The “diamond necklace scandal” , Which resulted in a famous trial held in 1786 , Ended up overwhelming the already shaky reputation of the Queen of France Marie Antoinette.
In reality it was just an incredible conspiracy hatched by greedy and mean characters behind the sovereign, completely unrelated to the story.
In an article I wrote for Notizie.it, I briefly reconstructed the salient stages of the case.
It looks like a masterpiece sprung from the imagination of a skilled writer, but it really happened and ended up further undermining the creaking foundations on which the centuries-old French monarchy rested.
Portrait of Jeanne Valois de la Motte
What went down in history as the “scandal of the necklace diamonds ” it was, in fact, a diabolical scam machined by obscure and unscrupulous characters behind the queen of France Marie Antoinette.
From this grotesque story, the woman came out heavily compromised in her name and dignity, despite her proven innocence and total extraneousness to the facts.
The scandal of the diamond necklace:Cardinal de Rohan and Jeanne de La Motte-Valois
It all began in the summer of 1785 , when the sovereign learned of a curious fact of which she could not foresee the consequences at all.
The Bohmer, jeweler she asked her to pay for a fabulous diamond necklace which, according to her statements, was a gift from her husband Louis XVI.
Furthermore, the man claimed that a noble of the court, Cardinal de Rohan , had taken out a secret loan in the name of the queen to support the payment of the substantial first installment.
Obviously Marie Antoinette was perplexed.
It merely said that it had not received any necklace as a gift and to know nothing of that matter.
After all, this was the truth.
A few weeks passed and the Cardinal, under arrest, presented himself in front of the royal couple.
In his embarrassed defense, he mentioned a certain Countess de La Motte-Valois , without knowing that in reality he was a cheat.
Thanks to an out of the ordinary cunning, to the feminine graces and a certain gullibility of the prelate, the adventurer had convinced him to advance the money for the necklace, giving him in exchange the certainty of being able to obtain the favors of the queen, which he had never shown. no sympathy towards him.
During the Jeanne plot , she had even managed to organize a secret meeting in the gardens of Versailles between the Cardinal and a prostitute, passing her off as Marie Antoinette.
A little for the emotion, a little for the darkness, a lot for, let's call it, naivety, Rohan hadn't noticed anything.
The trial and consequences for Marie Antoinette
A process was born became famous which took place in 1786.
At the end of it, the self-styled Countess De La Motte was sentenced to be whipped and branded with a red-hot iron.
The high prelate was acquitted.
The incredible thing is that the worst of all was the queen, whose reputation was irremediably tarnished forever.
The judges, believing the words of the Cardinal, had given credit to her legend that she wanted her so frivolous and wasteful that she was capable of spending astronomical sums for a jewel.
Marie Antoinette instead, for some time now, had undertaken a more modest and adult type of life, feeling compelled not to waste money in such a difficult time for France ( Article from :news.it) ( Photo from: members.xoom.virgilio.it and joslinhall.com).