thumb|The diamond necklace was commissioned by [[Louis XV of France for his mistress, Madame du Barry. At the death of Louis XV, the necklace was unpaid for, which almost bankrupted the jewellers and then led to various unsuccessful schemes to secure a sale to Queen Marie Antoinette. Reconstruction, Château de Breteuil (Breteuil Castle), France.]]

The Affair of the Diamond Necklace (, "Affair of the Queen's Necklace") was an incident from 1784 to 1785 at the court of King Louis XVI of France that involved his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette.

The queen's reputation, already tarnished by gossip, was further sullied by the false accusation that she had participated in a crime to defraud the Crown's jewellers in acquiring a very expensive diamond necklace she then refused to pay for. In reality, she had rejected the idea of buying it only to have her signature forged by Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy. Although Valois-Saint-Rémy was later convicted, the event remains historically significant as one of many that led to the French disillusionment with the monarchy, in that it was one of the contemporary scandals that gave moral weight and popular support for the French Revolution.

Background

In 1772, Louis XV of France decided to make Madame du Barry, one of his mistresses, a special gift at the estimated cost of 2,000,000 livres (approximately US$17.5 million in 2024). He requested that Parisian jewelers Charles Auguste Boehmer and Paul Bassenge create a diamond necklace that would surpass all others in grandeur.

It took the jewellers several years and a great deal of money to gather an appropriate set of diamonds. In the meantime, Louis XV died of smallpox, and his grandson and successor banished Madame du Barry from the court.

The necklace was, according to historian Thomas Carlyle, "a row of seventeen glorious diamonds, as large almost as filberts... a three-wreathed festoon, and pendants enough (simple pear shaped, multiple star-shaped, or clustering amorphous) encircle it... around a very Queen of Diamonds". The jewellers hoped it would be a product that the new Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, would buy and indeed in 1778 King Louis XVI offered it to his wife as a present, but she refused. The queen initially turned it down stating (if Carlyle is to be believed) "We have more need of seventy-fours [ships] than of necklaces." After having vainly tried to place the necklace outside France, the jewellers again attempted to sell it to Marie Antoinette after the birth of Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France, in 1781. The queen again refused. Rohan was regarded with displeasure by Marie Antoinette for having spread rumors about the queen's behavior to her formidable mother, Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa. The queen had also learned of a letter in which Rohan wrote of Maria Theresa in a manner that the queen found offensive. Rohan was then trying to regain the queen's favor to become one of the king's ministers. Jeanne, having entered court utilizing a lover named Rétaux de Villette, persuaded Rohan that she had been received by the queen and enjoyed her favor. On hearing of that, Rohan resolved to use Jeanne to regain the queen's good will. Jeanne assured Rohan that she was making efforts on his behalf..

On 21 January 1785, Jeanne told Rohan that Marie Antoinette wanted to buy the necklace but, not wishing to purchase such an expensive item publicly during a time of need, the queen wanted Rohan to act as a secret intermediary. A little while later, Rohan negotiated the purchase of the necklace for 2,000,000 livres, to be paid in installments. He claimed to have the queen's authorization for the purchase and showed the jewelers the conditions of the bargain in the queen's handwriting. Rohan took the necklace to Jeanne's house, where a man, whom Rohan believed to be a valet of the queen, came to fetch it. The diamond necklace "was promptly picked apart, and the gems sold on the black markets of Paris and London" by Jeanne.

When the time came to pay, Jeanne presented Rohan's notes, but they were insufficient. Boehmer complained to the queen, who told him that she had neither ordered nor received the necklace. She had the story of the negotiations repeated for her Rohan was arrested and taken to the Bastille. On the way, he sent home a note ordering the destruction of his correspondence. Jeanne was not arrested until three days later, giving her a chance to destroy her papers. The police arrested the prostitute Nicole Le Guay as well as Rétaux de Villette, who confessed that he had written the letters given to Rohan in the queen's name and had imitated her signature.

Rohan accepted the Parlement de Paris as judges. Pope Pius VI was incensed, since he believed that Rohan should be tried by his natural judge (himself). However, his notes remained unanswered. A sensational trial resulted in the acquittal of Rohan, Leguay and Cagliostro on 31 May 1786. "Rohan's choice of the Parliament, whatever the verdict, both prolonged matters and took them into the political arena". Jeanne was condemned to whipping, branding with a V (for voleuse, 'thief') on each shoulder, and sent to life imprisonment in the prostitutes' prison at the Salpêtrière. Meanwhile, her husband was tried in absentia and condemned to be a galley slave. The forger Villette was banished. That made the event a matter of public interest, rather than being handled quietly and privately.

Public opinion was much excited by the trial. The Paris Parliament did not comment on the alleged actions of the queen. The trial found Marie Antoinette blameless in the matter, Rohan an innocent dupe, and that de la Mottes deceived both for their own ends. After the affair broke out to the general public there was an increase in literature defaming the queen. Her "unpopularity was so great after the Diamond Necklace Affair that it could no longer be ignored by either the queen or the government. Her appearances in public all but ceased." As she was associated with the scandal and already considered by some to be an enemy of the French people, her reputation was irreversibly destroyed. The public relations nightmare led to an increase in salacious and degrading pamphlets, which would serve as kindling for the oncoming French Revolution. It could be said that "she symbolized, among other things, the lavishness and corruption of a dying regime" and served as "the perfect scapegoat of the morality play that the revolution in part became", which made her a target for the hatred of the French Republic and groups like the Jacobins and the sans-culottes. by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, with music and lyrics by Tasha Taylor Johnson and Jack McManus

  • Marie Antoinette (2006 film), directed by Sofia Coppola, refers to the necklace, thus obliquely to the affair, in a scene where the queen refuses the king's offer of it.

See also

  • Affaire Cahouët
  • George Grieve
  • Louis-Benoit Zamor

References

Sources

  • Beckman, Jonathan. How to Ruin a Queen: Marie Antoinette and the Diamond Necklace Affair (2014), scholarly study details
  • Sarah Maza, Private Lives and Public Affairs - The Causes Célèbres of Prerevolutionary France, University of California Press, 1993. .
  • Colin Jones, The Great Nation, 2002, chapter 8.A (Penguin 2003, )
  • Mossiker, Frances, The Queen's Necklace.