Louise C - July 30th, 2008

A jeweller called Boehmer made a fantastic diamond necklace worth 1,600,000 livres, which he hoped Marie Antoinette would buy. However, she refused it, it was too expensive even for her. He got in touch with the Comtesse de la Motte Valois, who claimed to be an intimate of the Queen. She suggested that the Queen might purchase the necklace through an intermediary, the Cardinal Rohan.

the comtesse de la Motte managed to persuade Cardinal Rohan, the Grand Almoner of France, that the Queen wanted him to purchase the necklace on her behalf. She arranged a meeting after dark with a woman impersonating the Queen, which convinced Rohan that she really wanted him to buy the necklace for her, the jeweller Bohmer drew up a contract saying the necklace would be paid for in installments. Madame de la Motte took the contract and brought it back bearing the forged signature of the Queen.

Bohmer handed the necklace over to the Cardinal, and he drove with it to the house of Madame de la Motte, where he handed over the necklace to a man who was supposed to be the Queen’s messenger. Cardinal rohan returned to Paris. The necklace was never seen again. Madame de la Motte’s husband took it straight to England, where it was broken up and the stones sold.

The deceit was discovered when Bohmer applied for the first insallment of his payment, only to find that the Queen knew nothing of his necklace. She pointed out that the signature on the document Bohmer produced was a forgery. the King had Cardinal Rohan arrested on a charge of forgery. Madame de la Motte was arrested at her house. Cardinal Rohan was acquitted of forgery, Madame de la Motte was convicted, branded and imprisoned, but ten months later she escaped and joined her husband in London. The poor jeweller was ruined.