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 Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

of France that involved his wife, Queen

Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...

. 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 rejected the idea of buying it only to have her signature forged by

Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy, ''self proclaimed'' "Comtesse de la Motte" (22 July 1756 – 23 August 1791) was a notorious French adventuress and thief; she was married to Nicholas de la Motte whose family's claim to nobility was dubious. She hers ...

. Although Jeanne was later convicted, the event remains historically significant as one of many that led to the French disillusionment with the

monarchy A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy) ...

, in that it was one of the contemporary scandals that gave moral weight and popular support for the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

Background

In 1772,

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...

of France decided to make

Madame du Barry Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry (19 August 1743 – 8 December 1793) was the last ''maîtresse-en-titre'' of King Louis XV of France. She was executed, by guillotine, during the French Revolution due to accounts of treason—particularly being ...

, one of his mistresses, a special gift at the estimated cost of 2,000,000

livres The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...

(approximately US$15.1 million in 2021). He requested that Parisian jewelers Charles Auguste Boehmer and Paul Bassange create a diamond necklace that would surpass all others in grandeur. It would take the jewellers several years and a great deal of money to amass an appropriate set of diamonds. In the meantime, Louis XV died of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

and his grandson and successor banished Madame du Barry from the court. It was described as "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 the new king,

, offered it to his wife as a present, but she refused.Fraser, 226–228. The queen initially turned it down stating, "We have more need of Seventy-Fours

hips In vertebrate anatomy, hip (or "coxa"Latin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) in medical terminology) refers to either an anatomical region or a joint. The hip region is ...

than of necklaces." Some said that Marie Antoinette refused the necklace because it was created for du Barry, whom she strongly disliked. According to others, Louis XVI himself changed his mind. This cites: * Maurice Tourneux, ''Marie Antoinette devant l'histoire: Essai bibliographique'' (2nd ed., Paris, 1901) *

Émile Campardon Émile Campardon (18 July 1837 – 23 February 1915) was a French historian, archivist and writer. He was an archivist and head of the judicial section of the Archives nationales de France from 1857 to 1908, and the author of numerous books. At th ...

, ''Marie Antoinette et le procès du collier'' (Paris, 1863) *P. Audebert, ''L'Affaire du collier de la reine, d'après la correspondance inédite du chevalier de Pujol'' (Rouen, 1901) *F. d'Albini, ''Marie Antoinette and the Diamond Necklace from another Point of View'' (London, 1900) *

Frantz Funck-Brentano Frantz Funck-Brentano (15 June 1862 – 13 June 1947) was a French historian and librarian. He was born in the castle of Munsbach (Luxembourg) and died at Montfermeil. He was a son of Théophile Funck-Brentano. Biography After graduating a ...

, ''L'Affaire du collier'' (1903) *

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University ...

, ''Historical Mysteries'' (1904) * Carlyle's essay on ''The Diamond Necklace'' (first published in 1837 in ''

Fraser's Magazine ''Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country'' was a general and literary journal published in London from 1830 to 1882, which initially took a strong Tory line in politics. It was founded by Hugh Fraser and William Maginn in 1830 and loosely directe ...

'') is of historical literary interest. 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 Louis Joseph Xavier François (22 October 1781 – 4 June 1789) was Dauphin of France as the second child and first son of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. As son of a king of France, he was a ''fils de France'' ("Child of France"). Loui ...

, in 1781. The Queen again refused.

Affair

confidence trick A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have def ...

ster who called herself

, also known as Jeanne de la Motte, made a plan to use the necklace to gain wealth and possibly power and royal patronage. A descendant of an

out-of-wedlock Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as '' ...

son of

Henry II of France Henry II (french: Henri II; 31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559) was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I and Duchess Claude of Brittany, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder bro ...

, Jeanne had married an officer of the

gendarmes Wrong info! --> A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (literally, ...

, Nicholas de la Motte, the

self-proclaimed Self-proclaimed describes a legal title that is recognized by the declaring person but not necessarily by any recognized legal authority. It can be the status of a noble title or the status of a nation. The term is used informally for anyone declari ...

"Comte de la Motte". She was living on a small pension that had been granted to her by the King. In March 1785, Jeanne became the mistress of the

Cardinal de Rohan Louis René Édouard de Rohan known as Cardinal de Rohan (25 September 1734 – 16 February 1803), ''prince de Rohan-Guéméné'', was a French Bishop of Strasbourg, politician, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, and cadet of the Rohan f ...

, a former French

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

to the court of

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. The Cardinal was regarded with displeasure by Queen

for having spread rumors about the Queen's behavior to her formidable mother, Holy Roman Empress

Maria Theresa Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina (german: Maria Theresia; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was ruler of the Habsburg dominions from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position ''suo jure'' (in her own right). ...

. The Queen had also learned of a letter in which the Cardinal spoke of Maria Theresa in a manner that the Queen found offensive. The Cardinal was then trying to regain the Queen's favor to become one of the King's ministers. Jeanne de la Motte, having entered court utilizing a lover named

Rétaux de Villette Armand Gabriel Rétaux de Villette (9 February 1754-) was a French procurer, forger, blackmailer and pimp. He participated in the famous Affair of the Diamond Necklace. Early life He was born in France near the city of Lyon in 1754. He was you ...

, 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 goodwill. Jeanne assured the Cardinal that she was making efforts on his behalf. Thus began an alleged correspondence between Rohan and the Queen. Jeanne de la Motte returned the replies to Rohan's notes, which she affirmed came from the Queen. As the tone of the letters became very warm, the Cardinal, convinced that Marie Antoinette was in love with him, became enamored of her. He begged Jeanne to arrange a secret night-time interview with the Queen on his behalf; the supposed meeting took place in August 1784. In the gardens of the

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 19 ...

, the Cardinal met with a woman whom he believed to be Marie Antoinette. In fact, the woman was a prostitute, Nicole Le Guay d'Oliva, whom Jeanne had hired because of her resemblance to the Queen. Rohan offered her a rose. In her role as the Queen, she promised him that she would forget their past disagreements. Jeanne de la Motte took advantage of the Cardinal's belief in her by borrowing large sums of money from him, telling him that they were for the Queen's charity work. With that money, Jeanne could make her way into respectable society. As she openly boasted about her mythical relationship with the Queen, many assumed that the affair was genuine. The jewelers Boehmer and Bassenge resolved to use her to sell their necklace. She, at first, refused a commission, but then changed her mind and accepted it. According to

Madame Campan Jeanne Louise ''Henriette'' Campan ('' née'' Genet; 6 OctoberMadame Campan, ''Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France'', 1752, Paris 16 March 1822, Mantes) was a French educator, writer and Lady's maid. In the service of Mari ...

, Jeanne, pretending to be the Queen, sent several letters to the Cardinal, including an order to buy the necklace. They were signed "Marie Antoinette de France", but the Cardinal did not know or remember that French royals signed only with their given names. On 21 January 1785, Jeanne told the Cardinal 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 the Cardinal 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 A valet or varlet is a male servant who serves as personal attendant to his employer. In the Middle Ages and Ancien Régime, valet de chambre was a role for junior courtiers and specialists such as artists in a royal court, but the term "vale ...

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 Madame de la Motte. When the time came to pay, Jeanne de la Motte presented the Cardinal'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. Then followed a ''coup de théâtre''.

Scandal

The controversy of the event stems from the arrest of the Cardinal in the

Hall of Mirrors The Hall of Mirrors (french: Grande Galerie, Galerie des Glaces, Galerie de Louis XIV) is a grand Baroque style gallery and one of the most emblematic rooms in the royal Palace of Versailles near Paris, France. The grandiose ensemble of the hal ...

at Versailles and the trial that declared him innocent and Jeanne de la Motte Valois and her accomplices guilty. On 15 August 1785, the feast of the

Assumption of Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...

, while the court was awaiting the King and the Queen to go to the chapel, the Cardinal de Rohan, who was to officiate, was taken before the King, the Queen, the Minister of the Court

Louis Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil Louis Charles Auguste Le Tonnelier, Baron de Breteuil, Baron de Preuilly (7 March 1730 – 2 November 1807) was a French aristocrat, diplomat and statesman. He was the last chief minister of the Bourbon Monarchy, appointed by King Louis XVI ...

and the Keeper of the Seals Armand Thomas Hue de Miromesnil to explain himself. Rohan produced a letter signed "Marie Antoinette de France". Royalty signed with only the baptismal name, but that fact was missed by Rohan and brought up during his trial and "prejudiced the King against Rohan" as he "breath droyal etiquette since birth... and could not understand how a courtier, and above all a Rohan, a member of a family so keen on the details of status, could make such a mistake". Rohan was arrested and taken to the

Bastille The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was sto ...

. 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. The noted

Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

and

occultist The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism an ...

Alessandro Cagliostro Count Alessandro di Cagliostro (, ; 2 June 1743 – 26 August 1795) was the alias of the Italian occultist Giuseppe Balsamo (; in French usually referred to as Joseph Balsamo). Cagliostro was an Italian adventurer and self-styled magician ...

was also arrested although it is doubtful whether he had any part in the affair. The Cardinal de Rohan accepted the

Parlement A ''parlement'' (), under the French Ancien Régime, was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 parlements, the oldest and most important of which was the Parlement of Paris. While both the modern Fre ...

de Paris as judges.

Pope Pius VI Pope Pius VI ( it, Pio VI; born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, 25 December 171729 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to his death in August 1799. Pius VI condemned the French Revoluti ...

was incensed, since he believed that the cardinal should be tried by his natural judge (himself). However, his notes remained unanswered. A sensational trial resulted in the acquittal of the Cardinal, 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 de La Motte 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. In June the following year, she escaped from prison by being disguised as a boy. Meanwhile, her husband was tried ''in absentia'' and condemned to be a

galley slave A galley slave was a slave rowing in a galley, either a convicted criminal sentenced to work at the oar ('' French'': galérien), or a kind of human chattel, often a prisoner of war, assigned to the duty of rowing. In the ancient Mediterran ...

. The forger Villette was banished. That made the event into a matter of public interest, rather than being handled quietly and privately.

Public opinion Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to a society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them. Etymology The term "public opinion" was derived from the French ', which was first use ...

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 the La Mottes deceived both for their own ends. Despite findings to the contrary, many people in France persisted in the belief that the Queen used the La Mottes as an instrument to satisfy her hatred of the Cardinal de Rohan. Various circumstances fortified that belief: the Queen's disappointment at Rohan's acquittal and the fact that he was afterwards deprived by the King of his charges and exiled to the Abbey of

la Chaise-Dieu La Chaise-Dieu (; Auvergnat: ''La Chasa Dieu'') is a commune in the Haute-Loire department in south-central France. Its inhabitants are called ''Casadéens'', from the Latin name of the city. Geography La Chaise-Dieu occupies a 1082 m butte wh ...

. In addition, the people assumed that the

Parliament of Paris The Parliament of Paris (french: Parlement de Paris) was the oldest ''parlement'' in the Kingdom of France, formed in the 14th century. It was fixed in Paris by Philip IV of France in 1302. The Parliament of Paris would hold sessions inside the ...

's acquittal of Rohan implied that Marie Antoinette had somehow been in the wrong. All of those factors led to a huge decline in the Queen's popularity and impressed an image of her to the public as a manipulative spendthrift who was more interested in vanity than in the welfare of her people. Jeanne de la Motte took refuge in London, and in 1789, she published her ''Mémoires Justificatifs'' in which she once again libelled Queen Marie Antoinette.

Significance

The affair of the diamond necklace was important in discrediting the

Bourbon monarchy The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a European dynasty of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Kingdom of Navarre, Navarre in the 16th century. By the 18th century, memb ...

in the eyes of the French people four years before the

became even more unpopular, and malicious gossip about her made her a greater liability to her husband.Fraser, 239. 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. Marie Antoinette's reputation never recovered from this incident. Her early history of excessive spending had already blemished her popularity, but the Diamond Necklace Affair catapulted public opinion of her into near-hatred, since she appeared to have plotted to misuse more of the kingdom's depleting money for personal trinkets. Marie Antoinette Execution

The Diamond Necklace Affair heightened the French general public's hatred and disdain for Marie Antoinette since it was "designed to leave the queen in a state of scandal, with the impossibility of claiming any truth for herself". The

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

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 , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = Pa ...

and the ''

sans-culottes The (, 'without breeches') were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the . The ...

''. She was never able to shake off the idea in public imagination that she had perpetrated an extravagant fraud for her own frivolous ends. Nonetheless, the affair prompted Louis XVI to become closer to his wife and may have inclined him to be more defensive of and more responsive to her before and during the Revolution.

In fiction

* ''The Great Cophta'', by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as trea ...

(1791) * ''Diamond Necklace'', by

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...

(1837) * ''

The Queen's Necklace ''The Queen's Necklace'' is a novel by Alexandre Dumas that was published in 1849 and 1850 (immediately following the French Revolution of 1848). It is loosely based on the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, an episode involving fraud and royal scan ...

'', by

Alexandre Dumas, père Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where ''Suffix (name)#Generational titles, '' is French language, French for 'father', to distinguish him from ...

(1848) () * "The Queen's Necklace", by

Maurice Leblanc Maurice Marie Émile Leblanc (; ; 11 December 1864 – 6 November 1941) was a French novelist and writer of short stories, known primarily as the creator of the fictional gentleman thief and detective Arsène Lupin, often described as a French c ...

(1905) (An Arsène Lupin Story) * ''

'', starring Norma Shearer, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore, and Robert Morley (1938) * ''The Queen's Necklace'', by

Antal Szerb Antal Szerb (1 May 1901, Budapest – 27 January 1945, Balf) was a noted Hungarian scholar and writer. He is generally considered to be one of the major Hungarian writers of the 20th century. Life and career Szerb was born in 1901 to assimilate ...

(1943) * '' L'affaire du collier de la reine'', a film directed by

Marcel L'Herbier Marcel L'Herbier (; 23 April 1888 – 26 November 1979) was a French filmmaker who achieved prominence as an avant-garde theorist and imaginative practitioner with a series of silent films in the 1920s. His career as a director continued unti ...

and starring

Viviane Romance Viviane Romance (born Pauline Ronacher Ortmanns; 4 July 1912 – 25 September 1991) was a French actress. Viviane Romance was born in Roubaix, France. She began her career as a dancer at the Moulin Rouge in Paris and was elected Miss Paris of 193 ...

(1946) * ''

Black Magic Black magic, also known as dark magic, has traditionally referred to the use of supernatural powers or magic for evil and selfish purposes, specifically the seven magical arts prohibited by canon law, as expounded by Johannes Hartlieb in 145 ...

'', a film starring

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

(1949), an adaptation of

Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...

's novel ''Joseph Balsamo'' (''Mémoires d'un médecin: Joseph Balsamo'', 1846–48) (a.k.a. ''Memoirs of a Physician'', ''

Cagliostro Count Alessandro di Cagliostro (, ; 2 June 1743 – 26 August 1795) was the alias of the Italian occultist Giuseppe Balsamo (; in French usually referred to as Joseph Balsamo). Cagliostro was an Italian adventurer and self-styled magician. ...

'', ''

Madame Dubarry Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry (19 August 1743 – 8 December 1793) was the last ''maîtresse-en-titre'' of King Louis XV of France. She was executed, by guillotine, during the French Revolution due to accounts of treason—particularly being ...

'', ''The Countess Dubarry'', or ''The Elixir of Life'') the first of his

romances. * ''The Queen of Diamonds'', by

Jean Plaidy Eleanor Alice Hibbert (née Burford; 1 September 1906 – 18 January 1993) was an English writer of historical romances. She was a prolific writer who published several books a year in different literary genres, each genre under a different pen ...

(1958) * "il diavolo in giardino", Comedy by Luchino Visconti, Filippo Sanjust and Enrico Medioli. Music by Franco Mannino (Palermo, 1963) * ''

The Necklace Affair ''The Necklace Affair'' (English for "L'Affaire du Collier") by the Belgian artist Edgar P. Jacobs was the tenth comic book in the Blake and Mortimer series. Plot The necklace of Queen Marie-Antoinette that was believed to have been destroyed ce ...

'', by Edgar P. Jacobs (part of the

Blake and Mortimer ''Blake and Mortimer'' is a Belgian comics series created by the writer and comics artist Edgar P. Jacobs. It was one of the first series to appear in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine ''Tintin'' in 1946, and was subsequently published in book ...

comic series) (1967) * ''

The Rose of Versailles , also known as ''Lady Oscar'' and ''La Rose de Versailles'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Riyoko Ikeda. It was originally serialized in the manga magazine '' Margaret'' from 1972 to 1973, while a revival of the s ...

'', by

Riyoko Ikeda is a Japanese manga artist and singer. She is included in the Year 24 Group, by some, although her status as one of them has been debated due to a focus more on epic stories than the internal psychology of those mangaka. She was one of the most ...

, first published 1973 (

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

);

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series, 1979 * ''Norby and the Queen's Necklace'', by

Janet Asimov Janet Opal Asimov (née Jeppson; August 6, 1926 – February 25, 2019), usually written as J. O. Jeppson, was an American science fiction writer, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst. She started writing children's science fiction in the 1970s. She w ...

(1986) * ''Blade of the Guillotine'', by

Arthur Byron Cover Arthur Byron Cover (born January 14, 1950, in Grundy, Virginia) is an American science fiction author. Cover attended the Clarion Writer's SF Workshop in New Orleans in 1971, and made his first professional short-story sale to Harlan Ellison's ...

(part of the

Time Machine Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...

series) (1986) * ''

The Affair of the Necklace ''The Affair of the Necklace'' is a 2001 American historical drama film directed by Charles Shyer. The screenplay by John Sweet is based on what became known as the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, an incident that helped fuel the French populac ...

'' (2001 film) * In the ''Feddal Castle Series'' by H.C. Delaval, the second novel ''The Fourteenth Lady of Feddal'', the necklace is revealed to have been secreted into a chandelier in the drawing room of Feddal Castle. This is why it is dubbed ''The Versailles Chandelier'' in the series as it was supposedly sent before the French Revolution by Louis XVI to the then Lord Burdon of Feddal. * ''Dress-Up! Time Princess'', as part of the ''Queen Marie'' story and ''The Affair of the Necklace'' mini-story (2017 game) *''Stealing the World's Most Expensive Necklace'' (2020 YouTube video) by Watcher Entertainment's Shane Madej in the Puppet History Series. * In ''

Ocean's 8 ''Ocean's Eight'' (stylized onscreen as ''Ocean's 8'') is a 2018 American heist action thriller comedy film directed by Gary Ross and written by Ross and Olivia Milch. The film is both a continuation of and a spin-off from Steven Soderbergh's ...

'', the necklace is one of the several on display in the fictional

Met Gala The Met Gala, or Met Ball, formally called the Costume Institute Gala or the Costume Institute Benefit, is an annual fundraising gala held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York City. It is popularly r ...

exhibit.

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''.

External links

* {{Authority control 1780s in France Events of the Ancien Régime Fraud in France Marie Antoinette Necklaces Political history of the Ancien Régime Scandals in France Material culture of royal courts