended for Louis XV's mistress, Madame du Barry. But the king's death in 1774 left the jewelers with this unsold piece of colossal value: 1.6 million livres, equivalent to several million euros today.
The jewelers repeatedly attempted to sell the necklace to Marie-Antoinette, but the queen systematically refused, deeming the price exorbitant and preferring that the money be devoted to the royal navy.
The Protagonists of the Fraud
Jeanne de la Motte-Valois: The Manipulator
Jeanne de la Motte claimed to be an illegitimate descendant of the royal house of Valois. Ambitious and unscrupulous, she lived at Versailles on the margins of the court, desperately seeking to enrich herself and rise socially. She conceived and orchestrated the entire fraud.
Cardinal de Rohan: The Prestigious Dupe
Louis René Édouard de Rohan, cardinal and grand almoner of France, was a vain and naive man. Disgraced by Marie-Antoinette since his embassy in Vienna where he had offended her mother, Empress Maria Theresa, he desperately sought to regain the queen's favor.
Count Cagliostro: The Occultist
Giuseppe Balsamo, known as Count Cagliostro, was an Italian adventurer renowned for his occult and alchemical practices. A friend of Cardinal de Rohan, he played a murky role in the affair, encouraging the cardinal in his delusions.
The Unfolding of the Fraud
Jeanne de la Motte convinced Cardinal de Rohan that she was Marie-Antoinette's intimate friend and could intercede on his behalf. She fabricated false letters supposedly written by the queen, in which she expressed her forgiveness and desire to reconcile with the cardinal.
The climax of the manipulation was a nocturnal meeting arranged in the gardens of Versailles in August 1784. In the darkness, the cardinal met a woman he believed to be Marie-Antoinette – in reality a prostitute named Nicole Leguay d'Oliva, chosen for her resemblance to the queen.
Comforted in his illusions, the cardinal agreed to serve as intermediary when Jeanne announced that the queen wished to acquire the famous necklace in secret. In January 1785, Rohan signed the purchase of the necklace in the queen's name, committing to pay in several installments.
The necklace was handed over to a supposed valet of the queen – in reality Jeanne's accomplice and lover, Rétaux de Villette. The jewel was immediately dismantled and the diamonds sold in London and elsewhere in Europe.
The Scandal Breaks
When the first payment deadline arrived in July 1785, the jewelers presented themselves at Versailles to claim their due. Marie-Antoinette discovered with astonishment the existence of this transaction of which she knew nothing. The scandal broke publicly on August 15, 1785, the day of the Assumption, when Cardinal de Rohan was arrested in full ceremony at Versailles, in pontifical robes.
The Trial and Its Consequences
The trial before the Parliament of Paris captivated all of Europe. Louis XVI, against Marie-Antoinette's advice, insisted that the affair be judged publicly in order to clear the queen's honor. This was a major strategic error.
In May 1786, Cardinal de Rohan was acquitted, the Parliament considering that he had been the victim of a fraud. Jeanne de la Motte was sentenced to be whipped, branded with a hot iron, and imprisoned for life at the Salpêtrière. She managed to escape in 1787 and took refuge in London where she published defamatory memoirs against Marie-Antoinette.
The Impact on Marie-Antoinette
Although innocent, Marie-Antoinette emerged dishonored from this affair. The cardinal's acquittal was perceived as a disavowal of the queen by Parliament. Pamphlets and libels multiplied, accusing Marie-Antoinette of all vices: excessive spending, scandalous liaisons, manipulation of the king.
The Diamond Necklace Affair crystallized popular hatred against "the Austrian." It contributed to creating the image of a frivolous, spendthrift, and immoral queen that would persist until the Revolution. Yet Marie-Antoinette was totally foreign to this fraud – she was its collateral victim.
Marie-Antoinette of Lorraine
What is often forgotten is that Marie-Antoinette was not only "the Austrian" as her detractors called her. Through her father Francis of Lorraine, who became Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire under the name Francis I, she was as much from Lorraine as Austrian. Her Lorraine heritage, though less known, was an integral part of her identity.
The Diamond Necklace Affair tragically illustrates how a foreign queen, unloved and misunderstood, could become the scapegoat for all the kingdom's ills, thus preparing the ground for the revolutionary upheavals to come.
Conclusion
The Affair of the Queen's Necklace remains a fascinating example of audacious fraud and psychological manipulation. More importantly, it demonstrates how a scandal can destroy a reputation and shake the foundations of a monarchy. For Marie-Antoinette, this affair marked the beginning of the end, transforming the image of a Queen of France into that of a symbol of decadence that would haunt the monarchy until its fall.
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