cat - July 15th, 2008

Well of course you should read about it yourself also but here is the gist. In France just before the French revolution, a woman who called herself the Comtesse De la Motte contacted a man high in the church (Rohan) and told him the queen (Marie Antoinette) wanted him to purchase an expensive diamond necklace for her. Reason? The king was not in favor she had to be discreet etc… They hired a prostitute to meet with him disguised as the queen and forged some papers and convinced him to do it. Since the queen was ticked off at him he decided to do it to get back in favor with her. He purchased it gave it to the Comtesse who promptly gave it to her husband to break up and sell. When it came time to make the payment the story came out and the king and queen said to punish Rohan but he was acquitted. Some say this probably hastened the French Revolution because people were already not too happy with the monarchy and some people thought the queen had set up Rohan. Very interesting!!! Read about it.