The Affair of the Diamond Necklace

Louis XV had decided to give his mistress Madame du Barry a gift of a phenomenally expensive diamond necklace.  The jewellers Boehmer and Bassenge set to work but Louis would die of smallpox and Madame du Barry be evicted before the necklace could be made.  It was presented to Louis’ grandson the new Louis XVI who offered it to his young wife Marie Antoinette.  She refused the gift possibly less at the expense and ostentation of it more that it was associated with Madame du Barry a woman whom the Queen personally disliked.

Jeanne de Saint-Rémy de Valois was a young woman who had married a gendarme office.  In 1785 she became the mistress of the Cardinal de Rohan who had been French ambassador to Marie Theresa’s court in Vienna.  Marie Antoinette believed that the Cardinal had passed uncomplimentary information onto her mother.  Jeanne managed to convince the Cardinal that she was a personal favourite of the Queen and that she would be able to ingratiate the Cardinal with the Queen and smooth over any tensions.

The Cardinal sent a series of letters to the Queen, the replies seemed to offer him hope that she was interested in him and valued his opinions.  He arranged to meet the Queen in the garden of the Palace of Versailles where he presented her with a rose.  It seemed all the problems between the Cardinal and the Queen had evaporated.  The Queen would then write to the Cardinal asking for large sums of money for her charity work.  She even requested that he buy the aforementioned necklace and she would pay him back.  The Cardinal and Jeanne saw a valet for the Queen take the enormously expensive necklace to the Palace.  It seemed the Cardinal was within the Queen’s circle of key individuals trusted and respected.  Alas for the Cardinal the Queen was unaware of all of this as it had not been her in the garden but a prostitute impersonating her, all the letters had been forged and the necklace the Cardinal believed she was about to be receiving was heading to London to be broken up and sold by Jeanne’s husband.

In the coming weeks the Cardinal became increasingly confused as to why the Queen was never seen wearing the necklace nor why she seemed to ignore him.  The jewellers were not happy with the pay they received so went to the Queen to complain.  As the scheme slowly unravelled Cardinal Rohan was brought before the King on the 15th August 1785 whereupon he presented the supposed letters from the Queen.  Louis mocked the Cardinal’s stupidity for falling for so transparent scam.  He was promptly sent to the Bastille.  Soon Jeanne and the prostitute were rounded up and imprisoned.

The trial that ensued gripped the nation.  The Cardinal and the prostitute would be acquitted.  Jeanne would not be so fortunate she was whipped and branded with a v standing for thief (voleuse) and then sent to prison for life.  She escaped the following year and would live in London where she wrote her memoirs.

During and after the trial many believed that the real plot had been hatched by Marie Antoinette as to either discredit the Cardinal Rohan or to gain access to the necklace.  This further enhanced the Queen’s reputation for scheming and gave more supposed evidence of her lavish lifestyle.