Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Aaron Mankey. Listener discretion is advised. I've already told
Speaker 1: a story about Marie Antoinette on this podcast, the show's
Speaker 1: very first episode, in fact, but considering it's Christmas, I
Speaker 1: figured I'd give myself the gift of getting to tell
Speaker 1: one more story about my favorite doomed queen. In the
Speaker 1: eighteenth century, a man named Louis renee de Rohan had
Speaker 1: the good luck of being born to one of France's
Speaker 1: most prominent families, the Roanne clan boasted bishops and princes,
Speaker 1: ambassadors and dukes. In seventeen seventy one, at age thirty seven,
Speaker 1: Louis renee de Rohan was sent as part of a
Speaker 1: prestigious embassy to Vienna, Austria. He was just a vicar then,
Speaker 1: but it was practically a foregone conclusion that in time
Speaker 1: he would become a cardinal and then a minister of France.
Speaker 1: But the future Cardinal de Rohan didn't quite act like
Speaker 1: a man of the cloth. As soon as he arrived
Speaker 1: in Vienna, he flirted extravagantly with almost everyone he met,
Speaker 1: charming anyone from a duchess to a chambermaid people young
Speaker 1: and old, beautiful and ugly. He hunted more often than
Speaker 1: he prayed. He threw elaborate dinner parties where he openly
Speaker 1: flaunted social conventions, and seated people wherever he liked. The
Speaker 1: Cardinal brought with him an entourage to Vienna, who abused
Speaker 1: the palace staff and brought goods in and out of
Speaker 1: the country in bags with diplomatic seals. And so it
Speaker 1: was no surprise that the Empress of Austria, Maria Teresa,
Speaker 1: hated Cardinal de Rohan. Less than a month after the
Speaker 1: French envoy arrived, the Empress was writing to the Austrian
Speaker 1: ambassador in France that the future Cardinal was quote a
Speaker 1: very wicked subject, without talent, without discretion, without morals. As
Speaker 1: it so happened, the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa had some
Speaker 1: power in France. Her daughter Marie Antoinette had just married
Speaker 1: the Dauphine, the country's future king, the grandson of King Louis.
Speaker 1: But that didn't matter to the future Cardinal de Rohan. Yet.
Speaker 1: While he was still in Austria, he sent a letter
Speaker 1: back to Madame de Berry, the official mistress of King Louis,
Speaker 1: mocking the doughty two faced The Austrian Empress Madame de
Speaker 1: Berry read the letter out loud to uproarious laughter at
Speaker 1: one of her famous dinner parties. Word got back to
Speaker 1: the Princess Marie Antoinette. When Marie Antoinette eventually became Queen,
Speaker 1: Cardinal de Rohan received a blissteringly chilly reception at court.
Speaker 1: Although the Rowans were too powerful to have allowed Marie
Speaker 1: Antoinette to prevent their son from becoming a cardinal, she
Speaker 1: could absolutely keep his career from advancing any further. He
Speaker 1: would never become a Minister of France, not as long
Speaker 1: as she was queen, and he would never again get
Speaker 1: the gleeful courtly prominence that he had enjoyed in drawing
Speaker 1: rooms with Madame de Barry. Marie Antoinette was many things,
Speaker 1: but she was a queen and not a mistress. The
Speaker 1: story should have ended there, just one of a thousand
Speaker 1: examples of courtly slights and political maneuvers. In Versailles, a
Speaker 1: place almost entirely fueled by gossip, rumors and political maneuvers,
Speaker 1: and the story would have ended there if it hadn't
Speaker 1: been for a con artist a diamond necklace and perhaps
Speaker 1: the most ambitious catfish in history. One cardinal and one
Speaker 1: diamond necklace set off a chain of events that would
Speaker 1: end with Marie Antoinette's head on a guillotine. Years later,
Speaker 1: Napoleon would write, the Queen's death must be dated from
Speaker 1: the diamond necklace trial. It's only in retrospect that these
Speaker 1: things come into clarity. The stakes always seem small until
Speaker 1: they spiral out of control. I'm Dani Schwartz, and this
Speaker 1: is noble blood. Madame de Berry, the mistress of Louis
Speaker 1: the fifteenth, was born the illegitimate daughter of a seamstress.
Speaker 1: But she was smart and she knew what she wanted.
Speaker 1: She wanted to get into Versailles, and so she climbed
Speaker 1: the social ladder via lovers, seducing men who then introduced
Speaker 1: her to more prominent men, whom she then in turn seduced.
Speaker 1: Eventually she made it to the bed of the King
Speaker 1: of France. One convenient marriage to account later, and Madame
Speaker 1: de Berry was officially a countess and eligible to be
Speaker 1: crowned official royal mistress. You see, you couldn't get to
Speaker 1: be the King's official mistress unless you held a title
Speaker 1: your self Madame Duberry's marriage to Compte Guillaume de Berry
Speaker 1: was sealed with a fake birth certificate that dated her
Speaker 1: as three years younger than she actually was. Some royal
Speaker 1: mistresses involved themselves in politics, Madame de Berry preferred to
Speaker 1: be involved in fashion. The King gave her extravagant gifts, gowns, houses, jewelry,
Speaker 1: and then in seventeen seventy two, the King set out
Speaker 1: to give the ultimate gift, a necklace. But not just
Speaker 1: any necklace. The King went to the luxury Parisian jewelers
Speaker 1: Boehmer and BassaNge and demanded a necklace that would be
Speaker 1: more extravagant than any other necklace that had ever been made.
Speaker 1: The necklace they came up with could politely be described
Speaker 1: as a monstrosity. It was constructed of six hundred and
Speaker 1: forty seven diamonds with a combined weight of two thousand,
Speaker 1: eight hundred carrots. The necklace began with a row of
Speaker 1: massive diamonds in a choker. Three diamond arches dangled down
Speaker 1: from it, each with their own pennant diamonds hanging down
Speaker 1: like an inverted tiara, and then another layer of diamonds,
Speaker 1: a deep v that would descend down lower on Madame
Speaker 1: de Berry's chest, and then from that four more dangling
Speaker 1: pieces that each ended in a dainty little diamond bow
Speaker 1: and dainty little diamond tassels. The cost was estimated to
Speaker 1: be over two million livres or what today would be
Speaker 1: fifteen million dollars. The problem was, before the necklace had
Speaker 1: been finished, Louis the fifteenth came down with smallpox and died.
Speaker 1: His mistress was politely dismissed and sent to a nunnery,
Speaker 1: and the necklace had never been paid for. Boehmer and
Speaker 1: Bassage were left with a debt of millions of dollars,
Speaker 1: a massive diamond necklace, and no one to sell it to.
Speaker 1: The natural choice. Perhaps the only woman wealthy enough to
Speaker 1: buy the necklace was the new Queen Murrie Antoinette. The
Speaker 1: young Queen was already sending ripple waves through court for
Speaker 1: her extravagance when it came to her dresses and hair.
Speaker 1: As you know, her mother Maria Theresa wrote, I have
Speaker 1: always been of the opinion that fashions should be followed
Speaker 1: in moderation, but should never be taken to extremes. A
Speaker 1: beautiful young woman, a graceful queen, has no need for
Speaker 1: such madness. Murrie Antoinette did not heed her mother's advice.
Speaker 1: If any one was going to buy the massive necklace,
Speaker 1: it would be Murrie Antoinette. So in seventeen seventy eight,
Speaker 1: the two jewelers came to Versailles bearing the massive necklace,
Speaker 1: hoping to entice the Queen. The King Louis graciously offered
Speaker 1: to buy it for his wife, but she turned it down.
Speaker 1: It's too expensive. The young Marie Antoinette said the money
Speaker 1: would be better spent on warships. That's what she said,
Speaker 1: but whether or not she actually believed it is up
Speaker 1: for debate. Marie Antoinette never did seem to be the
Speaker 1: type of person who would have trouble spending money on
Speaker 1: clothes or jewelry. What's more plausible, at least to your
Speaker 1: humble narrator, is that Marie Antoinette didn't want to waltz
Speaker 1: around Versailles and a massive, attention grabbing necklace that had
Speaker 1: been designed for another woman, and not just any woman,
Speaker 1: a mistress, and the despised Madame de Berry at that.
Speaker 1: But whether it was her love of worships or her
Speaker 1: hatred for Madame de Berry, the end result was the
Speaker 1: same the jewelers were stuck with a multimillion dollar necklace
Speaker 1: that nobody wanted. They tried other luxury markets all over
Speaker 1: Europe no dice. In a desperate move, they came back
Speaker 1: to Versailles three years later in the necklace still unsold,
Speaker 1: and tried to sell it once again to Marie Antoinette
Speaker 1: for her husband to gift her for the birth of
Speaker 1: their son, Louis Joseph. The king is said to have
Speaker 1: briefly considered it, but a military defeat distracted him and
Speaker 1: took an expensive purchase off the table. At that point,
Speaker 1: the jewelers admitted to themselves that there was no way
Speaker 1: Marie Antoinette was ever going to buy their necklace, and
Speaker 1: they were right. She never would, at least not the
Speaker 1: real Marie Antoinette. It's about now that I should introduce
Speaker 1: a woman named Jean Lemote in a tiny village in
Speaker 1: the region of Champagne. Jean Lemote was born into poverty,
Speaker 1: though her family had no money and no official title.
Speaker 1: They were descended from an illegitimate son of the Valwois
Speaker 1: king Henry the Second, but that had been back in
Speaker 1: the mid sixteenth century and over the generations whatever money
Speaker 1: the family once had had long since dissolved. By the
Speaker 1: time we came to gen Le Moote's father, the sixth
Speaker 1: and final child of a second son himself, the family
Speaker 1: was heavily in debt, selling off pieces of their land
Speaker 1: acre by acre. Gen Learmont's mother was the family housekeeper.
Speaker 1: When Jean was eight years old, the three of them, father,
Speaker 1: mother and daughter fled their village to escape creditors and
Speaker 1: walked two hundred kilometers on foot to Paris. Jean spent
Speaker 1: most of her childhood begging on the street, enticing passers
Speaker 1: by with her story of being a descendant of royalty.
Speaker 1: But all the while she kept her eyes to Versailles,
Speaker 1: never wavering from the belief that she deserved wealth and
Speaker 1: title and status, and that one day she would get it.
Speaker 1: In see the twenty seven year old Jean, by then married,
Speaker 1: made the acquaintance of a certain Cardinal de Rohan. Cardinal
Speaker 1: de Rohan by this point was cursing his foolishness for
Speaker 1: making an enemy of Marie Antoinette. His career had stalled.
Speaker 1: Even his will connected and powerful family couldn't do anything
Speaker 1: to cancel out the disfavor of the Queen and that's
Speaker 1: part of the reason why this young Jean de LaMotte
Speaker 1: was so appealing to him. She said that she was
Speaker 1: a contest and a frequent guest at Versailles, and a
Speaker 1: close personal friend of Murrie Antoinette. If the Cardinal wanted
Speaker 1: to write a letter to Marie Antoinette extending an olive branch,
Speaker 1: Jean de LaMotte would make sure that the queen received it.
Speaker 1: The Cardinal de Rohan gleefully took Jean de LaMotte's advice.
Speaker 1: The Cardinal was ecstatic when, just a few days later,
Speaker 1: Jean delivered to him a reply from the Queen herself.
Speaker 1: The letter was far more friendly than the Cardinal had anticipated,
Speaker 1: flirtatious almost He was slightly flummixed, but quickly comforted himself
Speaker 1: with his extraordinary self confidence in his natural animal magnetism.
Speaker 1: Of course, the Queen would be interested in him, why
Speaker 1: wouldn't she be, he wrote back. The queen wrote back again.
Speaker 1: Before long, the two of them had become pen pals
Speaker 1: of increasing intimacy, to the point where the Cardinal was
Speaker 1: almost certain that the Queen, Marie Antoinette, was in love
Speaker 1: with him. Perhaps you see where this story is going.
Speaker 1: Because the Cardinal had not been receiving letters from the
Speaker 1: queen at all. Jean de LaMotte had promised to deliver
Speaker 1: his letters, but instead brought them to her lover, a
Speaker 1: gigilow named Martas de Viollette, and together they forged notes
Speaker 1: from the queen and delivered them to the love struck cardinal.
Speaker 1: The cardinal, all the while gladly sent donations along to
Speaker 1: the Queen's charities whenever she asked, and those donations went
Speaker 1: directly into the pockets of Jeanne, her husband, and her lover.
Speaker 1: One evening, Jean came to the cardinal and told him
Speaker 1: that the queen had agreed to a secret rendezvous. Obviously,
Speaker 1: due to the political complications of the situation, they couldn't
Speaker 1: meet openly in public, but they could meet in the
Speaker 1: gardens of Versailles at night, where no one would see them.
Speaker 1: The meeting was arranged on a particularly moonless night. Jean
Speaker 1: and her lover had hired a young prostitute named Nicolle
Speaker 1: la Guay de'olivia, famous in certain circles for her resemblance
Speaker 1: to the queen. The Cardinal, not picking up on the ruse,
Speaker 1: presented the fake queen with a single red rose, and
Speaker 1: in return Nicole told the Cardinal that all of their
Speaker 1: past disagreements were forgiven, exactly what she had been told
Speaker 1: to say. The Cardinal bowed deeply to the fake Marie Antoinette,
Speaker 1: but before event could progress any further, Jean interrupted to
Speaker 1: say that the meeting needed to end immediately. Someone was
Speaker 1: coming and they would be caught. And so the Cardinal
Speaker 1: left the gardens of Versailles more certain than ever of
Speaker 1: the solidity of his special relationship with the Queen. It
Speaker 1: was finally time for Jean and her lover to execute
Speaker 1: the final stage in their plan. Pretending to be Marie Antoinette,
Speaker 1: they wrote that there was a certain necklace that she
Speaker 1: wanted to buy desperately. Unfortunately, though, due to the public
Speaker 1: perceptions of her overspending, she couldn't be the one to
Speaker 1: purchase it, at least not openly. Would her darling personal
Speaker 1: friend the Cardinal cement their relationship by procuring the necklace
Speaker 1: for her and sending it to Versailles care of their
Speaker 1: mutual friend, Jean de LaMotte. The Cardinal brought the fake
Speaker 1: letter from the queen to the jewelers and bought the
Speaker 1: necklace for four point seven million dollars. I'm loan upon
Speaker 1: the solemn promise that the queen would pay them back
Speaker 1: in six months. The jewelers were delighted to finally be
Speaker 1: rid of the necklace. They paid Jean de Lamote a commission,
Speaker 1: which at first she graciously refused, before ultimately changing her mind.
Speaker 1: Shortly thereafter, a footman from Versailles arrived to the cardinal's
Speaker 1: home to take the necklace. The cardinal had never met
Speaker 1: Jean's lover Atte de Volette. Of course he hadn't, but
Speaker 1: if he had, he probably would have recognized that he
Speaker 1: was not actually handing off the necklace to a real
Speaker 1: footman from Versailles. Jean's lover and her husband broke up
Speaker 1: the diamonds of the necklace together, brought them to London
Speaker 1: and sold them on the black market. Everything went according
Speaker 1: to plan, at least it did for six months, but
Speaker 1: the jewelers still hadn't been paid. One of them asked
Speaker 1: a chambermaid at firside whether the Queen had worn her
Speaker 1: new diamond necklace, yet the maid had no idea what
Speaker 1: he was talking about. Weeks went by, the jeweller's debts
Speaker 1: had begun to catch up with them, and that's when
Speaker 1: they gathered the courage to ask Marie Antoinette at court
Speaker 1: whether payment for the massive and incredibly expensive diamond necklace
Speaker 1: they had sold her might be forthcoming in the near future.
Speaker 1: Marie Antoinette had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.
Speaker 1: What do you mean, they said the necklace. The annoy
Speaker 1: were miss diamond necklace. You mean the necklace that I
Speaker 1: turned down multiple times. The Queen replied, as I'm sure
Speaker 1: you recall I declined to purchase that necklace. Whatever this
Speaker 1: joke is, it needs to end now. It's now that
Speaker 1: the jewelers started to panic. Their stomachs turned sweat, began
Speaker 1: to cling to their necks and their palms. The necklace,
Speaker 1: they repeated, the one that we sent you through the
Speaker 1: Cardinal de Rohan. Here the Queen just laughed, as did
Speaker 1: everyone in earshot. The Queen hated the Cardinal de Rohan.
Speaker 1: Everyone knew that. The jeweler swallowed hard and presented the
Speaker 1: letters that the Cardinal had passed along to them as
Speaker 1: promise of payment. The Queen stopped laughing. On August, the
Speaker 1: Cardinal de Rohan was summoned to Versailles under the pretense
Speaker 1: that he would be presiding over the feast of the
Speaker 1: Assumption of Mary. But as he entered the palace, he
Speaker 1: was ushered not to the chapel, but through the gilded
Speaker 1: hall of mirrors to the King's private cabinet, where the
Speaker 1: King and queen were waiting. Staring at him. The queen
Speaker 1: was nearly shaking with frenetic energy. The King spoke for her.
Speaker 1: I hear you purchased diamonds from the jeweler Boehmer, He said, calmly, yes, sire.
Speaker 1: The cardinal replied, And what did you do with the
Speaker 1: diamonds once you received them? The King asked, I had
Speaker 1: them delivered to her Majesty. The queen began to exclaim something,
Speaker 1: but was quickly quieted by the King, who spoke once again.
Speaker 1: But now even his voice began to shake with anger.
Speaker 1: Who he said, or what compelled you to do anything?
Speaker 1: On behalf of her majesty? The Cardinal bowed deeply. I
Speaker 1: was commissioned by a lady called the contest ill Emote,
Speaker 1: a personal friend of her Majesty. He pulled from deep
Speaker 1: within his robes a signed letter that Jean de LaMotte
Speaker 1: had given him, one signed by the Queen, or at
Speaker 1: least when he thought had been signed by the queen.
Speaker 1: At this point, Marie Antoinette could hold her tongue no longer.
Speaker 1: How could you possibly believe? She exclaimed, that I would
Speaker 1: have selected you, of all people, someone I haven't even
Speaker 1: spoken to in eight years, to negotiate a necklace that
Speaker 1: I didn't even want, via a woman I have never
Speaker 1: even heard of. The cardinal just bowed again and handed
Speaker 1: the king of the letter he had been given. King
Speaker 1: Louis the sixteenth barely glanced at the letter before he scoffed.
Speaker 1: This was not written or signed by the queen, The
Speaker 1: king said, how could a Prince of rowan one of
Speaker 1: France's oldest and most noble families, a family so keen
Speaker 1: on details of etiquette and status, not have noticed this.
Speaker 1: The King brandished the letter in the cardinal's face and
Speaker 1: jabbed with a pointed finger at the forged signature that
Speaker 1: read Marie Antoinette de France. The king continued, everyone knows
Speaker 1: that queens signed with their baptismal names only. The cardinal
Speaker 1: was arrested and shipped back to Paris to the Bastille
Speaker 1: awaiting trial. Two days later, Jean de LaMotte and her
Speaker 1: lover were captured as well, her husband had already managed
Speaker 1: to escape to London. The powerful de Rohan family came
Speaker 1: out for the trial with the full force of their
Speaker 1: status and majesty. Nineteen high ranking members of the family,
Speaker 1: all wearing black and sitting stony face in two rows,
Speaker 1: awaiting the judgment of their golden son, who had turned
Speaker 1: out to be so so stupid. He was on trial
Speaker 1: first for thievery, but then also for defamation of the monarchy,
Speaker 1: for his humiliating error in mistaking a prostitute for the queen,
Speaker 1: and for believing that the Queen would ever have been
Speaker 1: so intimate in her writing with him. In the end,
Speaker 1: he was found innocent. He was foolish, gullible, yes, but
Speaker 1: not guilty of any actual crimes. Of course, Jean de
Speaker 1: LaMotte was actually guilty. She was sentenced to be whipped
Speaker 1: and branded with a V on her chest for the
Speaker 1: French word for thief, and in prison for life. But
Speaker 1: once a scammer, always a scammer. Almost as soon as
Speaker 1: she arrived in prison, Jean de Lamote escaped, dressed like
Speaker 1: a boy, and she made her way to London. But
Speaker 1: the most important legacy of the Diamond necklace affair isn't
Speaker 1: the actual trial itself. Before the verdict had even come in,
Speaker 1: the public had already made up its mind. To the
Speaker 1: people of France, there was no doubt that Marie Antoinette,
Speaker 1: the despised Austrian queen who spent so much money on
Speaker 1: clothes and hair while her constituent starved, who, according to
Speaker 1: the broadsheets and caricatures that went around, was constantly involved
Speaker 1: in lesbian orgies and bacchanals, there was no doubt that
Speaker 1: she was the one to blame. She had probably just
Speaker 1: wanted to buy the necklace herself and figured out a
Speaker 1: way to throw the cardinal that she had always hated
Speaker 1: under the bus. And since in court her enemy the
Speaker 1: cardinal was found innocent, that means by default Marie Antoinette
Speaker 1: must be guilty. As you know, this story doesn't have
Speaker 1: a happy ending. I already told you that Napoleon wrote
Speaker 1: the Queen's death must be dated from the Diamond necklace trial.
Speaker 1: The diamond necklace affairs cemented in the minds of the
Speaker 1: French people that the queen was a decadent and manipulative royal,
Speaker 1: more concerned with jewels than with the welfare of her people.
Speaker 1: In less than a decade, the queen would be on trial, herself,
Speaker 1: found guilty and beheaded a guillotine blade sent through the
Speaker 1: neck that had never wanted to wear that elaborate diamond
Speaker 1: necklace in the first place. That's the story of the
Speaker 1: diamond necklace affair. But keep listening after a brief sponsor
Speaker 1: break to hear more unhappy endings from more of the players.
Speaker 1: Like I said, this story has unhappy endings for almost
Speaker 1: everyone involved. Although gend LaMotte had escaped prison, she died
Speaker 1: only a few years later, falling from a window of
Speaker 1: her London hotel while attempting to escape her creditors. But
Speaker 1: tragedy also befell Madame de Berry. Remember her, she was
Speaker 1: the woman the necklace had been originally designed for. After
Speaker 1: the death of King Louis the fifteen, his mistress, Madame
Speaker 1: de Berry was dismissed from Versailles. She was exiled to
Speaker 1: a nunnery in the countryside. From there she took a
Speaker 1: lover and bought some land and re established a life
Speaker 1: for herself that eventually brought her back to Paris. But
Speaker 1: eventually the French Revolution found Madame de Berry one night,
Speaker 1: a bloody mass wrapped in a handkerchief was thrown through
Speaker 1: her apartment window. With shaking hands, she opened the bloody
Speaker 1: cloth to reveal the head of her decapitated lover. Just
Speaker 1: a few weeks after the hated queen went to the guillotine,
Speaker 1: Marie Antoinette's former palace rival went herself. Madame de Berry
Speaker 1: was beheaded and her body was thrown into the same
Speaker 1: mass grave as Marie Antoinette. Petty, agreements, resentments, daily dramas
Speaker 1: that had fueled Versailles was all made invisible, covered by
Speaker 1: the dirt of their shallow grave. Noble Blood is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Mankey. The show
Speaker 1: is written and hosted by Dana Schwartz and produced by
Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble
Speaker 1: Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales, and
Speaker 1: you can learn more about the show over at Noble
Speaker 1: blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. M