Jaipur: She achieved notoriety as the French queen who suggested her starving
subjects should eat cake if they had no bread. While this story is
unlikely to be true, Marie Antoinette was dragged in a raging scandal -
four years before the French Revolution - that irreparably tarnished the
French royalty's image, earned them the label of tyrants and was one of
the factors which led to the events of 1789, said author Jonathan
Beckman at a session of the Jaipur Literature Festival 2015.
The
scandal involved a foreign queen never at home in the formal atmosphere
of the French court, an ambitious clergyman willing to go to any ends to
achieve his desire of high political office, a noble-born conwoman
skilled at pretending to be more influential than she was, and jewellers
who created an expensive 'masterpiece' but couldn't sell it off, said
Beckman.
Beckman, who revisits in "How to Ruin a Queen: Marie
Antoinette, the Stolen Diamonds and the Scandal that Shook the French
Throne" the 1785 scandal that has been dealt with by Thomas Carlyle and
Alexander Dumas and inspired at least two Hollywood films, says the real
force behind the scam was Jeanne de Saint-Remy de Valois who devised
the scam to ensure a comfortable life ahead.
Her unwitting dupe
was Cardinal de Rohan, who had fallen out of royal favour and was
seeking to re-establish himself, and she convinced him she was close to
the queen and could help him, said Beckman.
She carried his
letters to the queen and brought back "her replies", said Beckman,
adding she sought on the behalf of the queen, money, which de Rohan was
more than happy to pay.
She even arranged a midnight meeting at
Versailles with the "queen" (played by a prostitute who resembled Marie
Antoinette) for him, said Beckman.
Jeanne's final plan was to
acquire a 16 million franc necklace, comprising over 640 diamonds that
jewellers Boehmer and Bassenge had created for a previous French king
who however died before it was completed.
Marie Antoinette
refused to buy it claiming it was "hideous". The jewellers tried in vain
to sell it but found no buyers. However, Jeanne convinced Rohan the
queen wanted him to serve as an intermediary to buy it secretly in view
of present circumstances. He was ready to oblige as usual.
The
necklace was acquired and spirited by Jeanne and her associates to
Britain where they tried to sell it unsuccessfully. The scandal came out
when the jewellers wrote to Marie Antoinette thanking her for finally
purchasing it, said Beckman.
Rohan was questioned and Jeanne and the other conspirators were traced and arrested.
However,
while they were found guilty and punished, he was acquitted but sent
into exile by King Louis the 16th, said Beckman. It was this decision
and the people's propensity to believe the worst of the highly unpopular
queen and her extravagance and other salubrious allegations (the
midnight meets) that dealt the monarchy a blow it never recovered from.
Marie
Antoinette was further savaged by Jeanne who escaped prison and in her
"very unreliable" memoirs, claimed the queen - with whom she had a
lesbian affair - had orchestrated the entire scam before denying
involvement as the scandal broke. She died in London in mysterious
circumstances in 1791, said Beckman.
The effect of the whole
episode and its aftermath was disastrous for the monarchy, he said, and
the necklace scandal was one of the charges on which Marie Antoinette
was held guilty at her trial and sent to the guillotine - though history
absolves her of any complicity.
"She was simply unfortunate," he said.
(Vikas Datta can be contacted at [email protected])
